Calling Darin's "crustaceous ketchup" comment a "joke" is quite a stretch. And I'm really not sure why Darin's birth father is something "we" need to talk about, Jessica. Your man's had a hard day. Butt out.
Category Archives: bricks
I Call "Bull" Shit

That was nice what you just did, Bull"?!? What English teach– uh, sorry, Language Arts teacher, let alone a pretentious douchebag like Les, would utter such a colloquialism? And the "nice thing" he did? Catching a trio of repeat-offender school bullies in the act and letting them walk away without even a verbal warning.
TheDiva
April 4, 2013 at 1:47 pm
A few days ago, I wondered if it would be worse for Batiuk to treat bullying in an inappropriately (and unfunny) humorous manner or a insufferable serious manner. Now I know an even worse third option exists: total schizophrenia.
…and TB's schizo tendencies extend to his continuing retconning/re-retconning of Les and Bull's high school relationship: two years ago he went to great lengths to posit that Bull was just pretending to beat Les up in order to protect him from the real bullies. But for the purposes of the current storyline, it turns out that Bull really did pick on Les, and now must spend the rest of his life atoning.
Thirty years ago…not only was the bullying real, it was actually pretty funny!
Filed under bricks, Bull, Les, Les' yellow shirt, Owen, photo album corners, random students, Westview High School
Senior-Free Moment
John
April 3, 2012 at 1:01 am
Cody: "…do you ever get the feeling that we never look forward to anything good? We merely mildly anticipate the absence of bad things?"
Note the date on John's comment above: it's from a whole year ago, when Cody and Owen last enjoyed a wedgie-free week due to the fact that the Seniors were out of town. Flash back a little further: to the beginning of the 2009 school year…

You're already doing the math: Cody and Owen would by now be part of the Senior Class. Of course, it's certainly likely that, being morons, they've had to repeat at least one grade. Still: surely they're not still mere freshmen? Do the Westview Seniors pick on all the underclassmen, or just these two?
I'm kind of concerned about these two loners who, every school day (except for the week of the D.C. trip), endure intimidation and abuse from the Seniors, are belittled by their teachers, and after school head to the Komix Korner to play (probably violent) video games. Could Batiuk be getting ready to add school shootings to his Serious Topics résumé?
Filed under bricks, chullo, Cody, Cody and Owen, Owen, random students, Westview High School
How's Your Jonson?
If Tuesday's strip qualified as one of the "Comics I Don't Understand", then what the hell are we to make of today's strip? Les bemoans his students' performance on his latest quiz, implying that they have retained nothing of what he's taught them. Does Cody's response mean that while they may not have learned anything, they are at least less easy to deceive? Even more baffling than the presumed punchline is Cody's crudely rendered profile in panel 3: his jawline resembles a peeled sweet potato.
Filed under bricks, chullo, Cody, Les, Les' yellow shirt, Owen, random students, Westview High School, writing
Go Ask Alex
Everyone say hi to Alex, Westview's only comix fangirl (since Chien vanished) and mopey Pete's biggest admirer, in her first strip appearance in over five years. Owen and his usual sidekick Cody are apparently on the outs since that yearbook photo remark, and anyway, what does Cody know about gurlz? The Chullo'd One, like Pete, just cannot understand why women don't find him appealing. Alex responds to Owen's plight not with empathy but with teasing. Poor Owen is a geek even among geeks.
Filed under bricks, chullo, Komix Korner, Mallory, Owen
Cody-chrome
Apparently Owen is sensitive about his looks, or lack of same, but he gets no "comfort" from his only friend, whose own school photo surely must be at least as hideous as Owen's.
Filed under bricks, chullo, Cody, Cody and Owen, Owen
A Lowell in the Action
Today's strip takes us through space, from London to Lowell, Massachusetts, and through time, to the mid-nineteenth century, to finally arrive at a weak "pun-chline" which a year or two ago would have been served up by Cory "Call Me Fishmeal" instead of Cody.
As an aside: a long-running comic to which FW is often (unfavorably) compared explains how "small lapses in continuity and art…only add to the charm" of "artisanal comics" such as Funky Winkerbean…check out today's Doonesbury!
[Edit: Link to today's FW and to Doonesbury were incorrect; I've fixed 'em now]
Filed under bricks, chullo, Cody, Cody and Owen, Les, Owen, random students, Westview High School, writing
Meh
Just back from a business trip and frankly cannot muster the energy to snark on today's strip…have at it!
