iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

This comic was a full collaboration with my kid. She always draws herself when she appears in the comic, but for this one, we also made the joke and the dialog together

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

(a comic about last December in Shanghai. This kept happening.)

6-panel black&white comic about how random Chinese aunties keep coming up and grabbing the kid's hand and asking "Aren't you cold?"

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

(comics drawing annoyance: that feeling when you've already told the joke, but you gotta keep drawing Protestor Number Two's feet in three more panels because you're committed to continuity of background characters...)

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Tonight was open mic night at my local coffee shop, and since it's also Martin Luther King Day, I decided to learn "We Shall Overcome" vimeo.com/1156351524 This song is the attitude I want to carry for 2026. We need a new Civil Rights movement. The brave people of Minneapolis are showing the way.

vimeo.com

We Shall Overcome (Martin Luther King Day 2026)

This Martin Luther King Day, I'm thinking a lot about the many parallels between the Civil Rights Movement, and the brave patriots of Minnesota in 2026, defending…

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

This summer we visited some family on the east coast. Drove around a bunch of familiar places. Had this mood a lot.

Comic panel 1: View out of the windshield of a car. My hands are on the wheel. We can see a stop sign ahead and a fork in the road. Me: "I remember this intersection from when I was a kid growing up in this town"

Comic panel 2: me and Spouse wearing our seatbelts, looking at each other. Me: "Left here leads to I-95..." Spouse: "What about right?" Me: "That's the thing! Mom ALWAYS turned left!"

Panel 3: aerial view of the car (it's a Toyota Corolla) at the stop sign. Me: "Every time, I wondered where right leads to". Spouse: "Well we don't have to return the rental car until 2:30..."

Panel 4: The car turns right. Speech balloons from the car: "Woo!" "Let's go!"

Panel 5: long panel showing a road winding through the countryside, passing trees, hedges, houses, a pond, etc. Me: "This road's been a mystery my whole life!" "It could go anywhere! A Terra Incognito in my hometown!" "Now that I'm back here as an adult I can... finally...."

Panel 6: The car arrives at an on-ramp to the highway. A sign says "95 south". Me: "Oh. It... leads back to I-95 by a less convenient route"

Panel 7: view of us inside the car again. Spouse looks at me worried and asks "You OK?" I just have a thousand-yard stare.

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Drew this one a couple months ago for a serpent-themed anthology that my awesome spouse is editing. I used watercolor paints.

Panel 1: in a lush verdant landscape, an Australopithecus Africanus woman is smashing some flint to make a stone tool. A green snake coiled around the branch of a blossoming sakura tree leans down to talk to her.
Eve: "Hi snake, what's up?" Snake: "I've got a secret that will help you humans escape!"

Panel 2: Eve, scratching her head, confused: "Escape? From what? This place is great". Snake, frowning: "Well, actually, you're prisoners in a false paradise created by the demiurge Yaldaboath"

Panel 3: Snake smiles and points (with its tail) at a tree on a hill in the distance. The tree has red fruits and is radiating sparkle lines. Snake: "But, good news! You can free your minds with the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good&Evil". Eve makes a thinking-emoji face. A male Australopithecus enters the scene, holding up his arm, palm-out. Adam: "Stop! Do not heed this poisonous serpent's wicked lies!"

Panel 4: Close-up on the snake, looking offended: "So first of all, I'm not poisonous"

Panel 5: Snake, looking smug: "I'm ~venomous~". Adam, looking nonplussed: "..."

Panel 6: Eve, impressed: "How do you know so much?" Snake, slightly embarrassed: "... I ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Being Technically Correct". Adam look dumbfounded. The background has shifted so we can see a second, much dumpier-looking tree, emitting sparkle lines on the hillside in the distance next to the first tree.

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

"see, my encyclopedic knowledge of 80s robot toys is actually a critical survival skill"

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

#gentlecomicshabit didn't get to draw much in June since I was starting a new job, but now I'm back on it

Comic panel 1: Some people are in line at a bank. Shout from off-panel: "FREEZE!"

Panel 2: dramatic angle of a guy in a trenchcoat and ski mask busting in with a gun and a sack. "Put 100 grand in this sack and nobody gets hurt!" he yells.

Panel 3: Side view of him pointing the gun, saying "The rest of you lay down on the floor!" A woman in the background who has her hands in the air looks at the gun and thinks: "?"

