Charles
May 5, 2013 at 3:41 pm
What‘s Frankie going to do? If he’s trying to reconnect with Darin, why is he hanging around like a cop on stakeout? Why doesn’t he just go in and introduce himself?Jeffcoat Wayne
May 5, 2013 at 11:29 am
Even though it’s stalkerish behavior, I’m still not getting Batiuk’s intended “evil vibe” off of Frankie. He genuinely comes off as a guy who was deprived of the chance to meet his own illegitimate bastard son.
What and why indeed? Frankie seems totally un-sinister today, at least compared to how he’s been portrayed so far in this arc. Where is this going?
Son of Stuck Funky 
Darin knows he’s the product of Lisa’s poor judgment one night in the back of a van, I don’t see why he would be stunned to learn the bio father exists. Sharing dna doesn’t mean there is any reason for a relationship going forward, so this whole “scheme” just seems pointless and trite.
If Frankie doesn’t have some kind of bad intent, then every strip leading up to this has been wasted, even today’s.
And who the hell is Lenny? Frankie’s gay lover or something? He’s obviously a trusted confidant so he’s not just some random friend of Frankie’s.
Based on everything he’s said so far, it’d seem that his ultimate motive somehow involves the cancer book and Our Lady Of Perpetual Goodness And Unfortunate Travails. As of right now, it’s also seems that his only real goal is to simply be a dick, unless he plans on extorting Les somehow, which seems pretty stupid seeing how the book (and thus the movie) all takes place many years after his fling with Lisa happened. So I’m as baffled as everyone else, even as I bask in FTR’s rather hammy villainy. Hey, it sure beats DSH John or week after week of Les’ annoyingness.
Coming tomorrow: the next phase of FTR’s nefarious scheme is revealed as he announces to Lenny that he’s ready to exit the car. I haven’t seen it so I’m not sure yet but he should be actually entering Montoni’s by the end of the week at the latest.
Hey… what’s Darin doing with Funky?
Oh that’s right…. he works there…for about $11/hour and no healthcare.
As for Frankie….. relax all. There has never been a TB story that actually has real conflict or true challenges (treated with reality)… Pizza World…. Wally comes marching home….Khan..selling Starbuck jones/time wrap/cell-phone girl.
This will all peter out…..
Look Frankie…unless your going to car bomb Funky’s sedan, put ricin in the pizza at Montoni’s or nerve gas Komix Korner……………you don’t need all this conspiratorial planning just to tell Darrin your his father!!!!!!!!
Just go up to Durwood and pull an Empire Strikes Back on him. Handchopping is not optional, by the way.
Where is this going?
“IT’S CALLED PLODDING!”
If Frankie is planning on being a dick, he’ll fit right in when he moves permanently to Westview. It sure seems like “being a dick” is what every Westviewian writes under “hobbies” when they fill out their online dating membership forms.
Tuesday: “Okay, Lenny. Here’s da plan. I’m gonna parallel park. Wait’ll the kid gets a load of his REAL dad.”
Wednesday: “Okay, Lenny. I’m linin’ up with the car in front of my space. I’m just gonna walk right in there.”
Thursday: “Hey, get this, Lenny. I’m makin’ sure nobody’s comin’, and I’m turnin’ the wheel to the right. I can’t wait to see this dumb kid’s expression when I walk in there.”
Friday: “Yo, Lenny, my friend on the phone, I’m backin’ into the space until the outer corner of the car behind me appears in the lower corner of my back window. Dat kid’s gonna be surprised, I tell ya.”
Saturday: “The plan couldn’t be goin’ better, Lenny, on the other end of this cell phone conversation. I’m about to turn the wheel to the left and back the rest of the way into dis parkin’ space. Then I’m goin’ in.”
Sunday: “Lenny, I’m hangin’ up this telephone now. Gonna shut off the motor an’ go tell this kid I’m his real dad. Our plan is comin’ together.”
Monday: “Hello? Anybody in there? Shit. Closed.”
Frankie looks almost sentimental in the last panel instead of all smirky and evil. This is giving him way too much credit, but maybe Batiuk is messing with our heads and Frankie is slowly dying of some terminal illness Batiuk hasn’t featured yet and just wants to get to know his son before Masky shows up.
Frankie is quite the criminal mastermind, closing in on a kid who HAS NO MONEY. So maybe this isn’t about money. Maybe Frankie’s pizza app is buggy, and he’s going to force Duron to fix it.
Knowing how hackneyed BatHack is, I predict the following:
1. FTR is a recovering alcoholic
2. Lenny is his sponsor.
3. FTR is on the 8th step of his 12 step program: “Make a list of all persons I have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all”
4. He’s going to give Darin, Jess, and Less and big hug and ask for forgiveness.
5. Takes everyone to Montoni’s for pizza
6. Rest of world projectile vomits.
Here comes Les and let’s get ready to rumble! It’s a battle of facial expressions; Professor Sneer vs Sir Smirks-a-Lot! My eyebrows ache just thinking about it.
