Month: September 2015

Doppelcäncer

I think I drew the short straw in the author rotation, having to come up with commentary on the firehose of drivel that is this comic strip. Lisa expends more of her ever-diminishing breath lecturing her successor. There’s nothing left to say that has not already been pointed out by you erudite commenters. Someone pointed out how Stricken Lisa bears a resemblance to Wally, but when she musters a grin in panel two, she kind of looks like her creator, in which case, this whole filibuster she’s delivering in praise of Les makes sense: we are Cayla.

Motherless Children Have a Hard Time

Gerard Plourde
September 30, 2015 at 8:42 am
More evidence of what a control freak she is. Does she really think that an adult entering a blended family would need this advice?…

Succinctly put, Gerard. All of the “advice” that Lisa’s spouting in today’s strip simply should go without saying, even to someone who was raised an only child. Meanwhile, swaddled in her blanket and with that dispassionate stare, she’s starting to remind me of poor Fleet Captain Christopher Pike in that old Star Trek episode, The Menagerie.

Edit: By the time I finished composing today’s post, Professor Fate had already commented on Lisa’s resemblance to Capt. Pike. A tip of the pink ballcap to you, Professor!

Death-Les

Well, that escalated quickly! Well, maybe not quickly: I mean, who knows how long Cayla’s been sitting dutifully, paying rapt attention to her late predecessor’s condescending blather? But today, Lisa’ creepy claws come out as she threatens Cayla from beyond the grave. Where the hell does she get off? Is “Our Les” such a pathetic, cringing little milksop that he needs his first wife’s ghost to fight his battles? Don’t answer that…

Say My Name

Not only is Les Moore “filled with great wit but also tremendous melancholies”…sister girl, he is a tiger in bed! Yes, folks, today we are invited to imagine Les in the throes of the sex act. Of course, the “awkward moment” that Lisa’s referencing could be one of those occasions when “Little Les” refuses to, “uh,” stand at attention? And Les cries out “this never happened when I was with Lisa!”?

Kancer Komix

Previously on Funky Winkerbean:

I don’t know about you, reader, but I was so sure that yesterday’s postmortem, backhanded “I love you” to Cayla would serve to finally close a number of plot threads: the existence of the Lisa tapes, Les’ perpetual grief, and even Cayla’s second-class second wife status. I expected today’s strip to be a wacky Sunday throwaway: a Scapegoat football gag, perhaps, or hijinks with Cody and Owen, before Monday we maybe check in with Pete and Darin in Hollywood.

But Lisa’s not done with us, folks. And while I am loathe to deliver spoilers, and try to dissuade my fellow authors from doing the same, I must warn you: this goes on into tomorrow and this week. The story of a woman who, faced with a lingering, wasting, terminal illness, feels compelled to spend her last days on this earth recording messages for those she will leave behind. Lisa on Les: “He’s filled with great wit…” Certainly Les thinks this to be so. The rest of us see a pretentious douchebag. No wonder he misses this woman so.

For what it’s worth: Batiuk continues his laxity when it comes to using the photo album corner visual cue to depict events in the past. Could he be signaling to us that Lisa is in fact, somehow, still alive???