[ID: a 7-page comic about Jon and Martin from The Magnus Archives, set to the lyrics of Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart by Mitski. Jon is depicted as a brown man with long, dark hair, a tired face, and circular scars flecking his skin. Martin is depicted as a white man with big, round glasses, short hair, and a sweet face. They both wear a lot of jumpers. Smoke is a recurring visual theme, and the pages are slightly animated to show its flowing movement. Full description under the cut due to length concerns.
Page 1: The first panel is a portrait of Martin, with his head turned slightly away and head partially obscured by smoke from Jon’s cigarette further down the page. The text reads, in all caps, “There’s nobody better than you”. The next two panels show, on the right, Jon from the knees up looking tired and holding a cigarette. He says, “it took me a while till I knew. but you knew from the start it was us didn’t you?” On the left, Jon and Martin are standing close together in the archives, with Jon looking down at a paper in his hand and Martin looking into his face and reaching to touch his arm. The bottom of the page reads, “it just took me a while till I knew.”
Page 2: The first panel is Jon, laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. The next panel, to the right, is more smoke and a simple “Call” icon, like from a cell phone. The text reads, “Now here I lay as a study a blank wall. Would you spare me your voice if I call?” The third panel shows Jon and Martin’s hands as Martin hands him a steaming mug of tea. The text reads, “Cause you waited and watered my heart till it grew. You just grew a little smarter too.”
Page 3: Smoke nearly bisects the entire page diagonally. The first panel shows the original 3 archival assistants – Martin, Sasha, and Tim, in inaudible conversation. Martin, who is facing us, looks faintly troubled. The text reads, “so I don’t blame you if you want to / bury me in your memory / I’m not the girl I ought to be.” At the bottom, it says, “but maybe when you tell your friends you” and then cuts off. On the next panel, on the other side, we see a slightly younger Jon with shorter hair. He is looking down at his wringing hands, which are raised slightly in front of his chest. The text continues, “can tell them what you saw in me”. The final panel shows him, mirrored amidst the smoke, with much longer hair and surrounded by eyes in darkness. The text finishes, “and now how I turned out to be.”
Page 4: This page shows him at his desk, smoking. The first shot is zoomed in on his face, eyes closed as he takes a drag, then he turns away from the viewer and leans heavily on his elbows, which rest on his desk. In the empty space not inhabited by panels, we see a lighter with a web pattern on it. The text reads, “there’s some kind of burning inside me / it’s kept me from falling apart / and I’m sure that you’ve seen / what it’s done to my heart / but it’s kept me from falling apart.”
Page 5: The page is mostly occupied by a shot of Jon and Martin standing together in the Archives. Jon reaches out to clasp Martin’s shoulders. There are tears on both their faces, and they look lost. There is a closeup of Jon’s right eye, pinched with sadness and with tears flowing from it. The text reads, “Now here I lay as I wonder about you / would you just tell me what I’m meant to do? / cause I waited and watered my heart till it grew / you can see how it’s blossomed for you.”
Page 6: Martin looks down as Jon raises a hand to hold his cheek in the first panel. The next is of their faces drawing closer, nearly obscured by smoke. In the third, Martin turns away slightly, but we see now that his hands are on Jon’s shoulders, now. The text reads, “and I don’t mean to make your heart blue / but could we be what we’re meant to be / I’m just about to beg you please / then when you tell your friends you can tell them what you saw in me and not the way I used to be”
Page 7: The two of them, shown from the knees up, the smoke flowing around them but no longer obscuring their faces. Jon has one hand on the small of Martin’s back and one on his cheek as he leans in again, eyes closed. Martin holds his shoulders and is no longer turned away. End ID]
Somehow just realizing now the way mag 179 establishes that people who Jon cares about are the (potentially only) ones who can hurt him post-apocalypse and how, uh… significant that fact becomes in mag 200.
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