So we finally got to see the fire that canonically shuttered literacy for two generations.
In contrast, here’s a normal Wednesday at Ed Crankshaft’s house, which is considered comedy:
And here’s what we saw when Les Moore needed help coming to terms with letting Marianne Winters watch video tapes of his dead wife, even though some of them were benign enough to exhibit publicly.
Continue reading “If The Burnings Were A Movie, You’d Walk Out. Let’s Write A Better One.”
The Armor-Piercing Question is the moment in a story where a character (usually the hero) asks another character (usually the villain) something that unravels their entire world. It exposes the flaw in the villain’s worldview, reveals knowledge of something the villain had tried to hide, shows them the evil of their ways in a way that will hurt them, and so on. Wreck-It Ralph has a great one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW1XX2L7g7Y
The title of this post is my Armor-Piercing Question, for this story. Why is the severity of the protestors’ crime being ignored? Not just by the story, but by the town, and by the main characters. I think this is the linchpin of why this story fails.
Yes, there are stories where the main characters can’t go to the authorities for help, because the authorities are actively helping the villains, or institutionally corrupt. This plot device is as old as Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. And, the police has shown some pretty questionable judgment. Like covering up Bull Bushka’s dubious suicide, and arresting Adeela when they wanted someone else with a similar name. But there’s no evidence of that in this story.
Continue reading “Why Is Giving “Fahrenheit 451” To High School Students A Bigger Crime Than Arson?”It’s Day 4, Week 3 of The Burnings, and Lillian is about to take the action that will result in her bookstore being attacked. Do you know what else also would have gotten us to this point?
This is the August 30 strip. I only edited one of Lillian’s two word balloons in the second panel. This could have been the first strip of the arc. It introduces all of the key story elements. But it skips over Continue reading “Editing 101”
The first two weeks of The Burnings have been a puzzle so far.
But poster The Drake of Life said something that got me thinking:
(On Wednesday) it looked like something was actually about to happen, so (Tom Batiuk) had to slam on the brakes and give us his patented, “Look who it is! [Name], the [awkward exposition of character]!” This (is) bringing the momentum leading to a potential interesting action to a dead stop.
The Drake of Life, two days ago
Why would any writer do that? Let’s review what we know so far about the story, from the first two weeks’ strips, or the Cleveland.com article. Continue reading “I’d Like To Buy A Smirk”
After wasting a week on Dinkle and book signings, Week 2 of The Burnings begins with a huge exposition dump.
Before we get to it, a question: if Tom Batiuk hadn’t put out this puff piece in the Cleveland newspaper, would you even know last week was the beginning of The Burnings? Last week saw three authors, two of whom are nationally relevant, standing around smirking at each other during an unrelated book signing. Which is a very common story in the Funkyverse. The Act III links above show that Les alone did book signings in 2010, 2011, 2017, 2019, 2021, and now 2024. Most of them were multi-week arcs. Today’s strip feels like the beginning of the actual Burnings story.
Continue reading “No, Principal Nate, “Suggested” Means “Not Legally Enforceable””
Son of Stuck Funky 
