Denial Ain't a River But It Still Causes Floods.

I had a little run-in with Covid last week.

I apologize for the lack of a comic this past week. I managed to catch Covid-19 at the end of October and spent about a week shaking off that virus.

Ironically, I think I was exposed to the latest variant just a couple days after I had gotten my booster shot to protect against it. Apparently my body didn’t get the proper amount of time to bolster its immunity before the exposure.

Which as near as I can figure it, occurred during a visit to Powell’s Bookstore in Portland. It had been almost 10 months since my last visit. However I’m drawn like a moth to a bug light when it comes to visiting bookstores. The chance at gazing at the all the new books distracts my attention away from any sense of danger or memory.

Like the memory that the last time I visited, I wore a mask.

But not this time, instead I charged through the front door and into the thick crowd with only the thought, “Hey, I just got my booster! I should be strong like bull against dreaded Covid!”

Now I know better.

Bull strength takes a few days to kick in, but bullshit denial activates immediately.

Speaking of denial, five days after I had gone through the worst of my bout with Covid and the infection was mostly ebbed, I had to make a trip to the Post Office. During my brief visit, I had an encounter with one of the many Covid deniers that live in the Pacific Northwest. It was a woman who thought my N95 Mask was sending her a “Liberal Snowflake” alert.

Here’s a short animation I based on that encounter:

I’m sure in her mind she thought I was obviously over-reacting to any possible external Covid exposure. Plus, given the usual self-entitled, selfish mindset of these deniers, I was also sure she didn’t consider that maybe I was masking to protect the health of others.

I disregarded her smirk. But when she started to fake cough around me I was tempted, oh so tempted, to actually pull down my mask, give her a Godzilla like dose of Covid and scream, “Lady, I’m not afraid of the the disease! I AM THE DISEASE! BLAHHHHH!”

But truth be told, I wasn’t so irresponsible. I just ignored her idiocy and went on my way.

You’d think over the course of two years and six plus million deaths worldwide that Covid denial dummies would wise up. But I guess as long as we have cultish public bozos like Donald Trump spreading lies and denying every obvious truth, we’ll be forever saddled with these weak-minded, misinformed fools.

“Though all his life a fool associates with a wise man, he no more comprehends the Truth than a spoon tastes the flavor of the soup.” - Dhammapada, Chapter 5

Thankfully I feel much better this week. The booster finally kicked in.

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Re: The American Bystander Giveaway

I’d like to give a big congratulations to Will Guyan! He was the winner of the American Bystander magazine giveaway. He got a shiny new issue of The American Bystander Issue #23, plus issue#16 as well as a signed rare copy of my “Pi-The Book of Ants” comicbook which I co-created with director Darren Aronofsky. Cheers to you, Will! I hope you enjoyed the gifts!

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I tried contacting two other subscribers whose names were originally drawn as winners but they unfortunately never responded to my emails. However if they suddenly find them in their spam folders and respond, I have some consolation prizes at the ready.

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Now’s it time to get back to the old drawing board.

Cheers,

Ed

1. Yes, I sanitized them before shipping them off to you!