I really didn't feel like making a toon on such a painfully relevant topic. But ignoring it would've been dumb too. So here's a compromise — a toon not about the illness, but about the state of isolation. Mood-lifting. I hope.

There are people who are dimwits, and there are people who are, well, decent. The decent ones are far fewer in number. By definition. And because of that, the decent ones have a rough time in a world of dimwits. So being a dimwit is a conscious choice for many. It's easier to be a dimwit. And we can't blame them for that. But we can have a laugh.. The toon features a song by the band "Vnezapny Sich"."

The description you have to write here is always the hardest part. Every script is born from hundreds of piles of mental garbage and candelabras. And summing it up in a few words is almost always impossible. Well, the toon is about... u-u-u-m.. about the balance between human wants and circumstances. Something like that. But mostly, as usual — just a laugh..

A fairy tale's a lie, but holds a lesson true, young lads get the ice rink too... It seems to me the toon follows the general rising tide of idiocy in the world. Where we're headed isn't clear, but the distortion of reality in a destructive direction is very noticeable. Feels like we'll soon be waking up to a new world every day. But is it really that new?

This episode is about Lohmatiy. The plot is simple — two guys drink beer. That's it. The rest is just life. A long-promised episode. Because Lohmatiy has somehow become a cult figure among those who follow me. But a lot about him was unclear and raised questions. This episode clears up many things about this remarkable individual. Politics in the episode — absolute zero, if you can put it that way, so trolls — you're on vacation. Everyone's better off without you. The rest — enjoy it to the extent you're capable of. Although the episode wasn't planned to be funny, it was planned to be experimental. Though it still turned out to be a Masanya toon. Nothing you can do about that. And that's just fine... No woman — no cry!!!!

The toon was made both topical and timeless at once. I just couldn't decide whether to make it current or not at all. And then I thought, why not both. No sooner said than done. So here I am calmly sitting on two chairs and my mug won't crack. Except maybe from laughing. It's all the Lithuanians' fault! And Tesla with Musk! ;))

Extraordinary events, accompanied by unusual reactions and consequences, ultimately resulting in an even greater paradox than there was, like, before... :)

Don't judge the "slightly unhinged" plot too harshly. This is "Surreal", not "what the heck was that". Watch the movement of the hands! It's been almost a year with the virus, a year since I've been to St. Petersburg, it's madness. And nowhere else either. The gears are already catching on the sprockets. The cuckoo's already sliding off from all this staying-at-home. So don't be surprised if this drags on for another couple of years — the toons will go completely abstract... ;))

The toon is published on the 31st of December. 2020. Well, it's been quite a... not-so-great year… So the content of the toon is accordingly. Not in the sense of "not-so-great", but in the sense of mean-and-sarcastic, because what else could it be in a year like this?

Psychology sometimes plays unpleasant tricks on us. The situation is probably familiar to many. But if this has never happened to you and you're all proper and self-assured — move along. Normal people hang out here.

This is like a dystopia. In some respects. Obviously having nothing to do with reality. The world is shrinking and getting cramped. In tight spaces — there's always resentment. And there's always someone aiming at your temple. Sometimes it's you yourself.

What are toxic people? Toxic comments and posts.. It was the trolls who invented them, and having let the genie out of the bottle, the social toxin spread far and wide across the internet... And why is that?

What will remain from this time of ours — it's not books, not films and not photography. Not texts and not documents. But only tiny tiktok-ed clip-fragments shot by random people. Fragments of languages, situations, cultures and events. Some little vids like shards of vessels can be pieced together into a single picture, into a complete story. The toon is composed of sequential uploads from Masanya's phone. You could call it a kind of "mockumentary". Such an unusual way of presenting info is what got into my head to use this time. You don't have to love it, but you're welcome to fancy it.

I've somehow taken a liking to making dystopias. Sorry. It's just that it implies a completely free flight of fantasy, which can't help but be pleasing to any artist. The slightly trashy editing here is intentional. Because the plot is trashy too. It's all because I somehow started losing the thread of logic in what's going on around us. Well, we'll just have to master the chaos, what else can you do... :)

Hooray everyone! The ban as an act of exile from modern digital life has become a real problem. The failure to comply with certain unwritten murky, most often idiotic rules, when some unknown dimwit clothed in power starts harassing and tormenting, when every minor and major bigwig tries to dictate how people should think and what to say, is leading us somewhere in the wrong direction, imho. A talky-talky episode, conceived as a continuation of the fan-favorite episode "Gentlemen".

So it is on exactly October 22nd, the day this toon comes out, that the "Masanya" series turns exactly 20 years old. A long road. But the most fun one... All thanks to you!

Masanya says Khryundel is lying. Khryundel says Lohmatiy is lying. Lohmatiy says both Khryundel and Masanya are lying. Given that all three either always tell the truth or always lie — who among them is telling the truth? Is there any truth at all?

We live in very strange times when absurdity is no longer the domain of fringe comedians, but headlong barrels into real life.. And because of that strange things sometimes happen to us. The main thing — is to have someone or something that would remind you from time to time that all of this is vanity of vanities and nonsense.