grim
Original: grim on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Credits (top of comic): WRITTEN BY: ZACH WEINERSMITH ART BY: ABBY HOWARD
Panel 1: A cashier (a woman with reddish hair in a green-and-red shirt, standing behind a store counter) greets the Grim Reaper, a black-robed figure with a white skull face holding a scythe.
Cashier: "OH HEY, GRIM REAPER."
Panel 2: The cashier addresses the Reaper.
Cashier: "GRIM REAPER, WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SO GRIM?"
Panel 3: The Grim Reaper shrugs, one bony hand open, the other holding his scythe.
Grim Reaper: "I GO AROUND KILLING PEOPLE ALL DAY MAN."
Panel 4: The cashier responds.
Cashier: "WHY CAN'T YOU BE MORE LIKE THE CHEERFUL REAPER?"
Panel 5 (no dialogue): An exterior scene of a brick building. A grinning, hooded skeletal figure (the "Cheerful Reaper") peeks around a dark doorway with a pink scythe, looming near a window. A small figure walks below.
Panel 6 (no dialogue): The Cheerful Reaper appears as a glowing, smiling angel-like skeleton with wings, radiating light, hovering over startled onlookers.
Panel 7: A pedestrian reacts to the grinning Cheerful Reaper.
Pedestrian (out of frame, looking at the creepy grinning figure): "GOD THAT GUY'S CREEPY."
Panel 8: Back at the store counter. The Grim Reaper (skull-faced, in his black robe) stands beside the cashier, who now looks uneasy.
Grim Reaper: "WELL 'I' THINK IT'S NICE."
Votey:
The Grim Reaper, looking glum, with a speech bubble.
Grim Reaper: "Nobody wants me to kill them."
Panel 1: A cashier (a woman with reddish hair in a green-and-red shirt, standing behind a store counter) greets the Grim Reaper, a black-robed figure with a white skull face holding a scythe.
Cashier: "OH HEY, GRIM REAPER."
Panel 2: The cashier addresses the Reaper.
Cashier: "GRIM REAPER, WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SO GRIM?"
Panel 3: The Grim Reaper shrugs, one bony hand open, the other holding his scythe.
Grim Reaper: "I GO AROUND KILLING PEOPLE ALL DAY MAN."
Panel 4: The cashier responds.
Cashier: "WHY CAN'T YOU BE MORE LIKE THE CHEERFUL REAPER?"
Panel 5 (no dialogue): An exterior scene of a brick building. A grinning, hooded skeletal figure (the "Cheerful Reaper") peeks around a dark doorway with a pink scythe, looming near a window. A small figure walks below.
Panel 6 (no dialogue): The Cheerful Reaper appears as a glowing, smiling angel-like skeleton with wings, radiating light, hovering over startled onlookers.
Panel 7: A pedestrian reacts to the grinning Cheerful Reaper.
Pedestrian (out of frame, looking at the creepy grinning figure): "GOD THAT GUY'S CREEPY."
Panel 8: Back at the store counter. The Grim Reaper (skull-faced, in his black robe) stands beside the cashier, who now looks uneasy.
Grim Reaper: "WELL 'I' THINK IT'S NICE."
Votey:
The Grim Reaper, looking glum, with a speech bubble.
Grim Reaper: "Nobody wants me to kill them."
Alt text
An eight-panel SMBC comic (written by Zach Weinersmith, art by Abby Howard). A red-haired cashier behind a store counter chats with the Grim Reaper, a black-robed skeleton holding a scythe. She asks why he's always so grim; he shrugs and says, "I go around killing people all day man." She replies, "Why can't you be more like the Cheerful Reaper?" The next panels show the "Cheerful Reaper" instead as a horrifying grinning skeletal figure with a pink scythe peeking around a dark doorway, then as a glowing winged angel-skeleton looming over frightened bystanders, one of whom says, "God that guy's creepy." Back at the counter, the ordinary Grim Reaper says, "Well 'I' think it's nice," while the cashier looks unsettled. The joke: the so-called 'cheerful' alternative is far more disturbing than the plain Grim Reaper, who admires it. In the votey aftercomic, the Grim Reaper looks sad and says, "Nobody wants me to kill them."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.