Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for January 19, 2014
Transcript:
Homer the Reluctant Soul continues... Bert: So you were beaten and robbed... Homer: Just beaten. I didn't have anything to steal...or so I thought. It was pitch black when I awoke. I had no idea where I was or what happened to me. Then a bright, blinding light pierced the darkness. My instincts told me to go to the light. I struggled to focus as my eyes painfully adjusted, barely able to see something in the light... Something... ...Beautiful. She didn't say a word or make eye contact... ...As she handed me a bowl of food. I thanked her, then asked for her name. She said... Woman: The same as yours now... ...Slave.
Ida No over 10 years ago
Never a good way to start a new morning. But, the MBA books all recommend taking an aggressive lead and demanding upfront at least 3 weeks paid vacation and an early dismissal bonus clause in the contract.
Durandal_1707 over 10 years ago
This is a lot darker than this strip usually gets…
Can't Sleep over 10 years ago
Darker and bleaker, and very well done.
Can't Sleep over 10 years ago
Really, NG?After something as well done as today’s strip, you spit up a weak “economic enslavement” line. Pathetic.
Superfrog over 10 years ago
Nice art.
Scorpio Premium Member over 10 years ago
Well that took a decidedly serious turn….. Artwork is good
thirdguy over 10 years ago
Great strip Wiley!
puddlesplatt over 10 years ago
Erk!
Lyons Group, Inc. over 10 years ago
It is, Ypoons7666, it is.
gorbag over 10 years ago
The real economic enslavement is just to be upper middle class and having to pay the tab for everyone else’s party, rich, poor, or the self-proclaimed aristocracy that manages to get themselves elected.
zellman over 10 years ago
I could see how that would be confusing, but no. Slave comes from a Latin root, “Sclavus” while Slav comes from an old eastern European root word “Slovene.”
sbchamp over 10 years ago
Wakes up in cube…
Lawrence Stetz Premium Member over 10 years ago
This is not funny. Also I think that this is a repeat.
greenearthman over 10 years ago
Wow, Wiley, didn’t see that coming.
dabugger over 10 years ago
nothing….
greenearthman over 10 years ago
So they say, eh? No offense meant, but a slave is a slave is a slave.
gamer2k4 over 10 years ago
Did the art just suddenly get a lot better for the flashbacks, or did I miss it before?
Radical-Knight over 10 years ago
Methinks this is going to take awhile…
susan.e.a.c over 10 years ago
I doubt people ever got assaulted and turned into slaves in Rome, that’s a modern concept.
wrwallaceii over 10 years ago
These days we get to choose who our masters are… it’s called election.
bobdingus over 10 years ago
….and up till a mere 150 years ago, this was perfectly legal in the “freedom loving” United States, the last civilized country to condone it.
watmiwori over 10 years ago
In the case of an ‘ordinary’ war of conquest prisoners of warmight be sold into slavery. Putting down a revolt could involve the men being slaughtered and the women and child-ren being sold as slaves. […if memory serves, I could bewrong.]
I have never understood the Black Muslim movement. TheArabs [Muslims] were as heavily involved in the slave trade atthe African end as were the Europeans in the Africa to theAmericas to Europe and back to Africa journeys by theslavers, and the merchantmen with their cotton, tobacco andsuger.
Then there’s the extremely ironic line in ‘Rule, Britannia:’“Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.”
route66paul over 10 years ago
As with all people, there are good and bad people. Slavery was a way of life back then. I am sure that there were those that sadly mistreated their slaves and slave owners that treated them better. To say that “Jews had slaves, but they were well treated” , is just stupid.There were slaves here in the US, most were treated well(well, considering the times), that doesn’t make it right.
cleokaya over 10 years ago
I am really enjoying this continuing story.
Caddy57 over 10 years ago
So homer is now a slave, noticing the girl’s lack of adornment and bleak gray clothing,she might also be a slave…..interesting turn.
dogday Premium Member over 10 years ago
This arc is a VERY interesting positioning of events, going from the simple shepherding to the extreme drama of Vesuvius’ blow and now to our shepherd being shanghaied into slavery, and of course all of it being a flashback. And presumably to be reunited with his dog at some point (before the Pearly Gates, I hope). And the differing art styles are very intriguing. I’m loving this!
Not the Smartest Man On the Planet -- Maybe Close Premium Member over 10 years ago
The clown always wants to play Hamlet…but this dog won’t hunt.
reynard61 over 10 years ago
Welcome to the “free” market, Homer — only you’re the merchandise…
(From what I’ve read, the Roman mercantile system was about as Libertarian as it gets — no regulations, no taxes if you knew the right people, and any contracts made generally tended to favor the seller. Is it any wonder that “Let the buyer beware” [“Caveat emptor”] is of Roman origin?)
Argy.Bargy2 over 10 years ago
-The USA pioneered using just blacks as slaves-I’m sorry, Night-Gaunt49, but African tribes themselves enslaved other Africans long before the Atlantic slave trade (with Amerca) began. Much was similar to endentured servantry, where the slaves were given certain rights, but chattel slavery (where people were treated as property) also existed. Once the international Atlantic slave trade came along, slavery increased in Africa, but it existed before the US slave trade, and still exists today.
Argy.Bargy2 over 10 years ago
-Most folks don’t know enough about their ancestry to know that they descended from slaves, so you can’t make any kind of uniform statement about how ‘most folks got over it.’-Slavery is unacceptable. Period.
Argy.Bargy2 over 10 years ago
The art is beautiful and the topic is horrible. Guess I’ll sit this one out…
VEJETE over 10 years ago
You really have to be negro to understand it…
Caddy57 over 10 years ago
As I recall she was calling him “Slave”…..after all he is chained, she is not.
Meh~tdology, fka Pepelaputr over 10 years ago
Context:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_ancient_Rome
markjoseph125 over 10 years ago
I’ve heard, a couple of times, people arguing for bringing back slavery (which they call indentured servitude) as a way of helping get people back on their feet. In each case, it’s been a christian who suggested it, and in each case, as above, buttressed their argument with the supposedly less-harsh biblically ordained slavery.
As Night-Gaunt49 pointed out, none of the abrahamic religions condemned slavery in their holy books, nor for many centuries; it took a lot of hard work by unbelievers to turn the tide (see Susan Jacoby’s book Freethinkers for the historical details).
Or, as Sam Harris put it: “Nothing in Christian theology remedies the appalling deficiencies of the Bible on what is perhaps the greatest—and easiest—moral question our society has ever had to face.” (Letter to a Christian Nation, p. 18)
jamner over 10 years ago
i’m enjoying this tale! you write some great adventures!