OK, which one of you yutzes bet Tom Batiuk that he couldn’t put together another strip about Bernie Silver’s senior pictures? I suppose we have you to thank for today’s strip…
The good news is we can all boot up our Packard Bells and our MS Paints and join Bernie out in Tinseltown, where we’ll be paid handsomely for our rudimentary green screen skills (citation needed). Here’s a blank Bernie to start with:
Now go forth… The possibilities are endless!
History!
Sports!
Economics!
The deaths that built Gordon Lightfoot’s house!
Son of Stuck Funky 
Nice! I admit that I have been hooked on that trial. Surprised Amber didn’t call Bernie to the stand, her witnesses have all been terrible.
Snff…Snff…I think it is too soon to discuss the deaths from the Edmund Fitzgerald…Snff…Snff. (Please Billy, read the room.)
Plus, I kinda like Gordon Lightfoot.
Am I hip yet?
But can he raise his eyebrow like Bluto in this shot?
He can, but you’d barely see them behind his bangs.
Yeah, why this sudden infatuation with Bernie graduating? Does the (chuckle) average FW reader really have any idea who Bernie is? I read this thing every day and I was hard-pressed to remember any specific thing Bernie ever did, so (guffaw) casual FW readers must be baffled.
But yeah, these kids today, with their computer gizmo thingies and whatnot. It sure is something. There’s an excellent chance that Bernie might work in Hollywood someday, but he’s going to have to start at the bottom like every other Westviewian does…illustrating Les Moore’s graphic novels. It’s the Westview equivalent of digging ditches or clearing brush, good, honest, dues-paying work. Then you move on to comic books, THEN you go to Hollywood. Or, perhaps he could get married then have his wife die, which is the alternate Westview-to-Hollywood route. It’s way more angsty, though.
I …. kinda love how aghast SilverMom is that her son throws in a single media-referenced background. Wow, what a rebel the kid is. Doesn’t he realize the kind of negative impact this could have on his career, on his personal life, how this will mark him as outcast and apart from …
from the people who’ve been messing around with Asgard and Batcave Zoom backgrounds for the past 2 years.
SilverDad must work hard to keep her shielded from the brain-breaking quantity of superhero images and references in everyday life. Brave effort, man, but you can’t keep the outside world at bay forever.
I can’t believe how horrified she is! I didn’t quite laugh, but I got a lot of sincere amusement out of it.
Batiuk has some issues about comic books. And I don’t mean Volume 1s either.
Only BatAyers could depict the same character’s face two times in the same panel and not have them even match.
The face in the title appears to be the exact same one Bernie made in the title panel of last Sunday’s strip, the one reflected in the camera lens.
Of course, now Bernie’s not wearing the same clothes he wore last week… so who the heck knows what is supposed to be going on here.
The picture on the logo is better! It’s a goofy smile, but it’s happy and natural. The class picture is that condescending phony-ass Les Moore smirk.
A can of Raid would make the perfect background for Bernie Silverfish. And the perfect air-freshener for this strip.
I was really hoping someone would go dark. Can’t get much darker than this.
ah, beat me to it!
You know, I hate to rain on Batiuk’s parade while he’s busy taking his victory laps and patting himself on the back Barry Horowitz-style for how he seamlessly worked late 1990s computer technology applications into today’s strip, but–if memory serves me right–alternate backgrounds for one’s high school senior photos was an available option back in the mid-’70s. Along with the standard blank background (the choice for yearbook photos), you could be shot standing in the middle of a forest, or in a graduation ceremony (best for cap-and-gown pics), or other scenic locales. All the photographer had to do was change the roll-up screen behind you.
Also…did anyone else look at today’s strip and think it was one of Shylock Fox’s “spot which of these five pictures is not like the others” exercises? The trick this time is that there are no differences; I want to punch the smug expressions off of all five of them.
Pretty much any background will do, Bernie and parents. He’s got the Westview smirk down pat. That’s all that really matters in that smugtastic town!
I had some fond memories from today’s strip. I had a senior picture where I was literally photoshopped into the Star Wars poster while wearing a Rebel insignia t-shirt.
That was the deal with my mom. She was dead set on a full length portrait of me wearing my prom dress, and one picture of me in a nice sweater with a cross necklace for grandma, and I said I would do that if I could have a nerdy picture too.
Another girl in my class had her photo taken wearing her renaissance fair costume. Corset, huge skirts, wide brimmed feathered hat.
Doesn’t mean that today was FUNNY. But it was pretty inoffensive as far as the last couple months have been.
We will give you 5 Bernie pictures for one of you in the Star War’s poster. No questions asked.
I’ll beat that offer. I’ll give you NO Bernie pictures for one of you in the Star Wars poster!
LOL! This was back in the stone age, and I think the only remaining copies aren’t digital. But I’ll see what I can find when my next shift comes around.
If I’m remembering correctly, our senior picture for the yearbook had to be taken by the school’s photographer so you didn’t get much choice as to pose or background. Outside of that, it was up to you, your parents. and whatever photographer you chose.
The private photographer who took many of our senior pictures took multiple poses and encouraged personality shots. Most kids had a couple of formal poses but would also have ones holding their band instrument or wearing their sports uniform or more casual wear. If you wanted a nerdy themed photo, he would have taken it and made sure you looked great! Mine were pretty standard, though-sitting in and posing by a wicker chair and a couple of casual poses next to a big 86 (graduation year).
And as others have pointed out this week, this was all done the summer before or in the fall when school started-not weeks before graduation.
Now I want to see Bernie on the screen in that “1984” Apple Macintosh Super Bowl commercial. Right as the sledgehammer hits the screen. Shame my computer is 1000 miles away.
Wait… now that I think about it, I’d rather the sledgehammer hits Les.
Awww man… if my shift at work didn’t start in 15 minutes I could totally get that done…
Big Bernie is watching you, and it’s doubleplusgood!
Bernie is graduating from what? The third grade?
If Bernie can’t find his way in Hollywood, there’s always the dwarf-tossing circuit.
How to add a pic to my post? I’ve spent 15 min on Grandpa Google and I give up.
In my case I just put the direct imgur link in the post by itself. It worked, but the post was subsequently edited to not have the imgur metadata crap around it.
Oy Vey! Bernie Silver is morphing into DSH John.
Oh, Bernie. The chubby little cheeks and those adorable love handles.
💗💗🥰😘😘😘
Somebody, please call heaven and ask them if they’re missing a cherub.
🤣😂🤣
Seriously, I do have to wonder what Batty was thinking when he created the Bernie Silver character. He seems to have dumped every shortcoming he could think of on poor Bernie.
Cheer up, Bernie. It will all be over soon. It won’t be long until Batty punches your ticket for a one-way trip to ‘The Isle of the Forgotten Characters.’
Say hi to Mercedes Summers for us.
Mercedes Summers? Who Batty claimed was his greatest mistake? 😱
OK, which one of you yutzes bet Tom Batiuk that he couldn’t put together another strip about Bernie Silver’s senior pictures?
We should count our blessings. Usually when there’s some dumb thing that runs two Sundays in a row, it’s to bolster the story that’s running during the week.
Not that “Look at how I conflate your hip with you’re hip!” was any better, but it has less smug-ass Bernie Silver at least.
Ah, yes… “Graduation”… Does this mean we’ll next see Bernie Bernbaum stocking shelves at Atomikkk Comixxx, mopping the floor at Montoni’s, or being Harold L. Dinkle’s personal stenographer?
Or maybe he’ll hit the jackpot and Chester Hagglemore will want another useless comics geek on his payroll doing nothing all day?