I can’t help but wonder how much Les’ fitful creative process—including frequent breaks for things like surfing the web, random showers, and binge eating—is a reflection of Batiuk’s own. At any rate, it’s nice to see Les summon the strength to get his own food for a change rather than have Cayla fetch it to him.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Ah yes, TomBan’s “Delicate Genius” author fantasies, where he uses his revolting avatar Les to crack wry about the ins & outs of “professional writing”. Too bad Les doesn’t eat poison or play Russian Roulette when he’s proud of himself, as that might actually have some sort of humorous payoff.
Luckily for us, though, Les isn’t having total mental collapses and talking to imaginary cats…yet. I’m assuming he’s working on the “Lisa’s Story” prequel, the one where he details the intensely boring life of his frumpy, pious and highly annoying wife before she got cancer and became “interesting”. Hopefully the local bookstores have already ordered velvet ropes and security goons to keep the mobs of Les & Lisa fans at bay when this tome hits the shelves sometime in 2021 or so.
And yet Funky’s the one with the weight problem.
If Les ate every time he wrote something he liked, he’d weigh 8000 pounds. If he only ate every time he wrote something good, he’d starve to death.
You say “positive feedback loop,” I say “procrastination”…
We are dangerously close to a look at Les’s ass crack.
Epicus Doomus wrote: Ah yes, TomBan’s “Delicate Genius” author fantasies, where he uses his revolting avatar Les to crack wry about the ins & outs of “professional writing”.
And yet one of the most commercially successful authors of the 20th Century – Louis L’Amour – never really understand the whole “tortured writer” thing. He once said (and I’m paraphrasing here), “I could write in the middle of the Los Angeles Freeway during rush hour.”
With everything that could potentially be in that refrigerator, Les grabs something that even Mary Worth would describe as indeterminate. I guess it fits the recent examples of his writing.
It’s funny, because this image perfectly captures how I felt when I first saw it. TomBat captures more with an ass face than some comic strip writers capture in a whole panel!
Les has a Smurf stuck in his ass.
@Epicus Doomus:
That’s the most accurate depiction of Les yet. When anyone sees him, they immediately think “ass”.
Geh. More of Les being a smug jerk talking down to his caretaker. It’s not hard to see why Batiuk is all about the internuts and twitter tots. The more we deride his obnoxious avatar/pet, the angrier he gets. Eventually, he will post a please, Please, PLEEEEEEEEEASE love Les as much as I do letter on his blog in which it’s explained that off camera, this gloomy idiot obsessed with an annoying dead woman is a much cooler person and that the strip couldn’t contain that much awesome.
Cayla: “You wrote ‘Leave a comma.” and then came home in the middle of the day to eat leftovers?”
Les: “NO. First I imagined myself running around a tiny baseball diamond. Idiot.”
Does Cayla own any other kind of clothes? Every time she appears, she seems to be wearing this purple sweater-type thing.
Could be either a blancmange or a wadded-up Kleenex on a paper plate under Saran Wrap.
It’s not just that I don’t care what happens to these people—and I don’t—it’s that no such persons exist in Ohio or any other state. I mean, look at Cayla, who’s done everything she can to whiten herself up—there’s a master’s thesis or two in Batiuk’s treatment of women & people of color! Now behold Les, who eats white cake off a white plate! His digestive system is like a prism: it merely refracts his food, and he poops naught but rainbows and fluffy clouds.
I guess some commas were left behind.
,,,,,
Yellow shirt. Red cardigan. All that’s missing is Bermuda shorts, sandals, and knee-high black socks.
Smells like a “Les is getting fat” arc is just around the corner. Tune in as Cayla sends Lester to train with Funky’s dominatrix in that empty gym. Marvel as Les bench presses up to TWENTY whole pounds. Gasp as Les strokes out after a whopping five minutes on an exercise bike!
Then next week, Les and Funky have an Ellie and Annie style heart-to-heart while on a 53 mile jog around Ohio. Because writing.
But wouldn’t anything written by the lord of language be wonderful? And I remember years ago reading something about writing to the effect that a phrase or sentence that the Author thinks is especially fine needs to crossed out.