oOOOOOKAY i don’t even know if this new comic makes sense to anyone except myself, but the gin & tonic is saying GO FOR IT YOU SUDDENLY HANDSOME DEVIL so here you go anyway. I must slurringly apologise for the delay with this new one; i’ve had a lot of work to get done the last few weeks (some of which you may encounter at some point…), and time sort of flew for a while there (didn’t it?), and my mental calendar is honestly on like November 7th right now. Making this comic EARLY!! So there’s that i guess. I dunno, it’s late, and i should go…
yeah,
Wr
Virus Comix News 
November 19, 2011 at 2:20 am
The really brilliant part of this comic, to me, is that not only is it true & hugely insightful, plus, of course, current, but this could only have manifested as a comic. Highly visual content with accompanying text — combine to yield something far bigger than one might have supposed. Lovely.
November 19, 2011 at 4:11 am
Oh, poor Stevens. He lives in a “different” part of town. Brilliant! I am still chuckling.
November 19, 2011 at 6:39 am
genius
November 19, 2011 at 6:52 am
Excellent
November 19, 2011 at 8:00 am
Interesting vignette. BTW, was that a cab Steven was getting into?
November 19, 2011 at 8:09 am
I think you missed the twist at the end.
November 19, 2011 at 10:41 am
Yeah, the beard guy is not stevens, just to get that out of the way early. I acknowledge it’s kind of more subtle than it had to be for a Big Reveal.
November 19, 2011 at 11:00 am
I admit I didn’t catch it at first either. Good one though 🙂
November 19, 2011 at 8:47 pm
The guy taking the taxi is de facto neither homeless or broke: He has somewhere to be, and the means to pay to get there.
While the pulled focus is well played, I feel the point was made more clear by the Emperor of the Universe, making an impossible effort to relate to the lowest-caste denizens of his omniverse., ultimately revealing the only thing that ever really interests him.
$tevens… is not removed from the game. He and his colleagues write most of the rules. He cannot elicit the same sympathies as a ¢haracter like Zoe Muggs.
December 1, 2011 at 9:03 am
Details are specially important in this one. The bearded guy wasn´t actually begging, when he gets into the taxi you can see there was coffee in his cup. The author shows this by making him a litterer, though. Virtual world collateral environmental damage, I guess.
November 19, 2011 at 9:15 am
This was a real mind-bender. The message of the first panels is a good one, but the twist at the end brings it more sharply into focus and adds a shot of tabasco to that gin and tonic. Sharing this one far and wide.
November 19, 2011 at 10:39 am
At first the comic didn’t load properly in my browser, so this is what I saw for the first panel:
…and I thought the blurred text was some kind of clever artistic statement. 😛
November 19, 2011 at 10:46 am
The colors! Oh, I absolutely love the colors. They draw the eye right to the important bits. Even something as simple as the spillage from the discarded coffee cup we spend the entire time supposing was a collection cup… Beautiful work. This has to be in my top five favorites of the Viruscomix.
November 22, 2011 at 9:18 am
Indeed. I feel stupid not catching the twist earlier. The missing ‘S’, the ‘S’ in the window covers, the fact that only the window has colors, while the coffee cup guy was pretty similar to the rest of the crowd…
November 19, 2011 at 11:06 am
Well wow, rather unexpected ending, in the best possible way.
November 19, 2011 at 11:34 am
I thought this was gonna be a really hackneyed moral about the homeless, but then my expectations got flipped on their head. This was really nice.
November 19, 2011 at 12:58 pm
excellent! at first I thought it was just childish “occupy whatever” nonsense (h8ers gonna h8), but the twist proved me wrong. I guess you could say that super-poor and super-rich are both equally remowed form the world in general, only in different ways, neither very desirable.
wonderful comic, this one! you should drink more winston, it does you good 😛
November 20, 2011 at 2:03 am
Oh, that’s good advice to give!
November 20, 2011 at 9:41 am
so when did that happen? when did people start taking absoulutely everything seriously?
November 26, 2011 at 10:03 pm
But everything on the internet is absolutely serious!
November 19, 2011 at 1:19 pm
While the ending did create a bit of insight on the other side of town that Steven lives on, does the text also say the same thing about the bearded man? How different, how similar are their ends of the playing field? Just fantastic.
November 19, 2011 at 2:06 pm
I love it. Very subtle.
November 19, 2011 at 2:09 pm
I really enjoyed this comic, simply because most of the time I thought it was about the homeless/low income man, but then it was turned around and it was really about the millionaire or whatever. For all I know, the bearded guy could also be called Steven’s and the comic was about enjoying life by being among everyone else.
