SoSFDavidO here, filling in for folks far funnier than I for the next two weeks!
From the looks of Today’s Strip we’re in for Dinkle Week here at Westview. Given how he’s at least 20 years older than most of the gang we’re used to hanging out with he’s not faring too badly at all. At least his face isn’t sliding off like Skunkhead’s was in last week’s strip.
For those a little newer to this strip, the biography of Claude Barlow is something Dinkle has been working for, oh say, thirty years give or take a few. It’s usually the chance to slip in a few genuine moments of humor with some bad music puns, harkening back to an earlier time when FW strips were funny enough to cut out and tack to the band room’s bulletin board.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Oh. Oh Lord.
Batiuk is recycling a framing device from Marvin, of all comics. He’s using infamous Belly Laffs week-long running gag, to be more precise.
Let me repeat this, just so that the horror can sink in: you are copying a framing device Marvin. Good grief, man, don’t you respect your audience any? Don’t you have any pride in your work?
Oh yeah, Claude Barlow! He’s, um…I’m sure he’s been mentioned in this strip somewhere…ah, some guy who does music-y type things?
Oh, and you don’t have to look too hard to find a thirteenth musical note: the Arabic tonal system uses quarter-tones, for a total of twenty-four notes. Of course, this would come as a surprise to someone whose entire knowledge of music begins and ends with John Phillip Sousa…
TB is just wallowing in the past. Will he bring back the talking leaves/mascot goat/graffiti rock too?
What was the point of yesterday’s strip? Was it to show cheapskate Dinkle sneaking into the school to use their computer to write his minimum opus? Why do I even wonder what TB thinks he’s doing since he has shown time and time again he just doesn’t care about this strip anymore.
Claude Barlow’s been mentioned before. In this exact same context. I think Dinkle’s written several volumes about him, written symphonies about him, and even an opera, I think. So I have no idea why he’s writing this again. It’s either that this is so hilariously funny Batiuk couldn’t pass it up, or that he’s lazy.
And what did yesterday’s strip have to do with anything? Was Dinkle smiling as he mused about the grandeur of Claude Barlow? Given how yesterday was pointless and today is essentially a rerun, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is leading up to Dinkle dying. Although that would mean something actually happening, which is crazy when it comes to this strip.
So is this supposed to be funny or sad or what?
Batiuk’s not only recycling from Marvin, he’s recycling from himself of a few months back, when Funky was up in the attic reading old fake Chinese proverbs.
Yes, Harry Dinkle wrote tomes about “Claude Barlow” during the gag-a-day era, under the exact same context.
Next time you know, middle-aged Holly Budd will be dressing up again in her old majorette uni for her self-immolation routine.
Batom® has outdone Lynn Johnston with the “new-run” concept.
@Howard and Nester: Like “Marvin,” today’s strip has all the subtlety of a poo-filled diaper.
I need a copy of this book, because, after reading today’s strip, I can’t.
Great. If he does pop his clogs, we’ll spend the rest of December lamenting the fact that he never finished his bio of some obscure weirdo instead of lamenting the fact that his obsession with said kook ate up the time being an obsessive jerk band director didn’t.
Meanwhile, Crankshaft learns that the local independent movie theater in town will close by the end of the week because the owner can’t afford to buy a digital projector.
Oh, when will the misery end?
“Meanwhile, Crankshaft learns that the local independent movie theater in town will close by the end of the week because the owner can’t afford to buy a digital projector.”
And here’s the reason for Harry to type.
Money has to be raised somehow. We know a school levy won’t do it. The autobiography won’t do it.
And now nobody will buy band turkeys because they’re buying digital projector turkeys instead.
The life and times of Tom Batiuk
Tom Batiuk was elated to be the first one to use a comic strip to deal with death, gays, bullying, and typing gags like this one.
However, elation soon turned to disappointment when he realized that Bill Watterson, Gary Trudeau, Lynn Johnston, and Charles Schultz had beaten him to it.
@JerrytheMacGuy:
And if this was the 1920s, Batiuk would be railing against “talkies.”
Harry probably overheard about St. Les the Righteous Smirker’s graphic novel vanity project by Les’ wife not named Lisa, and decided to top that by dipping back into his old well of Claude Barlow gags.
The Life And Times Of Tom Batiuk
Tom Batiuk was elated when magazine puff-pieces focused on his “prestige arcs” that take up three or four weeks out of the year. However, elation turned to disappointment when he discovered that a handful of online smart-alecks pointed out how abysmal the other forty eight weeks were.
The Life and Times of Tom Batiuk
Tom Batiuk was elated at the prospect of converting an unspectacular, but dependable gag-a-day strip set “in comic time” into a dramatic strip with real age progression of the main cast.
However, elation soon turned into disappointment when Tom Batiuk realized that he had to do more than continually lurk around the campus of Midview High School and hobnob with comic strip artists, Luigi’s staffers and blue-haired subscribers to the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.
There actually are more than 12 notes in music. In Indian music and some other cultures there are semitones. It allows Indian music to have several other scales known as ragas.
I don;t know why this bother’s me, I guess it’s that a veteran bandleader and music instructor should know this.
BTW, terrible joke.
I do vaguely remember this gag from back in the day when Dinkle was strictly a “zany” character. IMO he either should have a) left Dinkle the way he always was with no explanation or b) just killed him off.
If this is Tuesday’s gag, you know it’s all downhill from here. The rest of the week will be an epic train wreck of Batiukian proportions.
There is a 13th tone in western scale structure; it’s a 6th raised one octave. Notation is based on fractions with doubling numerators–whole note (1/1), 1/2 note, 1/4. 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, etc. So Barlow supposedly found a 13th (1/13), which isn’t really a joke of miscounting–it’s inane.
Had Tom Batiuk just said “the thirteenth musical note of the octave” then there’d be a potential joke here. There’s certainly plenty of dead white space to include the phrase.
As jokes go, this one is about someone’s dreams being crushed, so Dinkle is probably writing his own comic strip to submit to the local paper.
Isn’t he dead yet? What a statement when TB try’s to endure his characters only to have readers wish for their painful deaths
Harry isn’t dead yet, nor will he probably ever die.
Remember that Harry is one of three author avatars for Batom® – the other two being St. Les the Righteous Smirker and John Howard the Batman Shirt-wearing Skunk Head.