I don’t know how Hollywood works, nor do I pretend to know. Some of you readers, though, seem to have some insight into the movie-making process, and it’s fun to compare and contrast that with Les’ Hollywood “experience”. I know even less about the network news business, so I’ll just share my musings about today’s strip.
For starters, how long has Cindy, I mean, Cynthia Summers been an anchorperson? Guess she’s no longer “embedded“. And is it just a little premature to be reporting this “news from Hollywood,” considering that not even one page of the screenplay has been written? Do plans to make a made-for-cable-TV movie even qualify as “news from Hollywood”? And are news anchors allowed to report hometown gossip as “news”?
Son of Stuck Funky 
So Cindy is anchoring the Westview local cable access newscast?
Excuse me?
“Based on the novel……”
Novel?
A novel is a long prose narrative that describes fictional characters and events in the form of a sequential story, usually.
For Less…”Lisa’s Story” is not a novel.
For Batyuck …Lisa’s story is a cash cow to be milked whenever he has writers block
Of all the people to keep confidential information…Les choses the Funkmeister himself….who is to Westview what J.R. Ewing was to Dallas.
Also, when I think of a story about a “Young Women’s fight against cancer” . My first thought would be ” Oh, there remaking Terms of Endearment?”
Boring, nonsensical and stupid: the FW “holy trinity”. This one is sub-moronic on every level. Nothing could possibly explain why this would be “news” or why it’s supposed to be a “secret”. It’d be neither to anyone Les knows who was alive during Movie-Option Arc #1 from a few years ago, except possibly Fred. In fact I distinctly remember (please help me) a strip where Susan was wildly aroused by the news that Beardo was going Hollywood. If she knew, everyone knew.
So this is really a story about how hard it is to create another masterpiece while everyone’s hovering over you wishing you well and “encouraging” you to make that loot as fast as possible? Like Pink Floyd’s “Have A Cigar”, only centering around an annoying bearded dick with ears and a stupid old cancer book instead of the recording industry? And not entertaining in any way? I see. Sometimes it takes me a while to “get” these but yeah, uh huh.
Cindy is reporting the “news” as if she never met or heard of the author and the protagonist. Plus, she moved out of Westview to avoid aging, the worse Funky looks the hotter she appears.
Why would Funky tell this news to his ex-wife–who didn’t part with him on good terms and no longer lives in the area–over any of his close (well, closeer) friends and family? Simple: so Baituk can set up this joke.
Hopefully now Les has violated some NDA clause in in contract and will get his precious royalty check and first draft privileges taken away. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving person.
I too am puzzled that the one person Funky told was his ex-wife, rather than, you know, his current wife.
Otherwise, I’ll give Batiuk a pass on this one. There’s actually an attempt at a joke, though as usual it’s poorly phrased. The idea that “a novel” being turned into a film would be newsworthy only works if the novel is “bestselling,” “award-winning” or “beloved” or otherwise not just “a novel.” Although it is true that for well-known authors (Michael Crichton comes to mind) their work was sold to the studios when it was still in galley form. Another reason to announce would be if a well known star were signed to the project.
Still, it’s not really news, is it? Weren’t the film rights sold a couple of years back? Many books sold to studios never make it into films (see the Walt Disney Company) so Cindy’s announcement is a bit premature.
The proper punchline, by the way, the one designed to cause Les maximum embarrassment, would be “From Hollywood, the book Lisa’s Story is to be adapted into a motion picture–by Les Moore, the book’s author.” See, that would put more pressure on Les and extend this whole “I’m under so much pressure” arc.
At first I didn’t see Les’ computer in the banner and thought he was just creeping up on someone– probably Cynthia– with his sleazy hands out and ready for stalking.
[img]http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u624/Inkwell-F/lesstalk_zpsa2f57430.png[/img]
You mean, keep the movie script you haven’t written yet under wraps for a while? Well, gee, that should be easy. Maybe I’ll store in the vault right next to that cure for cancer you’ve been working on. Plenty of room, by the way.
“News from Hollywood”? Unless I’ve forgotten something, Les’s only interaction with “Hollywood” throughout this movie deal has been through Apple Annie. Have we even seen him meet with anyone representative of “Hollywood” aside from paranoid fantasy. Well, I guess the check is proof (Couldn’t be a fake, right?), but otherwise too much of this reads like Apple Annie is simply yanking Les’s chain.
