I learned of this comic book style rendering of Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot soliloquy from The Huffingtonpost. I immediately got in touch with its creator – Gavin Aung Than to ask permission to reprint it here. Like his art, Gavin is a class act and he graciously granted permission.
Gavin produces inspirational comics on his website Zen Pencils. You’ll find the original of Pale Blue Dot there as well as many other intriguing and thought-provoking illustrations. I’m particularly grateful to him for including science fiction as inspiration in the background.
In addition to Gavin’s comic, I’ve included a video clip from Cosmos, the PBS television program that Carl Sagan wrote and narrated and which presented these words to the public for the first time. I’ve been haunted by them ever since. His words make me weep for humanity; somehow they are both tears of joy and sorrow.
Pale Blue Dot by Gavin Aung Than.
The video is from the PBS television series Cosmos: A Personal Journey. The background music is by Vangelis. A sequel to Cosmos, titled Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, featuring Neil DeGrasse Tyson, is currently being produced and slated for a mid-2014 airing.
…touching.