Waiting To Die – “I been patiently waitin’ for a track to explode on.” So goes the start of 50 Cent’s bombastic song Patiently Waiting. The chorus feels so braggadocious, so confident, so self-assured that it epitomizes dominance and coolness. The idea that for a long, long time there has been so much music and so many beats, yet none of them are good enough to rap on. That everything on the scene is insufficient and unworthy of his skills and lyricism, until finally, long overdue and long awaited, there is a track worthwhile. And then that song is phenomenally performed by 50 Cent is poetic. Though I would be remis if I didn’t also mention it featured a verse by Eminem. But it is the idea that I always return back to when thinking of the song, that of deep longing and waiting for something worthwhile to come along. Somehow it seems so eloquently expressed in so few words. That is what sticks with me. And what does it have to do with this comic? It is how I feel. It is how Stoke feels. The longing, the waiting that is. If it is unclear, perhaps it is best put in song. “I been patiently waitin’ to die.” And Stoke waits. And waits. And waits. Patiently. For so long. And will continue to for so much longer. May we all not have to wait nearly so long. – Zachary