Panel 4: She yanks the gun out of his hands with a big "YOINK!" sound effect. Surprised, he just says "Hey!"

Panel 5: from off panel he says "no fair, you're supposed to be terrified" while we see the woman unfolding the gun with SFX "slide" "twist" "flip".

Panel 6: she has transformed the gun into toy Megatron's robot mode and holds it aloft for the crowd to see. There are surprised faces in the background.

Panel 7: some of the people from the bank line earlier surround the masked man, looking extremely angry, grabbing him by the shoulder and rolling up their sleeves for a fight. "Rats!" he says

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

does Ween's country album go in a different binder from the rest of their albums? do Genesis stop going in the Prog Rock binder once Phil Collins takes over? don't even get me started on "the Brian Eno problem"

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

#gentlecomicshabit Genre classifications (Who the fuck is listening to CDs in 2025? uh... me. I am.)

Comic panel 1: i'm going through a big box of CDs, taking them out of their jewel cases, and organizing them into binders. I have a look of intense concentration. There's more boxes of CDs stacked up in the background. "Should Rocky Horror go next to Bat Outta Hell (because Meat Loaf) or next to Saturday Night Fever (because soundtrack)

Panel 2: i'm looking confused-ly at two CD binders labeled "disco" and "funk". "Do I need a disco binder? can it merge with the funk binder or are they too different? Is Daft Punk disco? Is Herbie Hancock funk? Does Stevie Wonder go there or in 'soul' with Aretha Fraklin?"

Panel 3: I'm sliding a disk into a binder labeled "Motown". There's another binder labeled "Bollywood" and more albums scattered around. "Does the Cowboy Bebop OST go in the Jazz binder or do I put it in a 'Japanese' binder with Kodo and Shonen Knife?"

Panel 4: I'm pulling my hair in frustration. "Every new taxonomy only makes more exceptions! Where the fuck do I put Bjork?" My friend, with his hair in a "man bun", in the background: "In the trash? With all the other disks? After you rip them to MP3s so they can have multiple genre tags"

Panel 5: i pause, about to put a cd in a binder labeled "Sea Chanty", and stare blankly into space for a while

Panel 6: i'm clutching an armful of cds and binders labeled "prog rock" and "accordion". There's too much to hold and stuff is falling everywhere. "But... I might... I might need..."

Panel 7: man-bun guy: "You might need 'Sun Microsystems JDK 1.4.2 installer for Power Macintosh?" me, sheepish expression: "I was gonna make Warhammer terrain out of it"

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

#gentlecomishabit we are all here to help each other on this journey called music

Comic panel 1: sidewalk showing an open doorway with a sign outside that says "Open Mic Night 6-9 pm". Inside the doorway, a sign with an arrow points up the stairs.

Panel 2: a guy with a goatee is sitting on a stool under a spotlight playing a guitar. He is super nervous and sweat drops are flying off his face. There's a music staff in the background but it's all wiggly and keeps starting and stopping. "Oops!" he says. "Sorry, uh, lemme try again"

Panel 3: Goatee guy is slumped over a table with his face scrunched up in embarrassment. I approach the table and wave, saying "Hey man I liked your song". He answers "But I totally bombed! I was so nervous my fingers cramped up"

Panel 4: "First time?" I ask. "Yeah..." he says. I lean forward and cup a hand next to my mouth. "We've all been there! Wanna know a secret?" I ask.

Panel 5: I'm smiling and gesturing with both hands. "As the musician all you can hear is your own mistakes but the listeners might not even notice. They hear the good parts"

Panel 6: "So if you mess up, don't apologize! The audience probably liked it more than you did" i say. We fist bump. "Thanks, that really helps" he says. A speech balloon from off-panel says "Nindokag is up next"

Panel 7: I am standing in the spotlight in front of the microphone, wearing a kilt and playing an accordion. "Here's my latin jazz remix of the song it plays when you fight Gilgamesh in Final Fantasy V" i say. A wiggly music staff comes out of the accordion.

Panel 8: the wiggly music staff continues. The goatee guy, seated at the table, has his hands clamped over his ears and is making an expression of confusion and dismay

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

#gentlecomishabit (inspired by the news from last month about Discord going public)

Comic titled "The Samsara of Software Suckitude". It is laid out in an outer circle and an inner circle. The outer circle has four panels going clockwise. Arrows point from each panel to the next, in a never-ending loop. The inner circle also has four panels going clockwise with arrows pointing from each to the next in a never-ending loop.