November 19, 2011 at 3:13 pm
🙂
November 19, 2011 at 4:45 pm
This was a risky one, and you pulled it off admirably. It easily could have fallen into trite on the one side or “ha! got you!” on the other, but instead it stayed human. Thank you.
November 19, 2011 at 5:24 pm
know him
November 19, 2011 at 6:35 pm
I thought they were both Stevenses, separated from each other and us by only the thinnest slice of the grace of God.
November 20, 2011 at 12:57 pm
I like it.
November 20, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Yeah, that’s what I thought too, but that they were brothers who had a falling out over business (bearded Stevens can afford a taxi and to throw away coffee, so we know he’s not desperately poor, but he may have been forced out of the company?). I thought the text applied to both because of the clearly different angles the crowd is viewed at in panels 6 and 7…
November 20, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Never mind…how did I miss seeing seeing Stevens in Panel 6? He truly is the Invisible Man…
November 19, 2011 at 9:18 pm
It took me a second to catch it but when I did I loved the twist at the end. Very well done. Especially the excellent use of color to help illustrate the point.
Was this an Occupy Wall Street-related comic, Winston, or did you just spontaneously feel like making something with a similar sort of message?
November 20, 2011 at 12:55 pm
Any topicality along those lines is coincidental, though i would definitely have no problem with anyone relating it to the current Occupy situation. I actually came up with this one quite a while ago, but didn’t finish it until now because it was kind of similar to “The Race” and i wanted some distance between them. Or something along those lines.
November 22, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Wonderfully insightful of you, then. It’s definitely got the whole “we are the 99%” vibe, but I’m sure I would have had a very different reading of it had it appeared shortly after The Race.
November 20, 2011 at 2:04 am
Your god has a strange sense of humor.
November 20, 2011 at 8:16 am
If you thought the first guy was homeless that makes me very sad because he dresses much better than me.
November 20, 2011 at 8:30 am
Maybe he’s homeless because he spent his rent money on clothes?
November 20, 2011 at 8:39 am
You had me until the last panel. So, there BY the grace of god goes–someone else?
November 20, 2011 at 12:48 pm
No, it’s not used in a literal sense, it’s just a common turn of phrase one might apply when presented with the misfortune of someone else– used here in a delightfully ironic fashion or, uh, something.
November 20, 2011 at 9:47 am
you’re so clever. can’t wait for the next comic ^_^
November 20, 2011 at 10:26 am
I think Stevens would be a whiny bitch regardless.
November 20, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Great presentation, but as for the main concept… no… you can’t make me feel sorry for the rich capitalist.
For one thing, he is by no means “out of the game”; people like him control the world. And in the end, if he doesn’t like his life he can change it, he has a LOT of choices – heck, he can even give his fortune away if he can’t handle the lifestyle. I’d gladly take it off his hands 😀
November 20, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Please do a book. Please, please do a book! I need to be able to carry these comics around with me!
November 20, 2011 at 3:59 pm
http://www.truth-out.org/welcome-home-building-inclusive-movement-99-percent/1321627883
in response to the line that said “they march on city hall, but he is never there”
November 20, 2011 at 4:01 pm
haaa! i totally missed the ending as well..
brilliant ^_^
November 20, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Just loved the ending. Not to say I didn’t love the comic, but that ending was just a smack in the face. Just brilliant stuff man.
November 20, 2011 at 6:02 pm
I just keep wondering why Stevens’ office is on the bottom floor. I understand there are artistic issues involved here, but I can’t help but think that the person being described would have on office on the top floor away from the prying eyes of the masses.
November 20, 2011 at 11:48 pm
just pretend he’s afraid of heights.
November 20, 2011 at 6:48 pm
I wish I could shake your hand.
November 20, 2011 at 11:41 pm
haha Since all of my previous posts involve typos, I cannot resist stupidly shouting: “Good Sir, you forgot the s in invisible!”
On a (somewhat) more serious note however, this was incredible work. One of your most poetic works, on par with The Last Stand. Despite seeing the twist coming, I still thought it was incredibly, emotionally powerful when viewed through the lens of the older gentleman. Still, the reveal involving Steven was very insightful and clever. Loved it
November 21, 2011 at 5:29 am
looks like its a void instead of $.
November 20, 2011 at 11:44 pm
A subtle but intriguing dichotomy. I liked it. Though no number of gin and tonics would inspire me to pity the rich.
November 26, 2011 at 1:35 am
It is not G&T but proximity that teaches pity.
I have dealt with the rich often enough, I pity them.
November 21, 2011 at 7:47 am
With a twist!
You’re so classy, I’m a little jealous.
Keep making good works.
