foreword
Original: foreword on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1 (caption): FACT: In 1884, Mark Twain wrote the foreword to a French edition to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
[Image: a book cover reading "Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer".]
Panel 2 (caption): FACT: That foreword is now in the public domain.
[Image: a large copyright symbol with a line struck through it.]
Panel 3 (caption): FROM WHICH IT FOLLOWS: For any book you write, no matter the topic, all you have to do is reproduce that foreword and you can do this:
[Image: a pink book cover reading "A GUIDE [TO] FELLATIO, WITH A FOREWORD BY MARK TWAIN".]
Votey:
[Image: another book cover reading "WITH EQUATIONS BY ALBERT EINSTEIN".]
[Image: a book cover reading "Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer".]
Panel 2 (caption): FACT: That foreword is now in the public domain.
[Image: a large copyright symbol with a line struck through it.]
Panel 3 (caption): FROM WHICH IT FOLLOWS: For any book you write, no matter the topic, all you have to do is reproduce that foreword and you can do this:
[Image: a pink book cover reading "A GUIDE [TO] FELLATIO, WITH A FOREWORD BY MARK TWAIN".]
Votey:
[Image: another book cover reading "WITH EQUATIONS BY ALBERT EINSTEIN".]
Alt text
A three-panel SMBC comic about exploiting public-domain forewords. Panel 1, caption: "FACT: In 1884, Mark Twain wrote the foreword to a French edition to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," beside a drawn book cover reading "Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer." Panel 2, caption: "FACT: That foreword is now in the public domain," beside a large copyright symbol crossed out with a slash. Panel 3, caption: "FROM WHICH IT FOLLOWS: For any book you write, no matter the topic, all you have to do is reproduce that foreword and you can do this:" beside a pink book cover that reads "A GUIDE TO FELLATIO, WITH A FOREWORD BY MARK TWAIN." The joke: you can slap a famous author's public-domain foreword onto any book, however incongruous. Votey (aftercomic): a sketched book cover with the tagline "WITH EQUATIONS BY ALBERT EINSTEIN," extending the gag to a borrowed Einstein contribution.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.