Motive and intent

 

All the world

 

"Perhaps my art isn't for everyone."

What a guy

 

The focus group said I needed identifiable, likable characters.

The best of all

 

Boing

 

Flying squirrel

 It really is that cool.

The comic that is bad

"I may be spiraling a little."

Snake variants

 Stick around with CrustaceanSingles and you just might learn a thing or two!

Extreme slowness

 

Networking nightmare

 

 

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We couldn't reach you

 When not even the forest keeper can find you, you're really off the grid.

Gathering

The archaeological record suggests they were able to meet their needs with as little as twelve hours of gathering in a week.

The engine searches

 Remember back when search engines were somewhat usable? That was nice.

That empty feeling

"But listen to me going on and on! How are you enjoying the new neighborhood?"

The formalization of dibs

 

I am a rock in a stream

This is the meditation that got me through a four-hour infusion of ocrelizumab yesterday. Maybe you will find it helpful, too.

It never is

 

Downhill ever since

 

We showed up to a dying party. (Galactic years are a cool thing to know about, at least.)

Small differences

 

Comment section

 

 

"And I have managed to convince myself that upvotes and downvotes both mean I'm right, so."

Don't stare into the Abyss

 

I have got to stop leaving the basement door open.

It's juice time

 

Maybe it is two things

 

So tired

 

"I try explaining to my agent that I'm non-migratory, but she's an arctic tern..."

Glaring out

 

I know what I've seen, and I don't like it one bit.

Please don't

I just think it would be nice to be on the other end of things for once.

How

 

Haha question words can be ambiguous. Haha depression.

Smelt it, dealt it, etc.

   This is a departure from the typical format, and also much sloppier. My drawing hand and my drawing brain won't cooperate to improve the linework, much less add color. They hope to be back in better form tomorrow.

   As for the subject, some explanation is in order: after a reader correctly predicted yesterday's comic a day in advance, I asked whether they knew what I'd post today and if so, whether they'd mind telling me. Their answer: "a clever multi-point deconstruction of the statistical assumptions posed by the Fermi Paradox, all implied allegorically by a pun about farts". Pretty close, huh?

   For best results, please imagine a very gaseous nebula revealed in panel 3's zoom out.

 

Destined to become an all-time holiday classic!

 

Now what?

Línjì Yìxuán taught, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." 

This informative pamphlet takes it from there.

 

every raging counts, no matter how tiny and odd

 

and I will dwell in a golden hall of silence

 

On this island, we take turns

 

I count

 

I can make this joke because it is also the truth.

I feel like I should add the caveat that my obsessive-compulsive thing with numbers is currently not significantly interfering with my life...but I'm definitely keeping an eye on it, because I know that won't necessarily always be the case. YMMV.

The Quid Pro Quo Tree

 

Every beverage will taste of victory

What is the deal

 What is the deal with observational comedy?

CHOMP

 Just a couple re-runs for you, on account of the kind of day that I am having.

The love must be contained

 

Smile

 

I would like to feel cool

 

The woods

 

Are you just trying to get me to spend big at the gift shop? Because it's not not working.

Cow techniques

 

Have you seen this dog?

 

 

Today's comic is brought to you by: at least three different terrible neighbors!

Forest passage

 

 

I doodled this little fella a few days ago & have been troubled ever since. Now I pass the mild curse along to you.

Study fort

 

Hurry! Already the barbarians are pounding at the library gates!

We shouldn't rule out the possibility

 

For real for real

 

You can tell me anything

 

Dungeon time

 

Such is life when you are caught stealing the king's lasagna.

Concerns about AI

 

Check out the full size image here.

An unusual request

 

Rescheduling

 

Impostor syndrome

 

At least I'm doing an adequate job of self-loathing.

Tentative diagnosis

 

Maybe look into getting a hat in the meantime.

It does not exactly bode well

 

Office Bird goes home

 

NB: An earlier draft made it clear that Office Bird is visiting a sibling and niblings back home, not their own neglected children and partner. But there was so much to squeeze into the square that the final version ended up leaving it open to your interpretation.

This meeting

 

By popular demand, here's more Office Bird.

Office bird

 

Today's comic comes to you straight from my drafting notebook, in partnership with enough insomnia to make this feel like a good idea.

What is the sound

 

 

Anyway, thanks for coming to my show.

Let's make this interesting

 

Pleased to meet you

 This is the best I have to offer in social interactions.

Tool cows

 

 

I shouldn't have done this, but I did, & now we will all have to live with it.

Inexplicable

 

Digging deeper

 

In a hole in the ground there lived someone who should have just stopped talking.

Do the thing

 

The Floating Head of Salvador Dalí is my life coach and spiritual advisor.

We can get through this stronger than ever

 

[excited tambourine noises]

All or some

 

Sometimes I receive a comic in a vision & do not dare refuse it.

Hammer time, possibly

 

Today I learned that drawing a giant hammer is even harder than drawing a regular-sized hammer.

The pearl

 

The smugness is also irritating.

Wizard mart

 

Where the flame dies not, and the revenue flows unceasingly

 

Eternal torment as a service. That's where the real money is.

Reaching for the dream

 

For now, all it does is look cool in the driveway...but weekend tunneling is the dream.

Still holding

 

I'm merely doing what I believe is right.

You don't know

 

...which does give some insight into the severity, if not the particulars, of the experience.

Soupe à la mouche

 

The spider who lives in my cartoonist hat told me to make this comic.

I guess you just had to be there

 

Literally me

 

Elusivity

 

"The most delicious sauce can be hard to find. Elusive Sauce™: Good luck getting some."

Omen delivery

 

Not everything is about you, dude.

Optimistic situational awareness