So seemingly out of the blue, documentarianne Jessica informs her husband that she’s getting back to work on her long-delayed project about her dad you-know-who…as she packs up her camera and heads out the door. Darin asks her a perfectly legitimate, if clumsily phrased, question: do you really want to do this? And it turns out that she does not, since it requires her to revisit a difficult time in her life (which, having been a baby at the time, she couldn’t possibly remember).
16 thoughts on “So What If It Never Happens?”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
Jessica lives in a cramped shit-hole above a horrible pizzeria. Her husband is employed as a pizza app designer/delivery guy. They have a new baby and they have to navigate a hazardous metal staircase just to go outside. It either rains or snows nearly every day. If these are the “good times” I shudder to think about what her life was like before. Although after that stint at Les Moore’s house I can see how her current situation would be a huge step up.
If she really wants to interview people who knew her father, she’d better make it snappy because this is Westview, where the average life expectancy skews a tad low. It’s interesting how TB is always fascinated with his own history yet he’s always playing fast & loose with strip continuity. Such an egomaniac, with a real soft spot for the characters he’s killed too. I wonder if John Darling and Lisa ever hung out together?
“Finish”?
Don’t you mean “start”?
They’d better take Skyler to the doctor; I think he lost half of his body mass between panels one and three.
Living the good life in Westview, Jess? Oh no no, this arc won’t even less the week. Better get back to one of the comic book arcs or Funky taking his prostate for a jog, ASAP!
My interpretation, she’s been sabotaging her project for years now.
Have to wonder if the writer just doesn’t have any idea where the documentary idea is supposed to go, so he just has random mentions of it. Because seriously, why is this happening? What benchmarks do we have for her progress on this? Does Jessica even know anything about her father?
You know what Jessica could be doing a documentary on? Anything. War refugees. Homelessness. Pollution. Someone’s political campaign. Sure we probably would have criticized it as preachy or whatever, but you know what? That would be a lot more interesting than a documentary that doesn’t say “it’s not going anywhere” but rather “it never started moving in the first place”. Plus you could have someone take notice of the documentary and get Jessica in bigger projects.
I think Epicus nailed it yesterday. This is just another opportunity for TB to bring in a series of sepia-toned John Darling flashback panels. He’s sure dragging out the set up, though.
Wait a minute.
Panel three. Has it stopped raining?
Maybe the sun is coming out……………..tomorrow……………
The theme for today is the urge to create. For Jess it is a masochistic urge. For Les in contrast it is a compulsive urge stoked by sentimentality. It is symbolic of man’s ultimate fate that Jess is leaving her star child baby with her husband to embark on this dangerous and possibly annihilating journey to the self.
So,”I’m working on a documentary about my father, John Darling” isn’t a plan of action…it’s a character trait, much like “I like seeing shapes in clouds” or “I prefer McDonald’s to Burger King.” In other words, it’s something that really requires no action on the person thus defined. I have to admit, that’s perfect for this strip. The comic strip where no one does anything.
Does she really need a camera? I’m pretty sure you could use your Apple I -phone to videotape this crappy documentary? Oh…sorry…. I mean your Pineapple U-Phone. My bad!
Jessica’s attitude seems strange at first glance, but I think it actually makes a lot of sense in the context of the Batiukverse. All characters are obligated to wallow in some level of misery, and attempting to break that cycle with any shred of happiness or contentment results in progressively worse levels of misery. Durwood learned this the hard way last year.
None of this, of course, explains why her documentary is taking so long to get off the ground. The John Darling story is pretty simple: born in a log cabin, became a Ted Baxter wannabe, guest-starred on the Muppet Show (a genuine highlight), expressed happiness, got shot, subject of book by insufferable author that may or may not have been published.
considering how fast payback comes to those in westview who say things are going well – you expect her to be hit by the pizzia dleivery van as she gets to the street.
“None of this, of course, explains why her documentary is taking so long to get off the ground. ”
Or why the two windows on the front of Montoni’s were next to each other last year and don’t seem to both be there, or be close together this year.
And what about the sign that sticks out from the front of the building?
RE: Those John Darling Meets the Muppets Comics
Good things:
I actually laughed in a couple of spots. The Miss Piggy reveal would’ve been even funnier if it wasn’t telepgraphed by how the comic was set up.
Another thing that I enjoyed about that comic arc is that bad puns and humblebragging were frequently met with dismay, rage, and even actual violence instead of wry smirks. One of my favorite things about Act 3 was Frankie glaring with murderous intent at being served with a pun in Montoni’s.
Bad things:
Yes, the puns were still just as bad back then. There is one that I actually smiled at. Generally, it’s more humorous showing someone overreacting to bad puns (see: 8-Bit Theater) than the pun itself.
Unfortunately, Batiuk’s seething hatred of a beat panel and the need to fill it up with dialogue wasn’t just a thing he picked up for the later-years FW.
Would you believe that Batiuk’s joke recycling was actually WORSE back then? ‘Dummy + dummy + turkey’.
I liked Batiuk’s character designs then more than now, but one thing he has genuinely improved on over the years is using more dynamism in framing conversations. When John Darling is talking to his agent in the comics and we keep seeing the same basic ‘shot’, it gets kind of creepy.
Verdict:
On the whole, I rather enjoyed what I saw of John Darling. I mean, a Ted Baxter-esque talk show protagonist isn’t exactly original but it is a classic archetype of comedy that resonates even today. However, I might have to see the comic in context to see if I’d like it. I have a feeling that the overuse of violence or threats of violence to get the comic across the finish line along with heavy recycling of gags would get on my nerves. Hopefully this was just a one-time thing.
I think I just figured out where this is going: Jessica completes her documentary on her dad, John Darling. The local Cleveland station picks it up, with heavy involvement from Cindy Summers.
Of course, it creates big splash. Cindy spurns New York’s renewed interest in her talents while some kind of Hollywood offering is in the cards for Jessica.
I really hope I’m wrong.