November 21, 2011 at 8:19 am
Excellent. Just Absurdly excellent…
November 21, 2011 at 11:02 am
Gah! A well-placed mindfuck gets me every time. Just brilliant.
November 21, 2011 at 12:31 pm
This peace only deserves my unqualified critical acclaim. You made my day.
November 22, 2011 at 9:34 am
I don’t wanna put you on the spot or anything, so don’t feel obligated to reply, but i’d be interested to know what you, as a libertarian, took away from this one. Just curious, is all.
December 9, 2011 at 10:08 pm
Hey, WR, sorry I took so long to reply, but for weeks I was literally restricted to the Internet in the workplace (at the middle of nowhere in the Chocó wilderness, I’m an ecologist) and your site, needless to say, is off limits there. Sigh…
Anyway, I really don’t see that my ideology has to have any influence over my perception of this comic in particular. As I see it, it’s about alienation, sadness, unhappiness. And I think it doesn’t really matter if you are a libertarian lunatic, a communist nutjob, a conservative nutcase or whatever: we can all agree our decisions can brought happiness or the exact opposite of happiness. So it’s up to each individual to administer his or her freedom to achieve happiness.
Most people think money brings fulfillment, and that’s wrong for most of them (and certainly for me). As a libertarian, you just let them make their own decisions. If some guy thinks he must have a luxurious office to be happy, that’s up to him. I think he will probably be proved wrong, but I won’t stay in his way. He is free.
November 21, 2011 at 1:29 pm
Really, really, really, good.
November 21, 2011 at 6:53 pm
“The beauty of choice is that the person who foregoes love for money is as free to do so as the person who foregoes money for love.”
Success is what you desire. It is hubris to call another human being’s dreams a tragedy.
November 22, 2011 at 5:35 am
I love it. Completely and utterly. I have nothing more useful to say than that.
Except perhaps that those above saying that they could never feel sorry for “the rich” are perhaps not thinking in terms of “the rich” being a group made up of individual people, some of whom do indeed have, you know, problems.
Not that that is overly relevant here. Only my love is relevant here. And it is not directed toward Stevens.
November 22, 2011 at 8:14 am
I do feel sorry for people with problems. If one has a serious illness, for instance, or they are grieving for the loss of a loved one, they have my sympathy for it, regardless of whether they are rich.
But I would never, ever feel sorry for a free adult *because* they are rich. If it’s their fortune and power that isolates them from others, then they are completely free to give it up. For that, they get no sympathy from me.
December 4, 2011 at 7:43 am
Wouldn’t there be some issues involved with giving up their wealth/power? Not only would they get some stigma attached to them, but they’d probably lose a lot of the few connections they have, apparently. Even living as a middle-class citizen, they’d have a bit of trouble forging new relationships if they’re remembered as some loon who gave up their empire. By dropping their power, they’re launching themselves into the unknown. Sure, it might be lonely being powerful, but it might also feel safer?
((hehe, sorry if this sounds dumb, I’m below the legal working age and have solidly middle-class parents. so, pretty much my peak financial years ;3))
November 22, 2011 at 6:09 am
Definitely one of your best, WR. Great job 🙂
November 22, 2011 at 9:35 am
Cheers my friend. (ps: keep an eye on your mailbox. In real life, that is)
February 14, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Winston is the unabomber?
November 22, 2011 at 7:16 am
you magnificent son of a bitch
November 22, 2011 at 8:25 am
Gooeeey, your usage of the english tongue is beauuuutifull. Can’t say the same of myself, though.
November 22, 2011 at 10:16 am
First: wow for the panoramic umbrella parade view! Cool!
Panel two: Double wow! This could be Lois Lane (to the right) in pole position to get the scoop of her life: Superman, unwrapped and stripped. Dunno. Maybe she’s just out to breakfast/lunch/dinner*. I do remember her from the 50ths as a bit thinner though.
Most panels: Disguised Litter Guy is trickier. Either he’s got money for cab rides and stiff starch shirts and whatever, OR he’ll just rob the cab driver. My two cents on rob.
* Sorry D.R. , don’t sue me pls.
ben
November 22, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Wow, dude. That was some powerful stuff. Not what I expected from your latest strip (don’t get me wrong; equally good, just for different reasons). Strips like these (and the others, of course) are why you’re by far my favorite webcomic writer. Good on you, sir.
November 22, 2011 at 11:59 pm
Brilliantly done!
November 23, 2011 at 3:20 am
That one really touched me. I can truly relate with it.
