This is a piece that took a lot of back and forth between Izak and I before we managed to find a way to execute it visually. The words and the broad concept didn’t change, but getting the art to follow the narrative was surprisingly tricky.

Occasionally I worry, when I write strips like this one, if I’m bending the IZS “no soapboxing” rule. But for me this strip (and others like When the Monsters Left and Last of Its Kind) isn’t so much a statement about the wrongs of the world and how we should right them. It’s more an observation about how we inevitably act when there’s nothing to stand in our way. Jesus once said, “The poor will always be with you” and it’s hard to find a piece of the Bible that rings with more enduring truth. After all, without the have-nots, who will the haves gaze down on from their shining towers? If no one is below you, have you really climbed so far?

↓ Transcript
A beautiful, futuristic skyscraper rises above the cloud layer into the brilliant blue.
Caption: The next time we tried to build a tower to Heaven

The base of the skyscraper. Smog pollutes the air and slums stretch out around the tower for as far as the eye can see.
Caption: there was no one to stop us.