Well, it’s already Friday so why bother moving the story along at all? Might as well devote the rest of the week to Les, his idiotic imaginary cat and his endless, incessant whining and just start (chortle) “fresh” on Monday, right? It’s been working for forty-plus years so why alter that successful formula now, you know? The way TheAuthor is wallowing in his clever little “writer’s anxiety” fantasy (like he would know anything about it) is just too sickening for words. If he seriously believes this is enjoyable to anyone other than himself he’s either totally delusional or stoned off his gourd on felt-tip fumes again. What a hack.
Son of Stuck Funky 
You know, even if Les didn’t see hallucinatory cats talking to him, I would still think he needed to see a therapist considering how easily he panics.
Seriously, either get the guy a job checking the spelling of dictionaries or a doctor.
How is it that an imaginary cat is the most sane character in this entire strip?
I wonder if he got tickets for two seats. You know, “one for my cat.”
The guy in the background pointing out a plane to the child is great. “Watch any second now, that plane will explode, and mommy will be in heaven, and it’ll be PAR-TAY TIME!”
I take it that Les has never heard the phrase “self-fulfilling prophecy” before. If he goes into things with the attitude that he can never win, people will react to that negativity in a way that ensures it.
More whining. Meanwhile, Summer and Keisha are losing their scholarships, Cory is in ambush in Afghanistan, Crazy Harry is having a heart attack, Susan is living in a cardboard box underneath and overpass, and Maddie has just received word she has cancer.
The way I’ve always read these cancer book arcs (and make no mistake about it, this is a cancer book arc) is that the cancer book = the “Lisa Dies” ultra-mega prestige arc and those who attack and attempt to exploit or cheapen the cancer book = the “Lisa Dies” ultra-mega prestige arc’s detractors. Those who understand the depth of feeling and personal insight that went into the cancer book versus those who only see it with a cold, unfeeling cynical eye. Thus if we take the (purely speculative) author/avatar theory to the extreme we can conclude that Les’ terror over letting Hollywood tamper with his masterpiece is really all about TheAuthor’s terror over everyone forgetting about HIS masterpiece. Which is why he’s still doing cancer book arcs after all these years. It’s like this bizarrely passive-aggressive form of self-promotion which those of us with cold unfeeling cynical eyes see right through, which is why he hates us (Hollywood) so much. It’s a big circle of weirdness and it all centers around a really irritating comic strip character that died seven years ago, a character a certain someone really wishes he could have back.
@Epicus Doomus:
That is correct. By telling him that his story is not especially important and not at all inspiring, they’re killing Lisa all over again. It’s less about his vanity and more about the need to preserve in his mind the image of the Lisa he wants to see and not the tiresome idiot who willed herself to die because fighting for her life was too much like work.
Les calls Cayla to pick him up -> Cayla answers her phone while driving -> Funky approaches from the opposite direction in “Snowball” -> The Moore family Geo Metro coupe drifts into the other lane -> Reaction shots! -> Cayla, unhurt, gets out of her wreck and walks back to Westview -> Things are different… Les is pursuing Lisa, Susan is pursuing Les, Funky has a mullet -> Cayla realizes that she has been transported to Act II’s ‘Could Be A Book Deal Here’ -> She advises Les to never buy a Geo Metro -> Regaining consciousness as she is being loaded into an ambulance, she glances back at her wrecked car (and a slightly dented white Volvo wagon)… a blue Suzuki Swift
I mean, if we’re gonna rehash story arcs over and over, let’s at least do one that was interesting (if still maddeningly insipid).
this sounds like a shame eruption on the part of author – he worte himself into a corner with Lisa dying and he’s been thrashing about ever since and now he sees it’s no good – he’s created a disaster.
second thought is – any bet we get a vistation from the Dead St Lisa sitting next to him tomorrow telling him to go for it?
Les’ comment about being out for summer earlier this week does mean that Glasses & Chullo did not graduate, and are on track to be 6th-year seniors this fall. On the list of “why did i do this” Batiuk keeps, going “real-time” has to be right up there with “kill Lisa.”
Geez, even Luann did a high school graduation this year. And the students probably won’t all disappear like Summer & Keisha.
If Les had just booked Le Chat Blue in a pet carrier with baggage claim, he wouldn’t have to listen to this crap. Imaginary or not, traveling with your pet in cabin is never a good idea.
Dead Lisa will make an appearance, I can just sense it.
Thing that gets me is how this story is so thematically incoherent. Les vacillates from being the “Only Smart Man in the Room” who sees how obviously stupid and uncultured the terrible Hollywood people are, to being a complete mess who’s convinced that he’s out of his depth and will embarrass himself because of it. Combine that with the fact that he gets no pushback on anything related to this project, aside from the obviously stupid ideas from the obviously stupid Hollywood people which are obviously discarded the moment they’re brought up. Never once has his judgment been questioned or has he been shown that his way of doing things wasn’t the best way. So really, his feelings of low self-worth have no narrative support beyond simply him being an over-indulged baby who demands coddling and kid gloves because he’s just that wonderful; only he’s not just that wonderful.
Anyway, some of this could be salvaged if Les actually does receive some legitimate criticism and pushback concerning how he feels the movie should be made. But it’s much more likely that he’ll be the smug disdainful dick that we’ve seen before, no matter how little sense that makes following this week, or he’ll be totally walked over by evil, stupid Hollywood people who will make some evil, stupid decisions that Les disagrees with. At that point he’ll probably withdraw his support and nothing more will ever come of it, no matter how little sense that makes.
Or, more likely, that none of this gets resolved and we go back to Holly being given yet another rare Starbuck Jones comic and Batiuk will get to run through his “Hollywood is terrible and obtuse” gambit again three months from now. (ie. In less time than it would have taken to make 2 full cable movie versions of “Lisa’s Story”)