The man behind the saddest cartoon on the internet has finally drawn a sequel

An artist whose apocalyptic drawing of a dinosaur family swept the internet has finally issued an update, six years later.

Ben Cameron, from Rochester, Kent, did the original drawing of a dinosaur mother shielding her baby from the realisation of certain death from a comet back in 2012, and it has taken on a life of its own online.

Although Ben has been asked to do a sequel to the drawing many times, he said he has never thought seriously about doing so until Tuesday.

So who do we have to thank for this cheerful sequel? Paul Stollery is the man who managed to convince the artist to unbreak our hearts.

He asked if Ben could “do a sequel where actually it narrowly misses the earth” and the artist quickly got to work.

“I was sitting at my desk and thought sod it, why not?” said Ben

“All of this thought process happened in about 10 seconds as I was drawing it and trying to match the really crap style of the original.”

The new illustration shows the same mother and baby pair, but with the comet passing by and the mother asking the child what it wants for dinner. “Nuggets,” the baby replies.

“My original thought was turkey twizzlers,” said Ben.

“But that might not make sense to everyone, so I went with nuggets.

“It sounds funny and it’s quick and matter of fact and the perfect kid response to typical after-school dinner. Banal even. Back to normal.”

If you think this is the only depressing dinosaur-centred drawing Ben’s done, you’d be wrong. He is the author of Tragidoodles, a book of 101 cartoons featuring animals in varying degrees of existential and daily crisis.

He still draws for a living, and runs a pin badge club where subscribers get pin badges designed by him every month.