Dead or Alive is another comic that has come to me in sudden inspiration, a fortuitous event as I was struggling to write even simple words and it is when I struggle to write even simple words that I struggle most with meaninglessness. The comic itself, hopefully obvious enough, is a satire of old Western wanted posters for frontier criminals with the twist being the person of interest is, dead or alive, unwanted. Said unwanted person is fittingly enough Brump. I’m reminded of a favorite line of mine from a song called ‘Don’t Care’ by Apocalyptica, which perhaps inspired, albeit at a deep, imperceptible subconscious level, this very comic. The line itself is from the refrain and goes ‘if you were dead or still alive, I don’t care’. It strikes me as something I can only oxymoronically characterize as malicious apathy. An apt description of the universe, so much so that it is a humbling reminder of how little one matters in the universe. Companionship is seemingly the cure for unwantedness, but this self-deceiving, semblance of optimism can only be cherished as long as one doesn’t dwell on the thought that those who love and value you the most are the same as all people, which is to say biologically wired to cope with the grief of losing someone by moving on without. So as depressing as being unwanted in the Cosmos is, at least someone had enough interest in Brump to make a poster. – Zachary