Planning to have a proper post out for you guys in the next couple days. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my artistic rendering of how I imagine the sausage is made.
Based on art by Mark Ryden
The Daily Grind
76 thoughts on “The Daily Grind”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
Batiuk doesn’t understand that the expression is meant as a warning not to examine something too closely. It occurs to me that he’d get angry if you tried explaining this to him.
Right, it implies a process that brutal and violent. The way Batty writes is more like making cupcakes. He stirs together some rotten ingredients and then lets them bake for a year.
“Sausage-making” to Batiuk is more akin to the operation of an Easy-Bake Oven or a Play-Doh Fun Factory.
Back around 1960, my younger sister got an Easy Bake Oven. It actually worked.
I always wondered about that. So the light bulb adequately heats the brownie batter? Is it infrared or something?
1960 is a long time ago, but from what I remember the bulb was incandescent. The food was edible and the flavor was good. The ingredients came in powder form. Both of my sisters played with it, and I was a willing Guinea pig. Perhaps some of our female posters have first hand experience. Surely Be aware of Eve Hill had one. I doubt that ComicBookHarriet had one. Her Mom probably had her helping in the kitchen feeding all the farm help. That’s what happened with my wife. Her family raised tobacco, and several times throughout the year, they would assemble a bunch of men to help, and then feed them. It was not unusual to feed over 30 men. They would offer maybe 20 or more items, so no one left hungry. The end result, my wife learned early how to cook. (And I am big as an ox…but a damn handsome, debonair ox!)
ALLONS-y (that was a classy ending!)
Jokes on you SP! My sister had an Easy Bake oven! And while I am handy with putting hamburger in everything, my mom’s cooking skills were definitley more 70’s easy cassaroles and Prego from a jar than feeding a herd on homemade cornbread.
As I remember from the Easy Bake, they cooked with just a normal incandescent bulb. It worked because the little pans for the brownies, cakes, and cookies were only about a third of an inch deep.
CBH, I have joke all over me!
Oh, yeah. 1970ish, I had an Easy-Bake Oven. Probably the culinary highlight of my cooking career. 😂
My Easy-Bake Oven had not one, but two light bulbs. They were clear incandescent bulbs, and they got HOT HOT HOT. My brother burned his finger so severely on a bulb he developed a blister. The unit’s top and back surfaces also got too hot to touch.
The oven included a couple metal pans, a push tool, cake mix, frosting mix, and a recipe booklet. Alternatively, you could use Betty Crocker mixes or from scratch.
First, you would mix the cake batter with water in a metal pan. After the unit had warmed up, you slid the baking pan into the cooking chamber with the push tool. After ten minutes, you’d slide the cake pan into the cooling chamber. After a few minutes, you could frost the cake.
Young girls in those days were pushed toward “Mommy Toys.” Little girls loved to play with kitchen sets, dolls, and in general, pretending to be mommy.
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t the occasional day out in the backyard blowing up my brothers’ toy soldiers with firecrackers.
😈
Eve,
Every little girl needs culinary skills and expertise in high explosives 🧨 🧨 !
My Easy-Bake Oven had not one, but two light bulbs.
I read in Wikipedia today (it’s amazing what this place inspires me to learn more about) that later designs only needed 1 bulb, because they improved the heat distribution. And, as you point out, this also reduced the potential for injury.
It also says there was a 21st-century push for more gender-neutral colors, to make it less of a “mommy toy” and more something any child could enjoy if they wanted to. And that’s awesome.
True. Nowadays, there are a lot of guys living on their own. It is a good idea to learn your way around the kitchen.
I had the `960s boys’ equivalent from Kenner, the Big Burger Grill. One light bulb, a solid metal grill surface (no danger there), and you could cook up your own hamburgers, hot dogs, pancakes, or grilled cheese. Never got burned, and I’m happy to say it’s still in my kitchen.
Wow! I am impressed! You’ve still got it!
It amazes me the number of different meals it could cook. I was not aware of the product. Like our own Anonymous Sparrow, you force me to look up things you mention. Thank you.
