SPOILER ALERT: He dies. By committing suicide.
Anyway, the theme of the end of the story is all about death, and perhaps the darkest form; suicide. The illustrations are wonderful, however I still don't think they mirror the shadowy and conflicting emotions that go with debating your own life on the edge of a building. I mean I don't about guys but suicide sucks, and I'm not sure the Crumb really understood to the fullest what he was drawing about. Not that I could have done any better (however I haven't tried yet, don't hold this to me), but I think someone else in a darker place could have expressed the words in pictures much more effectively.
I agree. The drawings didn't convey the underlying dark themes in the story. Granted, it would probably be pretty hard to show that, but it just doesn't work as well as words. It is sort of like the Hunger Games; it should have been much darker, in that it is about a group of children being thrown into an arena to murder each other. In this story, like you said, it is about somebody committing suicide, and should therefore express that darkness.
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