And, after an absolutely mind-bending two week pause, the big Mason Jarr/Starbuck Jones arc is back. Surprisingly the arc picks up with Mason actually arriving. I assumed we’d probably get a few more weeks of Dickface and Co. babbling about it, then another two week “wow, driving to the airport is awful” sub-arc before he finally showed, but Bantom must have been feeling revitalized after all that crossover action. This is like warp speed for a FW arc.
TB is really holding firm with the “ancient shopworn old TV sitcom tropes” theme of this arc, isn’t he? The Moore ladies are all aflutter as Mason politely pretends to undress them with his starry eyes as Les looks on disdainfully as usual, disgusted once again with everyone’s complete inability to be as cool as he is around his Hollywood hotshot pal. Keisha appears to be in the throes of a convulsion while Summer is overwhelmed by being in the presence of a strong male figure for the first time in her young life. As far as Cayla goes, it’s about what I expected from her, minus the lemonade. What a strong group of believable female characters.
Son of Stuck Funky 
The plot thinnens.
I wonder if Batiuk has ever actually seen a woman. I get the impression his model for the females today was Bugs Bunny when he’d pretend to be a woman.
Good lord, how does Summer walk much less plays sports with those pipe cleaners for legs?
I like how fixated Batiuk is with Summer being a jock that he has her wearing shorts. In winter. In Ohio.
Batiuk is terrified of Summer coming out. And whenever I feel old and out of shape, Batiuk’s drawing of a supposedly hunky male actor make me feel better. Mason should mix in a salad once in a while.
Women, amirite? Show them a guy who’s not lumpy and sullen, and they go all ga-ga….
Shouldn’t it be *behave* normally, Mr. English Teacher? Or am I mistaken?
Is Batom trying to retcon Summer into an official boy now?
I wonder which smells worse – Summer’s hoodie or Owen’s wool hat (and scarf now, too).
“Dammit, Summer and Kameeshia, I told you to act naturally! Here are the D batteries I bought for you two. Upstairs! Scoot! Cayla, stop feeling youself up and take Mason Jarr The Hollywood Movie Actor’s luggage off my hands. And by the way, Nate says he needs you to come into work today for some reason.”
And, HELLLLOOOOOO! Limo to a nice hotel? Hells no. Lezlie picks him up and takes him to his house, to fight for bathroom time with all the other dipshits who live at Taj MOORE Hal. Probably stink it up from all that Thai and Indian food he eats in Hollyweird. And where’s he gonna sleep? On the sofa, where countless Ohioan asses have been?
On the other hand, he’s there to read comic books to prepare for a movie role, so why expect anything to start making sense now!?
Given that his icon of Female Strength Saint Dead Lisa willed herself to die because chemo hurt, we couldn’t expect better than to watch these latter-day bobby-socksers in action.
Batom® isn’t even a sexist boar; he’s really a sexist bore.
@Spacemanspiff85: I’d tend to think that we’re actually dealing with the sort of idiot women that seemed to populate Silver Age DC Comics. As they said about Lois Lane, someone who was so stupid that a pair of eyeglasses and a blue suit fooled her should be working the obit desk in Topeka, Kansas. We get that stupidity here.
Good to see Cayla made a skirt out of the pubic hair couch material. Thrifty.
I can’t see any good reason why the panels aren’t in chronological order. Does Tom Batiuk think he’s making some kind of ironic commentary on comic strip conventions? If so, that might explain the entire strip.
And the colored girls go “Do Do Do Do Do , Do Do Do, Do Do Do Do….” Slinky, too, I suppose.
Sometimes I can’t tell if strips like these are due to Batom®’s insipid writing abilities, or if it’s his otherwise repressed misogynistic beliefs slowly rising to the surface… or both.
What a crock! What unbelievable and unrealistic nonsense. It’s utterly asinine. How stupid does TB think we are?
An airport that’s an hour’s round trip from Westview? That’s a slice of bologna too thick to swallow.
One has to wonder if the Author currently talks to any women at all about anything.
Less More thinks to himself, “Why don’t they swoon like that for me? Am I not a world famous author who had his book optioned for a big Hollywood movie?”
Int: Les’s Squalid Hovel, which has furniture covered in what appears to be pubic hair. Two women and a young man look at Mason admiring him in the background.
Mason: “Hey Les, do you have those comics I asked about?”
Les: “Right here!” (Hands Mason the comics)
Mason: “Thanks. I’ll ship them back from Hollywood when I’m done.”
(Exits door)
@billytheskink “An airport that’s an hour’s round trip from Westview? That’s a slice of bologna too thick to swallow.”
Lol. I didn’t even notice that until now.
Even under optimistic conditions, I’d like to see Batom® drive from his Medina gazebo to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, pick up a D-list Hollywood actor, and get back… in an hour.
This isn’t LensCrafters we’re talking about here.
@Paul Jones, hey now, Superman also had a curl that hung on his forehead that Clark brushed back. See now it makes sense … oh my god I’ve been FW too long.
Sometimes i think we do the “Summer and Keisha are lovers” thing a little hard… but Batom is the one who had Summer go on one “solo car date” as a sixteen-year old. She is now a junior in college and the only person she is seen to associate with is her sporty step-sis.
Just another example of his being oblivious to the story he’s actually telling.
@bad wolf: The thing is, if Batty actually did do a story arc about Summer and Keisha coming out as a couple (and maybe even getting married), it might get him that Pulitzer he so dearly covets. Sadly, however, he has neither the nerve to do it, nor the chops to pull it off in an even remotely respectful and sensitive manner.
@Jim – Summer and Keisha could never come out as a couple, because there would be kind of an incest angle as well as a gay angle (even though they’re not blood-related, they’re still part of the same family, and that would be way too complicated for a comic strip, especially one that up to now would not even show the face of a gay character). Maybe have Summer and/or Keisha meet someone at KSU and bring them home to meet the parents. But who am I kidding, we’re never going to see any story arc come out of KSU.
Mason Jarr is pleased to know that the Moore household is open to same sex relationships. It will make his indecent proposal to Les all the more easy to swallow.