I have great memories of Kenner toys. I may be wrong, but I think they made dinosaur models. I learned that they are now out of business. Bummer. One more example that we lose out due to lack of competition.
Have a great weekend, my friend.
@Banana Jr. 6000
My Easy Bake Oven was a hippie green color, almost flourescent like Kermit the Frog. Many kitchen appliances had odd colors in those days, including my parents’ “Harvest Gold” stove and refrigerator.
Guys in Home Economics class? Oh, no! Say it ain’t so. /s
When I was in middle school, certain subjects were separated by gender. Girls were only allowed to take Home Economics and boys were only allowed to take Industrial Arts. There was even a day when the girls in Home EC had to serve a meal to the boys in wood/metal shop. Someone apparently thought this was a good idea. God knows why.
As I said yesterday, girls in those days were trained at an early age for their futures as housewives. Learn your place at the side and one step behind your man, girls.
Eve,
“There was even a day when the girls in Home EC had to serve a meal to the boys in wood/metal shop. Someone apparently thought this was a good idea.”
Using my professional detective skills, I can tell you who thought this was a good idea…
➡️…the boys in wood/metal shop!⬅️
Have a wonderful weekend!
Sorial sez:
“I may be wrong, but I think they made dinosaur models.”
Oh yeah! I had those! Creepy Crawlers and the Thing-maker accessory, and Time Machine! It made dinosaurs! I still have the “prehistoric world” playmat it came with!
And surprisingly, no burn scars. They got banned with Jarts as the most dangerous toys. Little bastards got up to Easy Bake Blast Oven Iron Smelting temperatures, with ALL exposed edges. Pretty sure houses burned down when Junior forgot to unplug his.
Believe it or not, they crossbred these with Easy Bakes with some kind of plastic you could eat. I continue to be unable to explain how anyone born before 1975 is still alive.
The eternal mystery, how anyone born before 1975 is still alive.
Wow! I did not know there were so many choices for Kenners Thingmaker! There’s even one for Superman.
Thank you, Bill the Splut. (Wow! That name is pure magic! I pray one sentence prayers for people on this website. Your name closes the prayer. “Bless Bill the Splut. Bless Bill the Splut!
BLESS BILL THE SPLUT!!!” It makes for quite the end of an evening.)
I just checked out Mattel’s Strange Change Time Machine. Ooohhh. I want one.
Good weekend to you, sir.
I enjoy your posts on GC.
One boy joked that the girls could go to the woodshop classroom and eat some wood. One of the girls mentioned she would rather hammer the block of wood that was sitting on his shoulders (i.e. his head).
Eve,
There is always one head of block, isn’t there?
Be Ware of Eve Hill
mon cher ami
(my oh my, that was classy!)
My neighbor had an Easy Bake Oven (standard mid 1980s girl pink model, I think), and I used to go her house and help her make the goodies. She was a bit younger than I was so I’d make sure she didn’t burn herself on the light bulb, because it certainly got hot enough to cook the cakes. The treats were quite edible-not terrible for a kid’s toy!
Our middle school required all 6th grade students to take 4 1/2 week courses in both home ec and shop. In 7th and 8th grade, we could opt for either. Boys mostly took the shop classes, and gals generally chose the home ec anyway, but the options were available to both boys and girls. I remember taking a mechanical drawing class just before computers came around t9 help aid in design.
Mela, great to hear from you!
I just checked. Easy Bake Ovens, (nothing like we had) are sold on Amazon from simple $89 to deluxe $119. If I looked deeper, I bet I could find higher prices. While on EBay, the antique ones that we used, start around $40.
I hope your weekend goes great. I enjoy you.
You hear this analogy a lot in politics, especially Congress. Democracy is a beautiful thing, but how it works can get very ugly. I think that’s one of the reasons everything has become so politicized – modern media gives us all a VIP ticket to the sausage factory.
I think the same thing about fandoms in general, like TV/movies or sports. So much news is about contracts, rules, personal conflicts between performers, and things like that.
