And as you can see in the header, we’re off to La-La Land again. No, not Hollywood, as the Starbuck Jones movie and Boy Lisa’s struggles as an aspiring storyboarder guy with a new family to support arcs are dead in the water and circling slowly around the drain. No, I’m talking about LA-LA LAND, BanTom’s vivid little old-timey (sigh) comic book company fantasy world. Forget the insane muttering about the Starbuck Jones film, forget Boy Lisa’s Frankie-esque sneer, forget the fact that Jessica and Skylar are apparently taking the long way to California, none of that matters. It’s only a matter of time until one of these cretins says “hey, I wonder what Batom Comics was like in the olden days?” and bam, just like that it’s Cigar Guy and the two retro morons again, babbling away about imaginary comic books. All f*cking week.
Still though, this drivel is pretty funny in its own way. So Mason has been employed as the SJ male lead for a few YEARS now and they just recently signed his female co-star? Ummm, yeah, OK Tom, whatever you say. At this pace these idiots will still be laboring over this screenplay for years to come.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Google it.
So they just go to the storyboard guy and ask him “hey, you want to design some action figures for us?”? Even though his sole qualification is drawing a comic for a high school newspaper, that was kind of embarrassing even by high school comic standards? Makes as much sense as just about anything else that happens in this strip.
And wow, I did not read that word as “dollies” at first. I thought it said “doilies”. Usually the one calling action figures dolls in this clichéd joke is not himself a humungous nerd.
“Since Marianne Winters has signed on to play Jupiter Moon, our movie has suddenly become red hot!”
Holy Wordplay Batiuk! You’ve managed to make Superfriends look cleverly written!
Because if there’s one thing that sells action figures, it’s the main female character. Just ask Scarlett Johansson.
Great. More beefing about how making the character accessible ruins the experience of being misunderstood misfits trying to evade getting pummeled by the sportos and the nagging of cruel mothers who hate fantasy and life and get over yourself, Batiuk.
5 bucks says the next time she’s mentioned, her name will be Marianne Walters.
Are we supposed to know something about Marianne Winters, and why her 11th hour casting in the movie makes the project suddenly red hot?
So, this is going to be “movie merchandise is evil and we never did this back in the day” week? And next week we’ll see Wally going off to school with his vintage Starbuck Jones lunchbox..
What’s that, @bayoustu? Mary Anne Walker?
@TheDiva This is just another example of T-Bats’ disconnect from reality. Even the most cursory look at the Marvel movies will show that female “leads” are treated as slightly-higher-profile extras. Hell, the only way comic books and video games depict women are as anatomically-ridiculous fan service…but Bats being a old white guy who probably grew up fapping to Black Canary, he wouldn’t notice and/or care.
Whoa…Cindy Summers vs. Marianne Winters? Is Bats foreshadowing a relationship crisis? Giving Cindy cancer would be gratuitous even for his ham-handed writing, but breaking her heart would be right up his alley.
If Darin’s such a gifted designer, makes ya wonder why he wasted his time pursing an MBA.
Marianne Winters. Jupiter Moon. This all sounds like something Christian Weston Chandler would write!
@$$$WESTVIEW ONCOLOGIST$$$$
You think a week of this crap is bad? The other half of the Batiukverse is now in it’s 5th week of the “Lena’s brownies contain anti-matter” storyline.
You know it’s really a wonder that Boy Lisa hasn’t strangled Mopey Pete if this is how he is as a co-worker: when he’s not complaining about having to do his job he’s passive aggressively swiping at what Boy Lisa does – remember this is a man paralyzed by deadlines to the point of having hallucinations. he’s not someone to comment anything other folks do -especially if they seem to be able to handle the job.
“If Darin’s such a gifted designer, makes ya wonder why he wasted his time pursing an MBA.”
And leaving a spurious “thanks” in panel one.