The Lanternfly Effect

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about voting. Not to ruin it for you, but it uses the ritual of stomping spotted lanternflies as a metaphor for the act of participating in a democracy alongside hundreds of millions of people. Yes, it feels like your one single act is pointless. Statistically, one could argue it is. However, each vote does matter, just as each dead spotted lanternfly does.

Now, some may wonder what I’m saying with the final frame. Well, it’s simply — you wouldn’t just let yourself get covered in spotted lanternflies, would you? Even though killing them feels hopeless when you look across the street and see them blanketing a tree, you still do your best. And that’s voting. No matter how sorry the situation is, you still go out and do it. Even if you hate the candidates, vote for a write-in.

Or just give up and let the swarm take over. (And no… please don’t hijack this metaphor and make it a real obvious one about immigration. That is lame and unimaginative, but I could see someone easily taking it there, so let me head you off at the pass.)

And hey, for the record, I’m in the same boat as Bill Maher. I think we’re pretty fucked as a country. But I’m still gonna go out there and do my thing. That’s where I don’t agree with George Carlin, even though I see where he was coming from.

Normal

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about how normal is no longer going to be sitting back and relaxing and ignoring politics while someone else takes care of it. But to be honest, that’s what got us here in the first place. To a degree, at least.

Also I’ve had to do a few short comics because I’ve been working on some other soon to be revealed stuff… so stay tuned!

No Thanks — Macy’s Parade 2020

This week’s Dustinland comic tackles the weird 2020 TV-only Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, remixing its balloons with Trump cronies for a whole lot of fun. Or rather, a whole lot of pun.

To be honest, I was really torn about this comic. I had a bunch of ideas for more serious strips about being grateful this year, but for some reason I felt like this was the way to go. A little silliness. I mean really, do we need more seriousness at this point?

But maybe I’ll drop another comic real fast before Turkey Day. We’ll see how much time I can scrounge together.

It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over

This week’s new Dustinland comic is meant to prepare my readers who voted for Biden. Prepare you for a week of hell. Maybe a few months of it. Because Trump will not leave peacefully. His followers won’t either. It is a cult, plain and simple. Not all 70 million who voted for him. But a certain element of it. And these diehards have so embraced dear leader, that they will believe anything he says. And he will rally them — maybe to violence.

So stay focused, people. Put down the bubbly. It’s time to get serious again. And that feeling you had Saturday when people were dancing in the street? Let that inspire you to fight for your right to feel it again January 20th.

A Dream of Redemption

With this week’s new pre-election Dustinland comic, I’m trying to keep it hopeful and inspiring! And that is hard for me, because I am NOT that kinda guy. Deep down inside, as I suggest in the final frame, I’m pretty pessimistic. But nobody needs that from me right now. I don’t even need that.

So here you have it. A little hope for redemption — for America. If I was a religious person, right now I’d say I’m praying for us all.

Country of Make Great

This week’s new Dustinland comic is my own little take on Borat. You know, it’s kind of fun being Borat. You can say things you’d never say on your own. Is nice!

Really though, I hate being so negative during election time, but I can’t help it. I’m a pessimistic guy during a depressing time. But I do have hope, believe it or not. I hope people vote out this criminal, and beyond that, I hope our nation can come together afterwards, even if it’s not to love each other, to at least accept reality and escape all this conspiracy nonsense. Because if we don’t even have a reality to agree on, there’s no way to move forward. On anything.

Bohemian Crapsody

This new Dustinland comic is obviously set to the lyrics of a song we all know and probably love, or at least find amusing. But not the part most people focus on. I don’t know how it happened, but these lyrics came to mind as just a perfect illustration of how I’ve been feeling lately.

Of course the next logical step would be to follow with a panel that replaces “Mama!” with “MAGA!” but I like that I ended it on this mental health note, which is essentially saying we all need to step away from everything and just briefly say “I don’t care.” It doesn’t mean to actually not care or to give up and not try. It just means you can’t let it be your entire life, you can’t keep doom strolling. Turn it off, unplug, and just BE.

Negative Diagnosis

Wanted to get this new Dustinland comic out there quickly before there’s an alien invasion or biblical plague or some other massive insanity that would make whatever I drew two days ago incredibly irrelevant.

And it was hard to have an original take on Trump getting COVID. But after a bit of thought I figured it out. The most interesting—or disturbing—part of this whole thing is that we can’t even all agree whether he even has it or not! That’s how insane life has gotten in this country. Maybe in this world. Who knows anymore. Who knows?

This Land

This week’s new Dustinland comic is a rewording of the famous folk song, This Land Is Your Land. Trying to keep some similarities with the phrasing and wording of the original, I updated it to speak to the anxious and divided country America has become. Not that we were ever some perfect nation of peace and love, but at least in my lifetime, things have never been this bad.

I guess I should give people some words of hope and encouragement now, but things are looking pretty grim to me. But… prove me wrong! How about that. When things turn out just fine because of your actions, you can laugh at the stupidest negative cartoonist. Does that inspire you to make a difference? Because that’s all I’ve got right now.

Derision 2020

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about the tough choice ahead of us in the U.S. presidential election. And by tough choice, I mean the decision between perhaps not your ideal candidate in the form of Joe Biden, and Trump, an evil conman dictator autocrat using America’s enemies to dismantle our democracy for his personal financial gain and narcissistic and likely mentally ill ego. You know, it’s a toss up. Vote for a nice guy who means well and is a rational caring human being, or someone who’s never done a thing to help anyone in his entire life, and whose actions could risk the future of life on earth. TOUGH CHOICE PEOPLE!