universal

A six-panel comic. A man with flame-like orange hair talks to a small green alien named Dorsai (named in the dialogue). The man asks whether there are any true human universals — behaviors everyone engages in. The alien says there is only one. The man guesses candidates (community, religion) and the alien shoots each down: community has exceptions, religion is '80% tops, Switzerland.' Finally the man names the real universal: pretending your belly button is a mouth and your nipples are eyeballs to make a face on your torso. The alien confirms it crosses every category — man, woman, child, old, young, all races, all religions, even murderers and the Pope do it — and notes the man looks shocked. The final caption reads 'Nipple-faces and nothing else binds you,' shown over the man's bare torso. Votey: a simple line drawing of a human torso reimagined as a face, with the navel as a smiling mouth and the two nipples as eyes.