100. CARL SAGAN: Pale blue dot
The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth (click here to see it) taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft at a distance of 3.7 billion miles away. The spacecraft had completed its primary mission and was passing Saturn, hurtling through space at 40,000 mph. Carl Sagan requested that the spacecraft turn around and take a photo of Earth, not for any scientific purpose, but as a sobering reminder of our planet’s insignificance. The resulting image inspired Sagan to write this now famous and breathtaking passage.
Here’s a clip of Sagan reciting the quote.
I couldn’t think of a better quote to celebrate Zen Pencils 100th comic. I’ve been wanting to adapt it since I started the website, but I knew I needed a decent amount of time to do it justice. Luckily, my recent two week break over the holidays allowed me the time to get a start on it. And I couldn’t think of a better person to feature. Carl Sagan is someone I admire greatly. More than any other writer, Sagan opened my eyes to the wonders of the universe, the beauty of science and the incredible achievements of humanity.
This is a double celebration because besides being the 100th comic, it’s also (kind of) Zen Pencils one-year anniversary! Is it just me, or does it feel like it’s been longer than that? Anyway, here’s to the next 100 comics!
- My previous Sagan comics: Make The Most Of This Life and Books Are Awesome.
- Amazingly, Voyager 1 is still working and sending information back to NASA, 35 years after it launched. It will soon become the first man-made object to leave the solar-system.
- A pretty cool animated version of the quote.
- Can you name all the historic figures I depicted? There was no criteria I used when choosing who to include, just that they had to be recognisable. I know there have been more important people throughout history, but not many people would recognise someone like Tim Berners-Lee.
ABOUT THIS SITE:
MOST POPULAR COMICS
- 50. NEIL GAIMAN: Make good art
- 100. CARL SAGAN: Pale blue dot
- 98. ALAN WATTS: What if money was no object?
- 90: IRA GLASS: Advice for beginners
- 116. CAITLIN MORAN: We’re all dying
- 52. PHIL PLAIT: Welcome to science
- 104. MALALA YOUSAFZAI: I have the right
- 94. The Two Wolves
- 92. CHRIS GUILLEBEAU: 11 ways to be average
- 108. SOPHIE SCHOLL: The fire within
- 42. NEIL deGRASSE TYSON: The most astounding fact
- 60. ROBERT FROST: The road not taken
- 97. CHARLES BUKOWSKI: Air and light and time and space
- 17. FRANK HERBERT: Litany against fear
- 89. STEPHEN FRY: Ultimate self-help book
Best of the rest
- 106. CHRIS HADFIELD: An astronaut's advice
- 12. CARL SAGAN: Make the most of this life
- 33. EDGAR MITCHELL: A global consciousness
- 36. BRUCE LEE: There are no limits
- 56. HENRY ROLLINS: Who's the crazier man?
- 65. MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: Our deepest fear
- 73. MARK TWAIN: An educational journey
- 8. THEODORE ROOSEVELT: The man in the arena
- 83. HOWARD THURMAN: Ask yourself
- 91. BILL HICKS: It's just a ride
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My, that’s a very big amount of faces you’ve got there in that fourth panel.
Lawrence of Arabia, Nelson Mandela, Muhammed Ali, Abraham Lincoln, Mozart, Darwin, Caesar, Beatles(?), Elvis, Napoleon, Jesus, Einstein, Chaplin, Bruce Lee, Steve Jobs, Van Gogh, Shakespeare, Bob Marley, Kennedy, Che Guevara, and all those others. There must be a good 50 faces in there.
Hehee you named quite a few
I spent more time trying to name those faces than I did on reading the rest of this great comic!
Naturally, the Beatles *had*to be in the montage!
That was brilliant! A very fitting capstone to 100 marvellous comics; bravo!
Beautiful!!
Congratulations for the 100th comic and the Zen Pencil’s anniversary! I agree with you, it feels like it’s more time. Maybe it’s for the quotes, they’re timeless.
Regards!
Happy birthday zen pencils. May the time be good to you like you have been to me.
This is my favourite Sagan quote. I’ve bought four of your posters, and am waiting for some more work to be able to afford to frame them… but I am taking out a second mortgage to buy this one. Maybe one of the extra large’s. Cheers, Gavin. Really well drawn. And I love your rendition of Carl as a kid!
Like you, I wished for Pale Blue Dot ever since you published your first comic.
Thank you.
A beautiful adaptation of one of my favorite quotes. Bravo!
Well done! Totally did it justice.
Very good, though the map of Polish-German border is wrongly drawn. During World War II, the border looked completely different from the modern one.
it’s not even up to date map. czechoslovakia does not exist any longer
It’s supposed to be 1939, when Czechoslovakia did exist but Poland’s borders were very different: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_changes_of_Poland_immediately_after_World_War_II
Actually Czechoslovakia had ceased to exist before Germany invaded Poland.
