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there-and-back-again

Original: there-and-back-again on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Transcript

Main comic:

A group of figures walks through a dark, red-tinged forest of tall tree trunks. An old man with a long white beard, a pointed hat, and a staff (Gandalf) leads, followed by a bearded dwarf-like figure with an axe and another companion with red hair.

Gandalf: THIS DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT, BILBO.
Bilbo (offscreen/behind): OK? AND GETTING EATEN BY SPIDERS DOES?

Caption below the panel: Getting through Mirkwood Forest was a lot easier once we started using chemical defoliants.

Votey:

Close-up, simple black-and-white line art. A tall figure on the left looms over a small, distressed-looking bearded man (Gandalf) on the lower right who clutches at himself nervously.

Tall figure: Nut up, Gandalf. It's business.

Alt text

A four-figure party walks single-file through a dark red-lit forest of tall bare tree trunks (Mirkwood). Gandalf, a white-bearded old man in a pointed hat with a staff, leads. He says 'This doesn't seem right, Bilbo,' and an unseen companion replies, 'OK? And getting eaten by spiders does?' The caption reads: 'Getting through Mirkwood Forest was a lot easier once we started using chemical defoliants.' The joke: they cleared the dangerous forest by spraying defoliant rather than risk its monsters. Votey: in stark black-and-white line art, a tall figure looms over a small, anxious, self-clutching Gandalf and says, 'Nut up, Gandalf. It's business.'

Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.