Banana Jr. 6000
December 4, 2021 at 2:02 pm
[Pete and Mindy] getting married or having children makes no sense to me. Their relationship is built around their mutual desire to avoid adulthood. Which is Batiuk is probably going to make it happen.
And which also would qualify them as ideal babysitters for Skyler! Look, I know there’s no point in bitching about the way time passes in the Battyverse, but this kid would just have turned eight years old. He hasn’t changed a lot since we saw him last two Christmases ago. He still hasn’t been introduced to comic books and pizza?
Son of Stuck Funky 
Yeah, I agree, I have to call bullshit on this too, as there’s just no way that Skyler is only discovering pizza and comic books now. Highly implausible, at best. And what could Boy Lisa and Jessica possibly be doing that’d necessitate needing a babysitter? Just give Pete and Mindy their own damn kid, it’s not like anyone will notice or care anyhow.
But what will they name their child? Is there a name that sounds confusingly like Skyler, so we can never be sure which child is being discussed?
Given Mopey’s recent nomenclature track record, he’ll probably be standing in the delivery room, ear-to-ear smirk showing beneath the surgical mask, making suggestions like “Ree Pete” or “Off Spring” as the medical team throws sponges and gauze at him. Meanwhile, Mindy attempts to cover her face from the delivery table, as the baby tries to hang itself with its own umbilical cord.
Schuyler, maybe, or Schiller.
Given how often we’ve seen Jess and Durwood do something with Skyler other than drop him off with Ann and Frd, I’m not sure it is quite that implausible.
I do like how DSH is asking Pete and Mindy, notorious shirkers, what they’re doing away from the office. Like he doesn’t know… we all know! And Jess and Durwood don’t need a babysitter because they’re at the office either…
Time does indeed pass and skip around oddly in Westview. Somehow it landed in an era where there is nothing to prevent child abuse. And, no, I don’t mean that Designated Adult Skyler is going to torment Mopey and Mindy.
Umm, nothing personal, but after a visit to Montoni’s the little brat STILL won’t have been introduced to pizza.
That said, I love the look on the face of Panel One’s background character (who may be the Korner’s second or third depicted customer of 2021): “A child? What sort of weirdo brings a child into a comic book store? This is a serious gathering place fit only for disciples of the graphic literary form, not kids, and…ooh, there’s an issue of ‘Peter Porkchops’ Number 52 in the back issue bin!”
Ever curious, I checked to see whether there was a *Peter Porkchops* Number 52, and found that it appeared in 1957 (November cover date).
It contained a “FREE! Ice Cream Coupon Worth 10c.”
Peter would go on to become Pig-Iron of the Zoo Crew; his nemesis, A. Wolf (or Wolfie), would go into therapy with Dr. Sigmund Frog.
Are Duckburg and Piggsburgh sister cities?
I like to think he’s also thinking “Who the hell says ‘Busman’s Holiday’?!”
There’s that ¼ inch finger gesture from DSH John.
Lord Peter Wimsey fans who wish that Dorothy L. Sayers hadn’t stopped the novels with *Busman’s Honeymoon,* obviously!
You can never have too many love stories with detective interruptions.
Mopete’s eyebags are becoming eyejowls. Maybe he needs to stop pulling those all-nighters where he comes up with concepts like Oceanair, making a big splash, Swash Buckler, etc. Sure, that kind of artistic brilliance is priceless, but at some point the artiste needs to consider his health, if only to ensure the full breadth of his oeuvre for the coming generations.
Brings a tear to my eye knowing today’s kids are being properly schooled in the classics…
The artwork in those strips is really something. Darrin and Jessica look like they’ve having their-once-a year supervised visit with their little shit. Their body language shows that have no affection for this child at all. And Skyler already has that smug, punchable face when he’s not even four yet.
Yeah, while I do kind of wish the Funky/Cranky time differential was still solid, the PASSAGE of time in Funkyverse has been following sitcom logic for years. If you accept that these characters age one year for every eight seasons….then it starts to make sense. Westview…they do things slower there.
