Mysteries Revealed
They say death isn’t funny. It isn’t, unless you’re God.
I was talking to Liz the other day and we realized that there hadn’t been a strip yet about Lil K asking God about what lies after death. I found that strange, so we came up with a comic to remedy that situation.
There are some serious questions when it comes to death and dying, all of which seem to stem from the fact that life and consciousness are pretty sweet. They are so sweet, in fact, that we just don’t want to give them up. It’s a scary thing, the thought of losing them, so we wonder about what it means to pass away. Unfortunately, as a student of mythology and art, I haven’t got a lot of answers. Nobody really seems to.
My personal opinion has always been to try to let go of the negative, clingy feelings. I’ve lost family members, I’ve lost friends, but there’s no sense in focusing on the loss part of the equation. Instead, I try to think of all the awesome experiences I had dealing with those individuals. I make it a point to think of all the shitty experiences as well, because it’s not just the good that defines our relationships.
There’s no sense in sugar coating our memories.
It’s tough to take a less grief focused approach to death, especially when it’s the social norm to cry and moan and make other people miserable when you lose someone. I understand those feelings and I really do feel for people that suffer the loss of someone close. It’s not easy to get past that, but would the person you lost really want that for you? I find that hard to believe.
As for me, I hope people have a totally bitchin’ party when I’m gone. Hopefully not celebrating my demise, but rather, celebrating the life I lived.
Though I suppose they could celebrate my demise if I were hit by a flaming bus driven by Sasquatch playing Iron Maiden at maximum volume.
That would be awesome.
Thanks to denial, I’m going to live forever!
I’m hoping that there isn’t a heaven or hell of any sort, but instead you just become conscious in a parallel world that is just like this one. Just like it except that our imaginary people exist too, so you could see Batman fighting Freddy Kreuger or something. I still probably wouldn’t be able to afford top shelf liquor though…
I hope when I die my body is put into my Viking war ship along with all my gold and treasure and my fellow vikings will light the ship on fire and send it off into the ocean and then drink themselves silly and tell grand stories about how rad I was and how I always used run on sentences.
Second.
THIRD!
FIRST!!! I AM LOKI AFTER ALL!
I hope when I die God’s all “Hey, you thought critically and didn’t believe in me. Way to use that brain! You’re in.”
atheist heaven IS the fun heaven. unlike the fundie one…
I’m liberal christian, and that still sounds like what I believe in.
If you die first, I’ll see to it that we have a super amazing party to celebrate the life you lived. I trust you would do the same for me.
At first when I read this, I thought God meant that he would party with Little K because K would be a spirit or something, going all over the place, still hangin’ out with God.
I believe in an afterlife, but as to what happens in this world when I’m gone, I’m honestly not looking forward to a physical monument or anything… I’m hoping people will be able to think about me with the warmest feelings of having known that I was there for them whenever they needed someone, that’s my monument. As for my body, I feel it would be incredibly awesome to be cremated and have my ashes scattered across the blue Caribbean… Yeah, that’d be awesome. I think it’s illegal though :p
I’d rather not have any expense made in regards to my funeral. As for my death, hopefully I will die more brilliantly than I have lived.
I’ve just been reading Aries’ book about the death denying culture of modern Europe and how unhealthy he thinks it is that we’ve (well, the British) have totally abandoned serious public grieving in favor of cremation and sobbing in the bathroom.
I find public mourning as disconcerting as everyone else, but now I’m wondering whether I have these feelings naturally or as a result of a death-denying cultural insistence.
For instance, Aries noted that the time between remarriage is seriously lengthened in cultures that don’t have mandated mourning periods.
On the other hand, I can’t stand it when people cry. So there’s that.
Is there any chance of getting a copy of the first draft of this comic?
Ahh! I overwrote it. It was the same art and pacing but the bubbles read:
Frame 2: “I think we’ll just throw a huge party”
Frame 3: “There will probably be confetti.”
I liked the original better…
It’s got the nonchalant “you aren’t all that important enough to plan anything specific for, but when you are gone we’ll be celebrating for sure.” setup with an added jab of the confetti bit. Blunt and uncaring, that’s how I picture god.
Some people took it as he would be throwing a party for K in Heaven or something which is definitely NOT what I intended haha
Thanks. By the way, I feel I should mention I work for four hours of a week as a hospital chaplain. But I don’t like the arrogance of assuming to know for certain what is next so I tend to just work with the beliefs of others. I would love to be able to give a response like this to some of my patients just to see how it goes.
This comic made me think of this scene in Iconoclast with Mike Myers and Deepak Chopra were they talk about death and comedy. Deepak was saying that comedy comes from our ability to transcend the tragedy of death and that comedy is our way to cope with our mortality. I think about the three stooges where they would do things that would normally kill someone, but they didn’t. The only reaction we can have is to laugh.
So death is hilarious. lol
Also, I’ve told my family that when I die, I want to cremated and placed in a bomb/fireworks/canon/something exploding. It would be a pretty awesome way to spread my ashes! As for what comes after, I’ve always lived by the rule that if I live a happy life without regret then what comes after is just bonus.
here in mexico we dont take death too serious, we like to party about it and crack a good laugh at it. curious this comic came 3 days after dia de muertos.
personaly when i die i’d like to be put in a casquet full of salt to mummify myself.
When I die, I want my body to be launched out of a trebuchet into an active volcano. For Science.
I second that
You’ll find out when you die, ‘lil K.. ‘just gotta wait ‘n see what happens & enjoy pre-death until then.
When I die I want a pyramid.