Ah, there’s the Tom Batiuk that I know of old–a completely nonsensical final crack in panel three. I know the saying, (Be nice to the people you meet on your way to the top, for you’ll meet them again when you fall from grace), but Funky’s use of it here makes no sense to me. Just like “continu[ing] to take” a “permanent break” makes no sense.
I mean, is Funky insulted that Les has to quit his part-time pizza job? “Oh, so now that you’re a writer, you can’t do man’s work like shoveling pizza at people. Well, good luck, wuss. Just remember that when you’re a broken, dying failure desperately in need of a job here–because I sure will.”
I guess Funky is simply emphasizing the worldview in Westview, that you’ll never achieve success and happiness in the outside world, but die lonely and in pain, even if you’re Les Moore. In which case, why didn’t he just say that and spare us all this befuddlement?
Also, fellow snarkers, I’m sure you’ve figured out the whole point of this arc…let’s see, Les sits at a table, while people talk about his abilities and achievements and his total awesomeness and he talks about how hard he works. Yes, folks, it’s how Tom Batiuk thought his Comic Con 2013 experience should play out. And they say there’s no room for fantasy in today’s world!
Son of Stuck Funky 
What’s with Cayla and Funky’s face in Panel Three?
“I don’t think I want to come back.”
See how much more elegant that is? EDITING!!
Ugh, just listen to him, pissing and moaning about how epically busy he is even as he sits there at that pizza place again, doing nothing but complaining. I guess his time constraints weren’t as pressing a few months back when he was sticking his smug bearded face into the Frankie arc for no particular reason when he should have been “writing” instead. Typical Les (TomBat): patting himself on the back while whining about how tough it is being him. What a dick.
Re: Les “working” at Montonis. Maybe I’m remembering it wrong but I thought Les became a sort of honorary co-manager/partner when he helped bail out Montoni’s a while back. So he never really “worked” there, he’d just sort of fill in here and there as he pleased. Anyone else remember any of this with any accuracy? Or did I imagine the whole thing?
What is the f*cking problem with this movie-option-screenplay-script thing? I mean the “story” has already been written, so all he really has to do is adapt it for filming, no? Not to imply that it’s “easy” or whatever because I honestly have no idea, but it seems that it’d definitely be easier than creating a story from scratch. Am I wrong about this? Because I really enjoy finding things to hate and criticize Les about, you know?
Epic self-righteousness. “I have to pull the chair way out to help my current wife sit down.(at the greasiest dump in town)”. I hate guys like this
Epicus, remember that Les has never actually written a script before. The man has absolutely no experience in the movie industry. What we are seeing is actually very realistic, minus the parts where he stresses over his continuing problems and the studio threatening to move the screenplay to someone with actual experience.
For anyone that wanted to know what The Sopranos would have been like if Tom Batiuk wrote it…..
Batiuk having only friends and family at his Comics-con appearance would be realistic.
Les took the job at Montoni’s because he “needed” to save money for Summer attending college. Then he married Cayla, adding a second income to his household, and both their daughters scored full scholarships to “college”, otherwise known as Kent State. So he didn’t need the money over a year ago.
“I’ll be there for you even though I can’t imagine what you are going through but I will always be able to be there for you when you need someone to be there even though I can’t imagine what you are going through but I am your friend who will be there for you even though I don’t know how to imagine that I’ll be there for you!”
Yeah, I hit that one outta the park!
Hmmm, I thought that during Funky’s/Montoni’s money woes, Les somehow helped to bail them out, thus becoming a partner of sorts. This is why I wish there was some sort of FW “fan site” where info like that would be readily available. But alas, no one cares enough, aside from us beady-eyed nitpickers. Weird how something that’s been around for forty-plus years has such a limited online presence.
Gyre: I considered that, but it’s just more fun to bag on him regardless of whether his stress is valid or not.
Come off your high horse’s ass, Les! You obviously have plenty of time to kill — you’ve been sitting outside Montoni’s for three days and Funky has yet to take your order. For Christ’s sake, just do what Erich Segal did and remove all the “He said”/”She said”s from the novel and call it a day.
Actually Epicus, my point was that Les should be experiencing a lot more stress. What we’re seeing right now? This in no way suggests that Les is an inexperienced writer with no familiarity with the film industry who is trying to write something faithful to his wife’s image. The way he’s talking, you’d think it’s just some article in the town’s literary journal.
Does Les still have a teaching job? Or does he just occasionally show up at the high school and act smug in front of students untilvthey kick him out?
