Modern life is pretty good at telling us how to look, what to think and how to feel, but it's rather terrible at listening. It's an unbalanced conversation when it forces feelings on us yet won't respond to being shouted at for being a big, dumb bully that needs a new hobby. Monolithic concepts can be jerks like that.

That's where Rubyetc creator Ruby Elliot's comics come in. Collected in the new tome dubbed It's All Absolutely Fine, Elliot's cartooning captures the feeling of facing crushing expectations heaped upon us by exterior and interior forces. Stress, depression and anxiety are perfectly normal responses to an age of one million obligations (and one-million-and-one distractions). Elliot's comics simply say so. And they're funny about it.

We're not physicians, so we can't legally tell you that laughter is the best medicine. In the face of fashion fails, social stumbles and unshakable melancholy, however, it sure can't hurt.

It isn't all absolutely fine, but It's All Absolutely Fine, uh, is. Get a look at five selections from the new comic collection below to soak up some serious I'm-not-alones. May they keep you in one, awesome piece today and the day after.

Preorder It's All Absolutely Fine by Ruby Elliot