Another perpendicular panel and more of Pete and Mindy meeting cute. I can’t tell you “the age of that joke” (I’m guessing ancient) but I can tell you Batiuk last used it six months ago (in another sideways strip no less). I guess he forgot, just like he forgot that it was a Tweet, not a “coded Junior Spaceman message” that Jff sent to the director. Pete nurses a glass of coyote urine as he watches Mindy gorge on pizza and Italian bread. He’s either too cheap/broke to get a slice for himself, or perhaps he’s already grooming svelte Mindy to join the ranks of dumpy blonde Westview wives.
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This relationship is making Les and Lisa’s look compelling and well developed by comparison. Which, considering he’s got yet more Lisa books coming out soon, might very well be Batiuk’s motivation.
Loser Pete’s way to a young woman’s heart: Profess admiration of a man who “never left junior high”, with the implication you’re still there also. Mindy, run away fast and hard to save any hope of happiness in you life.
Are … are they speaking in code? Are they signaling April over in Judge Parker?
I initially thought “poor Mindy” here. Cursed to date comic book geek Pete here in Act III… dated comic book geek Mooch Myers back in Act II… grew up with comic book geek Jeff Murdoch for a father… lived next door to secret comic book geek Lucy McKenzie (whose collection netted sister Lillian a big check from DSH when Mooch discovered it after Lucy was stricken with Alzheimer’s)…
But then it hit me, no character in the Batiukverse has fewer than 4 comic book geeks who have played a significant role in their life. Poor readers…
It’s like Six Degrees of Desperation.
No Batty. Smacks face with newspaper. No Batty, NO!
“I knew there was something about him I liked”…wait, I’m confused. Does Pete already know Jeff? If so how doesn’t he already know Annoying…I mean Mindy? If he doesn’t even know him how can there be “something” he likes about him? He only knows one thing about him, that being the dumb message he sent. So what the f*ck is he talking about?
If these two ever reproduce their poor unfortunate spawn will no doubt be taking anti-wryness medication for life. This repugnant sequence of events can’t end soon enough, ditto these idiotic vertical flirty banter panels filled with dumb pizza and comic book repartee. Blech.
I get it. Batiuk is showing us that he reads the witty repartee in Comics Kingdom.
Pardon me while I…urp…orp…arp…arpp…BLORP!!!
(in Mel Brooks voice) For this I turned my head???
Well, the new artist seems to have mastered hatchet muppet face.
Back in the olden days FW was jam-packed with all kinds of flaccid banter just like this, but sometimes he’d hold off on the most objectionable drivel until after something “happened”. For example, Pete and Mindy might have had today’s exchange after an AA meeting, a few years after the disastrous SJ premier ruined both of their careers. But now it’s just plain flaccid banter, every day, all the time. The big SJ premier date is finally nearly here and no one’s movie premiering, they’re all just sitting around eating pizza, talking about comic books and disparaging their family and friends. Why does he even feel the need to pair Pete up at this point, I mean who on earth would possibly care? It’s like he thinks these horrible Crankshaft crossovers are cute or something and I can’t for the life of me imagine why he’d believe that.
Most people wouldn’t even recognize this as a crossover. I certainly wouldn’t if it weren’t for SOSF.
You don’t suppose that he talks like this in real life, do you? It would explain a lot, wouldn’t it?
Has he forgotten that Mindy is Jessica’s cousin or has retconned that relationship out of existence? And that Pete was a regular at Montoni’s when Mindy worked there? And that she was Mooch’s date for the prom? All of these facts would be a source of potentially interesting dialogue.
More important, we now know what happened to Hannah.
“as he watches Mindy gorge on pizza”
using even less developed pizza holding skills than the others.
How DOES she balance that slice?
Easy. The crust is so thick and doughy and burned on the bottom..it could hold up a mug of beer.
Topped with loads of plastic mozzarella and topped with mass produced sauce from a major food distributor. And let’s not forget the nitrate laden imitation pepperoni food slices for added grease.
Pepperoni is a fine choice if one is so inclined, but haven’t any of these people discovered there are more than two types. Since Batiuk’s idea of a first date is pizza, I would not be shocked to find them downing milk and cookies in a future strip.
I guess he was a big fan of The Thin Man movies.
Pizza and Italian bread? No. That’s just wrong. You don’t do that. Seriously.
And Mindy much have a bunch o daddy issues if she contemplating a relationship with a comic book obsessed man child like her dad.
The “raise the dough” gag is O-L-D, as in vaudeville era. As in, “I was going to open a bakery and make bread, but I couldn’t raise the dough.”
I’d think that Mindy was just trying to get a free meal, Tinder, style, off Mopey Pete. But who would ever willingly want to eat at Montoni’s if they didn’t have too?
How nice of Mindy to change into the now-standard pink dress shirt uniform for their date, while Mopey can’t even bother to get out of that shitty black green checked unbuttoned flannel shirt that he wears everywhere. Seriously, that thing must be grafted to him now that he’s worn it for so long. I’m sure that removing it now would require some Game of Thrones-type extraction with daggers and shit.