And BOOM we’re there! Like TommyBats had suddenly remembered he didn’t have a Comic Con angle this year and so last-minute pulled this out of his self-aggrandizing ass.
As some of you may know, the Stuck Funky writer’s bullpen have no ability to preview Sunday strips. So, may I say, that I predicted today’s strip on Thursday nearly perfectly, and many commenters also guessed the Women-Be-Shopping angle.
And what kind of nonsense is that last panel? Long boxes? People buying and selling comic books? SDCC is dominated by the synergistic interests of megaconglomerates like Disney/Marvel/Fox/Lucasfilm and AT&T/Warner Bros/DC Comics. It’s a pop culture trade show, with booth after corporate booth, trying to generate buzz on the newest Netflix TV Show, Marvel Movie, Video Game, or Cartoon in order to increase stock prices based on predicted reception of a new release. It’s the nerd equivalent of wandering through the Varied Industries building at the State Fair, while people try to sell you hot tubs, massage chairs, and seamless gutters.
You want a folksy but crowded ‘farmer’s market’ of genuine nerds pursuing private enterprise? Don’t go to San Diego.
Indeed. In May, Bud Plant, one of Comic Con’s original vendors, announced he would not attend this year, ending a 48-year run. Apparently all the effort is no longer worth it. Sad, really.
Not surprising. It is a hassle, plus travel expenses. And now with the internet, you can reach your customers directly and you can announce new products whenever you like.
And if Batty likes comics so much, then why doesn’t he just start selling his work on the Internet?
Because he can’t find a “Pineapple” computer to work with?
This is just like when Holly somehow didn’t realize the convention was closed until she was standing in the middle of the empty room. Cayla didn’t notice all the signs for the convention, or didn’t notice when they went through the admissions area? Oh well, at least this was hilarious and not at all sexist. Oh, wait…
Damn, those last minute plane tickets must have cost a fortune!
Pet peeve: nobody sees the sites anymore, they have to say explore, to talk it up, like they are going to interact with a foreign culture.
Come to think of it, Cayla is out of Westview, so technically she is exploring. My bad…sorry Cay.
Cayla deserves what she gets here. Even putting aside the comic book obsession Crazy wears on his sleeve, he is a retired mail carrier who spent his entire life in Northern Ohio. She’s lucky he isn’t driving her all over San Diego looking for Higbee’s or Service Merchandise locations.
I’ve been more irritated with Funky Winkerbean than this, so…
goodtolerable job TB, I guess?Cayla looks for a Manner’s or Montoni’s restaurant as she thinks all cities have these.
“WOW! A major American city! Take me to the well-known and popular tourist areas that are largely unknown to the general public!”. Sure, Tom. I never would have guessed that Cayla is the biggest yokel of them all.
How about, “take me someplace that doesn’t smell like John Howard.”
As Cayla simmers in her self-induced Hell, Ralph from Crankshaft fondly remembers choking when being given his one big chance and Sally Forth has a much better convention experience.
Both of TomBa’s strips have moved into the realm of fantasy wish-fulfillment. I expect to see a ComicCon visitation by the ghostly couple of Lisa and Phil Holt. Maybe they can haunt Flash Freeman.
Ralph is doomed.
Batty sure loves to dramatize failure….can anyone, aside from Les and Lisa, ever win?
Everyone who worked on Starbuck Jones.
You know, no snark here, even though it’s going to sound like it, but I can’t remember a strip for the last several years where Cayla wasn’t a moron. I really get the impression that she’s cognitively deficient. She hasn’t expressed an independent thought. She hasn’t shown that she has any initiative, and that’s compounded by the fact that even if she had any, she evidently would still have no idea what to do with it. She hasn’t demonstrated any ability to make her own decisions or judgments. She’s totally at the mercy of these two dipshits she’s tethered herself to.
And this is what she gets for it.
:Yeah. When she beaned that girl in the head with a softball in Crankshaft did it give HER brain damage?
Well, when Les told her to quit being black so he could marry her, she immediately and obediently complied. The snake hair was GONE the next day, replaced by Suburban White Soccer Mom Hair. She even had elaborate surgery to “correct” all her facial features.
And when visitors pop by, she’s front and center to help with their coats and swiftly bring a mug of cocoa.
And you only have to tell her “SILENCE WOMAN! YOU HAVE NO MORE LINES TODAY!!” once.
She very well could be the most poorly-written character in the strip, which is really saying something. No knock on San Diego but she’s not visiting Dubai or Paris or NYC or Vegas here. She’s carrying on like she’s never seen a multi-story hotel before and seems to have no idea that the hotel room night table has a “visitor’s guide” right there in the drawer. The Moores (sigh) are not country bumpkins getting their first gander at The Big City, they live in suburban Ohio.
Of course she wouldn’t do something like install google trips on her smartphone. Heck, even Nancy and Sluggo have iPhones.
As do the 126-year-olds in Gasoline Alley.
The last time Cayla showed any initiative was when she dragged Les upstairs for a nooner. Cleary she’s lived to regret it.
You left out the biggest piece of evidence- she married Les.
Well, I did say that I wasn’t snarking. My comment here is a lot more a testament to how Batiuk presents her.
One thing, I suppose. Batiuk actually showed her going on this trip rather than being a wet blanket who wants to stay home doing nothing while Les goes out to play with someone he actually cares about.
When it’s all done next week, Less and Durward will be dismayed to see that the writers from Sally Forth get the big Eisner Award.
Two years ago, I would have bet money that Les would lose the award to something obviously lightweight and brainless (and popular). It would give Les a chance to bemoan how works of depth and subtlety are never rewarded for their excellence.
Now that the strip has gone full-on wish-fulfillment, I honestly would not be surprised to see him win.
One bright spot in today’s strip: not one hint of Starsux Jones on display! That nightmare may have gone down the memory hole at long last,
It’s funny because a woman literally asked some batshit insane loner where the best places where to shop for women’s apparel…