overwhelmed by questions? bedeviled by doubts? don’t know where to turn in the search for truth? how can you know? whom do you call? well, here’s whom ! call the

Episode 3

PLANTING SEEDScreated and drawn

for the big history project by larry gonick

our heroes find themselves chained to the floor of a cygnusian prison cruiser.

nope.

nope.

nope.

Episode 3

PLANTING SEEDS

I DON’T SUPPOSE this looks like a rescue...

nope.

if only we knew what’s going on...

our heroes find themselves chained to the floor of a cygnusian prison cruiser.

and I am legi-logi magistogi, high authority on cygnusian law!

oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize you were authority too! I should have known by your hat!

you are associates of a known lawbreaker! by law, you must share the crimi nal’s fate, which is banish ment to the orchards of cygnus epsilon!

hey, i’m scien tific authority personified! it takes more than words to convince me!

don’t play dumb with me! you’ve been caught helping a dangerous criminal escape! as if you didn’t know...

zyx-27 has violated the laws of cygnus epsilon and fled the planet to escape capture!

what? who’s a criminal?

so you say!

where’s the evidence?

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I have spoken.

with all due respect, big guy, have you taken leave of your senses?

all right, if you say so.

sshhh, vera! you have to respect authority! didn’t you see that hat?

this is more like it!

let’s eat!

no, jesse! no!

at least they’re sending us to some orchards! how bad can that be?

it’s good! i’m hungry again!

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no! not without a digestion

license!

how is anyone going to know whether I have a digestion license or not?

a license? to eat food?

they don’t have to know! without a license, the fruit is poisonous!!

how does that work?

our dictator, the high guardian orx-30, commanded our scientists to modify the genes of all food crops to make them poisonous.

“he also ordered the development of a medicine, an antidote, that enables our bodies to digest the food.”

“all cygnusians must apply to get this antidote.”

“but the government only issues digestion licenses to some of us. those with licenses get an injection, and everyone else is out of luck.”

and who gets the license and the anti-dote? who gets to eat?

WHAT AN AMAZiNG STORY, ZYX! CROPS THAT ARE genetically engineered TO HURT PEOPLE—OR WHATEVER YOU CALL YOURSELVES!

only cygnusians loyal to the high guardian orx-30!

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there’s one thing about your story I don’t quite understand, zyx: why do the unlicensed cygnusians let orx-30 get away with it? why don’t they stop him?

because, Brianna, the unlicensed are weak, and orx-30 is strong. I think you’ll get the picture once we reach the top of this rise and look back...

good question! they would seem to have a choice in the matter!

wow! what a view!

per fect evi dence, brianna, of the power of agri-culture!

yeah, how could all those cities and roads and space-ports exist without the food to feed the cygnusians who built them and use them?

ok, the fruit’s bad for birds and cyg-nusians, but what about for humans? I wonder...

we can test it!

i’ll pass, thanks...

we’ve followed her this far... I guess we keep going...

the quickest way would be to eat some fruit! if we drop dead, then we’ll know!

frankly, I trust zyx, though i’m not sure why... just a hunch! but where?

across those moun-tains to the land of the unlicensed!

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zyx!

zyx! zyx!

I see what big sci means, though, about hunting and gathering instead of farming: there aren’t a lot of unlicensed cygnusians in the neighborhood! the shortage of food keeps the numbers down!

I may be able to help with that...

popular girl, zyx!

the friendly greeting is evidence in her favor, wouldn’t you say?

agriculture does more than grow population! farming grows surplus food—more than people can eat when it’s harvested—so the people who control that surplus gain power over the others.

with power comes wealth, and with that wealth leaders can organize big projects like irrigation systems, building construction, and roads. to make this work, people become specialists: architects, engineers, cooks, scribes, soldiers...

so agricultural societies can grow complex, highly organized...

and what about people without agriculture?

like whoever ran the grain warehouses in the temples of ancient sumer and india!

welcome to the land of

the unlicensed!

Zyx!

whoa! nasty-looking!

they’re not nasty, jesse, just poor and hungry...

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wow! best picnic ever!

yes, but we have to think about some practical things, too, like setting aside seeds for planting next spring, getting volunteers to guard the seeds... oh, and a cleanup committee!

see? like I said! things are get ting organized already!

too bad orx-30 is marching over the ridge at the head of a well-fed army of licensed cygnusians!

to be continued...

my backpack just happens to be loaded with seed packets for a school garden ing project. why don’t we plant ’em? these are genetically engineered to be extra nutritious!

no, we’re not that organized.

maybe these guys will get to eat something besides grubs and berries after all!

this could be a test of big sci’s claims about agriculture!

do I have to get permission from

anyone to do this?

here’s your surplus!

logically, more cyg nu sians should be able to live here now!

and here they come, flocking from all over the unlicensed zone!

let’s eat!!

population can grow by immigration as well as reproduction.

wow!

a few months, and many grubs and roots, later

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