Another week of Dinkle…how utterly demoralizing. It’s often difficult to tell if Dinkle is supposed to merely be all full of marching band swagger or if he’s just a huge insufferable dick. It didn’t annoy me as much back when he was a satirical one-note caricature, but it sure annoys the shit out of me now.
I saw the post on the official BatBlog explaining this arc and that Ayers guy definitely did a bang-up job drawing the church and those bricks, which are spectacular even by FW brick standards. But nonetheless, “Harry Dinkle becomes a church organist” is one of the strangest BatYam premises in a while. I can’t even begin to fathom who this premise would appeal to, other than the real-life guy he based it on, that is. Doing the strip for one person…that’s what it’s come to, folks.
Son of Stuck Funky 
I can’t look at the first panel. The front parts of the church hit my eyes like an optical illusion. Which was is the “front” door facing? And the side? They way they keep moving makes me queasier than usual when looking at this strip.
TB thinks he can outlast us, eh? No dice. We’ve been reading this strip simply out of spite for decades now… so what’s another month or two at the eye doctor or the choir loft?
And you couldn’t have found it in what I can only assume would have been one of several churches with organs in the greater Westview? I know it’s a silly point, but will it be established that Dinkleberg is of the same denomination as St. Spires (or is even a Christian? I kind of pictured him as having a pantheistic philosophy, or maybe praying to Apollo, god of music.)? Do Baptist congregations regularly hire Methodists or Catholics to be their organists, and vice versa?
On the other hand…BRICKS, GLORIOUS BRICKS!!! Just look at that panel two facade! St. Spires is built like a brick, er, church, and I’m staring at it and making my own mortar–if you know what I mean, and I think you do.
I am assuming that St. Spires is a faith based, strictly non-denominational church based very, very loosely on the most modest, middle-of-the-road Christian sects, only not as flashy. Services mostly consist of wry, pun-based announcements about bake sales, fish frys and yard sales and, of course, the weekly death tally.
St. Spires is the patron saint of tall pointy things and was canonized in 1734 after “The Impalement”. His final earthly remains, a fossilized big left toe complete with bunion, rests in a solid gold-plated box buried beneath St. Spires all-purpose cafeteria/bingo room downstairs. It, along with William Taft’s mustache comb, is considered one of Ohio’s most sacred relics.
I can’t wait for the Holy War between St Spires and The Cult of Dead St. Lisa.
I envision a Morlock- Eloi sort of relationship.
Full confession: I’m very involved in my church. No church would hire an organist sight unseen, and more importantly, music unheard. A good organist doesn’t fall off of trees, and there is a special talent needed to play with a choir so as to not drown them out. We once had an organist that had to be let go because his hearing was so bad, like Dinkle’s, that to hear his organ playing, he had to play REALLY LOUD so no one in the congregation could hear themselves think, much less hear the choir. But, who am I kidding, it’s not like I expect any kind of logic from BatHack, as long as the story is good, right? Alright, halfway decent? No? Okay, the story sucks, Dinkle sucks, it’s all a whirlpool of suckiness, and that complete defines this “comic” now.
In fairness, Dinkle said on Sunday that he’d made “an appointment to audition for the position”. So the church is doing its due diligence. Now, if we could just justify the reversal of Dinkle’s deafness…
Yep, he sure outdid himself on those bricks. Unfortunately, panel three has no bricks to distract us from the rest of the art.
And honestly, bricks or no bricks, what do panels one and two really add to the story? Come to think of it, what does panel three add? Once again, the week gets underway with a strip containing more filler than my mother-in-law’s meatloaf.
At least bread crumbs have nutrient value…
What is the point of any of this? We don’t know anyone’s motivation. We don’t know why Dinkle wants a fifth job, why he wants this particular job, why this church would hire him when better candidates must exist, why the church badgered Lillian into doing the job, why the church badgered her out just as fast. Or most of all, why any of this relates to anything you would call a story.
But, didn’t you read BattyBlog? Did you not hear about all the painstaking research? It’s not like anyone can draw a church. Did you not notice that there were no men in the church choir.
Batty’s work is lost on rubes like you. (And me)
That’s BS. Every small church choir has three men. The tenor pastor’s kid, the elderly tenor who can’t read music. And the really loud and enthusiastic bass.
They’ll also have 20 sopranos, of which 3 will be shrill old ladies that warble like they’re being shaken constantly, and 3 will be younger women who can’t sing harmony, but also can’t stop singing in chest voice like a friggen pop star.
There will be 15 altos, but you’ll never notice.
Was referring to Batty’s big photoshop where he photoshopped out the one male in the choir.
See, this is the sort of cultural detail that is completely absent in Funky Winkerbean. A story about someone applying to be a church organist could be interesting, if we got some insight into the personalities involved. But Tom Batiuk’s stories are devoid of anything but the most banal elements. This could be a job interview of anyone for anything. We still don’t even know why Dinkle wants this job, or how he’s going to do it when he has no history of being an organ player.
Loud and Enthusiastic Bass? Isn’t he a “Spongebob Squarepants” character?
I mean, I had one of those on my wall for a while. Bought if off TV. If you walked by he would start scream singing at you and flapping around. Reminded me of a kid I knew in high school who had a crush on me.
As a former alto, I agree, but our church choir never got as high as 20 members period. Oh, and we also had a woman who could sing in the male register but who desperately wanted to be a soprano.
Of course I didn’t read the blog. Outside reading shouldn’t be necessary. Furthermore…wild horses and all that.
Ah, well you are missing out. He had an entire post about photoshopping some dude out of the strip so he could bring Dinkle in.
Deep stuff.
Meh, the Carol Burnett show did a better cleaning lady bit.
So… is there any reason why the person who is playing the organ now can’t be the new organist? Just wondering.
Dirty Harry isn’t even scowling at the music’s direction, so it can’t be that bad.
Jesus.
Wept.
Fed the multitudes with his delicious fried chicken. Jesus Fried Chicken.
I always go for the wings.
So in TomBa’s Ahia, interviews with candidates for the organist job occur in the choir loft and apparently are conducted like an open casting call on Broadway.
He’ll secure the job with Marge and Homer’s favorite hymn: “In the Garden of Eden”.
(I’m sure this joke has already been used on this arc, but, like Batiuk, I don’t care.)
That 30 seconds of The Simpsons is funnier than this entire month of FW is going to be so I’ll allow it.
Took a second glance at the car in panel 1. Of course Dinkle has a vanity plate of his own initials.
He devotes three weeks to this damn storyline, yet I bet we won’t see anything regarding Dinkle playing the organ for this church at anytime in the next two years. (Not that I’d complain, but c’mon)