Good thing the idea of the piece wasn’t lost on you guys.
Happy Birthday Zen Pencils!! <3 Great choice for #100.
A very accurate and thoughtful way of getting across the obvious. If only we as a species could live by the thoughts of peace we generate and so desire.
Thank you very much, you are really inspire (http://baihu.tom.ru/2013/01/pale-blue-dot.html) every week.
Hey Gavin,
First: Great comic. I didn’t have a traumatic or overly terrible youth, but when life started to cave in around me I would often find a quiet spot outside at night and stare at the stars. It always helped me realize how small I am and, by comparison, how small my problems are.
Second: I knew that was Carl Sagan even in the first frame he appeared! It was the eyebrows…
Third: I love the dirty look Napoleon is giving to Chaplin!
Keep ‘em comin, Gav!
I have been visiting your web site for quite some time, but i have been more of a silent stalker, however, now I have to congratulate you on the great adaptation of my favorite quote.
Great quote indeed for the anniversary!
Here is a great video depicting this quote I found a while back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw
Now available in HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i2y4sEQpRI or missing the (very worthwhile) intro, but with less grating music and an amazing mega-zoom at the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PN5JJDh78I
Awesome !! Done true justice to Celebration of 100th comics with the most famous and fabulous quote by Carl Sagan, having the amazing ability of justifying philosophical thoughts.
Thanks Gav, for implementing this through your amazing comic art work..
That just brought me to the point of tears and I’m a big dude who doesn’t cry easily. I knew from the first couple of words what this quote was and who it was buy. Carl Sagan brought so much joy and happiness in my life. As a kid I would rush home from school so I could catch the latest episode of Cosmos. And I’ve read almost all of his books. Thanks for this. It was wonderful.
Neat comic.
Also neat that you posted a comic featuring the face of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the day dedicated to his memory in the United States. I know you’re not American, so I assume this is just a cool coincidence.
I always get goosebumps when I hear Sagan recite this quote.
Thank you for your work in getting all of these wonderful tidbits of humanity out there for more to see.
Also, I appreciated the Who reference of “Silence in the Library” – nice nod there
Carl Sagan quote…
Another gem though this would have been the perfect opportunity for my image to cameo in your collage of historical figures..haha
I love this quote, simply love it. I listen to it often and the comic is amazing. I think that this quote should be played in every school, for every one, and explained. It helps us understand our place in the universe, and to take away some of our ego.
I loved the comic, this was wonderful, I was just marginally disappointed we didn’t get a Martin Luther King, Jr comic, especially considering the date. But perhaps we’ll get one in the future.
This comic was amazing, and I can’t wait to see the comics you’ll post in the future. Keep up the good work.
i found your website just 2 or three months ago… and have been an avid reader since…
to give you a sense of your worldwide reach ,let me tell something nice in my mother tongue malayalam…
???? ?? ????? !!!!!!..:-)
oops!!guess your site doesn’t support malayalam ,
anyways good wishes….
I could write several pages right now.
Summing it up: Thank you for investing your life in this site.
You did Sagan and the 100th quote justice.
I think him as a kid really captures his character, always interested to learn and find things out, and being thankful and loving to those around. I feel that’s good take on life.
Great job Gav! I’d like to suggest that if you were to ever “tweak” this in the future, that the symbol for Secular Humanism be included in the collection of “religious” symbols. Carl Sagan was a self-identified Humanist and considered by many to be one the greatest thought-leaders of the Humanist movement. I think he would like that. Keep up the great work!
Very Excellent & Awesome!!!!!
its even better even to read it whilst listening to the youtube video!!!!
i think u should do a quote zen pencil about george orwell’s 1984….:)
What a fantastic choice for #100.
I don’t know if I’ve ever commented on one of your posts, but I had to share. This little monologue, the picture that goes with it, and Sagan’s presentation… they all come together to be one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen.
I wish, I truly wish, that more people could develop the appreciation for our circumstances that Sagan, other astronomers, and the various astronauts have demonstrated. Truly, the world would be a much better place.
Thank you again. You’re fantastic!
Just can say great quote for celebrate u first anniversary. All u comics are great, but this very special. Regards from Mexico.
Solo puedo decir que es una gran cita/frase para celebrar tu primer aniversario. Todos tus comics son grandiosos, pero este es muy especial. Saludos desde México.
Your illustration for this is absolutely brilliant. Brilliant.
Great quote, and congrats on 1 year/100 comics!
One critique though–the Milky Way is most likely a “barred spiral” galaxy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barred_spiral_galaxy
If you ever re-draw or touch up comics, you should consider changing the depiction of the Milky Way in 16th panel.
No, The library sequence shows Carl Sagan as a kid. We didn’t know the Milky Way was a barred spiral in those days; it’s a recent discovery. So the book is as it would have looked at the time.