The connection between sausages and politics goes waaaaaaaay back. In Aristophanes, ‘The Horsemen’, a character who is sick of a politican he views as a pandering, stupid, blowhard recruits a sausage maker to become a politician to overthrow him. In the play, part of the joke is a sausage making is a dirty, smelly, gross profession. The character shows up on stage with a big basket of guts he was going to wash out to make sausages.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
The oracles of the gods flatter me! Faith! I do not at all understand how I can be capable of governing the people.
DEMOSTHENES
Nothing simpler. Continue your trade. Mix and knead together all the state business as you do for your sausages. To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them. Besides, you possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, cross-grained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing. The oracles are in your favour, even including that of Delphi. Come, take a chaplet, offer a libation to the god of Stupidity and take care to fight vigorously.
You could probably make that observation with a lot of professions. I can’t help but think of Vladimir Zelensky. He was an actor/comedian who played the president of Ukraine in a TV show, before becoming the real thing. And Back To The Future, when Doc Brown learned in 1955 that Ronald Reagan would be the president in 1985. He noted that acting would be a good skill for a president to have.
I always associated the phrase with Otto von Bismarck. Thank you for showing that it goes back to the Greeks (I guess it’s true that they always had a word or expression for it).
A poem about Bismarck from a high school history teacher:
Mused an old Bismarck named Otto
To whom blood and iron was motto
Our enemies we will crush in
Wars Austro Franco and Prussian
Germany to unify ach ja we’ve got to!
Forget the sausage analogy. The way Batiuk slapped together both Funky and Cranky the last several years is more akin to how they make scrapple: pick all all the miscellaneous leftover bits and throw them together with a little “seasoning.”
And yet, in spite of this, I love scrapple.
In the meantime, I’m enjoying the schadenfreude provided by this gem of a video someone uploaded to Youtube just a few months back. Won’t you all join me?
My lord, that is the Mona Lisa of cringe.
Cringe as art.
Gotta give that lead actor props for really capturing Les’ punchability.
I have also never seen a TV ad for a high school play before. Is this a thing that frequently happens in the US? Or, y’know, *ever* happens?
Probably not. Any commercial TV station has at least 25 high schools in its broadcast range. It’s an inefficient and expensive way to advertise. Not to mention the also-expensive AV equipment you’d need to produce a TV commercial. Though that was much more of a barrier to entry in the 1980s than it is now.
Snider High School (with an I) is a public high school in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I’m guessing they had a relationship with a local TV station, probably a low-power local station. I did theater in high school, and I’m glad no TV commercials of it exist for anyone to find on YouTube.
Fort Wayne, Indiana is where Colonel George Taylor grew up in the 1968 “Planet of the Apes.”
Truly, it is a madhouse! Lucius, keep ’em flying!
(The flags of discontent, that is. But don’t trust Taylor, because he’s over two thousand years old and the cutoff age is thirty!)
By the way, SP:
“The Asphalt Jungle” is a great heist movie. Should you want more, check out the work of Jules Dassin, whose “Rififi” has a superb silent jewelry robbery sequence.
Dassin directed great film noirs in the U.S. (“Thieves’ Highway”), the U.K. (“Night and the City”) and France (the aforementioned “Rififi.”
Au sujet de la belle France, mon ami:
Sa deuxieme femme de Dassin etait Melina Mercouri, comedienne et politicienne!
Charlotte Corday a tue Jean-Paul Marat en son bain aujourd’hui dans l’annee 1793.
My dear Anonymous Sparrow,
I will be sure to catch “Rififi” on its next showing on TCM.
I recommend a book to you, and to Math proficient Be Ware of Eve Hill, and to anyone else at SOSF that enjoys reading about Math without having to do equations. (I believe this includes the wonderful Duck of Death.) “The Art of the Infinite” by Robert and Ellen Kaplan. The segment about pyramid numbers and their relation to square numbers is worth its weight in gold.
My grandkids are awake, so I must leave.
Ma parole! Tu m’étonnes. Mes premières pensées : c’était classe ! Chaque fois que nous parlons, je crois que je suis dans l’enseignement post-universitaire. Vous me bénissez avec votre conversation et votre amitié. Vous êtes mon ami.
