Nature
Original: Nature on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Child: Dad, why has the world gotten richer over time?
Father (man with red hair and glasses): The key is our natural ecosystem.
Panel 2:
Father: Whenever someone dies, we bury them or scatter their ashes.
Panel 3:
Father: Over time, molecules from those remains enter our food web.
Panel 4:
Father: And, as I've told you many times, when you eat other people, you gain their powers.
Panel 5 (silhouettes against black):
Child: How do you know so much, Dad?
Father: I have feasted upon the shoulders of GIANTS.
Votey:
Child: I can't wait until you're dead, Dad!
Child: Dad, why has the world gotten richer over time?
Father (man with red hair and glasses): The key is our natural ecosystem.
Panel 2:
Father: Whenever someone dies, we bury them or scatter their ashes.
Panel 3:
Father: Over time, molecules from those remains enter our food web.
Panel 4:
Father: And, as I've told you many times, when you eat other people, you gain their powers.
Panel 5 (silhouettes against black):
Child: How do you know so much, Dad?
Father: I have feasted upon the shoulders of GIANTS.
Votey:
Child: I can't wait until you're dead, Dad!
Alt text
A five-panel comic. A red-haired bespectacled father explains economics to his small child. Child: 'Dad, why has the world gotten richer over time?' Father: 'The key is our natural ecosystem. Whenever someone dies, we bury them or scatter their ashes. Over time, molecules from those remains enter our food web. And, as I've told you many times, when you eat other people, you gain their powers.' In the final panel, both shown as silhouettes, the child asks 'How do you know so much, Dad?' and the father replies, 'I have feasted upon the shoulders of GIANTS' — a literal-cannibalism twist on the phrase 'standing on the shoulders of giants.' Votey: the child, now grinning, says 'I can't wait until you're dead, Dad!', eager to one day eat him and inherit his powers.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.