Oh, good point
From left to right, top down:
Lawrence of Arabia, MLK Jr, Che Guevara, Nelson Mandela, Magellan or Columbus (maybe?), no idea, Genghis Khan or Attila the Hun, not sure, Beethoven, Abraham Lincoln, don’t know the little girl, Bob Marley, JFK, Muhammad Ali, Julius Caesar, Lady Diana, Shakespeare, Charles Darwin, The Lady, Elvis, The Beatles, Van Gogh, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain (?), Helen Keller, Michael Jackson, Joan of Arc, Steve Jobs, Mao, Stalin, Isaac Newton, Bruce Lee (?), Hitler, Michael Jordan, Marilyn Monroe, the Dalai Lama, Amelia Earhart, Einstein, Theodore Roosevelt, Jesus, Buddha, da Vinci, Napoleon, and Charlie Chaplin.
I’m sure on most of them.
Awesome quote Gav! I love the way you adapted this one.
I think the guy next to Columbus (or Magellan) may be Oscar Wilde, the one next to Genghis Khan (or Attila) may be Lenin, and the little girl looks like Anne Frank.
That seems to be correct. Thanks! 43 characters, pretty cool.
Damn you two took them all.. Yeah I had all except the age-of exploration guy and the ond the one next to him.
I think “The Lady” (Beside Darwin) is Aung San Suu Kyi
Definitely Oscar Wilde, Genghis Khan, Lenin and Anne Frank.
Fantastic adaptation, Gav! But, I think the common interpretation of the photo/quote “as a sobering reminder of our planet’s insignificance” deserves reexamination.
Whenever this theory (or similar) gets brought up, I see a lot of people coming to believe how small/insignificant they are. Think about it the other way. Think about how big you are. Yes, you. What happens when you zoom in closer and closer to the smallest and smallest levels of magnification? Down to the bacteria, the cells, the chemicals, the molecules, the atoms, the quarks and whatever-extends-beyond that composes your body. The you (the skin-encapsulated “you” that we tend to define ourselves as, anyway) almost becomes a universe onto itself. With billions of galaxies and trillions of stars and planets and inhabitants. Now, at that scale, extend that to our planet and its unfathomable concert of organisms.
So, which point-of-view is correct? Both, perhaps – but, as Alan Watts said, it comes down to “how you define yourself.” Along those lines, he offers yet another shift of perspective:
“Billions of years ago, you were a big bang, but now you’re a complicated human being. And then we cut ourselves off and don’t feel that we’re still the big bang, but you are. Depends how you define yourself. You are actually—if this is the way things started, if there was a big bang in the beginning—you’re not something that is a result of the big bang, on the end of the process. You are still the process. You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are. When I meet you I see not just what you define yourself as…I see every one of you as the primordial energy of the universe coming on at me in this particular way. I know I’m that too, but we’ve learned to define ourselves as separate from it.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuXCAtWMFCA
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor put it this way:
“We are the life-force power of the universe, with dexterity.”
So, I see it the other way, as a reminder of our planet’s significance. Or, rather, as a reminder of a universe that bears not only the Earth’s signature, but each and every one of our signatures (and every organism, micro- to macro-, to date). Neil deGrasse Tyson riffs on this quite beautifully, as well:
“So that when I look up at the night sky, and I know that yes we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up…many people feel small, cause they’re small and the universe is big. But I feel big because my atoms came from those stars.”
Congrats on the milestone!
Drokalok – this quote is about humbling ourselves, seeing ourselves in perspective. your thoughts are valid, tho, as we are also unique (as far as we know) and so therefore, extremely special. Have you seen this awesome chart which shows the two sides of this same coin? http://joke7x24.deals.lv/site/assets/you-are-enormously-significant.jpg
Paul – Thanks for the response and the slick infograph! I think humility is an important quality to have, and that contemplating the vastness of the cosmos is one way for people to gain that perspective. My issue, though, is that this somehow automatically points towards “insignificance.” See, even if the universe is this vastly enormous thing that goes on forever and ever, it still depends on you existing from moment to moment.
I don’t mean this in a way to boost one’s ego or get an inflated sense of self, just the simple fact of what is. The universe equally depends on the existence of the “tiniest” gnat buzzing about. But when we decide to make that judgement call – that we are “just” an insignificant thing on this tiny speck – well, that’s what Alan Watts called the “put-down theory” of life. This might not be a problem if it didn’t so drastically affect the way we feel about ourselves and behave towards the world (which one’s ideas and beliefs inevitably do). It too often breeds unhappiness and misery. It not only gives us a false sense of isolation and separation from the natural world (since that’s how we’ve defined ourselves), but I agree with Watts when he said it “underlies the misuse of technology for the violent subjugation of man’s natural environment and, consequently, its eventual destruction.” He then recognizes:
“We are therefore in urgent need of a sense of our own existence which is in accord with the physical facts and which overcomes our feeling of alienation from the universe.”
