mystery-2
Explanation
This comic presents a "reverse murder mystery" concept. A group of characters are gathered around what appears to be a crime scene, but instead of trying to figure out who committed the murder, the detective declares: "Good God! Everyone here had motive to murder Steve!" Another character responds, "But why? Nobody has any motive!" The detective continues, "I can't see that any of us had motive to leave him alive, and yet..."
The victim, Steve, is lying on the ground but pipes up: "Hey! I'm right here!" The caption at the bottom reads: "New book concept: reverse murder mysteries." The humor inverts the classic whodunit formula. In a traditional mystery, the puzzle is figuring out who among a group of suspects had motive to kill someone. Here, the mystery is the opposite -- everyone had reason to kill Steve, and the real puzzle is why nobody actually did it. This implies Steve is so universally despised that his continued existence is the true mystery. Steve's interjection that he is still alive only underscores how little anyone cares about him.