More Than Meets The Eye

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about the thing it’s about. And really, it’s about talking about that thing. Or talking about lots of things.

These days you can’t really talk about anything because everyone is insane and angry 24/7. So that’s what the comic is really about. And I’ll leave it at that.

Healthy Dialogue

I already said so much in this week’s new Dustinland comic about our response to Covid and the vaccine and everyone’s attitudes, which continue to develop and frankly get nastier over time… why say more here. But I do want to say that the goal of this comic is to express not just the obvious frustration I’ve had seeing everything about this issue (and every other) turn into a rage-fest, but also a sadness in terms of how I think we’ve been let down by some of the people we appeal to for help and guidance. Oh, and also regret that I too participated in some of the negativity.

Big picture, we need to be honest all the time. We can’t hide inconvenient facts — no matter what you believe. When those facts are uncovered, when lies are made clear, it creates an atmosphere of distrust, which leads to a world devoid of compromise. Hence the global slide toward fascism right now. And I don’t know if it can be stopped at this rate.

Inactivism

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about the recent Supreme Court decision on abortion, although amazingly enough, the court already, in just one day, snuck another shitty decision in there. Who knows what today will bring? Is fun, yes? No. Is not fun. Is depressing.

And that’s what I’m saying with the comic. Not that it’s good to respond to bad news with inaction but that when you truly believe mankind is doomed to repeat the same mistakes forever until civilization crumbles and the planet is unlivable… well it’s hard to get motivated to “fight back,” if you will.

Yeah, we’re screwed. There really is no way around it. But you know, like they said at the end of Don’t Look Up…. “We really had it all, didn’t we.”

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.

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.

Modern Warfare

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about the war in Ukraine. I actually drew this strip a few days ago. Seems like the whataboutism has died down a bit and even Tucker Carlson is pretending he didn’t support Russia all along.

But honestly, I’ve seen liberals and Trumpers share the same exact memes about this war. Not to say we shouldn’t always be questioning our government, but who would have thought we’d get to the point where Putin would roll tanks into another country, murdering civilians along the way, and some Americans would actually say “well you know… the thing is…” instead of simply condemning it.

I guess that’s just a combination of successful propaganda alongside a country so directionally and culturally adrift, we can barely recognize right from wrong, or understand just how good we have it compared to billions of people living under authoritarian regimes around the world.

Bub Life

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about a lot of things. Each frame could have been its own comic. But I’ve been mulling all this over in my mind for months, and this is, I think a good way to combine it all.

Basically, it follows the road from innocent Googling to all out violence — a road some people in America are already on, and some even reached the end of that road. It really does start off innocently. I’ve done it myself. Maybe you’ve never had an issue with vaccinations and you find it hard to believe so many other people do, so you search up some articles and stats about how safe vaccines are and how helpful they’ve been over the last 100 years or so. Or maybe you’ve always been distrustful of big pharma and never get flu shots, so you search up info on vaccine side effects. And then either way, you share those findings on social and throw in your opinion. You’ll see who agrees with you. You’ll find yourself in a battle of articles with those who don’t. You’ll dig in. They’ll dig in. Soon it becomes less about the facts and more about who you identify with and as. No one wants to back down. I stand for X and you stand for Y. I am US, you are THEM. And then, egged on by those who profit off outrage, eventually sides are drawn, everyone hates each other, no one can even talk anymore, and those who simply disagree with you are now the “enemy”.

It’s a scary time we live in, because both sides of every issue seem content to limit the rights of the other side. The ideals of democracy are being abandoned in favor of “progress”. And maybe there’s no other answer. I don’t know. The world has gotten quite crowded. The rules we govern by weren’t created for a world full of so many people, all being hypnotized by 24/7 propaganda.

This is the stuff that keeps me up at night. And this is why most of my comics are about “kids say the darndedest things!” I don’t know what to do anymore. So I do what I can. And all I can do is take care of myself and my family, try to stay sane, try to be at peace, try to do what I can to make this world a better place without losing my mind and being outraged at every waking moment. The Dude abides, if you will.

America Unmasked

This week’s new Dustinland comic is actually a combination of two comics I wanted to draw. One is just a quick two-frame zinger, so if you wanted a late-night talkshow host kinda gag, you can just stop there. The second part is a broader strip about… well, sort of everything. Just the general mental state of everyone in Western society right now. And I know no one cares anymore or wants to hear it so I made it into a song and dance.

So now you know, and knowing is really not that much of the battle, I’d say maybe 10% tops.

Wrong Island

This week’s new Dustinland comic was inspired by my recent trip to Long Island. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not ALL like that — aka full of Trump trucks driving around with giant flags as if it’s still the summer of 2020. But there is quite a bit of that and it’s pretty depressing. And not only because I disagree with their politics. I think the real depressing part is that so many people are that angry all the time, that they need to literally drive the streets with flags designed to anger and intimidate their fellow citizens.

But yeah, we’re screwed. I actually drew a different final frame originally but edited it out. The original frame had a flag attached to my car, that said 1. You’re wrong 2. I don’t care 3. We’re all screwed, just deal with it quietly like an adult. Which is pretty much how I feel, although that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to make the world a better place. It just means odds are we’re doomed and for your own mental health, accept that. We’ll all be a lot happier, and maybe even pleasantly surprised.

No Shot In Hell

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about vaccine holdouts. You know, I mean… this one was kind of low-hanging fruit. To be honest, the subject bores me, but apparently people still won’t get vaccinated so I figured the least I could do was mock them mercilessly. It will probably only get them to dig in their heels even more, but then again, nothing matters and we’re all going to die, so might as well get a giggle out of it at least.