November 23, 2011 at 11:21 am
Masterful. I love that at the end Stevens is the well-known Ebenezer Scrooge
November 23, 2011 at 3:32 pm
wow, just wow
great work here…
thanks
November 23, 2011 at 8:45 pm
The shopping bag (last panel) is a nice touch. Well done, sir!
But you should find a way to get the mini-clank back to Agatha. They’re dangerous when lonely.
Regards,
Ric
November 23, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Yes, yes…excellent beyond words, outstanding beyond mortal comprehension. And so on and so forth.
Next time the gin and tonic speaks, send it back to Sociology 1A, where it can (and does) live forever in the insightful souls of 18-year-old college newbies.
November 24, 2011 at 11:56 am
Say what?
November 24, 2011 at 12:24 pm
I believe he’s calling you a naive idealistic twit
November 24, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Oh, okay. Good times.
August 17, 2015 at 9:46 am
I think he’s better off sending it to Anthropology 3C.
November 24, 2011 at 9:01 am
This is stupid and utterly unbelievable.
November 24, 2011 at 11:50 am
This isn’t twitter, you can use more than 140 characters.
December 4, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Back in the 80’s, my brother nearly lost his job as assistant bank manager at Seafirst bank when he tried to ask a filthy old woman to leave her shopping carts outside. She made a scene declaring she would close all her accounts. Accounts in the millions. Another employee filled him in and she was calmed down.
She was both homeless and wealthy. And possibly batshit crazy. The scene in this comic is completely plausible to me, since the “homeless guy” is obviously making his own choices.
November 24, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Threw me off on this one, i loved the switch at the end. nice one.
November 24, 2011 at 5:06 pm
A most lovely reveal, confounding expectation like that; still swayed to the TentacledBeast’s view that it’s difficult to sympathise with the plight of those who make life difficult for others though. Much as it’s important to see the sides in a decahedronic issue, I find it hard to twinge at poor-little-millionairre-manboy in the window looking at his reflection and counting his friend.
November 24, 2011 at 11:58 pm
i love you.
November 25, 2011 at 9:55 am
Hey, this is probably an annoyingly repetitive question, but around a year or maybe even 18 months ago, this site seemed to have disappeared and I was genuinely gutted.
I for a long while there, I’d given up hope of it ever returning, but I just had a look on a whim just now.
It’s back!! And there be’s loads of lovely content for me to catch up on. YAYSS!!!!!111!!111one!!
Anyway, what happened? Did the site go down because of bandwidth demands or some such? Did you need a proper break from this stuff, because that would be totally understandable. This comic is amazing and it’s equally amazing how frequently you update!! How do you do it!?
Please keep doin’ it. LOVES!!
November 25, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Ummm… it’s been here all the time; are you sure you’re haven’t been behind the Great Chinese Firewall or something?
np: Mogwai – Does This Always Happen? (Earth Division EP)
November 26, 2011 at 12:39 am
I think there was definitely a day or two in the fall of last year when the site was down due to some server issues over at my web host, so that might be what you’re remembering. Glad you checked back though!
November 26, 2011 at 12:29 am
The sincerity and thought filled within your works gives me great satisfaction. Thank you for giving the world something cool.
November 26, 2011 at 6:28 pm
This is great thanks mate.
November 26, 2011 at 7:23 pm
But I, I work in his factory……..
November 27, 2011 at 3:19 am
Hello,
I just read the invisible man, I just have to say it blew me away. Im an aspiring writer myself, i have tons of great ideas i would like to write graphic novels but im no artist, would you be at all interested in maybe discussing a few things with me? sorry for the brief message the a’s and s’s dont work on my keyboard, but we have much to talk about your art would couple perfect with my story. I look forward to hearing from you my E-Mail is brk7@live.com thank you
Jeffrey
November 27, 2011 at 3:03 pm
This sort of reminds me of the time I created two sims, who lived alone, had no friends, no jobs, surviving only by making garden gnomes, gargoyles and paintings they would sale. So, they were in the game, but out of it at the same time.
I want to be out of the game. I hate The Game…
November 27, 2011 at 8:02 pm
and now you just lost The Game
November 27, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Thank you for reminding me that we’re all human, regardless of where we are in the scheme. I forget that sometimes. Like it’s noted above, it’s difficult to sympathize with the ones at the top who make the rules for those who aren’t – or vice versa – but there our task lies just the same.
November 28, 2011 at 6:42 am
I take it that the audible similarity between “the enviable man” and ” the invi ible man” was considered when creating this, it just seems like the kind of thing that you’d throw in there.
Also; nice, very nice.
November 28, 2011 at 11:59 am
Must say, great job once again.
