To be honest, I’m not really sure what in the hell is going on here. What are Jessica and Boy Lisa gloating about? Don’t they ever tire of eating that Montoni’s food? And is Frankie actually suffering from pangs of remorse and/or jealousy there in panel six? And, if so, why wait until NOW to finally allow the character to express an emotion other than evil self-centered sneering? And the biggest question of all: was it really necessary to add this little coda to a story that was, for all intents and purposes, already over? At least I HOPE it’s over, that is, because with this Batom guy you never really know.
Note the subtle way he “Frankie-fied” that floating disembodied Darin head there in the lead panel. Bleh, that’s going to haunt my dreams tonight.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Good idea, Lenny. Save that for Les Moore.
Honors for the title of Laughing Stock in their respective industry goes to….drum roll…..Tom Batiuk!
It hurts me to see that camera thrown into the trunk without a case.
Toy camera, Slager. You never saw anybody actually use it, did you?
No, the story can’t be over. We’re due at least two more weeks of all of the cast gloating over their achievement in thwarting the Dead Lisa Reality Show. And how exactly does Summer reading Lisa’s journal on Youtube lead to Lenny being the laughingstock of the industry? Oh, I see, because Batiuk says it does. No, really, hoe does that work in the real world? Because I would be more inclined to laugh at the Youtube videos.Come on, Batiuk — Give us a Zombie Lisa movie, we’re all on board with that idea.
Frankie sees Darin and Jessica having a nice, loving relationship and he hates that, because he wanted that with Lisa.
Think of that: he wanted to be Les Moore.
Also, Darin and Jessica are horrible and no one should envy them, because, horrible.
Pleeeese, Frankie, puhleeeeeze…before you leave, carry on your family tradition and throw a sledgehammer punch into Dagwood’s smug-ass face. Take that pizza pie and cram it into Jessica’s pseudo-hippie chick hair. And, as you leave, karate kick the shit out of their laptop like it was the fax machine in Office Space.
TOM BATYUCK YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!
Beckoning: Wanting to be Les Moore. Envying Darin and Jessica. Geez, now I actually feel bad for the guy.
Still waiting for some coercion.
Jeffcoat, what the hell does “the real world” have to do with it? The whole storyline takes place in a parallel universe where somebody actually gives a shit about Lisa.
That’s the question, Charles: How does that work? The storyline takes place in a parallel universe where the rules are re-established every five minutes, give or take five minutes.
Jeffcoat, just think of the whole story taking place inside Tom Batiuk’s snowglobe.
S.P. The best explanation of why FW sucks ever
And so Darin (the son of Frank and Lisa), Les (Lisa’s husband) and Jessica (the woman who seems like she’ll be important because she’s so interested in finding out about her father and is married to Darin) were all completely and utterly pointless to the story.
Darin’s only relevance was that he’s Frank’s son and also happens to be the son of a woman who’s getting a cable movie about her, so they needed him for the show. But he never did anything beyond the “yell at Frank” bit and after that effectively disappeared from the strip.
Les’ only relevance was that Lisa’s journal was still in his house (speaking of which: is he ever going to talk to Summer about her reading it when he didn’t want to?) and that he drove Summer home.
Jessica’s only relevance was encouraging Darin to meet Frank the first time (which he might have done anyway) and filming Summer, which really could have been done by someone else (some nameless friend of Keisha -remember her?- from college).
They may tire of Montoni’s pizza, but with the income of a part time pizza-ap maker and an unemployed documentarian, what else can they afford?
Still think that the gay prom is lamest of Act II Arcs, but with this strip today–the Dead Lisa Diary Arc is moving up the list.
I meant Act III obviously.
This installment doesn’t even pass the laughingstock test.
Oh, come on, Batboy!! You know you wanted to put “Grrrrrrrr!” in that fourth panel!
So we’re to think Frankie is jealous or what of two blonde nitwits who live over a pizza joint and who work as said pizza joint? The hell?
Today was a Westview in your face victory lap. TB before you take a victory lap there needs to be a victory. You set up the straw men of Frankie and Lennie with changing motives and menace (and in Lennie’s case changing ethnicity) and “beat” them with contrived plot devices and deus ex machina. And at that you only gave the cult of St. Lisa a win by having the “bad” guys inexplicably giving up.
Here’s the answer to a Zen Koan for you, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”. Your audience’s approval.
Damn. I came out of the Panic Room too soon.
Funky is the laughingstock of the pizza industry.
DSH John is the laughingstock of the comic book selling industry.
Mopey Pete is the laughingstock of the comic book writing industry.
Les Moore is the laughingstock of two industries: writing and teaching.
Lisa is the laughingstock of the haunting from beyond the grave industry.
Of course, Merry Pookster already pointed out the biggest laughingstock of them all.
So, yeah, Lenny is saying, “We don’t want to be guilty by association with these clowns in Westview.”
Darrin : ” Your a real tough cookie………………………………..tasteless, overbaked, tough to chew, made of cheap ingredients and likely to rot my teeth and give me adult onset diabetes!!!”
You know, the excellent book “How NOT to Write a Novel” has an entire chapter warning against “The antagonist who just gives up. Just because it’s time for him to.” Since Tom obviously considers himself The Great Ohioan Graphic Novelist, perhaps I should send him a copy.
I discovered this short story I wrote a while back (February, before this storyline), which retcons all of Act II & III all out of existence (I wrote an earlier, slightly longer one which retcons out Act III).
[url=http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8243916/les.html]Read here[/url].
Plus, even though it gets undone, the thought of Act III Les being killed by a cement truck is satisfactory.
Wait, there’s no food on that table. They aren’t eating at Montoni’s, they’re living at Montoni’s, if you call that living. And that looks like someone’s foot in P5. And “Slugger”? Is she serious? That’s the worst term of Westview endearment since “Kiddo”. Oy!! Someone needs to plow through that cloying couple of swells with a large automobile. Where is that damn Cell Phone Girl when you need her?
Here’s looking at you, Slugger!
Sgt., I’m hoping against hope that Frankie’s “Let’s go!” is a sign that the last trick up his sleeve is to ram his car through the front window of Montoni’s. Bet that would wrinkle Dead Lisa’s skin to see Darin and Frankie forever linked by the tragic footage taking Youtube and cellphones everywhere by storm.
I was going to agree with Gyre that Darin and Jessica did absolutely nothing to be so smug about, but then I remembered what they did do. They scowled and then they smirked.
In Westview, that’s not only an accomplishment, that’s a career.
There once was a time when Batiuk could pull a story together and delever his message in a one-strip summary without summarizing. This was what Act II was all about.
Today’s longing look at Mr. & Mrs. Boy Lisa accomplished that. I have to believer somebody nudged him on that one panel.
O.B. Dan, you have an oddly rosy recollection of Act II.
I liked it better that Act III, especially in that stories, good or bad, were concluded. I don’t compare it with Act I because they ‘re almost two separate entities.