Anonymous Sparrow ,
Like before, you encourage me to learn. I read of Jean-Paul Marat. He is a true Renaissance Man. He has all the positive and negative traits. Supremely gifted, but violently combative when opposed. Seemingly, he was either powerfully loved, or totally hated. No middle ground. Maybe the most interesting tidbit of his life and death, he was eulogized by the Marquis de Sade.
Now for the classy part:
“Rien ne me fera changer mes principes. Même avec le couteau au cou, je déclarerai encore, jusqu’à ce jour…”
@Anonymous Sparrow
*WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR A 55-YEAR-OLD FILM*
How could Taylor possibly fail to realize he was still on earth?
1.) The apes were speaking English. That should have been a really big giveaway.
2.) Taylor is an astronaut. Shouldn’t he have been able to recognize the nighttime sky? The moon? The constellations? C’mon, even I can find the Big Dipper.
Back in my high school days, Ft. Wayne Snider and Ft. Wayne Northrup were two of the high schools that made the Indiana state marching band finals from year to year, so there’s my FW related reference for you. Ft. Wayne has it’s own legend that says the city was on Hitler’s list of cities to potentially bomb, due to it’s variety of manufacturing companies in wartime. That threat has never been proven, but it is referenced in a story as well as the title of the Michael Martone book “Fort Wayne is Seventh on Hitler’s List”. The collection consists of short Indiana stories-all fictional but based in some sort of actual Hoosier history.
Ft. Wayne is the second largest city in Indiana as well as the birthplace of actresses Shelley Long and Carole Lombard, and was the hometown of the fictional Major Frank Burns on MASH.
Ft. Wayne Snider made the Indiana state marching band finals from year to year
No wonder they were into Funky Winkerbean.
He did well capturing everything we know Les to be. It’s a great scene with great performances all the way around.
Les being equal parts unbearable dweeb and leering creep, Les getting shot down to the laughter of the entire school, “Suzy Peterson” being played by someone who looks like a live action original Cayla lifting her accent straight out of Frank Zappa’s “Valley Girl”… It’s everything I could ever want from a stage performance of TB’s work.
Other person with the initials “bts”: (billytheskink wins that title; he got here first)
Don’t call the actress “Cayla” just because she’s Black. There is a huge amount of difference here.
“Suzy” has an actual personality, and tells Les where to shove it. Cayla would just worship Les in their loveless, pointless marriage, in an endless stream of “Tell me more about your sainted wife who died 18 fucking years ago!”
GOD I would love to see that whole show!
To clarify, I referred to the actress in the video as “original Cayla” as Cayla was introduced in the strip with a similar hairstyle as the actress… though, obviously, her ethnicity is not irrelevant to this comparison either.
There was this thing in the 80s/90s USA called “Community Access Cable.” Anybody with a camcorder could get a show. So things like high school plays could get airtime. Okay, no one actually watched CAC shows, but they were a thriving sub-biome.
In my extended hospital stay, I found out that CAC still exists! Now, they all look like talk shows or podcasts.
There was a Seattle-based CAC show called “Almost Live!” that was upgraded to Comedy Central. A regular feature was “I’M SKEPTICAL!” featuring–well, a skeptical guy. His take on the Lottery: “If someone handed you a gun with a million bullets in it, and they took out one and asked you play Russian Roulette… Would you still pull the trigger?” He was Bill Nye, and I believe he went places.
That’s also where Wayne’s World came from. The skit was a look into that world, and the kind of people who would make such a TV show.
Why is Les wearing a pleated skirt?
In the Art Steal report:
Not sure about the rest of the panels, though I know that Pam looking back over her shoulder has been used a million million times. But I picked out Gramma Rose peeling potatos right away. It was adapted from Easter 2007. I had pulled the strip earlier this year.
https://sonofstuckfunky.com/2023/04/09/hoppy-easter/
I wonder how the guide notes TB had for that new panel were stated.
“Change the pot handle just a bit. Like 10%. Whatever.”