Les, Les, Les. REAL writers write every day. Because that’s what being a writer MEANS. You write every day. Whether you feel like it or not. That fact that you think you have any right at all to whine about how HAAAAAARD, it is, putting EFFORT into something proves that you suck at it.
Call back to complain when you’re not leeching off your dead wife’s bones, jerk.
The fact of the matter is, a REAL production company would have DEMANDED a registered, copyrighted, properly formatted showcase script from Les LONG before they ever, ever, EVER agreed to let him write the first draft. It’s establishing your professional credentials, Tom, put down your effin’ Tarzan comics some time and RESEARCH.
Things would not have gotten to this point, several MONTHS gone and STILL NO FINISHED FIRST DRAFT.
(A 7-80 minute one-off teleplay, no less. I’m getting the feeling Ann was only humoring him all along.)
Damn, when was the last time Les was shown working at Montoni’s? It has to be five years at least, right?
Here’s another puzzle: Try to construct the conversation that led to Les’ line in Panel One.
Also, check out Funky’s position in Panel Two. A man in his fifties sitting with the back of the outdoor chair turned around, with his legs spread obscenely wide. So much for whatever dignity owning this squalid dive may have granted him.
Here’s another puzzle: Try to construct the conversation that led to Les’ line in Panel One.
LES: Hey, Funky, how come my direct deposit paychecks haven’t been showing up in my account for the past three months?
FUNKY: Gee, I dunno, why the fuck haven’t you been to work in the past three months?
I’m pretty sure Funky is simply stating the facts of life in Westview. With few exceptions, everyone who leaves town to go on to bigger and better things winds up falling from grace, moving back to Westview and working or living above Montoni’s.
His smirk in panel 3 is not an indication of snark, just an involuntary reflex brought on by the large amount of comic book ink polluting the Westview water supply.
I just choose to attribute all the lop-sided expressions to the fact that all the residents of Westview have constant mini-strokes.
Reading the comments over on Comics Kingdom I am struck how the phrase :: “I can’t pretend to know what you’re going through…I’m here for you and will listen as much as you need…And be your friend even if I haven’t got the right words.” would fight perfectly in Funky’s word balloon in Panel Three–especially given his and Cayla’s expression
In fact just as Garfield without Garfield is funnier than Garfield with Garfield and “Christ what an asshole” is funnier than any other New Yorker cartoon caption, : “I can’t pretend to know what you’re going through…I’m here for you and listen as much as you need…And be your friend even if I haven’t got the right words.” probably works on every FW.
batiuk has made a problem for himself. either the movie gets made, or it doesn’t get made. not getting made is not an option, because he’s spent so much narrative energy getting to this point. so assuming it gets made, is it going to be successful or a bomb? neither really works. les moore a successful screenwriter? how would that play out? and the alternative is another wasted.
sorry … continuing: another wasted narrative arc. to me, les as a failed screenwriter would be perfect, but i don’t think batiuk has the balls to actually do it. this is getting delayed while batiuk tries to write himself out of his quandary.
As it is, thus far the return of the long-forgotten “Hollywood” arc (two years it went without being alluded to. TWO YEARS.) has merely been a vehicle for Tom to revisit one of his favorite themes from 2007 onward: Writers SUFFER, writing, because writing is HAAAAAARD. And only another writer can truly appreciate their intense suffering. This ignores, of course, that REAL writers consider stories written about the auffering of a writer to be innately lazy, selfish, sloppy, and indulgent.
Sorry, “suffering” not “auffering”
balthazar, I’d like to see the storyline play out so that Les loses everything and dies penniless and forgotten. Sort of like the end of “Godfather 3”, only without the audience ever giving a shit about the character.
i would too. just saying that batiuk has put himself in a funny spot with regard to the character of les. it strains credulity, even to the most uncritical reader of this strip, for les to be a successful screenwriter. what would be the next step? its an absurd sequence.
but its just as unsatisfying for les to fail here, because he’s supposed to be this noble widower and writer. this strip just makes me want to barf.
Here’s my guess on how I think the long-term Les The Screenwriter arc will play out. Les will toil and toil and complain and complain. He will finally finish it and it will be brilliant. Then “Hollywood” will get their hands on it and “ruin” it somehow, leading to a bunch of wry wisecracks and weary gags about “sticking to books” and such. That’s it, no twists, turns, surprises or anything even remotely interesting in any way. The complaining about writing the screenplay IS the story here, everything surrounding it will be nothing but filler.