Well, at least the math is correct in today’s strip. Atomik Komix does indeed have only four titles (The Inedible Pulp, Rip Tide: Scuba Cop, Atomic Ape, and The Girl Scorch), all of which TB has lovingly rendered in big splashy Sunday strips… via guest artists.
What doesn’t add up is this need for more than four titles to do a crossover. TB does it with three comic strips, one of which hasn’t been printed in nearly 30 years. Even a non-crossover strip like this one has crossover elements – Pete is the child of John Darling character Reed Roberts. I suppose none of this is “Mega-Mind-Blowing-Everything-Will-Change”, but nothing that Pete and Durwood could come up with would be either.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Yeah, because a space ape, a flame-powered hero, a pile of moldering comic books and a “scuba cop” are all going to face an enemy in which all of their unique talents are required in order to defeat him.
Well, the space ape will be crushed by a moon, the moldering pile will be dried to death (probably accidentally by the flame hero, who was aiming for something else) and the scuba cop will be bobbing in the surf, waiting for the call.
(Checks his watch) “There was probably something good on TV, so that’s why I haven’t heard anything. Oh, wasn’t that Game Of Thrones thing supposed to end tonight? Damn, I missed it.” (Floats for a bit longer) “Well, it’ll be out soon enough on VHS. I’ll rent it from BlockBuster. Oh, crap, I mean, TapeBluster. Whew!”
Yeah, Batiuk, you’ve certainly created a rich cinematic universe, ripe with possibilities.
Amusingly, there was a Spiderman villain in the comic books who was defeated by being “dried to death”, and I’m embarrassed I know that. He lasted one issue.
Pete’s reasoning really ought to have been “we’ll get to it when the notion’s not totally mortifying.”
The Atomic Komix table has been so busy that Thatsnought was able to come right back to it for seconds.
If you think about it, it’d almost make sense to have (ugh) Les sitting right next to Boy Lisa, as Spawn Of Lisa did do the artwork in the “Lisa’s Trilogy” graphic (guffaw) novels. So, naturally, he’s sitting RIGHT NEXT to Pete, with whom he has no relationship at all. It’s the little details that make it all worthwhile, you know?
“Hey Tom, when are you going to quit dicking around and actually do a story arc that might, even accidentally, entertain someone?”
“When Comics Kingdom finds out that my editor’s been dead for thirty-seven years, asshole.”
Bitch bitch bitch, complain complain complain. Comic book fans are never happy and comic book creators are downright miserable. The subtext here is pretty obvious and it once again confirms what I’ve known for a long, long time. To paraphrase Principal Skinner…”no…it’s the readers who are wrong”.
I love how Les is sitting up there with the big boys at the head table like he is important. That’s probably another of Batty’s wishes.
The wise literary sage seated in a place of honor
Also, in order to jam Les in there, Batiuk has screwed up the framing of the strip. Nothing going on in the left half of the panel is relevant to the strip’s purpose, unless Batiuk feels that showing people yet again fondling Holtron is important.
Also, Les is supposed to be sitting at a different table from Mopey, while Dopey is supposed to be at the same table as Mopey, yet Les is sitting about half the distance from Mopey that Dopey is. It’s just a failed presentation.
It would have been more honest to state that each character is in his or her own little world and nothing that happens in one title affects another one. Batiuk can’t think along those lines because he’s too busy grousing about how they keep changing the bullshit reason that Flash is able to run at ludicrous speed.
So, basically, Les is acknowledging that “Lisa’s Story” is a comic book.
Les’ facial hair looks really strange today.
Why is that lady (?) touching Holtron? Credit Batiuk with this, the more you think about his work, the more disturbing it (the thinking and the work) becomes.
Looking at the back of Les one is stuck with what a johnny one note, or at most two note character he is – still flogging the memory of his dead wife over hill and dale and being the vastly put upon sensitive artist, who can’t write about anything but his dead wife.