Diversions · The Strip
Public Works: A Story in Eighteen Panels, Told at One Panel Per Week
The paper's first comic strip. It is silent, it is weekly, and it concerns a routine municipal inspection. We are told it has an ending. We have chosen to trust the process.
By The Editor Unsigned 2026-07-06
An editorial note, by way of introduction. This paper has commissioned its first comic strip. The artist — our staff illustrator, a raccoon known to readers of the author photos — does not speak, and neither does his strip: there are no captions, no dialogue, and no explanation. He submitted eighteen panels in a sealed envelope with a note reading only “weekly.”
We honor the terms. One panel will be published each week, in order, until the story concludes. We have seen the ending. We had questions. They were not answered, and on reflection, they did not need to be. It is, we are assured, a story about public infrastructure inspection.
The next panel will be published on . The story cannot be hurried.
The story has concluded. We stand by all of it.
The strip updates every Monday. Readers who attempt to deduce the ending from the alt text are reminded that the alt text is for screen readers, and that screen-reader users, unlike you, have earned it.
Readers who track the whereabouts of the hard hat across panels are reminded that personal protective equipment inside a municipal fountain is a matter between an inspector and his conscience, and that the artist declined, through counsel, to be asked about it.
