beckoningchasm

People are Strange

Well, Mason, if you didn’t want to freak Les out, maybe you should have been a little more subtle…you know, less following Les around in your little black car, less parking right across from their house–you know, that sort of thing.

Or, as all of us have been screaming for days now, maybe you could have realized that memorizing an idiot’s driving patterns isn’t going to help you in a drama about a man suffering because his wife is dying. Has Mason always been this stupid? I know, I know, to ask is to answer.

Cayla’s remark to the contrary, it would have been nice if Mason had made Les and Cayla act “weird or strange.” They’ve been just as boring as they always were, and always will be. I would have settled for “interesting,” too, but that ship has sailed.

Flooding the Head

Link to today’s strip.

Not much that I can say about this one…we all figured it out, thanks to Charles. Seriously, it’s the most idiotic development I can imagine. In order to portray a husband devastated by his wife’s terminal cancer, Mason has to memorize traffic patterns and driving habits. It’s a whole new level of stupid, something this strip can, perhaps, take pride in at last (“I had the dumbest development ever! Give me prizes!”)

I’m reminded of the (perhaps apocryphal) story about the film “Marathon Man.” Dustin Hoffman went to extraordinary lengths to portray his character (which was far more interesting than Les), and Lawrence Olivier said, “My dear boy, why don’t you try acting?”

My dear Batiuk, why don’t you try writing?

Charles in Charge

Link to today’s strip.

Yes, our very own Charles called it. Congratulations, sir, you may pick up your prize at the ticket window.

I’ve never read it, and have no intention to do so, but my impression of “Lisa’s Story” is that it is (and I’m being generous I know) a story about a young couple, and how they cope with the knowledge that one of them will be dead soon.

Of course, I’m sure the actual book is all about Les, his feelings, his sufferings, how could the universe do this to him, and how will he mope, etc etc. Even so, I imagine that there isn’t anything in the book about how Les drives to work. The route he takes, the little quirks in his driving habits, how long he takes, what he listens to on the radio (“I need to know that for the movie’s soundtrack album!”).

Tom Batiuk seems to think everyone is as obsessed with trivia as he is. Fun fact: no one is. If this is seriously how Mason researches a role, how the hell did he play Starbuck Jones without traveling into space?

Look how manfully Les tears open the door. Almost as if he knew there’d be a “friendly” inside. Just imagine anyone else on the other side of that door, and Les would be getting the well-deserved (and long overdue) beating of his life. Which would be much more satisfying than anything this strip is capable of offering.

The Lifetime of a Role

Link to today’s strip.

Charles: I just realized that with Mason being on the masthead, the guy tailing Les is Mason, who is surreptitiously researching Les for his role.

Holy moley, I think that’s got to be correct. It’s so utterly stupid (on Batiuk’s part, I hasten to add) that it has to be real. I can just see Mason thinking (if that’s the right word) “I’ll follow Les as he drives to and from work, so I can get his driving pattern down perfect, for the movie to be real.” (Let’s not bring up that it’s actually Cayla driving.)

Because I can just as easily see someone in the Valentine audience wrinkling his face with disgust and saying, “This movie is total garbage. Everyone knows Les does a ‘rolling stop‘ when he drives away from the high school. He also tends to weave leftward. I’m leaving and I want my money back.”

Because I can thirdly see Mason imagining the above scenario, and breaking out into a cold sweat.

Speaking of cold sweat, our “mysterious” driver seems to be experiencing one, despite the fact that a) he could simply go around and continue on the road, and thus allay suspicion, and b) the sight of a racing Les, arms flailing, is one of the most hilarious things this strip has shown. Our mystery driver should be shaking with laughter.

It’s a pity that “Shoot!” in panel three is just a thought balloon, rather than an order to a guy with a shotgun sitting in the passenger seat. That would lead to the greatest Saturday strip in the history of Funky Winkerbean. I wouldn’t even mind the sideways comic-book tribute Sunday strip showing the funeral.

Strike A Posey

Link to today’s strip.

My recollection of Jared Posey was that he was a moody smoker who had a good football arm. Crazy Harry was (was) an imaginative kid who was very outgoing and inventive. How Les draws a match between the two sure puzzles me. Oh, wait, I get it–they’re both written by Tom Batiuk, so continuity be damned. I’m thinking neither will be mentioned again this week, but Batiuk has a talent for baffling in the dullest way.

And there’s Frankie (presumably) trundling right along behind. I guess he didn’t pull into the Moore’s driveway and filch things. He just drove to the school, sat in his car, and is now following them again. What he hopes to gain by this course…well, who knows. It’s not like Les takes a different route to work every morning, to keep his enemies off-balance so they can’t track him. Hell, Frankie could have just bought a map and drawn a line down the most likely streets.

This is lazy writing at its laziest. By now, we should have had some hint of who this is and what he’s up to. Sure, we’re all thinking it’s Frankie, and it may be, but maybe it’s Jared, miffed at being “referred” (roofie’d?). Remember when Buck first showed up? I recall that it was a couple of weeks of him drawn from the back only, leading to much speculation about who might be returning to the cast.

“Don’t get your hopes up” is always wise advice with this strip.