Hello again! This is part 2 of the “Feel Something” series, where I share a thing that someone else created which made a long-lasting impression on me—something that will take you to worthwhile, meaningful, albeit sometimes dark and painful places. But after that, I’ll give you some instant gratification to help you feel better. Click here for a more formal, thorough introduction on this series.
Brace yourselves.
“Sick” by Gabby’s Playhouse
I found “Sick” on fatpita a couple of years ago, and I *loved* it. It stuck with me, but I forgot the title for a long time. After spending hours searching for random things like, “dude gets sick and contemplates suicide comic,” I finally found it.
According to the author, apparently a direct link to the comic-image was shared, and it went somewhat viral. Unfortunately, this meant that the site became overloaded with traffic, so the author was getting charged more for bandwidth, but no one was visiting the actual website (including me). He didn’t get credit or page views or anything, and it was costing him extra money, so he ended up taking it down, and only re-uploading parts 1 through 6 (there were like ~4 or 5 more parts to it, originally).
This means that you’ll only be able to read a portion of the comic. But, what is there is really good, so I recommend it anyway.
Basically, it’s about a guy who gets really, really sick, but doesn’t have health insurance. As he lies there alone in bed, suffering, he considers his choices: find some way to get to the hospital and end up with a huge hospital bill he can’t afford, or just wait it out and possibly die. The horrible-ness of these two options leads him to thoughts which spiral into a dark epiphany about the pointlessness of life.
My favorite part was the very end—the “real” end. I don’t remember it exactly, but after thinking to himself that he should just end it all right now because everything is pointless, he says something like, “but it’s not that simple, is it?” So when you’re reading it and you get to the end of page 6, keep in mind that he gets to a place where he goes on with his life in spite of everything.
It’s so freaking good. You’ve got to read it.
P.S. Apparently the author is currently working on a print version of “Sick.” YAY. You’ll get to read the whole thing one day.
^.^