Panel 1, inner: software dev 1: "How us small new company take users from old big company?" Software dev 2: "Make good thing. Give away free."

Panel 1, outer: User 1: "We could try moving to that new <software>". User 2, shrugging: "I guess"

Panel 2, inner: the software devs are in poses of celebration in front of a chart of line going up. Software dev 1: "Line go up! Hooray!" Software dev 2: "IPO! Get rich!"

Panel 2, outer: User 1: "Seems like all my friends are switching to <software> now" User 3: "I should try it too"

Panel 3, inner: software dev 2: "Investors want more money. Get more money from users." Panel 3, outer: User 2, angry: "Ugh they were already cramming <software> full of ads, spyware, and censorship and now they're forcing AI on us too?"

Panel 4, inner: chart of line going down, software dev 1: "Oh no! Where users go?" Software dev 2 makes surprised pikachu face.

Panel 4, outer: User 1: "I can't stand using <software> anymore. It sucks too bad." User 2: "What can we do?"

(return to panel 1)

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Do you love it despite it being parallel solitaire, or does there start to be more player interaction as the skill level goes up?

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

despite my snark, I really enjoyed both times I played it. I love the bird facts and illustrations, I love all the tactile stuff like the dice tower and the feel of the wooden eggs. It's just that it felt more "parallel solitaire" than any other board game I've played

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Wingspan should have a battle mode where my birds can fly over to your habitat and, if you don't block them, they raid your nests and steal your precious berries and grubs

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

I bet somebody from the UK will pop up to tell me that actually the Doctor can't be captured by giant Life Savers because in Britain that candy is called Wumbly Chumblies or something

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

the Kandyman's plan would involve people all over the world being scalded to death by improperly microwaved Tang Hu Lu after watching a misleading Tiktok video

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

#gentlecomicshabit Russel T. Davies has not to my knowledge brought back the Kandyman (from classic doctor who story "The Happiness Patrol") but I wouldn't put it past him.

Comic panel 1: the Kandyman (an evil robot made of candy from classic Doctor Who season 25) is looming over a frightened 15th Doctor and Belinda Chandra. Kandyman: "Remember me Doctor?" Doctor: "It can't be! Ace and I destroyed you on planet Terra Alpha!" A single beautiful tear runs down his cheek.

panel 2: me and spouse are watching this episode on a laptop in bed. We're frowning at the screen. Spouse: "They really scrapin' the bottom of the barrel for recurring villains huh"

Panel 3: Kandyman, having grown to gigantic size and stretching out a gigantic hand towards the tiny protagonists: "I'm the God of Candy now cuz everything's 'gods' this season" Doctor and Belinda are running away. Belinda says "That cursed 3.5-inch floppy must've summoned him!" The sky in the background is filled with floating candy.

Panel 4: The doctor is being hooked and lifted into the sky by giant candy canes. The trees have turned into giant lollypops. The giant God of Candy has picked up the TARDIS and is squishing it between his candy fingers. Doctor: "The sonic doesn't work! the TARDIS doesn't work! Nothing works!" Kandyman: "My reality-warping powers are far beyond your puny comprehension!"

Panel 5: The Doctor is restrained by a giant roll of Life Savers wrapped around him. Belinda is holding a toaster and a fork. Doctor: "Belinda, stick the fork in the toaster!" Belinda: "Why??" Doctor: "Just trust me!" A single beautiful tear rolls down his cheek.

Panel 6: me and Spouse are watching the episode and frowning at the laptop. Voice of the Kandyman from the screen: "AAAAA THE TOASTER IS BANISHING MEEEEE". Spouse: "It's hard to care about these Pantheon eps when the story has no rules". Me: "No there's exactly one rule -- whatever BS they try 5 mins before the end of the episode will be what works"

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

#gentlecomicshabit don't tell me it's exponential if you can't put numbers on it

Comic panel 1: A tech CEO guy (bald, black turtleneck) stands in front of a giant screen showing a giant chart. The chart shows an exponential curve going up and to the right. The x-axis is labeled "year" going from 1995 to 2030. The y-axis is labeled "intelligence" and is a series of words - from bottom to top: "Bug", "Lizard", "Dog", "Toddler", "Dolphin", "High Schooler", "PhD", "Einstein", "Superhuman", "God", "Supergod"

The CEO is looking smug and pointing. he says "This evidence shows irrefutably that the intelligence of AI is on an exponential curve. By 2026 it will replace all human workers and by 2030 replace God. Any questions?"

