Check out the new issue here, and be sure to follow the special instructions for the first page. Go here if you'd like to start the comic from the beginning. Minor spoilers below.

Okay, confession time: As a teenager, I used to write some dreadful poetry. I'm sure that comes as quite a surprise, given the literary masterpieces you see on display here. Anyway, I rediscovered a poem I wrote about my 20th birthday; essentially a statement on the time when adolescence gives way to adulthood, looking back and looking forward, blah, blah, etc. So it felt like a good time to check back in with my birthday reflections as I reached my 25th year. And what better way to do that than with our heroic narrator who happens to look just like me!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I've got another confession, my friends: I've had two additional birthday's since the idea for this issue arose. The comic takes place in a sort of fictional universe based on my life, so it may as well be set in the past of said universe. It's an unfortunate part of growing older that every birthday is met less with excitement and more with trepidation and unfulfillment. Now at 27, I'm honestly not sure if I can justify my existence anymore than I could at 25. But I suppose the point is that time will tell.

On a related note, it's possible that Cartoon Lee was just imagining his encounters with previous versions of himself. Or maybe some kind of temporal distortion takes place in the future that causes shockwaves to reverberate throughout time. Fred Lactus is next issue.