MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW!!! ( For We3, Sandman, Afterlife With Archie)

Comics. They can be wondrous escapes from everyday life that make you excited, happy and entertained. There’s also rare moments where comics can pull at your heart strings and trap you in a glass cage of emotion.



I think a comic that can make you sad is actually more impressive than one that can make you happy, as it implies a stronger connection to the characters.

So, here’s a few comic moments that definitely that never made me cry. There was just some dust in my eye and I think someone was chopping onions while I read them.

1.) We3- The Rabbit Scene



We3 is one of the saddest comics I think I’ve ever read. Multi-dimesnonal-comic-wizard, Grant Morrison, basically combined homeward bound with Terminator to great effect. If you haven’t read this comic, stop reading this article now and go read it!

It’s your classic comic story. The government creates three hyper-intelligent-bionic-hybrid for nefarious purposes (who the hell approves the budgets on these plans anyway?).

The three animals, a rabbit (Pirate), a dog (Bandit) and a cat (Tinker), escape and are chased down by the lab that created them. They are tailed by an even more bionic-er and more ruthless dog.

The tear-jerker moment happens when Pirate, the rabbit, turns back to fight the vicious dog robot who is hunting the three escaped animals. He ends up sacrificing himself so the cat and dog can escape.

I definitely didn’t cry in this scene.

2.) Sandman- The Baby Scene

Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel masterpiece, Sandman, is required reading for anyone who fancies themselves a fan of comics.



The plot of Sandman is a little too complex to try do justice to in a blog post. The basic gist is that there’s seven “Endless” who have been around since before the universe and are in the same league as gods (a little higher, actually). Of the Endless, we mainly follow Dream. Dream’s sister, Death, is also a fan-favorite and masterfully created character.

Death is probably my favorite characterization of dying I’ve ever read (Discworld is a close second). She’s not evil. She doesn’t show preference. She just is.

This is made abundantly clear when we follow Death in the story as she visits people to take them to other side. Her last stop is a baby sleeping in it’s crib, who she lovingly picks up. It takes a second for the reader to realize what’s happening, but when it does- water works.

Not by me, of course. No tears shed here.

3.) Afterlife with Archie- the Vegas Scene

I don’t think anyone expected that the best zombie comic since the Walking Dead would be an Archie jam, but it is. Afterlife with Archie takes all the cast of Archie (who I’m admittedly not that familiar with) and throws them into a gruesome zombie apocalypse.

The art and writing in this is spectacular. What really surprised me though, was how emotional of a read it is. There’s two moments that really stood out for me.

In the story, Archie has one really shitty day. After his best friend starts eating all of his classmates, Archie has to go back to his house to check on his parents where he’s attacked by a zombie dog. Archie’s own dog, Vegas, then appears to save him. It’s almost cheating how the writing in this scene is done. We get snippets of Vegas sacrificing himself for Archie paired with the dog’s internal monologue.

“Run, archiemaster. Live, Mylifeforyours, Thankyou- Loveyouforever, butnow runrunrun”

I mean who would cry during that?! Not me (sob).

4.) Afterlife with Archie- The Dad Scene

The second, and also devastating, moment comes a little later when Archie has to kill his zombified dad. We see shots of Archie’s dad raising him through childhood interspersed with shots of Archie crying while braining his zombie dad with a bat.

Why would anyone cry during that?

Ok, maybe I cried a little. Those are my big four scenes that actually made me put the book down and reach for Kleenex. I can think of lots of runner-ups (Kitty Pryde in space, all of Locke and Key, Superman’s fake son) but these are my big four.

What comic moments did you not cry for?

(Editors note: It wasn’t intentional, but after compiling this list I realized none of the moments that made me sad we’re from traditional superhero comics. Maybe death and loss in superhero stories is so temporary that it’s hard to feel any gravity with them. Was anyone really sad when Captain America got shot?)