In this short clip, he gives an idea of this perspective (which holds true no matter how far you zoom in/out):
Organism-Environment, the transactional nature
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLI54vXxfic
And he elaborates/sums it up elsewhere:
“By cultural and social conditioning, man has been hypnotized into experiencing himself as an ego-as an isolated center of consciousness and will inside a bag of skin, confronting an external and alien world. We say, ‘I came into this world.’ But we did nothing of the kind. We came out of it in just the same way that fruit comes out of trees. Our galaxy, our cosmos, ‘peoples’ in the same way that an apple tree ‘apples.’
…
You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean. The ocean ‘waves,’ and the universe ‘peoples.’ And as I wave and say to you ‘Yoo-hoo!’ the world is waving with me at you and saying ‘Hi! I’m here!’ But we – our consciousness – of the way we feel and sense our existence, being based on a myth – that we are made, that we are parts, that we are things – our consciousness has been influenced, so that each one of us does not feel that.”
http://deoxy.org/w_nature.htm (text)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElTxR5vxQ6o (audio lecture)
My favourite website just adapted my favourite quote, you have no idea how loud I squealed
I’ve waited so Long Gavin, I thought you had forgotten. Thank you so much.. its more than i could Have Imagined.
Thank you so much
Great quote and story. But please check how historic maps look like – http://historicalresources.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/campaign-in-poland-deployment-of-the-wehrmacht-1-september-1939.jpg
Thanks for the link
Phenomenal as always! Once I get a little more disposable income, I’m definitely buying a copy of this one.
Absolute favorite quote by Carl Sagan, an excellent choice for the 100th comic. Well done Gavin, and congrats on both the 100th comic and Zen Pencil’s birthday. Keep ‘em coming!
This is so beautiful! I will definitely be buying a print of this.
thanks for make me SMILE =)
Is the girl next to Lincoln Anne Frank?
Yes
Thank you SO MUCH, for keeping this speech for the 100th comic. It means a lot to me (Carl Sagan, Brian Cox and others like them are the final reason for me studying physics in the end).
Thanks!
A timeless quote (I can’t help but hear it in his voice!) and beautifully illustrated. Congratulations on the 100th! I truly love your art and messages you share.
I love the many faces, and the way you keep zooming out of the dot, and of course Sagan’s fantastic quote. This is my favourite of all your comics, and reminds me of your NdGT one (number 42) as well. Keep up your inspirational and beautiful work!
Beautifully done, you’ve done it justice.
Thanks for the great feedback
and to all of you who sent me an email requesting this quote the past year, you don’t know how hard it was to bite my tongue – I always knew this would be my 100th comic but I wanted it to be a surprise
Haha. When you sent me a reply saying you had this on your plate, I just knew this was going to be No.100! Congrats Gavin. You have achieved great heights in just one year and 100 comics! Continue inspiring us.
Like many others, I’ve been waiting for this quote just about since I started reading Zen Pencils. And the wait was worth it–this is a brilliantly conceived and beautifully executed rendition of the quote. Thank you!
For the record, the quote continues: “Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn’t strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?”
Congratulations, Gavin, on 100 illustrated pieces of wisdom!
I think I can name them all, is there a prize XD? A very moving piece, congratulations from Mexico on you 100th post! Keep it up!!
I have to admit, I have tears in my eyes. A stunning adaptation.
Although I have to ask… and I’m making the assumption that that is Jesus on the bottom edge of the largest panel… why is he so, well, white? For someone who seems to always include a huge range of ethnicities in his comics, it seems strange for you to draw the most famous Middle Easterner of all time as a pale Caucasian.
How cool would it be to see all of those people interact with each other? Like at a party or something! Having Nelson Mandela chat with Amelia Earhart would be an interesting conversation to see I’m sure.
WOW! I’m speechless!
beautiful. A very humbling, yet inspiring quote, especially enhanced with your art. Thank you!
excellent as always…hope there is many more comics to come. ^^
I LOVE all your zenpencils, and you never let me down with the quotes you choose and the way you depict them. You’ve outdone yourself with this one. It is now my favorite! Thank you!
Edie
Simply Beautiful…. T_T
Gavin, I’m putting on a hat just so I can take it off in respect. What a way to mark the milestone of your 100th Zen Pencils post – congratulations and may your star continue to rise.
Superb, love this one. Keep up the great work, your ideas reach further than you will ever know. I am a year 6 teacher in a school in South Australia, last year after stumbling upon your site I began sharing certain of your comics with the class, with a few of them this in turn led to more in depth conversations. I personally love astronomy and the great minds in this field such as Sagan, Hawking and DeGrasse. What a privilidged position your have carved out with your dedication and talent, well done.
