Oooh, that is some next level pouting going on in panel two. I can’t wait for an in depth story examining Pete’s and Mindy’s characters, their relationship, and the universal conflict between ego and charitable love. I just know Batiuk will really dig into Pete’s psyche, his insecurities, and use the weakness he’s intentionally built into his character to display the uncomfortable truth to all of us that the joy we get from outshining our peers will always be at war with the joy we get from seeing our friends succeed.
I mean, this can’t just be a few strips of mild petty annoyance on Pete’s part, only to be blandly brushed aside with a weak platitude and immediately ignored to be followed up by something even more passive…right? RIGHT?!
Mindy in panel one looks uncomfortably like some kind of Japanese caricature. And let us never ever get an up-the-nostril shot of Chester ever again, okay?
Son of Stuck Funky 
The worst part of all this is that I’d be shocked if it doesn’t end with Mindy apologizing to Pete and doing something nice for him.
It’s hot chocolate time, Minty!!
Well goddammit Pete! If you spent more time on your fucking Flash treadmill, you would’ve had this brilliant epiphany. But -no-! You spent a week fantasizing of Bullshit retaining his rushing record.
Obligatory…
HEY DARRIN! WHY THE LONG FACE?
Pete Townshend visits the Cleveland Airport Marriott…
This whole strip needs to be hit with an editor’s axe.
Pete is furious because he just found out Mindy isn’t his soulmate. She just did some actual creating instead of moping and procrastinating. Better he discover this now, I suppose.
Hagglestein: “And I need an evil nemesis for Atomic Ape…”
Minty: “How about Warm Bucket of Spit Man?”
Hagglestein: “BRILLIANT!!! I love it! And Atomik Ape needs a boss. Let me rub my chin and ponder that.”
Minty: “How about OO OO EE EE OO OO PLLLLLLTTTZZZZ?”
Hagglestein: “YESSSSSSSSSSS!!! FABULOUS!!! Minty, you’re now my head writer. Let’s converse further in my office. Pete, go fetch us coffee, would you, please? And make it snappy.”
https://imgur.com/Nq2vvyN
Talk about a fanboy fantasy girl. Who knew that beneath her bland inconsistently-drawn facade there lurked a seething cauldron of comic book aptitude and alliterative abilities? No one, that’s who.
My prediction: Pete and Mindy will become the John and Yoko of Atomik Komiks and eventually push Boy Lisa out, forcing him to take his talents in a poppier, more commercial direction.
DON’T YOU PUT THAT ON PAUL MCCARTNEY! DON’T YOU DARE PUT THAT DAMN DARRIN ON PAUL MCCARTNEY!
While Boy Lisa’s poppier, more commercial direction will result in several successful comic book titles, some will feel that his talents are being squandered on his poppier, more commercial direction. Meanwhile Pete and Mindy will focus on comic books with a more experimental far Eastern flair while spending much of their time protesting the pizza wars between Akron and Columbus. “All we are saying is give pizza chance”.
Beautiful.
(inadvertent thumbs down, sorry 👍🏼)
I’ve found you can reverse an inadvertent thumbs down by mashing on the thumbs up until it changes.
Huh, it works!
He’s about to point her to the crudely taped sign in his mind that says “Comix Industry: No Gurlz Aloud.”
Someone whose finest accomplishment is The Amazing Mister Sponge has no right to look daggers at anyone.
On Writing Female Characters – The Batiuk Method
1. Women are:
a. Scary
b. Terrible
c. Damaged
d. Dead
2. Women can:
a. Complain
b. Smirk/make terrible puns while smirking
c. Buy comix/provide milk and cookies
d. Die and/or be completely forgotten
3. Insert gratuitous references to authorial sensitivity to the chicks and their issues.
They also unwittingly stumble into success, all the time. Chester spent his entire life assembling a Starbuck Jones collection, Holly surpassed that collection in a year. Cindy took a shitty internet job just to be closer to Masone, she won an Emmy. Jessica abandoned her documentarian dream then magically still became one. And now Mindy strolls into the AK office and gets hired on the spot AND demonstrates she’s a comic book natural. On top of all that, the one FW female character who achieved success through hard work and grit has completely disappeared from the strip.
1. Darrin needs to clean up his own fucking house/marriage before shooting that “DUDE, WTF??) look at anyone…
1A: Yes, yes, we get it — Literally anything that gets blurted out is the greatest thing in the history of forever to Chester’s ears, so let’s not confuse her with some kind of creative genius… Hell, I can make a three-year-old laugh but that doesn’t make me a comedian. I’m not trying to hate or be anti-feminist, but seriously Mindy — Quit sucking up to the boss, do your job and STFU…
2. You know, you’d at least *THINK* that “Generic Young Blonde Female Template #5” would take notice of the fact that aside from the occasional animal or alien, **ALL** Batiukiverse pseudo comic heroes have been whitebread CIS dudes… AtomiKKK Komixxx is the only thing less diverse than the Funkyverse itself. Now all of a sudden Chester the Molester’s shaved head, his tiny hand-picked staff hired for ideology and not talent, his unlimited budget and his “MAKE COMICS GREAT AGAIN” crusade look a lot more sinister…
Judging from the side-eye that Darin is giving Pete, I wonder if the firing of Pete and a divorce from Jessica is in the offing.
Finally one good thing in this story: in the first panel, Mindy is laughing at Pester behind his back. Too bad, though, that she and Mopey Monkey are now breaking up. I wanted to see him fail to score if they ever got past the hot-chocolate-and-cookies stage of their relationship.
Hey Pete considering the best idea you got after spending all that time on the Flash treadmill was a hero made of animated wet wood pulp you should ease up on the attitude.
And why is he getting so angry? So she came up with the names – big deal comics books are very much group project so do your bit and maybe be a tiny bit gracious as well – this is your erstwhile girlfriend yes? It’s not like we’ve seen women battering down the door for you yes?
In other words grow up.
Oh sorry I forgot this is the funkyverse men are immature forever.
What is that white “X” logo on Mindy and Darin’s black shirts?
And, is Mindy sticking out her tongue at Chesty in panel one, or does the new artist like drawing those big red mouth-filling tongues? Creepy.
I noticed that too! I thought maybe it was Ben-Day dots.