“Put something on the upright part of the range, blank white is boring I guess. Looks weird. Put a knob there or sth idc”
“MAKE SURE [s]MY M[/s] ROSE LOOKS VERY ANGRY HERE. THIS IS IMPORTANT. SHE IS SO ANGRY.”
And yet… mom doesn’t look all that mean or angry or cruel, just busy and a bit annoyed by the kid pestering her about komix komix komix. If TB is trying to convey the idea that Jff is still terrified to ask the Female Authority Figure in his life for permission, he really should have chosen different art, or had Davis turn Mom into a proper Wicked Witch.
Oh, silly me, thinking TB was trying to convey an idea beyond “komix good.”
It’s probably a very accurate depiction. Batiuk only knows how to tell stories by repeating them verbatim from his own life. He can’t even imagine what an abusive or unreasonable mom would be like. So he repeats the childhood conversation with his mother, implies this is some kind of horrible situation, resolves it off-panel, and drags out the inner child again. An inner child who looks like Alfred E. Neuman.
Would somebody please help this man? He has some serious issues. And I don’t mean Flash #123.
I found that GC commenters of the CS-loving type are a superstitious cowardly lot. “Then YOU write your own comic strip!!” and you can shut them up with “Then why don’t you?”
COME ON. That’s it? That’s just “I’m rubber, you’re glue” with me repeating it back. I feel like I’m 6 years old just using that argument–but it works! I’ve seen origami that folds harder.
I’m working on my own playlist of minor, weak comedowns. These people have never faced even the slightest pushback on defending their views, probably on Pluggers or Marvin, so I’ll go easy-peasy. Can “It’s only a comic strip!” be countered with “The Funkyverse claims that it’s a quarter-inch from reality”? Yes, obviously, but where is that quote from? GranGoogle only lists to some weird site named “SoS–” oh right. Is there an original quote from Tommy?
“You write your own comic strip!” is also a non-starter, because any of us here or there could do exactly that, given what TB has. Will you give me an artist to create all my art, 1000 syndicated newspaper subscriptions, and a complete lack of quality control and editorial oversight as long as I keep everything G rated? Yes? Then fuck yeah I can make another Crankshaft. So can you. So can any of us.
A counter to “It’s only a comic strip!” ? How about “… that nobody asked for!” . Because who is, really. Who. Even when JJ put the chance out there right in the open for someone who bitches about the snark to put something positive in the comment section, what response was given? “It’s not the worst” – as said there and here now, what a ringing endorsement! Here’s today’s comic strip as created* by someone with fifty years of experience in the field and that’s the best praise that can be said about the work? “It’s not the worst”? ANY OF US can make a comic strip that’s “not the worst”. And anyone who points any of this out is the bad guy in all of this? Not the guy who’s been phoning it all in for literally decades and getting paid to do it? But “us”? “We’re” the problem? Fuck off.
It’s like the old Milton Berle-Sidney Shpritzer heckler routine.
Berle: If you think you can do better than me, why don’t you come up here and entertain?
Shpritzer: I should!
Berle: Oh, can you sing?
Shpritzer: No.
Berle: Can you dance?
Shpritzer: No.
Berle: Can you get laughs?
Shpritzer: No.
Berle: Then what would you do if you were up here?
Shpritzer: Same thing you’re doing!
[0]: ANY OF US can make a comic strip that’s “not the worst”
I fear that you have only awakened a sleeping giant.
By definition, all but one of us can make a comic strip that’s “not the worst.”
I like to parody the ones who say something along the lines of “if you don’t like the strip, don’t read it.” I just replace the word “strip” with “comment.” Usually I get no reply, but I keep hoping someone will try to explain why posting criticism of the strip is bad, but posting criticism of the criticism is OK.
Hm, so it looks like “quarter-inch from reality” isn’t exactly Batiuk’s phrase, it’s “a quarter-inch removed from real life”. Just from searching on his own site, he’s got two blog entries that reprint articles from outside sources wherein the phrase appears (at least, that’s what I’ve found so far):
https://tombatiuk.com/media-and-events/crankshaft-joins-the-comics-page/
https://tombatiuk.com/media-and-events/tom-batiuk-talks-funky-winkerbean/
7/14:
“OH, BOY!” shrieks Rictus Homunculus. “Tonight, we feast on human flesh!”