Thanks Gavin, of all the scientists that have inspired me in life and as a scientist, Carl Sagan has been at the top of my list for decades. My only regret is that he died to young and I never got to meet him.
This is a beautiful rendition of a wonderful and timeless quote, and it is my wish that all inhabitants of the earth would finally take on the depth of this message. It’s not rocket science, he was a great communicator and he broke it down into the simplest of terms, here. Blessings, Donna-Lee
Love this quote and your illustrations.
Did you have to get Ann Druyan’s permission?
AMAZING work man! that’s my favorite quote by far… congratulations on your first year!
btw, your challenge of naming all the characters is killing me… hahahaha… would these be them?:
lawrence of arabia, martin luther king jr., che guevara, nelson mandela, christopher columbus, edgar alan poe, ghengis kan, vladimir lenin, ludwig van beethoven, abraham lincoln, anne frank, bob marley, john f. kennedy, muhammed ali, julius caesar, princess diana spencer, william shakespeare, charles darwin, aung san suu kyi, elvis presley, the beatles, vincent van gogh, benjamin franklin, mark twain, hellen keller, michael jackson, mohandas ghandi, joan of arc, steve jobs, mao zedong, joseph stalin, isaac newton, bruce lee, the dalai lama, marilyn monroe, michael jordan, adolf hitler, amelia earhart, leonardo da vinci, albert einstein, theodore roosevelt, jesus, siddharta gautama, napoleon bonaparte, charles chaplin
Thank you thank you thank you
Congratulations for the Zen Pencils anniversary, Gav!! I’ve seen all posts as soon they were launched since the 10th one!! Thank you for all these comics all this time!
Congrats Gav – superb work as always. I’m impressed with how far you’ve come in such a short time. It’s great to see an artist perform when they’re inspired!
Excellent work. One comment – why Hitler? Out of the hundreds of possible incarnations of evil, why the most generic (and perhaps overused) villain? I certainly don’t underrate what occurred in Europe during the 1930′s and 1940′s, but a more universal example could be used: being Nazi doesn’t make something more evil.
Just a random thought after enjoying and loving many more comics. Keep it up!
Perhaps because he is the most generic and most universally considered evil.
I was a bit disappointed with the choice of Hitler, too. (And I feel like a total **** saying anything negative about this — this is probably my favorite quote of all time and Gav does a great job with it, as always. But if we’re going to nitpick…) I would actually have preferred someone *more* generic, less recognizable, less obvious. To me, a key point of what Sagan’s getting at with that line (“the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot”, which is my absolute favorite part) is the limited and ephemeral nature of such political/military “power”. So I always envisage some random guy in a chariot — a Hittite warlord, or Egyptian pharaoh, or suchlike. Someone who was mighty and feared in his day, and whose name and deeds we don’t even remember today. (Think of Shelley’s “Ozymandias”) Hitler is still on the edge of living memory. But eventually, even he will fade into just another pitiful asshole whose deeds have been washed away by the ocean of time.
I’ve been a fan of the Pale Blue Dot for a while. Few texts would be more fitting for your beautiful drawings. Bravo.
Congrats on your 100th comic
I really love your work !
I saw the second last panel and just couldn’t stop thinking about how stars are not visible where I live, like on good days, you can see just one or two max. I like to think that when I was young, the sky used to be full of stars and now the pollution made them go away or something. But I don’t remember much about my childhood. Maybe the stars just don’t shine on for people like me
Congratulations on your 100th, my friend! Well done!
still have a problem viewing the comic. I tried IE, Firefox, Chrome… non display the page correctly. It started when you added that Forward/Rewind buttons, maybe there’s something else going on too…
What a quote for the 100th post. Congratulations!
Not only was this very inspiring but a humbling one as well. An excellent comic Gav. I’m sure Carl Sagan is proud!
Brilliantly done!
Wow! Congratulations on two wonderful milestones, I love getting my weekly dose of wisdom, and I can see that this installment must have taken quite a number of hours. Many thanks, and keep it up!
It’s a great piece of Art. Thanks.
Aung Sann Suu Kyi went out with Elvis? I knew it!! And great work Gav, super!
There are not enough words to express how much I ??? this.
For some reason my hearts turned into question marks…
Congratulations dude. Looking forward to the next 100. Keep em coming.
Congratulations on the one year anniversary and the 100th comic. I love your comics. And I loved this quote a lot. Our world is tiny and it is a humbling experience to understand just how tiny it is. Another humbling experience is to understand that the time of our lives is an insignificant fraction of a second of the universe’s life. In the BBC documentary ‘wonders of the universe’ they explained that if we measure the universe’s age in terms of human years then the universe is in its late teens. The earth came into existence 6 months ago. Life started on earth 1 week ago. And humans evolved 6 seconds ago. We should stop being arrogant and realize that we are far from ‘masters of the universe’. Let’s live harmoniously not just with other humans but other life as well and strive to let life grow and maybe then one day, when the universe is getting old, some form of life will be able to call itself the master of the universe.
