Ugh. Of course they can’t reminisce about anything remotely interesting or anything, it has to be idiotic football jokes and banal football-related muttering instead. Look at Bull, absolutely astonished to learn that he’s been putting on his pants all wrong for all these years. You know, while CTE is certainly no laughing matter, I don’t think it’s going to necessarily be a bad thing in Bull’s case.
The artwork is downright freaky today. Bull is suddenly a retired longshoreman and Buck’s head is as perfectly square as any head I’ve ever seen. Take away his lil’ button-nose and the guy’s profile is literally a straight line. Whatever the hell is going on there I don’t know, but it’s not exactly a strong endorsement for playing football, that much is certain. And as pathetic and stupid as Bull is, this Buck guy is the one who had nothing better to do with his time than to look up some guy he didn’t even really know, which doesn’t exactly say a lot about the dreary path HIS life has taken since graduation.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Well, I’ll be goddamned! The shady looking guy in this week’s splash is Bull cosplaying a stevedore, not Phil Collins!
He could have been a contender!
where is this leading? is he about to hire Bull to coach Big Walnut Tech?
“Bull, have you ever thought about variable life annuities? They can provide great security for sweet cheeks…I mean, Linda”
I really don’t think Buck Strickland is going to be pleased that Hank has taken so much time off work.
Yep! Not up to Hank’s usual work ethic, tell you what!
That’s funny, Big Walnut Tech’s coach used to say that the Westview band director put their jacket on one sleeve at a time. He was right then and he’s right today, so that’s another thing he had over Jack Stropp.
I’d sooner hear a joke about a pumpkin-spice colonic enema than more of what Batiuk thinks athletes get up to in their spare time.
There does seem to be a lot of hype around pumpkin spice these days, so those jokes are ok. Here in Cleveland, they have now started hyping that horrid Great Lakes Brewery Christmas Ale. Argh, it’s not even November yet.
It’s even better because in today’s Crankshaft, a nurse prepares to painfully euthanize Cranky with a syringe of nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. His pulmonary embolism will smell just like PIE!
I know Rusty! I was driving into work the other morning and WTAM was leading the news with the story of GLBC doing the first tap of that swill.
I swear I don’t get the attraction.
I assumed they stripped down to their skivvies and had pillow fights. No, that’s cheerleaders.
The role of Bull Bushka will be played today by William Frawley.
That Buck in panel two has SEEN SOME SHIT. No doubt Big Walnut Tech was forced to hop into their pants all in one motion due to some kind of abusive hazing ritual commanded by a leering tyrannical coach. Buck is flashing back to the trembling bleats of the JV players, bleeding and bruised from falling into lockers and benches, crying on the floor, tiny elastic football pants around their knees, while Coach Jockitch looms over them grinning, and shouting at them to, “Try again, Candy-asses!”
But when he turns to Bull, he immediately represses the memory. Unable to share it with a mentally broken man. A man whose drooping eye and half grin indicate he is probably having a stroke.
We’re really at the bottom of the barrel when he’s resorting to cliches to show how Bull and Buck establish a friendship. (Although it does give Bull a rare opportunity to be on the giving end of a smirk.)
What is Bull’s scrotum doing between his eyes?!
I’d like to see Bull’s scrotum between Buck’s eyes, with William Frawley as Lucky Pierre…
So here we are, nearing the end of the second instance of a week-long arc featuring Buck and Bull bonding. Other than a convenient excuse to replay tired football tropes in a different setting, what is the fucking point of this? How (and more importantly, WHY) did Buck decide to look up Bull totally out of the blue and start spending so much time with him? Did his wife pass away recently? Does he have any other thing in common with Bull other than their teams having played each other four times over 40 years ago? Is there any chance that we’re going to get any more exposition beyond a horrible pants joke?
And Batiuk still refuses to defend this garbage. And he seems to miss the point of his strongest critics.
Bull’s action in panel 2 annoys me beyond all reason. Buck’s comment is so obviously a setup for a joke (a terrible one at that) and yet Bull looks at him as if he’s stunned and frightened by what Buck’s saying. CTE doesn’t make you a moron.