The story behind the cartoon
Merv has climbed to the edge of the canyon at dusk to do the one thing every voice does eventually: call out his own name and wait to hear it come back. He cups his hands, takes the breath, and shouts 'MERV!' into the wide purple dark, certain that the world, at minimum, knows who is speaking.
The canyon answers. The speech balloon drifting back across the gorge does not say MERV. It says DEREK. Somewhere in the rock, in the wind, in the long acoustic memory of the place, Merv's name got lost and a stranger's name got filed in its place.
Issue, the brown mackerel tabby, sits beside him on the cliff edge, unimpressed. She has watched this happen to everything: the names wear out, the voices change hands, the canyon keeps the sound and drops the owner. She does not shout. Cats know better than to ask an echo for identification.
The joke is the refund policy on permanence: you can shout your name into the void for years and the void will still answer to someone named Derek. Merv came to the canyon to confirm he exists; the canyon confirmed that Derek does.
THE WALLS ARE MADE OF GLASS
THE BILLIONAIRE'S BARBECUE
THE ONE-DAY HOSTAGE CRISIS
THE 20X SHRINK RAY