Is it possible that today’s strip is the last we’ll see of Bull and/or Bull’s retirement ceremony? Who knows? T-Bats stretched a three-panel story about Durwood running out of pens into two solid weeks of shitposting, so anything is possible.
Once again, though, we’re shown that Bull really is a solid dude, having established (with Linda’s help) an equipment fund that will provide future Scapegoats with state-of-the-art noggin armor. I swear, Tom never builds up a non-Les character like this unless he’s setting him up for a fall. The suspense is killing me! Or would be killing me, if I really cared about this half-rate storyline.
And someone help me out here…who dat in Panel Three, basking in the sunshine far from the Ohio night? It’s not Jinx – she had straight black hair, as befits her stereotypical ethnicity. Could it be Crazy Harry’s daughter Maddie? Has any other FW girl worn a billed cap? If it’s Maddie, why isn’t her hair red anymore?
Son of Stuck Funky 
I don’t know who the blonde girl is supposed to be, unless it’s someone new. Maybe she’s another one of Lisa’s bio-kids, out to scam WHS out of their headgear fund money, who knows?
I guess the old players are kinda screwed here, right? Oh well, they were just dumb jocks anyway. It figures that BanTom would take the absolute lamest, low-impact way out here, even though his apparent disdain for football often shows through he never has the stones to really go anywhere with it. So some lame charity thing is perfect, no one can complain about that…right?
This seems like a really terrible thing to do at halftime. Imagine Bull going back to his team.
“Yes, men, I’m retiring because of the more than hundred concussions I got playing football. And no, you losers don’t get any of the good helmets. Now get back out there and knock some Big Walnut heads!”
That last panel illustrates exactly what’s wrong with Tom Batiuk’s storytelling ability.
According to him (I’m guessing) everyone is supposed to be familiar with that blonde. We’re all supposed to say, “Oh, cool, Sycorax is back!” (Or whoever; you know what I mean.)
But he’s so utterly terrible with continuity that everyone, even people who’ve followed the strip for years, has no idea who this person is. A person who takes up an entire panel and is presumably someone who figured in Bull’s life at one point. And we’re given not a single clue.
That’s just bad storytelling. Leave aside the unfinished arcs that he returns to after months (only to leave them still unfinished)–it is possible to balance several plot-lines and keep a kind of momentum. (I said “possible”; clearly we don’t witness this here.)
But this sort of thing is why he really ought to shut the strip down, turn the key, and get on with what he enjoys doing. Clearly, writing a comic strip ain’t it.
@beckoningchasm:
Is this thing being streamed live on the Internet? I mean, I know that’s super easy to do now (Batiuk probably doesn’t), but still. I would think anyone interested enough in the Bushka Farewell Soeech to watch it is probably at that game.
And really, you’re at what appears to be some gorgeous tropical beach on the other side of the world, and you decide “I think I’ll watch the livestream of the Scapegoat halftime show”? That is sad.
Although knowing Batiuk it’s entirely possible that that’s supposed to be Lisa, in the afterlife, watching this. Or maybe Cindy. Or maybe Bunny, Bull’s first wife he forgot all about because of the CMT/CTE that it turns out he’s still legally married to.
It’s not as if he understands much about continuity or pacing. It’s why he was rejected by every publisher out there. His metier is really the gag a day strip that has no consequences to its jokes but he doesn’t realize it.
Forget CTE and Bull’s retirement! You just *know* TB wanted to kill him off and gain publicity!
“But he’s so utterly terrible with continuity that everyone, even people who’ve followed the strip for years, has no idea who this person is.”
As I mentioned in the other location, she is your next two weeks.
Sort of like the leaf.
We should start keeping a daily countdown to the 50 year anniversary. Sort of like keeping track of days to retirement in your cubicle, or days to release in your cell……
“According to him (I’m guessing) everyone is supposed to be familiar with that blonde.”
Bull’s long lost and unknown daughter from an illicit relationship with Cindy Summers which was never mentioned in the strip in the past, but will form the basis of an unfinished arc in the future.
It’s probably Cindy. All other characters age in dog years, but Cindy keeps getting younger!
Yes, it has to be Cindy. She’s the only person outside of Westview who could possibly be interested in this. And it will inspire her to do a Pulitzer Prize winning series on Buddyblog that shows Bull’s career and talks about the effects of CTE.
“Future teams”? When Summer or Keisha, fresh with her B.A. in Physical Education from Kent State, becomes the new AD, the first thing that will happen is, “In order to maintain the funding balance between girls’ and boys’ sports, Westview High School is dropping football, effective immediately #girlsssportsmatter.”
1. Who the hell is televising this, and why would Cindy give enough of a shit to drop whatever she’s doing to watch? Besides, doesn’t Cindy have a fucking job she’s supposed to be at instead of laying on her ass at the beach? Even if she isn’t working, shouldn’t she be at the movie set making sure Masone Jarre doesn’t dare even TALK to Marianne Winters?
2. So Jerry Bushka is starting a fund from his meager salary+retirement to buy equipment for the football team that the OHSAA by regulation already requires them to have? Shouldn’t Jerry be fucking saving his nickels and dimes for his crushing healthcare bills in the very near future??