@Louder – That might be plausible, but wasn’t Frankie sucking down beer in front of the TV a couple of weeks ago? Well, it is TB, so it could still be plausible.
@bobanero: Never let facts get in the way of a good story!
Is a table-for-two really too heavy for Funky or Durwood to pick up individually? No wonder Frankie’s not impressed.
You know what that last panel needs? DRAMATIC ANIMALS!
In the last few days, it seemed to indicate that Frankie was an alumnus of Westview (“Not exactly thinner”, from Sunday), but wasn’t he from a different high school, one with a football team that won?
(What did he look like in Act I, by the way?)
Okay…now I’m a little bent out of shape about this because it hits a nerve. For the record, Fred Fairgood is Darin’s real Dad. Frankie was the biological father (the sperm donor) and nothing more. Frankie was never there for the cuts and scrapes, to teach the boy how to throw and catch a football, how to tie his shoes or a tie. Fred did those things. I know TB thinks this is drama, I think it’s BS and I’m not ashamed to say it. And if Darin does anything other than punch Frankie in the face when he pulls that “Luke, I am your father…join me on the dark side” card, my lowest opinion of TB will be confirmed.
…but wasn’t [Frankie] from a different high school, one with a football team that won?
You are correct, Señor!
Bill A hit the nerve right on the head! TB’s “writing” is so bad, it’s offensive. Comparing his work with Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s is unfair to EBL.
Batom Inc. blew it again. The attempt to draw “bad guy” Frankie sneering in panel 3 only makes it look like he’s smirking – the default facial expression in Westview.
Remember how Tom Batiuk said that the upcoming ret-conning will reveal that there was “coercion” in the Lisa-gets-pregnant story?
I’m pretty sure he phrased it that way–using the passive voice.
What if it was Frankie who was coerced into having sex by Lisa?
“Whip it out, stud-boy, or the whole school finds out about your gayness!”
You, too, nailed it, Chasm!
@Louder, “@bobanero: Never let facts get in the way of a good story!”
or a bad one … a very bad one.
@ Bill A… Right On!
but we shall see how TB plays that out.
@ TFH: Ya.. That’s what I thought..FTR was on the Big Walnut Tech Football team… Meaning both kids were minors in high school while in the back of that Van.
30 years later… give it a break
@ Beckoning: That can’t be true, such an act would sully the good name of Saint Lisa the Cancered.
Lenny: “So, what do you think, Frankie? Have you been passive and plodding enough? Or do you want to just sit on your butt in the car for several more hours, just LOOKING at people while you talk my ear off on how you totally have a scheme going.”
Frankie: “I don’t think I care for your tone.”
Lenny: “Hey, EXCUUUUUSE me, Princess!”
Frankie: “Listen. These things must be done delicately, lest you hurt the spell.”
Lenny: “Oh, and now you’re quoting Margaret Hamilton! Call me back when you’re willing to be SERIOUS, doofus!”
Frankie: “…*…how rude. Welp, I’ve driven to Les Moore’s house, then to Montoni’s…should I try calling them up and announce myself? Hmmm…nah. Think I’ll just watch some more. Yup. One can never do too much watching!”
So now it’s more ambiguous than ever, as to whether or not Frankie’s intentions are good or evil. I was hoping his intention was to kill Les in the most inhumane way possible, which would have been very good indeed.
You know, every theory I can think of is just too complex, involved and/or interesting to be a FW plot. And when I try to dumb it down and think like Batom (easier said…), I can’t make it make sense. Not that it will, because it’s highly likely that it won’t. It’s what makes BatWrite & his strip so incredibly confounding, the way he takes a premise and comes up with something no one else could have thought of while simultaneously making it as bland, boring and dumb as possible. When it comes to pretending to tell a story while avoiding anything resembling one, the man is the master.
I have to say, if Frankie is intended to be the villain of this arc, he leaves a lot to be desired.
Just think, by this time last year, Evil Roberta had already read the Westview Staff the riot act, organized a spontaneous Gay Shaming demonstration, incited the cowardly principal to chew out the entire student body over opinions THEY never advocated, and was ultimately only silenced (in true backwards BaTom fashion) by her milktoast husband suddenly deciding to Exercise His Husbandly Authority and Remind Her of Her Wifely Duties. And she was just a VOLUNTEER!
In contrast, Frankie’s drunk a few beers, driven aimlessly around the neighborhood, and called up a friend to shoot the breeze.
Pathetic.