Hey, did you guys hear? Osama Bin Laden’s dead! All across the globe, former thralls of the “original” terrorist are waking up as if from a deep sleep. Somewhere in Pakistan a man wakes up in a desert cave and wonders aloud, “Where am I? Where are my wife and children?” He feels something in his pocket, a somewhat ragged and dirty photo he must have been carrying for some time. Pulling it out, he takes a closer look and immediately regrets it. Here is an image of himself standing with the Al Queda mastermind himself in front of a banner reading, “Death to America”. He cries out and throws the photo screaming, “What have I done!?”

The camera pans up to the sky.

This is a tough topic of discussion, one that I didn’t think I really had an angle on for a comic and one I wasn’t sure I wanted to write a blog post about, but it’s big news and I can’t help but try for humor even in difficult situations. The last few days have been strange for much of America now that their personal boogieman is dead. Reactions have ranged from stunned confusion to outright jubilation to not studying for finals (take that terrorists!). It’s all a bit bizarre from my perspective, but then again I wasn’t there when the shit went down, so to speak. I guess I can’t know how people that were directly impacted by the events that happened 10 years ago feel about the whole thing and I would never presume to tell people how they should feel. Let’s just leave it at that.

Either way, the world is certainly a better place for lacking a figure like Bin Laden, whatever his role was in the waning years of what passed for a life. Whether he was a figurehead or not is up for debate, but regardless, it’s nice to think that the world is free from the tentacles of a sociopath like him for at least a little while.

The media here in the States, however, would like to get us worried about the next villain (or villains) right away. There’s certainly no rest for the wicked, as they say.

History is full of terrible individuals out to ruin life for other people. It’s sad to think that this is a cycle that will, likely, continue into the future. While human beings continue to misunderstand one another and see their fellow humans as “other”, this shit will go on.

My hope (hey, I’m an idealist) is that sooner or later, we’ll get it through our heads that the divisions we create between ourselves and others are largely fictitious. We all share this world together and we’re all just trying to get by. Being cognizant of the strengths and flaws of the human spirit is invaluable if you’re trying to lead a sane and healthy life. It’s hard to maintain a positive outlook when faced with people that want to murder you simply for living in a different place under a different culture, but it’s one of the few things we have to hold on to. Demonizing other nations, other faiths, or other beliefs leads nowhere good.

We can disagree without starting a war or setting off bombs.

We can just sit down and have a discussion and solve our problems. It’s really that easy.

I propose that if we really need to compete for something, we should meet on the internet to duke it out, then at least no one would have to die. I hear Starcraft 2 is pretty great.

Unfortunately, the South Koreans would win every negotiation ever.

Move over China and the US. A new challenger approaches.

Oh I have a little gift for those of you interested in how I do the artwork for the strip! I livestreamed my work on the strip for today so if you want to watch it you can. It apparently was recording through my microphone so it has some ridiculous mix of music on there. Don’t judge me. It’s two hours long and I’m planning to compress it for youtube probably down to 10 minutes. If you’re an artist the slower version might be interesting to you! Check it out here.

EDIT: Here’s the 10 minute version! Youtube cut the second song I added which was “Satellite” by Guster. Apparently I can’t use that