2008-08-22

A frail elderly woman lies in bed under a blanket and asks her grown son, who sits at her bedside holding a sheet of paper, "Son, I don't have much time now, but... I want to ask you... was I a good mother?" He replies warmly, "Oh, Mom, of course you were! Of course!" A caption beneath the panel undercuts the tenderness: "Bobby spent the next 20 minutes explaining how I could've been great." In the black-and-white votey aftercomic, the son cheerfully holds up a long written list toward his mother and says, "Actually, here, we made a list," revealing the reassurance was hollow and a detailed catalog of her shortcomings had been prepared.