Cringer

Today’s new Dustinland comic is about a dad trying to relate to his kid and getting shot down multiple times. I think most dads can relate. Maybe moms too. You know, once they even approach those teenage years they just turn into little weasels. But I do think they may in some ways think you’re cool — they just won’t let you know it.

You Can’t Go Back

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about childhood fading. Definitely a bit ore melancholy then my usually strips, but it’s something I want to touch on. This really did happen to me, exactly like it was in the comic. There’s a weird children’s museum in Connecticut that my son used to love when he was a little one… say 3 to 6 years old. And then I remember going back when he was getting a little bit older, and he was so excited, but when he got there… the magic was just gone. It was honestly a bit soul-crushing. Just sad.

Like the title of the comic says… you can’t go back. There is a time in life for certain things, and when that time is over, it’s over, whether you’re talking about toddler activities or a 40-year-old trying to recapture the nightlife of their 20s. Life moves on, and that’s both beautiful and sad at the same time.

Bring Your Dad To Work Day

This week’s new Dustinland comic is a true story about what happened when my son joined me for a work meeting a couple of weeks ago. It’s funny — he really did a great job and enjoyed it… so I’m trying to encourage that initiative while simultaneously ensure he doesn’t follow me into advertising (in case you weren’t aware, that’s what I do to make money because it sure am hard paying the bills with comics).

Not that marketing hasn’t provided me with a wonderful life I appreciate every day. It’s just that the kid has his whole life ahead of him. I think my reco for him — or any young person — is to strive for a career where you care about the end result. And I mean you care because it means something to you as a person, your values, your artistic sensibilities, your vision of how earth and mankind can be — not because you want to succeed or make money or you simply have self-respect that requires you to do a great job at whatever you do. Now, of course most of us don’t get to do what we want and get paid for it… but that’s what being young is all about. You have the chance to strive for something special, and if that doesn’t pan out, you can fall in line like the rest of us and still have a satisfying life.

Daditude

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about how us dads can’t help but annoy our kids. I don’t know what it is, but I just feel compelled to do so. But I’m not as bad as the dad from Calvin & Hobbes. He just straight up lied to his kid constantly, and I would feel bad if I made my son go to school believing there were 75 planets in the solar system or that tigers were really just house cats given too much food. Yeah, I’m not the “tricked you” kinda dad, I’m the “oh my god that joke again stop it please” kinda dad. Good times.

Another Day

After starting my day by having to tell my son about what happened in Texas, I felt compelled to create this new Dustinland comic.

Not much more to say here than what I already said in the comic. It’s just a harsh reality we live in. Very hard not to think humans are just generally shitty and hopeless, even though most of us are nice (maybe). As a whole… it just seems we are doomed to stand in our own way. Hard not to feel hopeless, but still gotta wake up and give it your best every day.

Unskinny Bop

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about how I’ve always been skinny but maybe in middle age I have reached the point where if I don’t take care of myself, I will grow a dad gut. We’ll see! It’s hard to take care of yourself when you’re busy all the time, and also when you’re bored, uninspired and depressed. You know, it’s like, I can have abs, but does it really matter if democracy is crushed across the globe as the Earth becomes an uninhabitable hellscape?

Tuesdays, amirite?

Drunk With Power

I’ve covered this topic before, but in this week’s new Dustinland comic I discuss what happens when parents try to crack down on their kids’ entitled behaviors. I think a lot of this is an age thing. Unless you raise your kids all strict and stuff (which is probably awesome), they reach a certain age where they are in the middle — old enough to want to do stuff on their own, but young enough to still cling to the convenience of childhood when mommy gets them what they need because if they try to do it on their own it will just create a huge disaster for everyone. Either way though, I wind up drinking by the end.

Parent Interrupted

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about how my kid is always interrupting me when I’m in the middle of a sentence, and then about how I just know there will be two kinds of comments. Older folks whose kids are grown or younger people who don’t have kids will tell me what I’m doing wrong. And people with kids around the same age as mine will comment in agreement. However… now that I called that out in a preemptive strike, the comments will now include offended people from the former group.

Also, two new Birdys.

Bad Spell

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about how dumb spelling can be in the English language. This is nothing new, many people have written and spoken about it, but it is something that comes to light if you have kids. As an adult, you just accept how illogical some of our spellings are, but when you constantly have to teach your child these ridiculous letter concoctions without being able to ever explain why, it really comes back hard.

Also new this week — Birdy. Three new Shakespearean strips. Because there’s such a huge crossover with Birdy readers and Shakespeare fans.

Hey Kid

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about how I recently learned that my son is starting to realize the power of searching the internet. As in, you can search for ANYTHING — not just info about your favorite games and shows and movies, not just cool pics and videos. You can search people — not just famous ones. Anyone. Anything. And that… is going to bring up some interesting searches.

Hence this week’s strip. And you know, you can’t protect them from the horrors of the internet forever. You can only arm them with the understanding that even if you can see anything, maybe you don’t want to.

Also, I’ve thrown up a few more new Birdy strips – making 6 new ones in the last two weeks! Surprising I didn’t do any during the worst of quarantine but I think maybe I was too depressed. Also, I spent a shocking amount of time reformatting the archives. You really can’t imagine how long it took and how tedious it was. Of course it still looks pretty bad BUT it is more functional, and I deleted all of the comics I found to be subpar filler. So it’s solid now. 1,000 or so strips — all good. I think.