Hand-y…LOL. She’ll probably have an arm-y of supporters there, too. Perhaps the band could do a rendition of “Greensleeve” at the convention. So it turns out that this convention will indeed be held in Cleveland, which I guess is huge exciting news for the three Ohio music educators this strip and Harry’s woeful “joke” are aimed at. As for the rest of us, I think I’m speaking for at least some of us when I say we’d almost PREFER going back to the Mason Jarr arc than having to slog through a week’s worth of Dinkle’s incessant cackling and tiresome bullshit. I said almost, but still, that’s how much I despise New Old Dinkle and his idiotic “band director for life” routine.
I almost missed it but look carefully through the glass in panel one and you’ll see it. BanTom NEVER lets a Becky appearance go by without reminding the reader that she only has one arm. See it there, all pinned-up and missing? The Arm…never forget. I will, however, do my best to forget that can opener-like schozz Harry is sporting in that horrific panel two profile shot, which is a wordless representation of everything I hate about Dinkle. Blech.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Oh, I would definitely prefer seeing Les. He’s so obnoxious and annoying it’s hilarious. Dinkle is just lame, and so much of his humor is inside band jokes. And at least with Les there’s usually something happening. Those weeks of Dinkle staring at a computer and typing were just brutal.
As LeBron returned to the team this past July, methinks that this was a throw-in series in lieu of Batom® one-year-in-advance deadline.
And just you wait, Harry Neidermeyer and One-Trick-Arm Becky will find some way to bloviate about Starbuck Freaking Jones and comic books… because that’s all that really exists in Batom®’s itty-bitty mind.
@Nathan Obral
It’s got to be a matter of time before Harry unveils his magnum opus, “The Starbuck Jones Symphony”.
For me, the defining moment for Harry Dinkle was when he and Harriet were acting like 18-year old rejects from “Porky’s 4th”… on their 50th anniversary honeymoon.
I have yet to successfully brain bleach that crime against humanity from my mind.
Yucch, Dinkle.
This whole comic strip is like a sport, an Obnoxiousness Race where every racer who pulls into the lead immediately shines with obnoxiousness. And then the next driver takes the lead, and it happens all over again.
Dinkle’s “megalomanaical band director” routine was played out thirty years ago, but it beat the hell out of current Dinkle and his annoying patter. He only still exists because BanTom went ahead and made ol’ Lefty the band director BEFORE he realized he had absolutely nothing for her to do (other than being armless, that is). It’s almost like with Lisa, he put the Dinkle character through a bunch of cheap prestige arc melodrama, sent him off to pasture then decided he couldn’t go on without him. Thus we get him, only in a diluted and irritating form. Blech.
@beckoningchasm: “This whole comic strip is like a sport, an Obnoxiousness Race where every racer who pulls into the lead immediately shines with obnoxiousness. And then the next driver takes the lead, and it happens all over again.”
It’s more like a burlap sack race of obnoxiousness.
Okay, place your bets: how often will this opening exposition be repeated in some fashion over the course of the week? Vegas has the over-under at three.
@Nathan–proof indeed, and a good indicator that as has been suggested, either he adds in filler days/weeks, and/or fills in the dialogue at the last minute.
“your band” LOL
Didn’t we just suffer through the Music Band Director’s Convention a year ago? This is going to be a yearly arc now?
This strip reminds me of everything I ever hated about high school.
Rusty: Yup, exactly a year ago as a matter of fact. Harry and Harriet attended the convention and discussed the value of band music in our culture and (zzzz). Bet you this one ends up being way worse, though.
beckoningchasm: Yes, it’s a spiraling vortex of suckitude that always somehow circles back upon itself until it reaches max suckitude at which point the process starts anew. Every FW arc is so uniquely moronic, yet they’re all exactly the same too. If BanTom is a performance artist he’s a mad genius. If not…well, yeah.
Jeez. The way they’re talking, you would think they were filming a public access show or something.
What’s more annoying is that Crankshaft of Crankshaft is going to be driving them. Since he has like no empathy for anyone and no sense of direction, time or the needs of others, he’ll be the winner of the Obnoxiousness Olympics.
“What’s more annoying is that Crankshaft of Crankshaft is going to be driving them.”
Right, but he’s going to be driving them in his past and their future.
And did you notice the drastic change in the colors of DT’s and Sam’s clothes when TB draws them?
@Saturnino: Yes, I did. Batiuk made them somewhat desaturated.
In any event, it’s as if the crossover never really took place because it really didn’t affect anything in the sleepy little town of Westview. Sure, Dick foiled a bank robbery but people will be too busy talking about band competitions and Mason Jarr, The Movie Star Les Knows to care.
Come on down to Cleveland-town everyone
The music educators are in town.
Becky Howard and Dinkle will be there
Just maybe her left arm will be found.
The Westview band will be playing
For educators from across the state.
Owen and Cody, of course, will be there
Because TB won’t let them graduate.
It looks like a Crankshaft crossover
Is in the works for this story line.
But if Crankshaft is to drive them
The Westview band must go back in time.
Wait a sec, where is Dick Tracy?
That crossover lasted just a week?
Literally nothing at all did happen,
But at least Les didn’t get to speak!
@Saturnino: Yep, just what caught my attention when I read these two strips this morning. L’Auteur Glorieux going to do an in-house crossover, completely ignoring the fact that one several occasions in Act III Funky he’s depicted Cranky as a decrepit old man sucking in some of his final breathes of air. Or maybe – worse yet – it’ll be a continuation of the Cranky-As-Bad-Santa story, with Herr Dinlkemeister reminiscing about the terrible bus driver from Centerville they had ten years ago.
@Paul Jones: “What’s more annoying is that Crankshaft of Crankshaft is going to be driving them.”
A retirement home-residing nongenarian hooked up to an oxygen tank and unable to speak or move will be driving a school bus?
Wow, that’s called WRITING!
To prevent stress due to suspense about how Crankshaft will drive the schoolbus, let me reassure you. It’ll be a trip down Dinkle’s memory lane. Amazingly topically, there will be a major snowstorm. Violence will be threatened. Hilarity will not ensue.
To preserve a little dramatic tension, I won’t reveal who threatens whom. Together, we can make it through Crankshmageddon.
On the positive side, maybe this flashback will help explain why One-Trick-Armed Becky conveniently “lost” her pathetic, err… her prosthetic arm and insists on pinning every goddam shirt sleeve she has.
Oh, who am I kidding? That involves fourth-grade level critical thinking, and Batom® is too good for that!
@billytheskink: Mike Polk (who did that tourism video parody) could write better material for FW with his eyes closed and after having a full-frontal lobotomy.
This is almost a template FW Strip – an ur- strip if you would:
Panel One: Clunky exposition of something
Panel Two: Additional clumsy exposition that relates to panel one somehow
Panel Three: Lame joke/pun (I would not use the phrase “wordplay” as that implies some element of fun) that brings forth soul sucking smirks.