Oh, so we’re pretending the Atomic Komix crew actually works in today’s strip, are we? I suppose we are also pretending like it is normal for all of these people to fly to San Diego together for Comic-Con (not @home then, I guess)?
We’re pretending like Darin doesn’t have a wife and child to be concerned about? Wait… we’ve been doing that for years.
Well then we’re pretending that Flash has literally nothing better to do in his few remaining years (months? days?) than hang around a comic book company he never worked for? Oh… I guess we’ve been doing that for years too.
At least Chester appearing to care that his employees do their jobs is a new thing here.
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Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Tagged as air travel, airplanes, airports, arcs that go on too long, arcs where nothing happens, Atomik Komix, awards, Batom's bizarre comic book fantasy world, boredom personified, bullpen, Chester, Chester the Chiseler, comic books, Comic-Con, comics, Darin, Eisner Awards, embarrassing errors a comics fan shouldn't make, endless tedium, Flash Freeman, helmet hair, LBD, mind-numbing tedium, Mindy, Minty Pete, Mopey Pete, one of those arcs that just never seems to end, Pete, Pete's Plaid Shirt, Pineapple computers, procrastination, Ruby, Ruby Lith, silly awards, technology, tedium, the comic book industry, unearned awards, unneccessarily long arcs, very long arcs, women in comics
Son of Stuck Funky 
I don’t know where to begin.
Aside from Funky’s stand-up routine at AA, there has been no evidence of
COVID affecting any aspect of the FW world. (I’m not going to deal with Crankshaft, since the on-again off-again crossovers seem totally gratuitous and the timelines worthy of multiverse treatment.)
How is it that last week they learned of the hall of fame selections and they’re already at the airport apparently flying to San Diego for an in-person Comic-Con?
Why, if Chester is so wealthy, are they flying commercial? If he doesn’t own a plane, doesn’t Chester have a timeshare contract with a private carrier?
I don’t know the last time TomBa flew, but even with necessary early arrival at airports, I doubt much meaningful work could get accomplished while waiting for their flight to board.
And as BTS points out, this is easily more work being done by this crowd than we’ve ever seen portrayed.
39 tags, isn’t that some kind of record? You could’ve had one more to make it an even 40. You can add “LBD” for what Minty is wearing, and there’s your 40!
Good call, LBD added. I’m not fishing for records with the tags, I’m just trying to provide substance when there isn’t any in the strip.
More tags than a crime scene.
The tags are WAY more interesting than what’s going on in the strip.
The more tags the better! My personal favorite is the one labeled, simply, “Stupid.”
Look at the sly smirk on Boy Lisa’s face. That’s the face of a guy who once again successfully convinced his wife to stay home with their unruly child while he gallivants around San Diego with his pals. The FW gender gap rears its ugly head yet again.
I think it’s more the smirk of a guy who forgets he has a wife and son. Because the guy writing him definitely does.
Chester is the only character who is even slightly likeable. He knows what he wants, he uses his resources to make it happen, and he’s happy when it comes about.
But he’s Chester the Chiseler, who’s great crime is…paying more for komix than other people can afford!
He also seems to be grateful for his wealth and all that it buys. We have never once heard him complain about his lazy staff and their often stupid ideas. And judging by today, Flash doesn’t have a job, so he spends his time with the aged and lonely out of the goodness of his heart.
The entire bullpen is on the road with the two award winners because…they have work to do? What? Why not leave them behind? If that’s not confusing enough, Pete isn’t wearing his green plaid flannel shirt. What the hell is going on here? (Also, I’ve really come to hate Floppyhead. I don’t know why. Batface just seems to have a way with making characters instantly despicable.)
Yessireebob, this is definitely shaping up to be too sizzling a storyline to have been abandoned by some silly minutiae like everything that’s been going on in the world for the past year and a half. Looking forward to seeing Ruby and Flash sitting in their San Diego hotel rooms giving their HOF speeches on their laptops (or, at least, Ruby’s. Poor Flash doesn’t seem to have one.).
And how nice of Chester to remind Mr. Freeman of where they’re going and the reason why. Clearly he knows how forgetful those seniors can be.
You know, if this was reality, one would think Atomik would have a booth or table or sandwich board at SDCC to promote their company and titles, like pretty much every comics company of any size has done for decades. Not a mention of such a thing so far, though, and I have a hunch it may never happen. Does Battyuk have ANY idea how comic book conventions work from a professional’s standpoint?
Here we see Batiuk committing the sin of “as you know”, where one character tells another something they either know already or should know already. (Unless Flash just sat down and is genuinely surprised to see everyone else there, which I doubt.) Avoiding the literal phrase “as you know” does not absolve him. Arguably it makes it worse.
