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The Truth Will Out

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The Truth Will Out

Panel 1: Caption: “My whole life, I’ve been a rule follower.” 3 boys on a couch watching Nightmare on Elm Street; my charcater saying “My mom won’t let me watch this!”. Image 2: At a crosswalk. A man across the street stands with hands on his head saying, “There are no cars coming!” My character waiting at the crosswalk says, “It says don’t walk!” Image 3: A woman on a bench feeding squirrels, with my character looking at her with the thought bubble: “Judge judge judge”. Panel 2. Caption: “I’d bet my twelve years of Catholic school had something to do with making me this way.” Kids line up in front of a school, with a cross and mean-looking nun. A plaque says, Our Lady of Perpetual Obedience. Panel 3, Caption: “Still, I’m not perfect. Growing up, I stole on three separate occasions.” A picture of Moses holding the ten commandments, pointing at “Thou shalt not steal”. Panel 4: Caption: “When I was very young, I stole candy from the supermarket checkout.” A cashier speaks to my mom, saying “That’ll be $62.37 to feed your family of 6 for a week.” In the foreground, you can see a little kid stealing a candy bar. Panel 5: Caption: “I ate it under my covers; maybe then God wouldn’t see.” A little boy hides under the covers eating the candy bar. Posters for LEGO and TOe-Jam and Earl: Panic on Funkatron are on the wall.

Panel 1: Caption: “I stole candy bars I was supposed to sell door-to-door for a school fundraiser.” An older kid looks both ways, reaching into a box full of candy bars. The box says “We put the ‘FUN’in Fundraising!” and “Child Labor - It’s Free!”. Panel 2: Caption: “I hid in the bathroom to eat my ill-gotten sweets.” The same boy sits on a toilet in the bathroom eating candy bars. A callout points to the floor saying, “Carpet, for some reason”. Panel 3: Caption: “At a friend’s birthday party, we discovered we could get extra tickets by pulling them out slowly.” Two boys in front of a Skee-Ball machine. One is pulling out the tickets. The other says, “Not so fast, you’re gonna rip it!”. A callout points to the tickets saying, “Two Tootsie Rolls worth of extra tickets.” Panel 4: Caption: “We told my dad about our trick. I don’t know what we were thinking.” A huge man stands over cowering boys, shouting “That’s STEALING!”. Panel 6: The same boy character who’s been featured everywhere sits on a chair, surrounde dby flames and various ne’er-do-well characters. Two demons flank him on either side with pitchforks. A banner hangs between two pillars saying, “WELCOME TO HELL!”. The boy says, “And that’s how I ended up here!

This somewhat-based-on-reality comic came out of a long-form comic class I took with Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell.

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© Nicholas Dunn 2025