We Came 900 Million Miles For This? is a deadpan tour through the absurd edges of existence, where aliens bicker like suburban couples, zombies navigate modern inconveniences, and cosmic horrors are treated with the mild irritation usually reserved for parking tickets and co-op boards.
In this collection of otherworldly cartoons, Nick Downes brings classic cartoon craftsmanship to the strange, the uncanny, and the existential. Drawing inspiration from science fiction, horror, folklore, and everyday human pettiness, Downes finds humor not in spectacle, but in understatement—letting the most bizarre situations collide gently with the most ordinary reactions.
Rendered in elegant black-and-white linework and guided by impeccably timed captions, these cartoons explore humanity’s place in the universe, whether that universe includes intergalactic ruling councils, haunted real estate, flesh-eating zombies, or werewolfoodles. The result is a book that feels at once timeless and sharply contemporary, blending New Yorker-style restraint with Twilight Zone–era imagination.
Originally appearing in publications including The New Yorker, National Lampoon, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, and Asimov’s Science Fiction, these cartoons confirm Nick Downes as a master of surreal humor—one who reminds us that no matter how far we travel, we’re never far from ourselves.
Perfect for fans of smart, strange, quietly devastating cartoon humor—and for anyone who’s ever looked at the universe and thought: Really? This is it?