Panel 2: I am in the audience. I raise my hand and ask "Yeah I have a question: what units is your Y-axis in?"

Panel 3: the CEO looks evasive and says "It's, uh... and ordinal heuristic metric of smartitude". I pound my palm with my other fist and shout "WHAT. UNITS. MOTHERFUCKER?"

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

#gentlecomicshabit hope I'm not throwing a discourse bomb by stating there are some aspects of Japanese culture which are, at least, autism-friendly. (I'm leaving out other aspects of Japanese culture which are the exact opposite)

Comic panel 1: caption: ""How autistic is Japan?" someone asked me. An obviously nonsensical question. ... and yet, consider:" I am pondering a Gundam plastic model kit shop with a big Gundam statue out front.

Panel 2: Caption: "Social interactions that do not require eye (or skin) contact". Two Japanese guys in suits are bowing to each other. There is a "No" symbol around a handshake.

Panel 3: "Things clearly labeled, rules explicitly posted" - street sign with lots of signs and arrows pointed at things

Panel 4: "Social situations with predictable scripts to follow" - a woman is doing a jikoshokai (self introduction) to a group of her new coworkers

Panel 5: "Culture that encourages going deep on one special interest" - three people are respectively doing ink brush calligraphy, ikebana / flower arranging, and playing a game of go. They all have expressions of intense concentration.

Panel 6: "Lots of facts about trains to memorize". A boy is looking intently at a train schedule while a shinkansen/bullet train goes by on an elevated track overhead

At the bottom of the page, there's a drawing of myself looking at the reader and saying: "(plz understand I am saying this with nothing but love for my autistic bretheren and... is "sistren" a word?"

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Ironically, after drawing this comic I read this: www.semafor.com/article/04/2... (billionaires have a group chat where they plotted to help elect the fascist because they think the fascists' policies benefit them) Note how simple the real thing is, compared to paranoid conspiracy theories

semafor.com

The group chats that changed America

A loose private network on Signal and WhatsApp helped usher in the new alliance between Silicon Valley and Donald Trump’s new right.

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

#gentlecomicshabit gee, what would we do if the evil conspiracy just decided to NOT leave fun clues for you to decode?

Comic panel 1: a bunch of shadowy figures are sitting around a table, their faces hidden by hoods. They are rubbing their hands together and cackling. Conspirator 1 gestures wildly saying "... and then we make the Wuhan biolab leak the virus!" the others respond "MWA HA HA HA"

panel 2: conspirator 2 asks "Then the pandemic kills everyone?" conspirator 1 responds: "No! We want them to THINK that but it's actually as harmless as a cold"

panel 3: conspirator 2: "then why..." conspirator 1: "To trick everyone into taking the vaccine!" conspirator 3 raises a hand: "And the vaccine kills everyone right?"

panel 4: conspirator 1: "No, but it fiddles with their DNA!" conspirator 3: "Is this before or after the mind control chip?" Conspirator 4: "Wait! Guys! We're forgetting the most important part of any evil conspiracy!"

panel 5: Conspirator 4: "Giving the entire plan away by making common words and phrases spell out clues like a crossword puzzle from a children's cereal box!" the other conspirators: "oh right!" "almost forgot" "I'll get right on that"

Panel 6: we are now back to reality in this panel. A guy with a crazed expression and messed-up hair and beard stubble is shouting "WAKE UP SHEEPLE!" at me, pointing at a giant sign he's holding. I am scratching the back of my neck and saying "ummm..."
The sign has the word COVID with the letters standing for "Communist cOld Vaccine fIddles wit ur Dna" and then "19" is explained as "666 + 1 (world government)"

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

No comic this week because I'm at SF Climate Week events all day every day

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

#gentlecomicshabit part 3 of the Kyoto Arc. (How many temples does Kyoto need, anyway?)

Comic panel 1: I am standing with my daughter behind a railing at Kiymizudera (a famous Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan). I'm pointing down off the balcony towards the tree tops below. I'm saying: "...Edo period legend says if you leap from the balcony of Kiyomizu temple and survive, your wish will come true". My kid looks bored.

