The most fortunate thing is that I’ve been able to do something that I really really love and again it has just worked out perfectly for me. I fell into the right type of strip, the kind of strip that could endure over the years like we’ve been talking about. I didn’t get the job at Marvel because I’d be out of work right now. [Laughs] I would have been pushed aside years ago.
Tom Batiuk
Interview at comicbookresources.com
When TB’s right, boy, is he right. No comic book publisher would pay for such silly, self-indulgent, retro crap as this. I guess comic strip syndicates are not as choosy, or at least are willing to let “beloved” strips hang on for years, which is how long this arc seems to be dragging on.
Son of Stuck Funky 
“They’ve already crossed over multiple levels of stupid! Those two must be desperate!”
I didn’t think “painfully unfunny” and “mind-numbingly dull” were genres…
Ernie Bushmiller just called to say today’s comic, and this whole Mopey Pete arc, are some pretty lame shit.
“Genre-crossing”…so THAT’S what this is! Silly me, I thought it was just more pointless time-killing until Pete foils LOTL’s plans, wakes up and creates a brand new story out of it and (zzzzzzzz). But nope, what we have here is some good old fashioned radical genre-crossing, like that time the Doobie Brothers were on “What’s Happening?”. Too bad there’s no joke, otherwise they could have crossed into a third genre: comedy. But two genres is still a pretty good cross, so I’m glad LOTL graciously pointed it out to us today lest we overlook its subtleties amidst all the other excitement this week.
Maybe this is the REAL Mopey Pete. He only DREAMS he’s a creepy, ugly little kid-touching, man-child, garden gnome.
This strip falls into the category of TB saying, “I’m brilliant and must show the world.” (I note that he attempts to do this on every strip, but most of the time fails.) Anyway, the dragons are named “Tempus” and “Fugit” which translates to – Time Flies. It is also the real names of The Clock King from Batman: the Animated Series and the time traveling villain from Lois and Clark – The New Adventures of Superman.
So, yeah, TB – you are brilliant with your multiple genre use…(deep sigh). Can we return to stroke victim Fred and his secret daughter whose name I don’t remember anymore because…you know…it’s what you do best.
“Fugit” – exactly my reaction to this self-indulgent drivel.
I believe those are industry terms. Most casual comics fans know the two genres as “bad” and “worse”.
Also, no one mentioned this tidbit that TB casually dropped in that Comic Book Resources iterview that TFH posted yesterday.
Can this actually be happening?
Realization: TB meant a Crankshaft book and not a movie, but still… a Crankshaft movie was/is a possibility?
BTS: At least as much of a possibility as a Lisa’s Story movie.
Wow! what captivation, I can’t stop! What will happen next? Can’t wait until tomorrow, same “Bat” time, same “Bat” Channel… Can someone help me out – am I supposed to be amused or worried or confused (of which I am) what does this have to do with anything?
DC Comics had Bizarreo Superman…. today we are witnessing Bizzareo Batyuck
“They’ve also managed to create a more homo-erotic superhero duo than Chad & Ace! Better get my chastity belt of unlimited endurance, pronto!”
—At least as much of a possibility as a Lisa’s Story movie.–
All right casting call.
Who plays Les Moore? I’m thinking Steve Buscemi.
“All right casting call.”
Jennifer Aniston as Cayla!
Daniel Radcliffe as Summer!
Chaz Bono as Dead Skunk Head John!
Eh, compared to the typical FW story arc, I don’t find this latest thing too bad. It’s silly and stupid, but at least there’s no weariness, resignation, fatalism or Les Moore.
PS: Ernie Bushmiller is THE MAN.
PSS: Nicolas Cage as Les Moore.
More like tempus fuggedaboudit!
W. C. Fields as Funky Winkerbean.
I tuned this arc out a while ago, but I have to reiterate what others have probably stated: Wouldn’t the Pro-Crastinator be doing the Lord of the Late’s bidding?
Pete’s not the Pro-Crastinator, but definitely is a pro at something that rhymes with it.
Bill Watterson wrote how he hated golf jokes that strips did and worried that he would do the equivalent of golf jokes, except with Calvin’s dad and his bicycle. His point was that people who do not golf would find the golf jokes tedious (and in my case he was correct—I find golf jokes lazy and tedious).
Well that’s what we have here: I am certain there are some Flash Gordon fans still alive who find these strips hilarious. Well maybe not “certain” and certainly not “hilarious”–but this whole classic comic genre is the equivalent of a golf joke over several days. A very boring stupid golf joke with no punch line.
