It’s Iimi! State of the Disunion

Della tries to adjust to life back in California after leaving drought-stricken Ponce. In doing so, she learns more about her parents' concerns, for example, her father’s increasingly pessimistic view of the country. Meanwhile, Vicki has questions about Iimi’s views… but have her intentions changed? Such are the signs of… State of the Disunion

Content Notice:

This comic uses examples of Fascist imagery to illustrate the dangers of certain ideas.

Some characters express their feelings about political issues. This comic does not endorse any views. (As Iimi says in the comic, I won’t say how I voted, but if you’re curious, I’m appalled by the American political landscape in general). 

Technically, most people have probably voted by now (Election Day is November 3^rd). So, this isn’t an attempt to sway voters. But the week before Election Day is always a good time to discuss general morality in terms of government. Mainly because one can’t claim it’s an endorsement or condemnation of the results. (I’m far enough ahead that I’ll be outlining the December 11th issue on Election Day. So, unless something happens that merits a “special,” you won't see any references before then.)

Post-Comic Notes:

The Act 1 End Banner text is from “The Windmills of Your Mind” as performed by Noel Harrison.

As an amusing (to me, anyway) incident, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini got into an increasingly hostile argument over interpretations of Chilean immigration law, eventually accusing each other of relying too much on forums or taking the law too literally. That’s where Carl’s line, “But interpretations conflict, and I am not a Chilean lawyer,” came from.

As it turns out, on the day this comic was published, drought reports in Puerto Rico said that conditions in Ponce were expected to improve. Such are the challenges of doing comics a month in advance.

Image Credits

Cover Art is © Henrik Karppinen

All Map images are © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The voting image (page 5) is by Linnaea Mallette and is in the public domain.

The image of Heinrich Brüning (page 21) is by Bundesarchiv, Bild and distributed under CC BY-SA 3.0 de.

AI Disclaimer

I used AI to generate covers and background scenery for Issues 184-277. I still use it to create logos, doodles, and symbols, simply because there are no non-AI logo-creation programs (suggestions are welcome). I kept some previously used images for consistency (iconic buildings and “historic photographs”), and I intend to replace them when possible. Any other use of AI means the stock art seller I bought from misrepresented their product.

Notes on Cantonese language usage: Jyutping uses numbers after each syllable to show the proper tone. However, because that can make it hard to read (In a comic font, is that a 6 or a G?), I remove the tone numbers except when tones are immediately relevant to the story.