© 2011 - Writer: Maria Badillo - Illustrator: Erin Bolles
TITLE PANEL: Black background with bold planetary visual.

PANEL 1: Stars.
CAPTION: There once was a time when we looked up at the sky and deemed it unreachable. And perhaps once it was...
PANEL 2: Planet Earth.
CAPTION: We thought ourselves the center of creation, the point around which all else revolved. But here we are, hurtling around the sun at 67,000 MPH: unstoppable for billions of years to come. And now we know.
PANEL 3: Astronaut.
CAPTION: We spent all that time writing down dreams of traveling out amongst the stars, creating stories that placed us on the moon and beyond. We fancied ourselves explorers, discoverers of fantastic new worlds. And those dreams have become reality.
PANEL 4: Space probe.
CAPTION: The time has passed when no one but deities could stride across the stars. There are footprints on the moon to prove it, satellites and space probes soaring past the planets of our solar system that echo back what we cannot see with the naked eye.
PANEL 5: Milky way.
CAPTION: Every day brings the impossible another step closer. And one day...
YOU ARE READING
Starry Messenger
Non-FictionA short script for a comic strip about humanity's connection to outer space. Originally published as part of a permanent art installation at the University of Dayton in 2011. The piece hangs in the science majors' hall of one of the dorm buildings.