Fabulous work! Especially getting all those celebrities and villains in one of those panels is outstanding. Great imagination and superb rendition of a profound thought of astronomical proportions. Congratulations and thanks for doing it for us.
This is brilliant Gavin. The luminosity of earth, so well rendered, is enough to move ones soul. I love the little portrait of Van Gogh. Wishing you the very best for the next 100
This is awesome
1000 like to this!
Amazing words by Carl Sagan and awesome illustration by Gavin
PLEASE TELL ME THAT THE GIRL NEXT TO LINCON IS ANNE FRANKE!!!! otherwise I would die. This strip gave me goose bumps. Thank you muchness!!!
I can’t wait for your book!! Your quotes are awesome and I look forward to them every tuesday. I love stand up comedy, literature, philosophy and comics! Gavin, If you are interested, I started posting my own comic strips on Facebook. Search “Filbert comics” if you want to see them, I’d love to hear your opinion of them.
Funny, having never seen a picture of Sagan, I imagined him as an older Louis C K. I guess it’s just my harmless cultural ethnic bias everyone has a version of.
In reference to his darker skin.
An awesome quote rendered in an awesome way! Fitting for your 100th comic!
Or is it the symbol of some religion I’m yet unaware of?
What’s the dollar sign doing in the third panel with the religious symbols though?
It does say “economic doctrines”
I suppose that ship steering wheel is something to do with the Bhuddism eightfold path?
Yep, you’re right. The religions are (in order):
Taoism, Shinto, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and… the dollar.
I just meant that I found it weird to have just a single dollar symbol thrown in with a whole bunch of religious symbols. Ah well, I was just nitpicking…
And technically, there are people today who seem to worship money…
como siempre, grandes ilustraciones para grandes pensamientos!a seguir asi!saludos
wow! well done Gav. 100- 1 year! when are we celebrating?
I’m following your website since a few months. I think it’s very inspiring. Your work adds another shade to the quotes’ authors.
I’m a science teacher in Barcelona and I’m using your work to inspire, too, my students (and to promote the use of English!). I’ve been “touched” for some of the quotes and make me think a lot about my own life.
This last work is based in one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite scientists. And I think it’s a wonderful tribute to Sagan (and the child all good scientist should have within).
I hope you will go on with your work. But if you decide to quit because life gives you another challenges, I think many people will be grateful to your contributions.
(and sorry for my English)
The truth is, this “pale blue dot” is not being taken care of very well. In a few short decades, much of the Earth will be blighted, and heavily fortified at the edges, due to the effects of a rapidly unfolding worldwide environmental crisis. We can already see forerunners to this future, for instance, in the form of the great border fence between India and Bangladesh.
Humans are near-chimpanzees. They will never be sufficiently developed for the awesome responsibilities that come with tending this Earth, much less leaving it. All of you need to internalize this. Sagan’s dream of interstellar voyages may become true one day but if it ever does, it will be machines, not humans, plying the vast distances between the stars.
It made me cry
Very impressive, very descriptive, love this post
Simply Brilliant!
I’ve been waiting for awhile for you to do this quote and…I just…I can’t express how awesome your work is and how you’ve created something so amazing that will always be a reminder of what will probably always be one of my favorite quotes. Thank you. Thank you so, so much. You are definitely on my list of favorite people :’)
Hey, it’s that librarian again from the previous Carl Sagan comic!
I found it very amusing that you featured a Jewish man and an African-American man next to Hilter!
Nice work as always, and a sobering quote for sure.
I love that you included John Carter! Such an awesome movie! It deserved more attention than it received!
But the thing is, the Edgar Rice Burroughs book is actually called Princess of Mars.
Your drawing may have been intentional, but I just thought that should be put out there. I don’t mean any disrespect! I loved the comic! That just popped out to me.
-Iz
This is great, Gav! Thanks a lot! Congratulations to your anniversary
This quote always without exception brings up a tear.
Hi Gav, I’ve been reading your blog since day 1. Starting to sound like a broken record here, cause every week I say something along the lines of, “love this one!” But then you go and make another great comic, so, I’ll just say it – I love this one! This is edging up behind my other favorite, the Neil Gaiman “Make Good Art.” Thanks again for the inspiration each week.
Rose
That is gorgeous, and one of my favorite quotes!
A minor correction, though: Voyager 1 was long, long past Saturn by the time it took this picture. It had passed Saturn a decade earlier. This was after its twin, Voyager 2, had passed Uranus and Neptune, and since Voyager 1 is traveling faster, Voyager 1 is even more distant. Further away than Pluto, even. Today, of course, it is even further still.