There had to be some point a year ago, when Tom realized that Funky was going away. I wondered how his writing would change.
And now we know. Every single person in CS is Tom. Tom Foreverlasting. The Neverending Story of Comic Books. Tomlander 2: The Sickening.
Either that, or right now Jff is strapped to a gurney. The EMT says “Sorry, Ma’am.” Pam says “I saw it coming. No one listened…”
(screaming from the ambulance: “THEY HAVE FAT FLASH HERE!!”)
Every single person in CS is Tom.
Every single person in FW was Tom, except Dinkle, the Stepford women, and straw villains like Frankie. And the latter two were How Tom Thinks Women Act and How Tom Thinks Villains Act. “I’m such a mean mom, I don’t let Tom read comic books!” “I’m such a bad guy, I’ll get myself a reality TV show to trash my dead rape victim!”
What’s worse is that the premise of today’s Crankshaft could actually be funny if ‘Shaft and his “investment club” were basing their interest in certain comic book issues off of a price guide from, say, 1994 or something.
The entire Funkyverse is a comic book investment club. There hardly needs to be a subgroup for this purpose. Also, Crankshaft is known to collect Bean’s End catalogs, not comic books. And he was illiterate most of his life. But no, he has to be a comic book addict too. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
Crank giving Jeff the list and it reads “Entire run of Beans End catalogs, 1882 to present” would be funny! So, don’t expect that.
“Now, I want you to be on the lookout for copies of “The Eternals” and “Ms. Marvel”! We heard that they’re making movies out of them, and they should be skyrocketing in value any day now! Oh, and bagged copies of “The Death of Superman” from 1992! They’re sure to pay for Mitch’s college tuition in 15 years! Also, anything connected to this new Flash film! It’s going to make a ton of money for Warner Bros.!”
More importantly: yes, there are ways TB could have made Crankshaft’s sudden interest in comic books fun. Like, he completely misses the point, or he thinks Bean’s End is a comic book. But no: it’s straight back to The Correct And Only Way To Enjoy Comic Books. Even if I was interested in comic books, this would be boring.
1. It is good to see Crankshaft. 7/14
2. SOSF is well represented today on GC. There are at least 2 regular posters, and I assume a deleted post from JJ O’Malley. (You posted several days ago, JJ, that you were accused of man-splaining, and they assumed you were male. If you are or if you aren’t, I love you as you are!)
3. Comic books remain an appreciating investment, but very specific, and very slowly. At their age, they get no benefits from owning comics.
4. I would expect no bargains for high valued comics at SDCC. Plenty of 50¢ comics, but no cheap steals on “Amazing Fantasy #15.” Although, Crazy Harry does have a method.
5. In my opinion, EBAY remains the better choice. I got lucky once. Someone was selling “Warlock and the Infinity Watch” numbers 3-42 in one batch. Opening bid was $1. I GOT IT!!! I felt bad for the seller. He had set no minimum bid. No one bid against me. Surprising because Jim Starlin did almost all of them.
5. TB always neglects the good story. A better choice is Ed taking them on their trip (as others have mentioned) and kicking the whole crew off hallways because he got sick and tired about hearing about comics.
Alas, we can dream.
2. Well, it’s 2 p.m. Eastern time and I’m still up on GC with no replies (perhaps because I didn’t attack the strip directly). Thanks for your kind words, sorial, but I just checked to make sure and yep, I’m male. Mrs. O’Malley would be relieved.
This weird. I check GC through my iPhone. It does not show you on GC. This has also happened with BWOEH. She tells me that she posts on GC, but my phone shows nada. This can ONLY mean that GC edits and deletes on my phone!