Yessir, we’re all rootin’ for Les Moore, and who the heck can blame us? He’s this century’s Everyman! His struggles are our struggles. We want him to win, because he is we!
Like, who can’t relate to the trauma of having the fact that our best-selling (?) “novel” being adapted for a movie has been prematurely leaked to our national TV anchorwoman friend by our Chamber of Commerce Big Shot friend? We’ve all been there, and this comic reminds us that we’re not alone in suffering through such high-profile media struggles.
That’s what True Art is all about, friends. Providing comfort to the smug and the smirking.
We stand in line, Tom. We. Stand. In. Line!
Merry Pookster, if a made-for-cable movie can win an Oscar, why can’t a non-fiction book be a novel?
Yep – makes sense – in Batshit bizarro land. 1/4 away from reality huh? Someone must be smoking some really wicked shit.
Holy crap how old is Funky in panel 2 – 80? can we get a storyline about the adventures of Kili and Buddy? That at least would be 10 times better then this – this – words fail me…
I must have Les’ writer’s block!
in header panel it looks like filthy hat boy is smoking a pipe
Coming next week: Cindy, freshly fired from her big-time TV gig after her bizarre “Lisa’s Story” lapse, resorts to grabbing the coveted pizza-app-developer supervisor’s gig from a sympathetic yet wary Funky. Meanwhile, a frustrated Les stands around all afternoon acting smug and obnoxious, claiming it “helps him think”.
You know… if Lisa’s Story WAS a novel loosely based on Lisa’s illness, a lot of what’s happened the past few years in the strip would actually make more sense: a “factual” account of her illness couldn’t help being a piece of shit, because Batiuk told a truly terrible story. But we never actually saw Les’s book, so maybe he wrote a truly great novel using her illness as inspiration, and all the praise he’s received is warranted.
Yeah,Les is still a smug, egotistical douche, but so are a lot of great writers.
Ready for STRANGLING! I meant to type “sleazy hands ready for strangling”! How do you use hands to stalk?? >_<
Yep let’s keep this quite, cause there is NOTHING Hollywood hates more than publicity.
Well, I can’t load today’s strip for some reason, but kudos to Batiuk for doubtlessly writing another reality-based comic that depicts contemporary issues affecting young adults in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner.
TFH sez: Helpful tip from a commenter at the Comics Kingdom site: if the strip doens’t load, click on the “Buy a Print” button and you’ll see a (nice, big) image of today’s strip!
TOMORROW: Tom draws a bunch of Westview bumpkins, gathered around in front of the window display of a hardware store, staring at the TV screens inside, pointing and grinning.
Because in Westview, culturally and technology wise, it’s still 1963!
Seriously, Tom? Do you even know that something called “social media” exists?
These days, this sort of very minor, thin news item would get -maybe- a brief tweet, that’s it.
And, hey, there’s always the fact that putting a “film” (well, made for basic cable cheapie weepie) into development does NOT mean that it’s actually been greenlit to get made…Les may very well find himself now in serious legal trouble.
But, oh, that poor rascal, eh Tom?
Meh.
If I recall correctly, Cindy started out in Act II as a reporter for the local station so it’s possible that she’s back as the local anchorperson – oh hell, I refuse to cut Batiuk any slack. It’s a lot more fun to assume that he thinks that a basic cable movie deal for a book 99.99% of the country never heard of is national news.
Les: “You told CINDY?!”
Funky: “Hey, I thought you liked her. After all, you named Summer after her, right?”
Les: “Hm…I guess that makes sense.”
So now Batiuk is getting the writing profession AND the news profession wrong! Now that’s what I call ” a reality-based comic strip that depicts contemporary issues affecting young adults in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner”!
Well, as for Lisa’s Story not being a novel, the is a form, used by good writers in the later half of the 20th century, called the non-fiction novel. Think of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, for example, or arguably Creepy Les Moore’s I Totally Know Who Shot John Darling: Aren’t I Clever?.
Today:
“And in news from Hollywood… plans are underway to make a movie based on the novel ‘Lisa’s Story,’ about a young woman’s fight with breast cancer.”
