Huh. Old Harry Dinkle is here. Good old Harry Dinkle, once the Greatest Band Director on Earth, now retired, is hanging out with his successor, the Greatest One-Armed Band Director on Earth. It’s probably quite useful for Becky to have constant access to Harry’s wealth of knowledge, experience, and wisdom. It’s quite a favor old Harry’s doing for the much younger woman.
I wonder what he expects from her in return.
Son of Stuck Funky 
At least she’s not forcing them out in the rain today; it should count for something.
Red is too cheerful. Is there a color for soulless despair?
Becky is so lifeless, bland, boring and uninteresting that not only is she forced to share every scene with Harry, but she has to recycle the gags and tropes he ran into the ground decades ago too. Luckily for her, the missing arm distinguishes her from the ten thousand other bland, go-nowhere FW characters no one cares about, Otherwise it’d be tough to even remember who she’s supposed to be.
Once again, more proof that TomBat just thinks there’s something inherently funny about getting stuck in the rain. I guess that in a way it’s like the universe is symbolically urinating on these sad-sack-sorry people, just heaping one more indignity upon them simply because it can.
“I wonder what he expects from her in return.”
Really you had to go there?!?!
It really is not that big of a challenge for a middle aged person who has lost an arm to obtain a prosthetic limb which will help her to enhance her life, her everyday functions.
It’s much easier to have her just gently fold up and pin her sleeve in this strange world!
This chick should be juggling bowling pins.
someone please send Les out to bring that flag in
It really is not that big of a challenge for a middle aged person who has lost an arm to obtain a prosthetic limb which will help her to enhance her life, her everyday functions.
Someone pointed out awhile back that not every amputee is a candidate for a prosthetic. That said, TB really, really goes out of his way to slap us on the face with that empty sleeve.
They’re flying the storm flag. Wally could advise on that, he’s Army. Remember when Becky took Wally’s gun? She disarmed him. Payback is hell.
So, Dinkle drove aaaaaaaaall the way out to the high school in the rainstorm, just so he could deliver a terrible punchline. That’s not a question, that’s a terrible realization.
Things to be grateful for: no one has suggested a “Band Director Man” comic book, so that the amazingly obnoxious Dinkle and John Howard never held a smug discussion. A smugcussion, followed by a double-headed smirkathon.
Amazing. Absolutely amazing work Batiuk. I did indeed look up Webster’s to see if mildew was a color and came up with absolutely nada. Nope. There isn’t even some vague Elizabethan reference. So what we have here once again is a joke that makes absolutely effing sense.
Just think about how little effort it would take to make an even tepid joke here.
Panel 3 example #1
“I’m surprised out school colors don’t run”
(okay tepid, but alludes to patriotism)
Panel 3 example #2
“I’m surprise our school colors haven’t washed out to pink with all the rain”
(more tepid but at least makes sense)
Panel 3 example #3
“It’s rained so much I’m surprised we all haven’t died tet from mold and mildew inhalation”
(bingo!!)
In Dinkle’s defense, he probably needed a garden hose or something and confused the little red brick shack he and Lefty are now peering out of with Westview’s long-since closed Western Auto.
I recall seeing here someone linked an archive strip: One-Arm and John’s first date. She was going to put on her prosthetic and he said don’t bother, as it didn’t matter to him. It was supposed to be endearing, I guess. It was the decision that launched a thousand pinned-up sleeves.
I liked that Becky better. She was vibrant and happy. Then she broke John’s heart but it wasn’t her fault, because Wally came home, all chiseled and hard from the war. He looked like a million bucks. Oh yeah, somebody else drew that one.
Polite Reader: Ha ha, it’s raining on the band competition!
Tom B.: It’s not supposed to be funny, you idiot! It’s supposed to be deep.
Polite Reader: Look, it’s raining on the band competition, it’s all about the futility of the human condition.
Tom B. Better!
Becky: “…I could relax easier if a certain retiree didn’t keep making unannounced visits during my working hours, entering my personal office, and monopolizing my time.”
Harry: “Well, gracious! That sounds like one annoying person! I’d better hang around so that you have someone to back you up!”
Becky: *Thin, unhappy sound. Like a mouse whose tail’s been trod on*
Rusty: The 2003 John Byrne page shows that it happened on their second get together, though despite John being willing to propose MARRIAGE afterwards, it’s obvious that Becky didn’t think of it as an actual “date” date.
Yeesh, rereading those strips, I -really- can’t believe those two ever got together. Having similar hobbies !=being instant spouse material. But that’s ALL we’re given!
So Becky’s mother in law is that horrible old drunk woman from way back? Becky got some issues. Her kids must be a mess — the nutty grandmas, all those daddys, safety pins laying all around the house, the exposure to the comics trade.
No. That was John’s mother. Becky’s mother is EVIL ROBERTA, who for some reason thinks selling porn to minors is wrong, thinks Becky should be engaged and interested in her work, and is a volunteer the Westview High Prom Comitee despite not having a child attend said school for almost two decades.
Sorry Orbiter, missed the “in law” bit there. I hang my head in shame.
Re. John: If you mean that idiotic prosecution of the comic store owner (really, he really got a live news feed to hear the judge’s decision?) that one she actually was cuckoo in. The comics might have been mature (it’s never actually explained in the series) but they were clearly marked and kept away from children. That and this nation’s freedom of speech laws means that the prosecutor was an idiot who clearly didn’t know that losing cases like that damages your career.
Gyre, you were assuming I was defending Roberta?
Heck no. I was merely referring to how Act III John’s creepy attitude towards the “lost children” who frequent his store cast the Act II story in a much different light.
The comics might have been mature (it’s never actually explained in the series) but they were clearly marked and kept away from children. That and this nation’s freedom of speech laws means that the prosecutor was an idiot who clearly didn’t know that losing cases like that damages your career.
Please don’t get me started on everything that Batiuk got wrong in that sequence.