The punchline of this strip is cute, but what really catches my eye is the boy’s anguished expression in panel one as he considers what, if anything, can be done with the blank sheet of paper in front of him.
In fact, I like the image so much that I was inspired to crop out the dialogue and create a streamlined version. Whenever I have writer’s block, I tend to bite my fingernails or read Google News. These aren’t helpful habits, but at least I don’t pull my hair out and scream to the heavens in existential horror at the prospect of filling a blank sheet of paper with original thoughts. And now, whenever I’m tempted to leave my desk chair for the comfortable distractions of “doing anything but writing,” I can turn to this picture for a little perspective.
