oddnoc

Dastard to Detain Drug City Discount?

“What do you want, Geek? Credits?” our current strip seems to ask, as if Holly were some alternate, Klingon-like version of our rotund Winkerspouse.

Later, at home, Nick the Geek will hold up Holly’s Drug City discount card, and muse to his wife: “Can you imagine that? She offered this to me as if it was really worth something. Poor old gal.”

His wife will recall vaguely that such cards were worth something once, long ago, in the before time. “Sure,” Nick will reply, “about a hundred years or so ago, before they passed the Affordable Life Amendment,” and will toss the plastic card into the fuel cell.

On the plus side, Starbuck Jones dies in the first panel.

Latin & Skulls & Shades, Oh My!

Caveat lector, let the reader beware, is what Nick the Geek’s sign should say. I’m never shocked when Batominc fails to deliver on a narrative promise, so please imagine the next sentence in Truman Capote’s voice: Nick the Geek doesn’t look like a geek; he looks like a member of the Hell’s Angels.†

I know, I know, that makes me a beady-eyed nitpicker. After all, what’s more important—narrative continuity, or a weak pun?

†See? My superannuated references are to guys who died only 3 decades ago.

Holey Hazards, Holly!

Today’s strip has bricks! And snow! And a store called “Black Hole Comics.”

So, you know me! I had to google “black hole comics”. From the Wikipedia article I learned:

Black Hole is a twelve-issue comic book limited series written and illustrated by Charles Burns and … released in collected form in 2005….

The story deals with the aftermath of a sexually transmitted disease which causes grotesque mutations in teenagers.

So, yeah, as DSH said in yesterday’s strip: “it’s kind of a rough place.”

The Hazards of Holly

Hi snarkers! Oddnoc here. I wish I could could say we’re in for a thrilling treat this week, but we’re reading Funky Winkerbean. That makes us the worst reading club in America.

Today’s strip features a—wait for it!—pun! Oh my gosh! A pun in Funky Winkerbean—I can hardly restrain my glee.

You don’t see the pun, you say? Er, it’s in panel 3. No, not in Harry’s speech balloon. It’s in DSH’s. “Nick the Geek.” Still no?

Maybe that’s because the pun is based on the name of guy who died on Christmas Day 1966, 47 years ago, Nick “the Greek” Dandolos. The guy was born in the 19th Century, so this fits right in with Funky Winkerbean’s focus on “contemporary issues affecting young adults.”

Espèce d’Idiot

Today’s strip

Funky Winkerbean is a reality-based comic strip that depicts contemporary issues affecting young adults in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner.

What kind of idiot goes into the business of educating teenagers, then changes careers to write a comic strip about teenagers, when he clearly despises teenagers and doesn’t know any teenagers?

Oh, that kind of idiot.

I’ve always liked Owen—no, wait, let me finish!

Owen, as his creator compels him to behave, is a dimwitted, resentful, and callow boy with hardly any redeeming characteristics. He repels me. He’s a lazy student known to plagiarize from Wikipedia and otherwise cheat. He wears a chullo in summer, for crying out loud!

The thing is, I think the poor guy does all that stupid stuff under duress. In the hands of a more capable author than our favorite auteur, Owen and Cody could be interesting.

The Owen I’ve always liked is one that Batominc will never cause to exist.

So we’re left with the bandos getting drenched in the H₂Os on the fields in front of the mommos and daddos who are stupidos sitting on the bleachos. And so it goes.

About the title: In French, you can call someone a species of idiot. It means that not only are you an idiot, you’re your own special kind of idiot.

Update: Here endeth my stint as your guest snarker. It was a hoot, and I hope you enjoyed it (the snarking, not the comic)! TFH takes on Sunday’s bundle of joy, and will announce our next guest then! Cheers! Wait. I mean gloom!