Time & Again - Chapter 5: Pizza / Lachen

It's a little past afternoon in a not very rich rural area in a small American town. It's sunny and bright: perfect weather conditions for a soothing walk and a tiny sunbath to enjoy while you still can. But Lenny Carpenter, a young stylish man in his twenties, is spending this day at home, in his neat yet compact, if not somewhat lovingly crammed, apartment on the third floor, fencing himself off from the world outside. He ordered his favourite pizza again, and now he is simply having a good time chatting to his online penpals - undoubtedly, very culturally and ethically intelligent and well-educated fellows - on his laptop.
It seems the urban heat has encaptivated the young man a bit, for he feels a little sleepy and oddly dizzy, which has never happened to him before. Or maybe the recipe for his favourite pizza has been altered - as always, without the manufacturer's notice, and he's having an allergic reaction? Well, that's usually not fun for anyone.
Perhaps, our hero is merely weather sensitive?..
Regardless, it seems he's enjoying himself plenty, not bothering his mind with heavy and difficult-to-grasp philosophical thoughts of the oddities of Life and Death - or practically any thoughts at all. Because why would he, really?
Little does Lenny know that something strikingly out of ordinary is going to happen to him within an hour or two on this happy and sunny day...

(Content warnings: extensive use of tobacco, blood, fairly graphic violence, foul language, sexual references, cynicism and mockery)

This is the extra high-quality official PDF of the chapter (uncompressed to provide you superior picture quality!). Through buying it, you support my work, and it makes me truly happy in life!🌹 I deeply appreciate this, for it makes me keep going, improve my skill set, and create new visual stories for everybody to enjoy! Once again, thank you very much! 🤗
You can also read the chapter for free on GlobalComix HERE. PDFs are also available for purchase on GlobalComix.

“Time & Again” is my first graphic novel. And it’s a graphic novel with a twist. I consider it experimental, and by that I don’t mean just the oddities of narration, but also fluctuations of the style I allow in it: each chapter is different – to greater or smaller extent - in the visuals, emotions, and the message. Note you don’t have to read the chapters in order! Each chapter is written in such a way that it represents a complete bite-size story with its own style and even a dominating genre definition. The story is episodic, yet continuous. Feel free to choose one (or two, or three) you like best! However, there is indeed a story progression, and you will probably get extra satisfaction from reading the entire thing, looking for clues and interconnections between various chapters and single utterances of the characters across those chapters. It also has a fair handful of videogame references – sometimes ciphered - as well as other types of cultural references. Just remember: inquisitiveness ahead. And do not let my art style deceive you (because it sure might): despite the colourful cartoony artworks, it focuses on a variety of serious and important questions that most of us humans face during their lifetime: loss of the beloved ones, self-doubt and sense of guilt, mental disorders and depression, what it means to be a human being, and the worth of a person in the world – those are among the questions it explores. Psychology, action, horror, romance, comedy, supernatural, and surreal are all mixed together in it. Reader’s discretion is highly advised.

I’ve been working on it since the end of 2020. It sparked from just one random experimental chapter, and during all these years this project of mine has grown and evolved into quite a voluminous and very serious undertaking. It’s not going be an exaggeration to say that I live and breathe “Time & Again”; it makes me feel accomplished as an artist as well as fascinated with how my art capabilities developed over the last decade or even two. To me, this story is an art manifest, a self-challenge, a thoughtful message that I want to deliver to the readers through the graphic novel medium.

This is an ongoing project for me for the next few years, which I quite resolutely plan to bring to an end – because it bears extreme importance to me as a creator, and I plan to release the next chapters here as soon as they are ready. For easy search, I created 2 special tags for this grand project to use by you and me in social networks: #TimeAndAgainbyDWF and #LotharAndJeanny. You can also track down the progress with it on my Facebook Art Page and other social accounts of course, so don’t hesitate to subscribe; your support is greatly appreciated!