I’d complain, but in Batiuk’s defense Komixxx Korner and Montoni’s Pizza are literally the only two businesses still operating in Westview…
But there’s no defense for how much of a cheapskate Peter Rattabastardo (who even by the most conservative guesstimate is easily a millionaire by now) is being… Take the brat to an NBA game or something, asshole…
I don’t care… There’s something very very wrong about Pete and Mindy spending 40+ hours a week at the AK office obsessing over creating new comics characters and storylines, and on their one fucking day off they’re visiting a goddamn comics store… This couple ain’t right…
And for the record I think we’ll see Mindy pop out a rugrat sooner or later… Mindy needs to secure her financial future, and Pete needs to prove to the world that he’s hetero and his dick works
Mindy had zero interest in comic books until she met Mr. Wonderful here. Pete is basically indoctrinating two people, one of who is someone else’s small child, into his sick world. Because, like Les and Dinkle, everything in Pete’s life must revolve around Pete’s interests at all times. Westview is basically Stepford, except that the local idea of a perfect wife is one who lets you drink hot chocolate, read comic books all day, and mourn your dead wife for 14-plus years.
And you’re right, Mindull will probably squeeze out a puppy at some point, because Tom Batiuk thinks the story needs her to. But I still say it makes no narrative sense for their relationship. Pete doesn’t need to prove his heterosexuality, because no one in Westview has the 1998 levels of awareness necessary to see how dubious this relationship is. Mindy is an obvious beard, and is so dim that I think she’s borderline intellectually disabled. You know that IQ test Forrest Gump barely failed? I think Mindy barely passed it.
Well this was all just done so Batty could use his “ high culture” line. He uses it every year when he shills for his books on his website.
And the second ellipsis suggests that he had trouble thinking up that joke.
“what’s the Atomik Komix crew doing… (oh crap, now I have to think of something witty)… taking a busman’s holiday? (Yeah, that’s good, everybody knows what that means.)
“like the rest of us, John has trouble telling apart all the Batiuk blondes”
I had the same reaction.
And by now that raggedy Batman shirt should be ripe enough with John DNA to be sentient (that may assume too much, but definitely alive).
This is ridiculous, and Batty knows it. In Westview, the obstetricians wear Superman masks and birthing women are required by local law to wear Flash masks, so the first thing every child sees and bonds to are cartoon characters. Before the child nurses for the first time, they are given a ceremonial taste of Montoni’s “Pizza” slurry, and as soon as they can take solid food, it’s more Montoni’s slurry. The mobiles hanging over their beds are a dancing array of DC character cutouts. Their books, their screen time, their schooling, is centered around comix lore.
Today’s strip makes no sense.
If not Flash masks, then Jesse Quick masks. (This is what get passed in Westview instead of the school levy.)
I would sooner leave my child home alone with the dog than let Pindy care for it.
It’s not like they’ll trade him to John for a Very Good copy of Superman’s Friend, Jimmy Olsen, or anything. Actually, I totally expect that to be the Sunday strip.
My thought like others here was wondering what happened, did Boy LIsa’s adoptive mother die or something? It’s not like they spend a lot of time with the kid anyway. Well what can you expect of these man children – they can’t spend all their time reading comics and eating cookies served to them by their surrogate mother wives if they have to raise a real kid.
God sometimes I just hate this strip.
Boy Lisa pretty much abandoned his adoptive parents as soon as he found out who his “bio-mom” was. I think we’ve seen multiple stories with him visiting Les’s family or even spending the holidays with them, and nothing with the family that raised him.
I heard my Mom use the term “busman’s holiday” when I was in high school sometime in the late 70s. (She was born in the 1930s) She explained to me what it meant and I have never heard it once again until this FW comic today.
How about just “Hey Pete, Mindy. What’s up?” Does everyone always have to say something extremely clever? And look at that poor schlub off to the left. Even he’s thinking “WTF?”