Is this one too big to hope for a print being available? I would love to hang this on my wall.
I’ve been following your work for a few months now, thanks to Chris Guillebeau. I LOVE this piece. It’s simple and poignant. Thanks for sharing.
Your work and the quote you selected always inspired me. I’ve never heard of Carl Sagan but I would love to know him now. Thank you Gav!
Congratulations and thank you Gav! Your creations have gotten me through a lot this year. This is where I turn to every time I need cheering up. Foster on!
So glad you did this one! This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. The world sorely needs more thinkers like Carl Sagan, and your illustrations capture the power of this passage superbly. Excellent job!
I’ve been waiting to see this quote for a long time. When I opened your website today, I just couldn’t believe it. It’s marvellous. Congratulations.
Why didn’t you draw Carl Sagan there. :’(
He’s in 15 frames!
Did you mean that child?
That child is Carl Sagan when he was young, as the label on his bag (and his eyebrows) show
Yes, i was just noticed. How dumb i am for could’nt noticing him
You’re not dumb
Well thank you Rosie, you’re nice.
Could have done without the National Socialist defamation, they fought for cosmic truth and pantheist principles, symbolized in the swastika.
I love it! Beautifully done.
It is a shame there are only 7 women versus 43 men shown in the panel showing the selection of people for “everyone that has ever existed” – I understand it must have been tricky to represent humanity and you understandably chose well-known figures. Perhaps there could have been a selection of people from different cultures, showing a more accurate distribution of female and male humans! The discrepancy was jarring. Had to say something as it really stuck out to me.
But anyway, beautiful, beautiful work! Thank you for illustrating Sagan like this.
I totally agree with this observation. Another impression I got from that panel is that people from America outside US or Cuba are rather unremarkable. But perhaps that is not as bad as it seems.
I meant US and Argentina. Sorry.
I *strongly* feel that this whole comic is breathtaking; full of pathos, well-paced, well-drawn, and a lovely blending of the source text with evocative imagery that expands upon it. So, thank you for making it, it is *beautiful,* and I am very, very appreciative of all the time and emotion that went into the making of it.
However, I was *sad* to see only 7 women… I ran into this same issue when making lesson materials (I’m an EFL teacher). I was making worksheets of famous people to spark discussion, and at first, man after man came to mind. This is partly due to men having more access to education and power throughout history, but also to the way we are taught. I forced myself to sit down and come up with an even number of men and women, and though the process was slow, I realized that ultimately, I was actually aware of plenty of famous women:
Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Harriet Tubman, Isabela la Catolica, Emily Dickinson (and *many* other poets), the Bronte sisters, Frida Kahlo, Mary Cassatt, Cleopatra, Hatshepsut, Sacajawea, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Abigail Adams, Pocahontas, Maria Callas, Sappho, Annie Oakley, Betsy Ross, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall, Clara Barton, Juliette Gordon Lowe, Beatrix Potter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan, Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Ella Fitzgerald, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sojourner Truth, Jenny Lind, Georgia O’Keefe, Molly Pitcher, Mata Hari, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth I, Mae West, Coco Chanel, Oprah Winfrey, Hilary Rodham Clinton, Sandra Day O’Connor, Lucille Ball, Indira Gandhi, Mary Shelley… the list could certainly go on.
That said, apart from that one issue, I am pretty much in love with this whole comic — I wish I could buy a looooong poster of the whole thing!
Perfect and congrats on 100
Gav, always loved your art. You are knowledgeable and eloquent. You know how to say the significant things. I think we owe it to you for doing that and saying those things.
Guess, that’s Oscar Wilde next to Columbus.
Wow this one is particularly amazing. I discovered this website a few months ago and it became an instant favorite.
A huge thanks for taking this magnificent quote for your 100th comic. I really look forward to know what the poster will look like.
I also look forward to reading the next hundred !
Please keep up the good work Gav’. All the best !
Nice to see Uncle Albert from ‘Only Fools and Horses’ featured in the montage.
Truly excellent work…. and do I spot a Doctor Who reference? Nicely done
I noticed that. I wonder if it was intentional.
It’s a Carl Sagan quote…
“Silence in the Library” is not a Carl Sagan quote
I recently watched “Cosmos”. Pretty impressive stuff.
I believe you misquote in the end; “the only home we have ever known: The Pale Blue Dot” is how it should be, rather than reversed, afaik.
No, he has it correct: http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1816628-pale-blue-dot-a-vision-of-the-human-future-in-space
This is a great depiction of a great quote (and I love the way it gets signed off!)