Tomorrow (hopefully):
“This news was first reported to us by source Funky Winkerbean, a pizza parlor owner in a dying rustbelt town and alleged friend of ‘Lisa’s Story’ author Les Moore. It is suspected that he only broke this ‘news’ because he really wanted to hear his name on television.”
NOVEL? I thought Lisa was real? Or maybe tomorrow we have a VHS tape from Lisa explaining to Les what he should do when his friend’s ex-wife calls his fiction work a novel.
The word Batominc was looking for is memoir. This is with a year’s lead time, folks. A year.
Our other trope today is inexplicable, as in “It’s quite inexplicable, isn’t it, that Mr. Winkerbean would gossip about his best friend’s professional difficulties with his bitterly divorced ex-wife.”
Alright, we’ve already pointed out both how stupid it is that they would consider big news a movie deal that doesn’t even have a first script yet (let alone casting or filming) and that even if that’s set aside this still isn’t newsworthy*. Here’s what I find just weird about this. This is the second time she’s used news connections to help a friend (sort of) by talking about it live. The first time I can remember is the dubious case against John about his comic shop, where she actually took a camera crew live outside the courthouse and talked about it as though this was a major Supreme Court decision about human rights when in reality it was a pretty open and shut case at a low level court where he’d done nothing wrong and what little we heard from the prosecutor made it clear that the case was so shaky no prosecutor with any hope of advancement would ever try it.
But at least that court case would have had some interest from its unusual nature and maybe deserved a fifteen to thirty second mention in the evening news (though certainly not a live report). This? Who signed off on her using her position to announce news that isn’t newsworthy about a friend’s novel (wonder how far that falls into issues of journalistic integrity)?
*Unless his biography/memoir of Lisa actually turned into a bestseller, was there a mention of that anywhere (and even then it still wouldn’t be worth TV time)?
This is the second time she’s used news connections to help a friend (sort of) by talking about it live.
Um, third. You forget who got Wally’s ass out of Iraquistan (the second time)?
When Les makes 10 million dollars, a bookshelf full of awards and has screaming fans everywhere will he FINALLY quit working at Montoni’s?
Not if he remains prone to bouts of writer’s block and endless moping.
I think Cindy is running her news show in the back of Montoni’s – her Plot Point Newscast* can’t be that timely, can it?
Reading this, though, my eyes focused on the Montoni’s Wall of Fame behind Funky. Maybe it’s been discussed before, or there’s been a better shot of it, but who would possibly be on that wall? Aside from novelist Les Moore, maybe Harry Dinkle? The guy on the left looks a lot like comedian Jack Burns (or maybe the legendary Gags Beasley). Above him looks like what can only be Le Ballon Rouge.
*h/t Mystery Science Theater 3000
News from”Hollywood?” I didn’t know there was a town in lunkheaded Ahia called “Hollywood.”
I think Batboy needs to go with slightly more reasonable and realistic plot lines, like Les Moore getting elected President.
And I’m not even going to bother trying to imagine why Goatee Boy wants this nonsense kept secret, except MAYBE to save himself the gigantic embarrassment if it’s all a big failure. What are the chances of BatCrazy letting THAT happen?
Is today’s strip realistic? Here’s a test:
Think of a book you saw at Barnes & Nobel, bought, read, and enjoyed.
That book has been optioned by a producer. I guarantee it.
Did you see anything on the news (network, no less!) about that?
I didn’t think so.
“Buy a print”? Seriously? I had to check this out….twenty-five bucks? Are you kidding me? I wonder how many FW prints they sell per year? I’d be stunned if it was more than, say, ten. Even that seems high.
Imagine you’re at a doctor’s appointment or a job interview and you see a framed print of one of these completely meaningless FW’s on the wall. What would your reaction be? Confusion? Horror? Confused horror? Knowing myself as I do, I’d probably quietly skulk out when no one was looking and run to my car with keys in hand.
Or even worse, you’ve met someone new and it’s the first time you’ve been invited over to his/her place. You walk in and there’s a framed print of Les staring back at you. Deal-breaker?
On the other hand, any business establishment who had the first half of THIS strip on their wall, I would gladly patronize and throw my money at:
[img]http://comics.ganneff.de/2007.10.10/Funky%20Winkerbean-2007.10.10[/img]