Below is the latest The Pain -- When Will It End?
Updated 02/05/03

Artist's Statement

I followed the same M.O. as last week for this cartoon--spent all day Sunday just drinking coffee and reading the Times, with no ideas, wishing I had never had the terrible burden of being a cartoonist thrust upon me, praying that this bitter cup might pass my lips, then went to see a movie. Late that night I spent over an hour on the phone with Boyd, during which the conversation turned, as it has more and more lately, to civilization's collapse and our own lack of any kind of preparedness or survival skills. Does anybody else have this same feeling we do that the End must be near, what with an hubristic idiot pretender on the throne, war imminent, and terrible portents in the sky? Everything just seems absurdly dreadful, and growing darker daily. It's almost not even funny anymore. But--thankfully--not quite. It was during that conversation that he premise and almost all the details of this cartoon emerged--the stereoscopic pornography, the cannibalism, "Didn't anybody know any girls?"  In the end I was laughing so hard my sides literally hurt. I hope the reader will find it one-tenth as funny as I did. Last night, after finishing the drawing, I went to see The Hours and kept thinking of this cartoon and cracking up during the sad parts about pretty ladies killing themselves.

My entire cast of regulars is assembled in this post-apocalyptic scene. (L-R): Boyd White, Michael Kirby (on floor, with ass being eaten) Dave Israel, Jim Fisher, and myself. In real life we really do know some girls. I don't know if any of them would consent to come down in the bunker with us, though, if you know what I mean.