The Light Years is a comedic short story from Italo Calvino's collection Cosmicomics. The narrator spots a sign in a galaxy 100 million light-years away that says simply, "I SAW YOU." After realizing he did in fact do something embarrassing that day 100 million years ago, he spends the rest of the story attempting to explain himself by sending his own signs back across the universe. As other galaxies send messages back mocking him, he eventually surrenders to his anxiety and finds peace in never fully knowing what his reputation is across the cosmos.

The juxtaposition of bold graphic "signs" against the stiff bodies of text illustrates how his desperate, tough guy messages are really just a poor attempt at masking his inner turmoil.