Clean Thoughts

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about compulsive cleaning as a sort of therapy. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but in some ways, if you think about it, it’s kind of like what monks do. Chores… constant chores, almost as a meditation. So yeah, despite my cynicism, maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all.

I actually do kind of enjoy vacuuming. It’s very before – after. Also weeding. That’s 100% my favorite chore. How bout you?

The Point

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about the point of life, more or less. I think when you’re a parent, these sort of things take on a new urgency, because it’s one thing to stumble through life believing whatever you believe, doing what you can to stay sane, but it’s another thing to teach a new human what to believe and what ideas should guide their life.

As I say in the comic, I don’t really know what the point of it all is, obviously. I’m not religious, so I don’t have that to guide me. And I try to be a good person and all that, I try to live in the moment. It’s just hard. These days, the more information I receive, the more depressed I get. And yet a life of blissful ignorance also feels irresponsible. So I’m really not sure what to do or think these days, and that certainly makes it hard to be responsible for someone else’s life. But kids grow up and figure things out and adopt their own beliefs. The best I think we can do is make sure they turn out to be good people, kind, nice, grateful, insert positive adjective here, you get the picture.

Man, now I’m bumming myself out as usual. Sorry! Next week I’ll go back to wacky zany honk honk clown horn.

Resignation

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about what it’s like to start a new gig during a pandemic.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love working from home. But I love the freedom to WFH when I want or need to. What is wearing on me is the need to WFH all the time. It just starts to get depressing being in the same room all day, every day, and then even when you’re in this sort of life-changing situation, you’re still there, and the feeling of newness that usually comes with a new job is muted.

Have you experienced this? That would mean you’re part of The Great Resignation — the huge amount of people getting new jobs during 2021. Hence the title. See what I did there?

Check Up

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about how I just had my yearly physical… for the first time in four years. But it’s not really about that, it’s not really about my health. It’s about my mental health and a surprising question the doctor asked me.

Tough times out there guys. Tough times. I’m not as bad as I seem though. I have to exaggerate things for the comics. Although ironically, I really shouldn’t exaggerate the depression ones. No one seems to like them. Parenthood follies though — WHEW! Kids do say the darnedest things, don’t they. I’ll go back to that next week, perhaps. But for now, let’s wallow, shall we?

Bad Thoughts

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about how kids’ naive yet very real (in their minds) fears can uncover adults’ more “realistic” and depressing anxieties. It’s actually very reminiscent of an early Matt Groening Life In Hell strip that may have even led to an eventual bit on the Simpsons. Do you know what I’m referring to? I tried to find it via Google image search but couldn’t and stopped looking after about 14 seconds. But yeah, comics. Depression. Hopelessness. Nightmares. Good times.

That’s Absurd

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about an approach to life called absurdism. It can seem quite negative — certainly in the way I portray it. But, like nihilism, it can actually be quite freeing. The point is to embrace the lack of meaning in life, rather than fight or deny it. It’s actually similar to eastern ways of thought in many ways, although without the reincarnation or nirvana at the end.

Ultimately the idea is to recognize how pointless it all is, thus freeing yourself from the impossible task of reaching some ultimate end goal that does not exist. And once you’re free, you can do anything, you can feel however you like, you can fill life with whatever meaning you prefer. Of course, I choose to make jokes — probably not the healthiest way to go about things. But it can be fun, so at least there’s that.

Malaising Grace

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about that feeling you get every morning when you wake up and realize it’s still 2020 and you have nothing to look forward to besides more stress, strife, fear and loathing. Sometimes I try to get excited about something… like, hmmm… maybe I can go by myself a donut today. That sort of thing. The little things. That seems to be something to live for when the big things are all horrible and you can see civilization collapsing before your very eyes.

Happy Monday.

The Dolly Parton Challenge

This week’s new Dustinland comic is my take on the Dolly Parton Challenge, an innocent yet self-centered meme where you create a quadrant of selfies, one for each of the four major social media platforms (aside from Twitter). It’s a fun meme, but I mean, the reality behind social media — and life in general — is that no matter what you do, no one really cares (unless it directly affects them), and then you die. But hey, once you realize that, it can really free you up. Because if life is fleeting and meaningless, why waste so much time on social media?

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

When I was deciding what subject to tackle with this week’s new Dustinland comic, I was struggling. On one hand I had some funny and trivial zingers about closing apparel retailer, The Dress Barn. On the other hand, I have been bogged down by many very deep, dark depressing thoughts lately. How can you make silly jokes when you’re worried about the doom of mankind? Don’t you have some sort of social responsibility to raise awareness of important issues facing us all? But then again, don’t people already know about things like climate change and growing authoritarianism, and don’t they really just need a break from all that, in the form of stupid jokes?

These are the questions I was asking myself, until I decided, why not make this debate the topic of the comic. So you do get your Dress Barn jokes, mixed in with some hints of existential dread. Good times for everyone, yes?

Bluh

I have been having a tough time lately coming up with cute observational comics as I watch the world burn. That’s what this week’s new Dustinland comic is about. I have a feeling people won’t enjoy it very much, since it’s just depressing and offers little humor or solution. But it’s really just therapy for me — I need to get it out so I can move on.