The Longest Comic Yet

This comic is actually a translation of an old comic that was published in a special issue of the "Geier" for some sort of anniversary. I was already into virtual reality when I drew it, but I did not know at the time that I would become a PhD student in that field.

And yes, I know that one should not mention the control group at all ;)

Comic transcript

Panel 1:
G and H are waiting in front of a sign that reads "VR-Study: participants wait here"
G: This is going to be fun! I always wanted to participate in a study. And I always thought virtual reality was an interesting topic.
Panel 2:
P shows up
P: Hey, thank you for participating in my study. One of you is going to be in the control group. However, I must not tell you who.
Panel 3:
H is wearing a head mounted display, G is wearing a cardboard box on their head
P: Allright, take your time to get used to the hardware now.
G: So... many... colors.
Panel 4:
H is inside a virtual reality. A floating sign reads "Welcome to Virtual Reality"
H: This is crazy! It feels like I am actually here!
Panel 5:
A floating sign reads "Please follow the pyramid!", while a pyramid is floating in front of H who is running after it
H: It’s like I’m actually running right now! Awesome!
Panel 6:
G is inside a nightmare realm, experiencing pure terror and running while constantly screaming.
Panel 7:
G and H are running on treadmills that are connected to P's laptop.
H: Even the sensation of getting tired is realistically simulated.
G: PLEASE NOT THE BUSSTOP!!! ...I was going to eat that...
P: Damn. Still only 50% battery.
Panel 8:
The top part of a paper is shown. The title of the paper is "An Experimental Evaluation of Head Mounted Displays in the Field of Manual Power Generation". It was authored by P and O. The first part of the abstract reads: "This paper evaluates the use of head mounted displays (HMDs), common devices primarily used in the context of virtual reality, as a movement inducing force for a standard, tread mill based power generation approach. It is widely known that the...". The second paragraph visible reads: "...has been conducted. However, our experiments have shown that the performance of a system incorporating an HMD are by far inferior to a “cardboard box on head and huge dose of LSD” based approach. This leading edge technique, also invented at our lab, is still considered an industry standard...".