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?

I’m New Here

Here’s a collection of comics I drew for Westchester’s River Journal, starting with the latest strip appearing in this month’s issue! This strip is called I’m New Here and it’s written from the perspective of someone new to living in the burbs. However, during COVID it sort of thematically morphed into more of a pandemic comic, albeit with a bit of a suburban feel. Normally I post a brand new strip on Monday or Tuesday night but sometimes quarantine living just sucks the inspiration out of you. Glad I’ve got a bunch of other strips lying around!

Won’t Take This Sitting Down

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about what it’s like to deal with remote learning and WFH at the same time. Either one on its own… not so bad. Both together…. prettttttttty frustrating.

Also, extra note here. I often portray my wife as being the sitcom foil to my dad dreams. It’s not really like that in real life, but it is a convenient and easy to understand mechanism that serves my purposes and lets the joke always be on me. Just like Chris Rock… I got my comic wife, and my real wife.

Cracks

This week’s new Dustinland comic is obviously about the stress caused by months of quarantine. For me personally, it’s less about the fear of getting sick and more about dealing with the monotony and frustrations of day to day existence right now. In particular, balancing work and parenting. Of course I am grateful for my awesome life etc… it’s just that right now there’s a lot of bullshit going on and it’s hard to not let it slowly get to you. This past week I really noticed it creeping in.

As for the absurdist ending, that’s not meant to be something negative, but most people take it that way. Really it just means that life is meaningless is silly, so why stress over it. Just laugh and go with the flow and try to enjoy it, or at least “enjoy” it. Kind of like a dark version of eastern philosophy, but without the enlightenment or reincarnation parts.

It All Adds Up

This new Dustinand comicis about how hard it is to WFH while taking care of your kids. Or really, while home schooling your kids. And boy, second grade math sure has changed! You know, I went to a specialized math and science high school for the top nerds in NYC, I did pretty well on my SATs, and even I have to read my 8-year-old’s math questions multiple times before I can even try to explain how he should be answering them. I’m sure there is a science to all of this, but man, it ain’t easy. And I have a job.

These Days

This new Dustinand comic is a typical day of quarantine in a nutshell. No words. Just lots of eating, drinking and clicking. A friend asked why I didn’t throw in showering or getting dressed or bedtime with the kiddos… all good points but for some reason I feel like the day is best encapsulated by the things I included here. Food, drink, work, screen time. Repeat. With maybe a couple more months to go…  yikes.

Essential

This new Dustinland comic is about the people keeping our society functioning right now… or better yet, it’s about how it feels to not be one of them. I mean, in terms of the complexity of the way our economy works, everyone is “necessary” in the sense that all these parts keep the money moving, keep tax dollars flowing… basically us “unessential” white collar workers do help pay the essential workers. But it still feels weird working from home and having some person making minimum wage bring food to my house like a servant. I’m grateful of course. I have a great life. These are just weird times that make certain things about our civilization hit home.

Work From Home Brew

Quarantine means working from home — at least for those lucky white collar peeps such as myself. And as we are trapped inside safely, not forced to risk our asses for everyone else like so many essential workers are right now, many of them severely underpaid and unappreciated, those of us unfamiliar with this kind of work style are learning that we need tricks to successfully WFH. This new Dustinland comic is about a new one I just discovered! Maybe not sustainable but for now, it feels pretty right.