Panel 2: I'm standing in front of an enormous bronze Buddha statue, which is seated in lotus position with a bunch of offerings in front of it. I'm saying: "...this Daibutsu survived the fire and Todai temple was rebuilt in the Heain period-- where'd she go?" I'm looking around for my daughter. She's hiding behind the Buddha's head and giving him "bunny ears" with her fingers

Panel 3: we're looking across a lake at another temple. The temple is reflected in the still water surface, as are some trees on a tiny island nearby. I'm saying: "Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu built Kinkaku temple as a..." daughter interrupts, yelling: "I'M SO BORED OF TEMPLES!"

Panel 4: daughter is arms akimbo and shouting at me: "We've been to a bajillion temples and they're all the same! My feet hurt and I wanna go back to the hotel and charge my Switch and I don't care about the Heian period! It's a stupid period that didn't even have ninjas!" I respond: "OK, OK, no more temples."

panel 5: she looks leery and asks: "Promise?" I kneel down and stick out a pinky finger and say "Promise."

Panel 6: we are standing in front of a torii gate flanked by statues of kitsune (fox spirits) at the Fushimi Inari Taisha. Daughter is glaring at me furiously (sfx: "glare"). I am saying: "No, this one's a SHRINE!!!"

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

#gentlecomicshabit Signs in Japan that are unintentionally hilarious to a native reader of Chinese, due to a thousand years of semantic drift in the meaning of characters

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

#gentlecomicshabit This comic's Kyoto Arc begins (Conbini = japanese for convenience store)

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Nindokag daily pencil sketch comics @nindokag.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

today's #gentlecomicshabit is a 2-pager I've done so many depressing political comics so I decided to try something very different: a comic where I'm attempting to imagine a better world. 🏳️‍⚧️

Comic panel 1: Caption: "Biotech advanced until complete physical sex change could be achieved with a few pills." A person standing in the bathroom in front of the mirror, with an open pill bottle next to the sink, stretches the waistband of their pants, looks down at their crotch, and says "wow!"

Panel 2: Caption: "After all, every cell has at least one x-chromosome awaiting the right activtation signals." A scientist in a lab coat and goggles is looking at a test tube while another looks through a microscope. There are magnified images of chromosomes on the wall behind them. One scientist says: "Going the other way was harder, but the Y-chromosome only codes about 60 proteins"

Panel 3: Caption: "People who hate freedom tried to ban the treatment". An angry man waves a flag. The flag has a male and female symbol with a brick wall between them. He says "Sickos will transition twice a week! for kinky sex purposes!" A woman next to him literally clutches her pearls and says "think of the children!"

Panel 4: Caption: "What they hated most was: now that passing was easier, identifying targets of their prejudice was harder". A man narrows his eyes and holds out calipers and a ruler towards a woman's face. He says: "Hold still while I decide if I think you're a real woman". She looks creeped out and says "No!"

Panel 5: Caption: "But cheap at-home chemical synthesis made bans unenforceable, just as it had done for the abortion pill". A person eagerly watches a box, similar in shape and size to a 3-d printer but full of chemistry equipment, as a timer on it counts down.

Panel 6: Caption: "Some trans elders had mixed feelings about all this." An old woman holding a walker says: "Back in my day, transitioning could cost you everything... it really meant something! Kids these days have it too easy"

Panel 7: Caption: "Language adapted". A teacher points at a whiteboard with a grammar chart. Some children look on. The chart says that first-person singular/plural is "I/we", 2nd person is "you/y'all", and 3rd person is "they/th'all"

Panel 8: Caption: "Gender expression bloomed in hundreds of new colors" A person with a skull shirt, spiky shoulderpads, and spiky mohawk says "My gender is punk". A seond person in a tight black turtleneck with a beret says "you're very nice, but i'm strictly gothosexual"

Panel 9: Caption: "Busybodies played 'celebrity gender history detective'" A woman angrily bangs at a computer keyboard. Behind her there's a picture of a naked hunk of a man with hearts around him. She types "MY favorite actor is 100% lifelong pureblood male!"

Panel 10: Caption: "...but most people recognized that this behavior was kinda pathetic". A second woman angrily types a response into her computer. Behind her is a conspiracy corkboard with strings and pushpins connecting photos and articles. She types: "You're dreaming! 'he' transitioned back in 2062"

Panel 11: Caption: "Later generations wondered what all the fuss had been about". A child holds up a comic book to a parent and says "Parent, I don't get this comic. Explain?"

Panel 12: The parent frowns at the comic book and says: "Oh. Hmm... this is a stereotype from back in the days when most people stayed one gender thour whole life". The kid crosses their arms and frowns, saying "No th'all didn't! You're making that up!"

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