Make Like an Ape, Man

It’s my call and I have to tell you right now that covers with gorillas on them are total locks.

Tom Batiuk, 1/6/18

I doubt that today’s strip (or anything in Funky Winkerbean) accurately depicts the way comic books are produced in the real world…I mean, you come up with a “flagship title” after you’ve launched the company? I do think that what’s reflected here is Batiuk’s own creative process, wherein he paces the floor and muses out loud (or maybe TB’s got his own Cosmic Treadmill), before settling on some half-baked, flimsy premise, and then hollering “YESSSSSSSS!!!” so loudly as to attract the attention of passersby.

Speaking of comic books, guest author comicbookharriet serves up the snark for the next two weeks. Bon appetit!

16 thoughts on “Make Like an Ape, Man”

  1. They already have multiple comic books out, and they’re just now talking about needing a flagship title? Damn.

  3. “Atomic Ape” makes “Rip Tide, Scuba Cop” seem halfway decent in comparison. I almost forgot all about that annoying Mindy woman, which was shortsighted of me given how she’ll turn out to be the unwitting creative might of the company and all, without even having a single plausible line of dialog to herself, no less.

    I like how BatWrite assumes comic book companies are run like his comic strip…all slipshod, haphazard and random, just going with whatever happens to come to mind first. It’s so amusing to me how he goes through the trouble of creating these comic book-centric sub-universes for himself then populates those sub-universes with a bunch of dopey story arcs and annoying (at best) characters no one likes or cares about.

  4. 1. How is it not “Atomik Ape”? I mean seriously, how little thought did Batiuk give this that he didn’t catch that?
    2. On that subject, after looking on Google for two seconds I found out there already is an Atomic Ape, and they’re a band.
    3. After 20 more seconds on Google I found an “atomic ape” drawing on a comic book art page:
    http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=951554

    1. Also, if the title of the story on the inevitable Sunday cover isn’t “Nuclear Apeocalypse” I will be so pissed.

  5. My thoughts on today’s strip are scattered:

    A little late to be trying to cash in on Harambe, isn’t it Durwood/TB?

    Even later to be trying to cash in on the craze over the “Atomic Age”, no? I cannot remember the last time I met someone who didn’t think that “Atom Ant” was not me simply being unable to pronounce the word “adamant” correctly.

    Mindy’s doing Pete’s job. Wonder who will get credit for creating Atomic Ape…

    All great comic book companies have their company names in their most popular title. Oh yes, Captain Marvel, Detective Comics, Archie, Harvey, Image Guy, The Dark Horse, Gold Key-Woman, La Mirage, Vertigo-Go, etc. are all flagship titles these days… (no really, have you seen what Archie Comics is pushing lately?)

    The only flag I can picture flying above this ship is a white one.

    1. Re: ‘Atomic’, I once attended a lecture by Paul Lauterbur and one of the key takeaways I can recall is that he thought it was really stupid that they changed the name of his technique, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, to just MRI for fear that no one would submit to one if the word ‘nuclear’ was present. Also, too, man did that guy have it in for Robert Damadian.

  7. Talking gorillas are the same “lock” all the other tedious crap he slobbers over are. We have a mind attuned to the stupidest nonsense and kitschiest trash available and he gets defensive when exposed to good taste and common sense. The loud noise that the four bozos dying of mesothelioma from unremoved asbestos are hearing is the derisive laughter of the comics readers of the world.

  10. ” covers with gorillas on them are total locks.”
    Well maybe in the late 50’s and early 60’s which is frozen in the Author’s mind as the golden age of well everything but a quick look at comics these days show narry an ape in view – busty women whose main super power to borrow from Calvin and Hobbes is their ability to fit in their costumes but Apes, not so much.
    And it would seem that they are searching for a flagship title that the guy made out wet paper isn’t setting the world on fire as it were.
    Honestly as bad as the band arcs, the football stuff, the worship of Lisa and Les her one true apostle and the increasingly desperate reaching after prestige topics, the comic book arcs are the worst of a bad lot.

    1. I’m not going to disagree with you but I do note that picking out the worst plot idea Batiuk has had is like trying to pick out the wettest rain drop in a thunderstorm.

  13. I’ll admit, I liked the idea of an atomic ape. Then I remembered I’ve already seen a whole TV show about a nuclear ape. It was called the Great Grape Ape Show.

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