“The Last Leaf”??? A “graphic novel” about Cayla?? But…but…she isn’t even dead yet!! Does not compute. But seriously, blech, oh no, what a shitty gift and etc. So typically Les-esque, they guy writes her a novel about how HE found love and how happy HE is, which in his mind if the most selfless and grand gesture he can make. Such a dick. And how thoughtful of him to rub the manuscript against his crotch before handing it to her, as if the gift itself wasn’t already bad enough.
And in the “things I never thought I’d ever say” department, note to Summer: put that hoodie back on…please. No one wants to see that, particularly in the morning. Why is she still there? Why are they lurking around in their parent’s bedroom first thing in the AM? Who DOES this?
Check out that look of smug, all-consuming self-satisfaction on his cretinous face as he explains his moronic gift, what a repellent display of Les Moore dickfacedness. “The Last Leaf”…give the leaves a rest already there, BatWrite. We get it, they’re a metaphor for death and the encroaching darkness of winter and so forth. It’s like he comes up with this stuff after staring out the window all day or something.
Son of Stuck Funky 
I’m guessing the third panel where Les explains how he completely forgot their anniversary again, and was just going to ask her to proofread the manuscript, but decided last night to wrap it in a box and pass it off as a gift got cut off.
Also, given how long it takes him to write anything, how in the hell did he write this whole manuscript for a graphic novel without her knowing a thing about it? He had to have started it back when they were still dating.
One does wonder about all that “writer’s block” stuff he went through on the screenplay. Did he just write it in the couple of weeks since he game back from Hollywood? Or was it in Hollywood that he wrote it? You know how it starts — it’s all about he never thought he would experience love and happiness after the death of his one, true love. Then he found a woman with the one thing necessary, no sense of self-worth to demand Less’ infantile worship of Lisa stop. When that happened, he was able to live again! I have a feeling that this is the book that will be made into a movie, with fame and fortune finally finding our hero. Is there a “kill clause” that will put me out of my misery reading this pure crap?
I can only assume that, since we’ve seen no evidence of how Les has found new life or love, that his comic book is a work of fiction. I’m guessing, too, that Starbuck Jones makes an appearance.
I have to admit that I find this turn of events encouraging. “New life” and “new love” show that Les is trying to move on after umpteen years. It’s the promise of a graphic novel that worries me. Please, there’s no need to be graphic.
I think the age limit for successfully passing off scribbles on some paper as a legitimate present is somewhere around eight, unless you happen to be a talented artist. This just reeks of haphazard laziness.
But Les, this manuscript is all about Lisa. In fact, this is just a copy of Lisa’s Story!
I added a page at the end, where Lisa’s ghost says I’m allowed to move on. I mention you there.
@Epicus: Fred is a pro at starting out the window during the winter.
“…And, in continuing with our paper theme, I have here the lab results which confirm that you do indeed have cancer. Oh what a wonderful opportunity for meeeeeeee!!”
It’s that look on his face, like he’s bestowing the greatest gift of all upon her…his incredible writing talents. Good point re: when did he write this thing, the guy toils and hallucinates for months when he has to RE-write something, how did he manage to pull this off unnoticed? “The Last Leaf”…good God man. There are no words.
Notice he doesn’t say it’s about him finding love with Cayla. I’m willing to bet it’s his anthology of Lisa/Cayla erotica.
Les writes a manuscript about Sainted Lisa, and the process is arduous, causing angst and writer’s block.
Les (ostensibly) writes a manuscript about Cayla, and he’s apparently able to just pop it off like it’s nothing – almost as though he halfway doesn’t even care.
How perfect is it that Les missed their first anniversary in the first place? It only proves correct what online critics have been pointing out about Les’ selfishness and singlemindedness.
It takes a half-assed writer to undermine what you’re trying to do with the strip – demonstrate that Les Moore is a caring and loving husband to Cayla – with your own characters’ actions.
1. Someone please explain to me how this is romantic.
2. Does Least EVER learn? A.) He can’t write. B.) He’ll just end up in Evil Hollywood again. That won’t be any good for him, and it REALLY won’t be any good for us!
3. Nearly-naked pajama-wearing Summer = my burrrning eyes! Put on a robe at least? Besides…Speaking as a female myself, why would you parade around–so attired–in front of your friend, your stepmom and your very, very creepy dad?!
“The Last Leaf”? Somebody alert the heirs of O. Henry so they can file a cease-and-desist!
Seriously? Implying that she represents the end of his life and expecting her to be flattered by the imagery of death? It’s as stupid as her being flattered that she represents the means to the end of being cared for while he waits to be rejoined in the Void with his only Twoo Wuv. Yuck.
“Les, why am I fighting Brainiac in this?”
“You’re not fighting him, honey! It’s actually a Kryptonite-induced hallucination!”
@Epicus Doomus, “Why are they lurking around in their parent’s bedroom first thing in the AM? Who DOES this?”
Well you didn’t expect Les to make a grand gesture without an audience did you. Not-Lisa is lucky that Crazy, Funky, Dinkle, … weren’t there also.
Apparently he hasn’t actually written anything yet, it’s merely a sheaf of blank paper with a title scrawled on the cover that he pulled out of his butt at the last minute. At least he’ll have an ironclad excuse for forgetting next year’s anniversary.
No, that suggests that Les wrote something interesting and has a common understanding of the words “new”, “love”, and “life”.
I think we’ve seen everything that Les has written for this “graphic novel” depicted in strip, outside of Cayla’s bleaching treatments.
“The Last Leaf” is the last straw for me.
Wait, wait… is this an attempt by Batiuk to introduce a companion volume to Lisa’s Story, in which he reprints the strips where Les learns to (pffft) “love” again?
That first panel is the stuff of nightmares. Based on the previous comments, I take it that the horrors on the right are meant to be Keister and Bummer. Epicus pointed out that Les is literally humping that manuscript, which forced us to think about Les’s dick. No way to unthink that, so thanks for nothing, Epicus.
Doesn’t a “graphic” novel require something called graphics? Just wondering who is supposed to illustrate this half-finished gift? Darrin, perhaps? And I just can’t comment on Summer and Keisha together in that last panel other than it certainly appears to confirm to me what I’ve suspected for sometime about those two.
Okay, place your bets. Will we actually see the contents of this graphic novel? Will it be a series of strips or just Sunday filler? Will it be as disturbing and inappropriate in the weakest way possible? Yes!!!
If there is a real Last Leaf, we can look forward to Batiuk making the ridiculous decision of having Kent State University press publish and absobloodylutely fail to market it. He wants to blame the laughter-loving zombies who can’t face the reality of pain, despair, longing, heartache and loss for its failures but given the very real market for misery porn, he kind of IS the problem. (It kind of took me two minutes to type this because I kept typing “Les” everywhere.)
I’m also wondering about the graphic novel part. I’m not hip to the comic book lingo, but I always thought it was an illustrated story, usually with terrible themes. Well. I do get the second part, but was the first part commissioned through Mopey Pete, who will finally be able to return to Westview after his best selling Graphic Novel?
Nah. I bet Les paid him in expired Montoni’s coupons.
And somehow, Les is able to master yet another form of writing. Prose, screenplays, and comic scripts are three very distinct formats, each with their own unique elements that don’t necessarily translate into the other media. Very few professional writers have worked in all three, and fewer still have excelled in all of them. (Neil Gaiman has probably had the most success and acclaim in all three fields…but Les is no Neil Gaiman.) Of course, Les will outshine all of those other writers…