2. I am glad that your physicality has been confirmed. I am willing to bet that Mrs. O’Malley does not want a second opinion. 🤩🤣😎
So, Tomato expects his new readers to know implicitly that Rictus Humunculous is Jeff’s inner child, without any explanation, or even a hint that he’s a figment. Hell, I didn’t know that before you guys told me! And yet…
“My father John Darling who was killed and I’m the daughter of John Darling who was killed” turned up every other day in an arc about how John Darling got killed. Man, I can’t count the amount of friends and relatives who constantly introduce themselves that way! (you can’t count to zero)
It was 3 panels, but meant to be ONE sentence, and it said “Butter Brinkle” 3 times. And that’s without him being referred to as “a famous silent movie comedian.” “Who?” “What, did I stutter?!” “Yes–3 times!” (if he’s so dang famous, why do you keep reminding us?)
Does he think his audience is comprised of readers who know more about his oeuvre than Stephen Colbert knows about Tolkien? And yet we’re all also the guy from “Memento”? When Tom doesn’t even remember half his own lore?
Welp, off to get some tattoos explaining which hawt blond is which nerd’s trophy wife/gf!
(btw–What’s playing at the Valentine? We were only told 17 times in 11 strips)
Ok, today’s (7/15) strip resonates with me. While traveling to Europe last year, Lufthansa lost my bag. They said it would be delivered over the next few days. I had an AirTag in my bag and could see that it was sent the next day and was at the local airport. The airport was close by and I was just going to get a cab and go pick it up, rather than wait for the courier to deliver it.
Problem is, there is no phone support, it’s all online. I was leaving the next day for another city and heard nothing about when they would schedule delivery. Of course they tried to deliver it and then called to say I needed to sign for it. As a result my bag was delayed another 2 days.
Oh well, I learned that I do not need much to live on, the amenity kit from the airline and doing laundry in a bidet was all I needed!
It’s also creepy and confusing if you don’t know the child is imaginary. Not that anyone ever parents in the Funkyverse, but “I don’t change my underwear for days” is a behavior an adult ought to address. It’s also a missed chance to clarify who this character is. Here, Tom, let me punch it up for you:
But, as you know, TB is a storyteller. Which mean this will never be addressed, because in the next panel they need to be ass-deep in comic books again.
Sigh…it’s called writing.
You know what would be way more fun than the airline losing Jeff’s bag on the flight to San Diego? The airline losing Jeff’s bag on the flight back to Cleveland, when it’s full of priceless comic books. Wouldn’t you love to see Jeff and Inner Child have a complete shit fit, and get into a fight in front the paper plane sculptures? I imagine it going like the old meme You Stole My Cloudsong:
Even when you let Batiuk tell the stories he’s passionate about, he still always picks the most boring, zero-stakes angle imaginable.
I like the way you think. Lisa would have liked this too!
Okay, the big SDCC arc kicks into high gear in Sunday 7/16’s “Crankshaft,” as we see everyone’s favorite Atomik Komix lovebirds–no, not Flash Freeman and The Late Phil Holt, Min-Dull and Mopey Pete–cruising the con floor dressed as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Did anyone try to remind our “engaged for four years and counting” paramours that these characters are brother and sister (No, the Ultimates Universe doesn’t count)? No wonder they haven’t made it to the altar yet? Oh, and a “Simpsons” Comic Book Guy rip-off tries to hit on Mindy. Hilarity follows.
It’s going to be a loooong week. But at least I can go for several days with only one change of Underoos.
CBH, your “Making the Sausage” artwork is hilarious, especially the little girl with the smiling GoComics (Uclick) logo for a head. It brings a smile to my face every time I see it.
Sorry for not mentioning it sooner.
I’m stealing the concept for a new GoComics profile pic. Cheers.
Thanks, BWOEH! You are such a ray of snarky sunshine in the comments section, have I ever told you that?
Why thank you, CBH. So nice to read that. It probably goes without saying I always look forward to your next blog. Each blog is like opening a gift.
Attempt #1 at creating a new profile pic using the GoComics logo was a bust. I put the logo over the face of the Mona Lisa. It’s a failure because the image is so small it’s difficult to make out.
Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe is next. Cheers.