Riddle Me This, Batiuk

Cannot thank davidorth enough for climbing into the SoSF wheelhouse as Hurricane Sandy did her worst. Yours truly and family came through ok, considering! Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts and well-wishes!

Look on the bright side, kids: Batiuk spared us most of the Battle of the Bands, and Les is still off the radar. Kut to the Komix Korner, where the chullo’d one and John, lover o’ boys, are discussing the things that really matter, and by that I mean comic books! Owen earnestly raises a question about “comic” books that readers of this blog regularly ask about a certain “comic” strip. Reckon the komix geek community (and I say that with affection) will be all abuzz that Owen is prominently proffering a copy of DMZ, a “Comic” Book That Exists.

23 thoughts on “Riddle Me This, Batiuk”

  1. Oh crap. Here comes the lecture, ladies and gentlemen: why you should not expect entertainment humor in a comic strip book. Let’s sit down while Batiuk mouthpiece climbs onto his soapbox.

  2. Really? Didn’t we already go through this “art is serious and should be about serious issues and I’m a serious artist who should be taken seriously” with Suicidal Susan and her Wit lecture? Give it up, Batiuk. There is more genuine artistic merit in the lightest Calvin and Hobbes than there is in your entire catalogue of misery porn.

  3. Seriously? Batiuk’s going to go there this week? The problem is not just that this “comic” strip is not “funny” — it’s also not whatever Batiuk intends it to be. It’s neither funny or serious, nor consistent (except in the bad, shitty way) or cohesive or thought-provoking or daring or… well, you get the picture. Unless, of course, it’s just that exact level of awfulness he’s going for in the first place.

  6. I don’t understand John’s business model. Let the three teenagers that even read comic books hang out all day playing video games? They can’t do that at home, this is some oasis?

    “I get asked that all the time by my 3 customers, and the occasional lost person who stops in asking for directions.”

  7. “Why no, comics can also be maudlin pits of despair and self-indulgence. And there’s a few other things they can be, too, but I’ll have to take you into the other room to show you that.”

  8. Just what I needed this week – a lecture from a bad writer and artist about how deep and meaningful Funky Winkerbean comic books are.

  9. I see The CW has handed off the Wilma Flintstone pearls to Owen.
    Why yes, Owen, comic books are great for a gay old time.
    Oh, Roberta….

  10. Skunk Head Kid Toucher John’s leer suggests he’s about to invite Chullo Head to sit on his lap as he explains it all to him. And Chullo’s expression indicates he knows what’s coming.

    I’d respect Batcrap more if he dealt with the “issue” of child molestation, “outed” Skunk Head, and had him arrested and thrown in the slammer. But that won’t happen because apparently TomButt doesn’t see anything creepy or weird about Komix John at all. Very disturbing.

  11. Back from Florida….caught up on last week….reading a week at a time is no less painful let me tell ya. And today? This again is the frustration of TB who yearned to be a novel author and failed like his Westviewian characters.

  14. It’s probably just me, but I’m starting to think TB’s incredulous “comics are supposed to be funny… take that ignorant fans” has become more of a running gag than “it always rains at the Battle of the Bands”.
    And Owen, your chullo was blue last year. Now it’s brown. Time to take it off, provided your hair hasn’t woven itself into the knit.

    Also, glad to hear that you made it through the hurricane safely, TFH.

  16. Batiuk, maybe people ask that all the time because they want a comic strip to be comical and light-hearted, not self-aggrandizing and maudlin; you know, something about giving the audience what it wants instead of being a petulant, self-absorbed prig.

  18. I’ve said it before but I’ve always thought a comic strip that can elict a genuine guffaw or outright laugh is WAY harder to do than this whole: “I’m so serious” business.

    Thank heavens for Funky Snarkers! They call BS on his “You can’t critisize me, I’m writing about cancer!” BS.

  19. “No, son, the word ‘comic’ doesn’t mean ‘funny.’ It also doesn’t mean interesting, moving, well-thought-out, well-executed, or entertaining in any way. ”

    “So what does it mean, Mr. Skunkhead?”

    “Heh. Here in Westview, not a damned thing.”

    TFH, like the others, I’m glad to hear that you and your family got through Hurricane Sandy.

  20. I didn’t get the impression when I first read this strip that it’s going to be the start of a week-long spew about how comics can occupy roles beyond simple humorous entertainment.

    But then I realized that I was being ridiculous. Of all the “important” topics Batiuk writes about, this is the only one he takes seriously. He may write about gay people or teen pregnancy because it gets him a certain cachet, but he doesn’t actually care about those topics. *This* topic he cares about, because it’s directly about him.

    And that’s where it fails, because his obvious disinterest in his “serious” topics betrays his hypocrisy, and his obvious prestige-grasping. His stories show a lack of rudimentary research about the subject at hand, and that ably demonstrates, again and again, where his true feelings lie.

    If something matters to you, you get it right. If you truly care about something, you want to portray it honestly. He does neither of these things, and when informed of this, lashes out rather than doing better the next time.

  21. Heard somewhere from Ohio: “Shut up all of you fuckers! Just shut up! I’m in control here! I will put you in your place! Hard liquor, smirks, and cancer for everyone! Bwahahahahahahaha!!!!

  22. Perhaps John will get outed as a child molester, Becky will run back into the arms of Wally, causing Wally an alcoholic relapse/PTSD episode where he holes up in the tallest building of Westview and starts sniping ala Charles Whitman. I say go hard or go home 🙂

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