Time won't stop for your afternoon tea and reminiscing

Time can be seen as a very plastic element; traveling from one dimension to another has become accomplishable with the help of memory.

time is ruthless- it never stops even when we need a break

How many times have you thought about the past- whether it be a quick flashback or a full on musing? We use the past as both a vehicle for improvement and a deterrent from movement. We have all heard the saying "no need to cry over spilled milk"; however, sometimes, the events of the past continue to haunt us incessantly, and we must live in the past even when time moves on. This is exactly Vladek's case as a Holocaust survivor; despite trying to move on, his Holocaust stripes continue to clothe him until his grave.

may they rest in peace- peace from their memories, that is

In the (non-HD) excerpt below, there is a striking contrast between the past and present- not only between Vladek's story and Art's point of view, but also with the gravestone. For one, the drawing of his and Anja's gravestone is without a border- showing that it is not confined with Art's story telling; their death is a physical quality with remains and no amount of story twisting is able to dispute that fact. Also, there is no page number on this page, showing that there is no time limit for their death- it is an externalized event. The seemingly ironic mention of Richieu in the last panel demonstrates how the past is continuously haunting Vladeck: he cannot stop thinking about his deceased son even when he is with Art, However, the smoke in the middle of his gravestone (which is strikingly similar to the smoke from the crematorium) shows that not only is his body gone, but his memories that haunted him before also leave him (although they are not gone forever for they are internalized by the story Art has wrote).