Below is the latest The Pain -- When Will It End?
Updated 05/02/01

Artist's Statement

I first imagined this cartoon as including only the woman and child, but this seemed like too bitter and cynical a comment on the institutions of monogamy and parenting to run in print while I was involved in a relationship, so I figured I'd just have to file it until whenever my girlfriend and I broke up. Then I realized I could expand it into a broader, and therefore maybe less potentially misogynistic, statement about all the societal institutions, from family to work, that ensnare and repress us all--the insidious systems of punishments and rewards that muzzle and train us and turn us into frightened dancing bears with funny hats on our heads while all around us everyone applauds. This is basically Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents boiled down to one-panel cartoon form. I still had to have a tacful little talk with my girlfriend before I ran it, though. It's not one of her favorites.