Speaking of Watterson, I think he was prescient when he explained why he quit when he quit:
This isn’t as hard to understand as people try to make it. By the end of ten years, I’d said pretty much everything I had come there to say. It’s always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip’s popularity and repeated myself for another five, ten, or twenty years, the people now “grieving” for Calvin and Hobbes would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I’d be agreeing with them. I think some of the reason Calvin and Hobbes still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it. I’ve never regretted stopping when I did
http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2010/02/bill_watterson_creator_of_belo.html
See, also: http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cpeanuts01.html
Where Watterson talks about why Peanuts was great and continued to be great.
Not saying Funky Act I was anything close to C & H or Peanuts, but it was amusing, clever and original. And it is easy for me to say TB should have quit and given up the paycheck rather than lapse into self-parody–but he should have quit years earlier.
That interview is amazing. Literally something in every paragraph that you can unpack and pick over. Which is much, much more than you can say about this week’s strips.
I… I just don’t know where to begin.
This says it all
A “Crankshaft” movie??? Someone is seriously going to bankroll that? Man, those Hollywood weirdos will throw money at anything, eh?
Beckoning mentioned it yesterday but it bears repeating: the disconnect between the FW described in TomBat’s interviews and the actual strip is incredible. It’s like he’s talking about something else entirely and I suppose that in a way he is.
Although the future arc where Holly buys some comic books for Cory sounds like a real barn-burner, doesn’t it? As does the upcoming “Frankie Goes To Westview” arc featuring Dead Lisa, there’s some ground FW rarely covers.
Remember, guys, despite what Tom would have us believe, all and option really means in film land is that the purchaser wants to make sure nobody else can buy the rights while they decide whether or not they -want- to put it into development, much less greenlight it for production.
Many options never get developed. Many more films in development never get greenlit. Such is Hollywood.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for an option to be bought just for the IDEA more than the actual content of said work.
the future arc where Holly buys some comic books for Cory sounds like a real barn-burner, doesn’t it?
I tell ya, I’m dreading it, and here’s why:
“…really cool…such a kick…very cool…” Can you tell Batiuk’s just tickled shitless that he got all these artists to draw covers for his fake comics? Now, do you reckon that those seven covers will appear as tiny daily panels? No way. TB’s going to have to drag “Holly’s komix kwest” out over nearly two months in order to run the covers as large Sunday panels, with a tip o’ the Funky felt tip each week.
Anyway, when did we ever see or hear about Cory Winkerbean being a comic book fan, nay, a collector? Batiuk’s mania is completely consuming this strip, and as lame as the character arcs were, they were more interesting and a hell of a lot easier and more fun to snark on.
I could easily see them making a Crankshaft movie. Grumpy old prick running over mailboxes with a bus, being rude to kids, mangling pop culture references, and eventually softening his heart thanks to the little league team he gets roped into managing. It would be a one of those family-type movies, sort of a Dennis the Menace told from Mr. Wilson’s perspective.
I’d rather watch that than read this flash gordon nonsense.
The interview reminded me of a question I had. How have we known that there was a retcon between Frankie and Lisa, involving coercion? I’ve heard it myself and believed it, but looking back, I can’t remember where I heard it. I checked out the strips at the end of Act II, where Lisa might have mentioned it to Darrin, but didn’t see it anywhere. So where did Batiuk originally reveal that Frankie raped Lisa, saving her consensual virginity for Darling Les? I’m sure it was something dating back to Act II, but I just can’t remember.
Btw, the last several months of Act II were about as self-indulgent an exercise as anything in Act III. No wonder he loved giving cancer to Lisa, because it made her and Les the center of the universe.
“A “Crankshaft” movie??? Someone is seriously going to bankroll that? Man, those Hollywood weirdos will throw money at anything, eh?”
Actually, Crankshaft is actually getting interesting right now, even though the basis of the story is “arbor”trarily impossible…………….
Man, all this attention on old comics is really going to drive up the price of my Baby Huey collection. Better strike while the iron is hot; anyone have the number for Sotheby’s?
reading what Tom says about the strip and seeing the result I can only think of a line from the T.S. Elliot poem – The Hollow Men
“Between the idea and the reality falls the shadow.”
it’s sad really – this vast gap between the strip he thinks he doing and the actual strip, not sure if this is denial or he really doesn’t see. either way if the fog ever lifts its going to be a very bad day for Mr. Batuik.