The only time an ‘as you know’ is acceptable is if the character spouting it off is intentionally characterized as pedantic or insufferable, and the moment is more in service of character building than exposition. Michael Gary Scott can ‘as you know’ himself through an entire episode of The Office, for example.
It’s even worse than that. Funky Winkerbean is constantly explaining things that are clear from the story. “We’re going to Comic-Con. Did I mention we’re going to Comic-Con? Because we’re going to Comic-Con. What are we going to do at Comic-Con? We’re going to Comic-Con to watch Flash and Ruby be elected to the Comic-Con Hall of Fame at Comic-Con. Now that we’re at Comic-Con….” And all of them are covered in Comic-Con logos.
And it’s always the comic book-related details that get repeated. It’s an extension of Batiuk’s tendencies toward product placement, and to talk ad nauseum about things he likes.
Today’s strip doesn’t even need to mention where they’re going. The visual of everyone working on their laptops in an airport lobby is enough to make the joke work.
Every time we visit the Atomik Komix Building over in Comicbookville, everyone’s always standing around exchanging wry banter and humoring the nonagenarian comic book authors who loiter around the place like it’s a CVS in a 65+ retirement community or something. Then they leave the office and immediately begin plunging headlong into their work. This would indicate that just maybe the AK Building itself is the real problem, particularly its lack of doors and/or locks.
And as Mr. A pointed out above, Chester’s line only makes sense if Flash has just arrived and was surprised to see the bullshit…er, pen, tirelessly toiling over Rip Tide’s thought bubbles. But there’s nothing that would indicate he just arrived nor would there be any reason to believe so, as we last saw the AK gang boozing it up at AK HQ and now we’re at the airport preparing to fly out to Comic Con.
In fact, given how they apparently successfully nominated Flash and Ruby mere days before Comic Con was scheduled to start, we can safely assume that Pete wields an enormous amount of influence over the CCCBHOF committee, as the CCCBHOF immediately changed the entire CCCBHOF itinerary mere days before the event just to accommodate Pete’s last minute request. Which means that he very easily could have gotten Flash and Ruby into the CCCBHOF anytime he liked, but never even considered it until a girl tricked him into doing it by manipulating his affections. It’s just something to consider.
This is almost the ultimate Act III strip. “While we’re all taking a trip together to get a comic book award, you have to keep working on your comic books! Because bullpen bullpen bullpen bullpen bullpen!”
The Funkyblog has another great bit of self-awareness:
Staying on task for an entire issue without any side trips to other places or chasing off after shiny things, writer Cary Bates
Yeah, Tom, I hate writers who are constantly going on side trips and chasing shiny things.
You’re saying you want more Dinkle?
Dinkle is a massive side trip. He’s an Act I character who was obsolete the day the main cast graduated high school in 1992.
This years San Diego Comic Con has actually beren postponed from July to November Guess nobody told TomBat I suppose we will see Mason Jarr and Cindy show up in San Diego too
Well, he never acknowledged that this year’s Comic Con was remote only, so why would he acknowledge that it was postponed?
You mean Atomik Komiks doesn’t write all their books a year ahead of time?
At least Mindy is regretting everything (or is having PTSD from her last horrible trip to California.)
My name is Chester Hagglemore, millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht! But not a private jet, apparently.
1. Oh so now they’re out of the office it’s actually time to do some fucking work?
2. If they’re that busy, why are their asses even going on the trip? It’s not like Pete+Darrin haven’t done ComiCon before…
3. Yeah, like I’m really supposed to believe someone of Chester’s wealth would fly commercial for a company trip (which he can deduct as a business expense) with all the unwashed masses… Lemme guess — He also booked his entire staff at the luxurious Red Roof Inn off the interstate 30 miles outside of San Diego?
4. And if Chester Hagglemore is too much of a cheapskate, Peter Coreleone could have easily called in another favor and asked his superstar buddy Masone Jarre to send over the Gulfstream G6 to pick them up… And don’t tell me Masone wouldn’t have sent it, either…
5. You’d *think* for all the “good ol’ days” stories we’ve had to endure from these fossils, they’d happily remind the staff at Atomikkk Komixxx by example how people used to dress up (or at least look presentable) when getting on an airliner, especially for a trip on the company’s dime and double especially when colleagues are being bestowed with a lifetime achievement award… Pete+Darrin are two of the biggest names in the industry and by even the most conservative estimate both men should be millionaires by now… Why must everything about the Funkyverse be so trashy and low-rent?
Hey, Darin’s wearing his glasses. For a change.
I’m half expecting a jealousy-enraged Jessica to be storming into the airport tomorrow (TSA rules be darned!) and accusing Durwood of running off to California with Ruby.