As an aside, I referred to Sagan’s quote when setting up a prediction registry for David Brin’s ‘Earth’ some years ago. I used that same Voyager image as a header rather than something more visually appealing beacause, in the spirit of the ‘prediction’ theme, I pointed out that Brin had said something very similar at the end of the book, published about five years before Voyager took that photo. (Sagan’s version is a lot more expansive btw)
You’ve done a beautiful job with this one, this very special one. Thank you!
Last Tuesday I visited NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where I was treated to a talk by Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes. Astronauts all have something unique to offer, but the one common theme they share is their fervent desire that people treat one another more kindly. They’ve all seen that blue ball, and they all wonder why it is we mistreat our fragile planet and one another. Thanks for a great comic, Gav.
Carl Sagan had the gift to talk/write about science with the same passion others talk about love, well, he was
I shed a tear. That was truly beautiful. Thank you for 100 of these inspirational comic strips.
I wanna say thanks to you Gav, because you make me feel alive and you make me see that although th¡ngs begin and end and life can be hard sometimes, it is worth and a great present to be alive. Thanks for your comics from Spain!
This was my first time visiting your comic, coming from Lar DeSouza’s blog. This brought tears to my eyes. It’s one of my favorite quotes, and a beautiful reminder to keep things in perspective. I have subscribed to your feed, and I plan to buy this as a print.
You’ve done what art should do: touched the mind, the heart, and the soul with a simple arrangement of colors in a space, and left me with more than I started with, just from those blotches of virtual ink. Thanks.
Congratulations on your 100th comic!
I’ve been a follower reader of yours and I love all of your comics!
As a suggestion, you could make some Facebook Cover with some of your images, such as the part with Carl Sagan on the library (awesome scene!).
We all would like to put them on FB!
Keep up the good work and onwards, mate!
Done
And secretively, that is why people that stare only down, are the kinds of people that freak the shit out of me.
This is by far my favorite one ever. Thank you.
Amazing, really beautiful comic rendition to the beautiful words of a beautiful, humble brilliant human being. He was, indeed, a pale blue dot in the dark and vast immensity the human race is. Thanks a lot for doing this.
This is beautiful- very nice work!
Amazing. You almost make me cry
Congrats!
Most amazing. If Carl Sagan would have been alive, he would also have loved it. Great tribute to the cool dude who tried to make science more popular. Cant wait for the extra large print.
Gavin, I do not want to be repetitive! So congratulations on 100th comics!
Beautiful, sir. Simply beautiful!
Long time stalker and first time commenter here.
It’s high time I thanked you for all the work you’ve put in to motivate and elevate your audience.
Carl Sagan was a personal hero of mine and I think you really did him justice with this illustration. I’m sure he would be proud.
Even though I’ve heard this quote many many times, I shed a fair few tears after reading this comic.
Also, I would like to agree with Drokalok’s comment: there are two ways one can interpret Carl’s message. One is to feel sad and insignificant. Another is to feel truly connected with the universe and unchained from the trivialities of everyday life. With this state of mind, a phenomenon Neil DeGrasse Tyson calls “the cosmic perspective”, one can live their lives thinking in terms of billions of years. Fallen out with a loved one and your pride is holding you back from apologising? Think of the tremendous amounts of strife and misery experienced by the collection of all human beings that have ever lived. Now how big does your problem feel?
Here I’m just giving one example, but I’m sure you understand what I mean.
Anyway, thanks again Gav. We are so lucky to be living at the same moment you are making these comics.
Peace and love
Thanks for finally commenting ALbert, really appreciate your kind words
It is amazing that when you consider the vastness of our world, our solar system, our galaxy and then the universe is it not a good idea to live and let live.
Congratulations on your brilliant work. Sagan’s PALE BLUE DOT is Bruno Latour’s GAIA with more respect for the cosmic and speculative dimension of science than Latour seems to have.
Makes me tear up every time I read this! I am a HUGE admirer of Carl Sagan, even going so far as to get Voyager 1 tattooed on my arm in recognition of his work. Thank you so very much for this!
I came across your work recently. I’ve read about why and how you pursued your dream.
You, Sir are amazing. And so is your work. Hats off to you! And I’ve never paid anyone that compliment non-sarcastically. Ever.
Thanks man, I’m honoured!
>hitler invades poland
>postwar map
This quote was very moving. And the artwork that accompanied it was perfect. Thanks for all your great work. And congrats on 1 year/100th comic Gavin.
Where can I buy this?
It’s not for sale, the passage is from a copyrighted book by Carl Sagan.
Ah right, I see.
Brilliant comic though, absolutely love it.
Have you considered contacting his estate for permission to sell it? I’ve come very close to buying some of your prints, but this one really does it for me. I’d love to have one of these even if it cost more.
I just read it … I ‘actually’ CRIED …………….
When he went out on the roof I thought the vastness of the universe depressed him enough he was going to jump. I suppose that would only have been mildly funny anyway.