Month: April 2015

Trilogy of Error

beckoningchasm
April 12, 2015 at 11:07 pm
Odd word-balloon separation there. Almost looks like there’s a ghost speaking.

When a cartoonist relies so heavily on verbiage, you’re bound to get some inconsistencies with the dialogue balloons. We see it again in  today’s panel 1, except rather than separating, the balloons merge, making it appear that Pete is answering his own question. So giddy are Pete’s editors at the prospect of spinning the controversial yet wildly lucrative Spongeclone concept into a franchise that they breathlessly speak for and over one another, while Pete Reubens with his under-eye bags is beginning to resemble a late-career Moe Howard.

What a Clone

I know that among the readers here at SoSF are a number of you who “get” comics and the comics industry. While I haven’t picked up a comic book since they cost 12¢ and bore the stamp of the Comics Code Authority (the Silver Age, I reckon), I respect and understand the fandom. So, comic book people, is any of this arc making sense to you? Because it’s giving me a migraine.

Who even said anything about “killing off the clone“? Batiuk almost (almost) succeeds in making me feel sorry for Pete, as once again he is forced to listen in bug-eyed perplexity as this three-headed monster of an editorial team finishes each others’ sentences and even speaks in unison, grinning maniacally the whole while.

Merrily We Troll Along

Batiuks aims for “bearded hipster” and hits “happy Cro-Magnon”

I’ve struggled to hang on to the notion that Tom Batiuk’s illusory superiority renders him oblivious to his online critics. But between yesterday’s “chew toy” reference and today’s panel 3, it seems that not only are some of those slings and arrows getting through, but that TB gets the last laugh. “Hate readers”, after all, are better than no readers; meanwhile, those paychecks from King Features Syndicate continue to accrue.

Sponge Nonsense

The “action” continues to alternate between the west and the east coasts…

As he did with his “shallow end of the gene pool” remark, Pete continues to speak in weird lingo.  By the way: the “clone story arc” wasn’t the chew toy, Pete himself was, even unto these editors he’s addressing (and whose names we’ll never know; let’s call them  Manny, Moe, and Moishe). Pete also continues to moan about being responsible for a story arc which he developed and enthusiastically pitched just a couple weeks ago, and which, while controversial, has proven to be enormously successful.