Link to today’s strip, again
It says a lot about the quality of this strip that you can completely skip over a day in a storyline and not immediately recognize something’s missing. 😛 And also, that once you actually do read the missing strip it really adds nothing at all to your understanding. “Harriet’s old, is married to a band director, and refers to herself as his mom” is a strip we could pretty much do without, I think.
One last comment on yesterday’s strip-why in the world is B hat guy asking if she’s been doing that long? She’s apparently in her mid-seventies. Unless she just marred a band director or her husband just got a job as one but is somehow already being honored by being selected to march, yes, she’s been doing it a while. Asking needless questions no real person would ask to set up a punchline no real person would laugh at-it’s the Batiuk way!
Cutting Corners (This Time For Real)
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Son of Stuck Funky 
In Batiuk’s world, small talk involves the smallest amount of sense possible.
I’m still trying to find out what the Michael D. Sewell Foundation does beyond this band and float at the Rose Parade.
Money Laundering.
If it’s anything like most Foundations established in a single person’s name.
If so, they’re not laundering much money. Charity Navigator says “This organization files Form 990-N, as allowed by the IRS for charities with less than $50,000 annual revenue.” It’s too small and irrelevant to be rated by them.
https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/823157379
Here’s their website:
https://banddirectorsalute.org/about-the-foundation
It looks like a vanity project, and it probably feeds the vanity of the organizers as much as that of its namesake. (“Look, we got our photo in the Pixley Picayune for giving that award to whoever-it-was!”)
Hmm…still within the realms of upper middle class tax shelter then.
Note how so far he hasn’t shown Dinkle participating in anything related to the actual parade, the very same parade the entire premise is built around. He hasn’t even been in the strip at all for two days now and, even more baffling, BatYam has decided to focus on Harriet as she watches the parade, the very same parade we’ve yet to see. It’s possibly the least efficient and effective storytelling in the history of fiction.
uhm… but, he was though, wasn’t he? The only dude who was colored all black and playing an alto sax, down near the corner of the float. Right?
“It’s possibly the least efficient and effective storytelling in the history of fiction.”
And I’ve seen Rise of Skywalker! *Ba-Dum-Ching!*
“Say, are we in that movie, “Cube”? Where we have to escape traps set by a horrible band director, and–gasp–possibly a horrible cartoonist?”
“Don’t worry, a retarded person will lead us out of this.”
“…you’re not talking about the cartoonist, are you? Whew.”
I’m glad you folks explained that today’s punchline was a callback to a more coherent punchline from Past Dinkle. When I first read this, I assumed it was a reference to “Coffee is for closers.” Of course, Glengarry Glen Ross was from the early ’90s, which is far too recent for a Batdick reference.
See, I assumed Batiuk was ripping off “Virginia Is for Lovers.”
By the way, in case anyone is interested: Philadelphia’s New Year’s Day Mummers Parade takes place primarily on Broad Street, the New Orleans Mardi Gras floats ride down Bourbon Street, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade route includes Central Park West, Central Park South, 6th Avenue, and 34th Street, and every four years the newly inaugurated President goes up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House. Now, where’s my nationally syndicated comic strip deal?
You didn’t say it right! Like this:
Pennsylvania Avenues are for Inaugural Processions! Bourbon Streets are for Mardi Gras floats! Like so!
No wonder you’re not a Highly Acclaimed and Respected Creative Genius. It’s called writing.
Lisa would be proud. (Ghost Lisa gives thumbs up)
There was a strip a few years ago where Funky told Les, “You know… Lisa would’ve lied that.”
Man, we had fun with that one on CK. We inserted it everywhere. 😂
Damn it. It’s “You know… Lisa would’ve liked that.”
Stupid “k” key. It seems I edit my comments about as well as Batty edits his strip. (hanging head in shame)
Meet the martinet here.
I’ve read so many blow-by-blow “Here is how the Muse visited me and sprinkled her magic Creativity Dust upon my brow” stories from TB and each one leaves me more agog than the last.
It’s as if every mundane thought he ever had needs an Origin Story, and the eager world is waiting to hear it. As if the idea of an exaggerated band leader, in a strip devoted to exaggerated high school types, was so shockingly unexpected and innovative that generations of cartoonists have debated how it could have possibly come about. How could one human being be that creative? Ah, says Tom, ’twas a visitation from my Muse bringing divine light, like Prometheus sharing the secret of fire with a benighted human race!
It’s been said before, but the gulf between what he thinks he’s doing and what he’s actually doing is so vast it would make Carl Sagan gasp in awe.
Hmmm…. The Eureka moment, according to TB, came not at any point during the creation and establishment of the Dinkle character, but when he started getting positive attention, fan mail and invites to events because of Dinkle. Less “I saw that my work resonated with readers” and more “I got stuff for this one!”
I like the part where he was too lazy and uncreative to do his job. And that was in 1973, barely a year into it. It’s almost year 50 now. Steady work if you can get it.
Yes, and he brags about it, because he thinks his utter laziness is cute. “As is my custom, I was grousing to myself about having to write when I could’ve been goofing off…”
Can you imagine any other creative professional saying that? I’m sure some might think it, but none would ever speak it, because it makes you sound pathetic. This is the profession you chose, you ungrateful shit.
I really get the impression that Batiuk thought he’d be the next Jack Kirby but just wrote newspaper comics because he needed a paycheck and he’s been bitter about that ever since.
And these stories are completely devoid of insight. I’d love to hear why Batiuk thinks Dinkle is such a beloved figure. Or how Dinkle did a heel-face turn without ever changing anything about himself, while also moving from a supposedly comic high school world to a supposedly realistic adult one.
Just a friendly heads up. If you didn’t already know, your namesake Banana Jr. 6000 was featured this week (12/27 – 12/29) in Bloom County on GoComics.
How can a computer be so cute? Such a classic comic strip.
I meant to tell you earlier, but my days become so much busier when I go on vacation. So many things to do before I go back to work.
I didn’t know that actually, thanks, I’ll go look for it now. I did greatly enjoy the BJ6K’s appearances in the Calvin arc in Bloom County this summer.
Am I reading that page wrong, or are the first and last strips shown the exact same strip?
Good a call!
You’re not reading it wrong. But you are reading it, which is something that Batiuk demonstrably never does after he types, pastes, or letters something.
Proofreading one’s own work is for lesser mortals. Those visited by The Muse need never consider the quality of their work, for it is de facto perfect from conception.
Further proof of that, as if further proof were needed: he misspells “buses” in the Sunday strip. (“Busses” are kisses.)
The Rose Parade is the chief reason the list of beloved streets in Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” does NOT include Colorado Boulevard.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, the Columbus PRIDE parade, which is usually the day before Father’s Day, tends to overlap with the Origins gaming convention, and it usually turns into two parades – one of floats marching down High Street, and one of convention attendees crossing High Street between the floats because it’s lunchtime and they need to grab a burger or a slice of pizza on the other side of High Street from the convention center.