This actually mirrors an argument I had with some friends in university (I’m in public affairs), where I ended up having to side with the rich against my friends supporting the Occupy Wallstreet protesters. My main point was that you couldn’t treat the 1% as uniformly the bad guys, nor could you treat the 99% as uniformly the good guys. I won’t recount all the arguments I used, but it was a long drawn out process to convince them I wasn’t some sort of staunch objectivist preaching for the elimination of the working class.
Also, to anyone who doesn’t believe that excess money/power can be detrimental, there’s a whole subset of behavioral economics dedicated to trying to figure out why, beyond a certain threshold that allows for comfortable living, money doesn’t correlate with life satisfaction or happiness.
November 29, 2011 at 7:56 am
If it doesn’t correlate, it means that it is neither detrimental nor beneficial.
November 29, 2011 at 1:46 am
Once again you’ve outdone yourself Winston. Even the subdued style of the background is fitting. Grey – Almost no witty jokes and funny advertisments.
And the timing is perfect – I’m currently reading The Psychopath Test – a book that has a whole section on a theory that most high-ranking CEO’s are psychopaths. http://www.amazon.com/Psychopath-Test-Journey-Through-Industry/dp/1594488010
November 29, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Now I don’t normally frequent the comments section, so I couldn’t know if this has been mentioned; but there is a TED talk detailing some stuff about comicsspecifically the presentation. It was quite amazing, and made me thing about Good Ol’ Winston Rowntree. If I’m not the last person to see this, here’s a link to it: http://www.ted.com/talks/scott_mccloud_on_comics.html
December 2, 2011 at 2:08 am
I’m not even sure how you just managed to evoke sympathy from me for two divergent economic groups. A subtle reminder that it is the system as a whole with which the issue lies, not the people. Awesome, sir, just awesome.
December 3, 2011 at 2:12 am
Dammit, Rowntree – again you’ve won my heart. At first I didn’t get the twist at the end and thought it was all about the bearded man (which makes for a much lamer comic – a trite “be nice to the homeless” message), and thought this comic might have been a rare dud in your repertoire, but a quick visit to the comments section straightened me out, and DAMN.
The best line, I think, is “None would ever choose such a path, knowing where it led.” It’s easy to hate, envy, and scorn the rich because it appears that they have everything, and yes, they DO make a lot the rule$ which we often find ourselves having to play by, and a lot of those rule$ are fucked up. It’s true that materially they may have everything, but almost none of them have any of the things that make life truly worth living. Spiritually and emotionally, they are dead. If you could have all the money in the world but have to give up your ability to relate to, care about, trust, and engage with people on that deep, meaningful level that satisfies your soul – would you? I wouldn’t. That may be a very comfortable form of survival, but it ain’t living. Regardless of how rich, powerful, or influential The Rich are, they are not gods; they are still human – and whether they realize it or not, they are not invincible, they have the same needs as everyone else, and they will die someday like the rest of us. But most of them will die without ever knowing true fulfillment. They make the rule$ hard on the rest of us because they are unable to relate to and care about humanity.
Pity your enemies, because they are flawed and weak, hence, human.
Excellent work, man. You help keep the flames of my idealism and joie de vivre alive. Don’t ever stop.
December 3, 2011 at 2:25 am
sedet, aeternumque sedebit
seat, be seated forever
Virgi’s verse, means when you stop trying, then you loose
December 11, 2011 at 1:40 am
While the method of the reveal is handled subtly enough to be classy, the whole thing is pretty agonizingly predictable for one simple reason: Whenever you go walking miles and miles out of your way to avoid talking in specifics, EVERYONE can tell you’re trying to fake them out without lying to them outright. It kind of hurts the flow when you’re sitting there calmly counting down to the ‘big twist’.
Forgive me if that sounds harsh. This is honestly meant to be constructive criticism. I’m just not the best in the world at it.
January 10, 2012 at 1:52 am
Love your comics & art! Thanks for posting I guess is all I wanted to say. 🙂
February 14, 2012 at 10:46 pm
I feel so lonely…
April 6, 2012 at 11:19 pm
This was a very clever illustration of the meaninglessness of wealth and influence. Kudos!
July 12, 2012 at 12:27 am
i wish to join steven… drop from the game and start anew…
July 31, 2012 at 3:37 pm
I was looking back at this and only just now realized that it doesn’t say “Invisible Man” but “Invi ible Man”. I’m guessing that it’s supposed to be read as “Enviable Man”. If I’d caught that I might have been less surprised by the ending but my brain sped right past it.
September 2, 2013 at 6:25 pm
That ending….. Incredible
December 3, 2014 at 11:20 pm
ok, so am I the only one that looks at the rich dude in the window and thinks “dude, that’s totally a mannequin” seriously am I the only one?