I believe commentor Charles had it right a few days ago–Dullard is the new Les, ie, the author’s new avatar. Today’s strip makes that pretty plain, I think, as suddenly his works are considered “professional” enough to be displayed in an art gallery. To the point where Swoon feels she has to seek him out personally, rather than make a phone call or put up a “call for submissions” notice.
See, the world failed to appreciate the depth of Les’ suffering, his broad perception of life, and the height of his intellect. I have a feeling the Westview world is going to appreciate the POOP out of Dullard. He’ll be not just appreciated, but honored and touted and given first chair to impart his wisdom.
But while Tom Batiuk, the artist, feels he should be honored, praised and lionized, Tom Batiuk, the writer, falls completely down on the job. The “you had me at” joke works when the “at” refers to something pretty early in a bit of dialogue–“You had me at ‘Hello'” being the original (I think). Pete’s, on the other hand, occurs when there’s only one word still to go in Swoon’s sentence. That’s not how it works. The fact that it isn’t funny or clever is besides the point.
But then, given the ideas that Pete has used to populate (almost wrote “pollute”) Atomik Komix, I don’t expect anything from him to be witty, imaginative or well-formed.
Great minds, blah, blah…
What’s the deal with Swoon’s head in the last panel? You could land a plane on it!
Wow, her head is literally cubic. Looks painful.
Maybe she’s the mother of NASCAR driver Paul Menard…
Sometimes BatHack gives you less than nothing to work with, but sometimes he just makes it way too easy. Wouldn’t this really be Chester’s call, seeing how he owns the company the artwork belongs to? Or am I just being all beady-eyed again?
So Darrin and Kitschy both have beady eyes, misplaced eyebrows, flat-top heads and blond hair? What’s her next line? “Darrin, I am your mother”? or “You look just like Grandpa Frankenstein, after the lightning hit him”?
Frankenstein was the DOCTOR, cot damn it!
The Creature took the family name, although he was too busy to attend to the legal niceties.
Older AND contemporary comic book art? So, literally any comic book art. Since she’s asking Durwood to exhibit I’m guessing the rest of the gallery will be faded covers from Harvey Comics properties like Jackie Jokers and some dreadful circa-1989 black-and-white Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wannabes.
I kind of wonder if at some point Batiuk either got tired of Les or realized how despised he is by literally everyone, and decided to switch his avatar to another male “artist” whose life was shaped by the Epic Tragedy of Lisa. Which amazes me, because I didn’t think he was self aware enough to realize how people feel about Les, but also because he’s clearly not self aware enough to know how people don’t like Darin much more.
He was a clingy and creepy about it, but at least Les raised his own kid.
I honestly think it’s just his ridiculous comic book fetishization. He took Boy Lisa, wiped his history clean and re-booted him as a comic book artist so he could indulge his weird Act III comic book fantasies. The really fascinating thing about it is how stupid and boring his comic book artist fantasies are and how his comic book fantasy stories never go anywhere. Even his fantastical imaginary dream worlds are stupefyingly dull.
Since Cubehead Woman’s name means that she literally swoons over kitsch, this probably means that she’s going to overload the pleasure centre of her brain when she lays eyes on that stupid bandbox only a dullard like Batiuk could love or when she learns that they know Captain Self-Blacklister.
Had him at “works of art”?!? There’s literally only one word left after “works of art”. The rest of her spiel was apparently irrelevant.
I’m not going to go on yet another rant about how nobody would ever, EVER buy Atomic Komix’s titles because there is literally no market for their hacky throwbacks because the world of comics, along with, you know, THE WORLD, has undergone some dramatic changes over the past fifty years– oh wait, I guess I am. But this time I’m not going to link to statistics showing what comic shops actually order because it is what their customers actually purchase. So I’m not going to go on as long a rant as usual about this, except to say: nobody is buying AK’s publications and nobody cares about Boy Lisa’s art.
It’s weird. On the one hand I know a whole lot about Old Hollywood and the comics industry so you’d think I’d be like a Batiukian dream woman, but on the other I know enough about them to know just how stupid all of these storylines are. And I’m not blonde, so there’s that I guess.
Tomorrow’s strip:
DARRIN: Atomik Komix would be happy to donate some of our original art!
KITSCHY: What? No, I heard this company acquired some rare comic book art from an old artist just before he died. I’m asking about that. No, no, no, no, no. Who are you?