The Sinking Of The CSS Holly

Today’s strip makes it two strips in a row for Donna. That hasn’t happened in a good long while. Wait… Wait. Funky’s there, so this has got to be Holly.

Sorry about that. I’m sure the whole “Holly and Donna look alike” joke is wearing thin these days, but when they appear in back-to-back strips I think it is obligatory. At the very least, it sure hasn’t worn any thinner than jokes about old people getting older. What is Holly looking at on that computer anyway, a Punch and Judy fan site?

You know, I’m starting to think this week is a collection of deleted scenes from other week long arcs. It’s like getting a bonus DVD with Ishtar.

Solutions in search of problems

Scene change in today’s strip! And you thought we were gonna spend all week at the high school… Frankly, so did I.

So Holly… uh, Donna doesn’t know what head cleaning solution is. Donna, the middle-aged adult, doesn’t know what head cleaning solution is. Donna, the comic book geek and Space Invaders champion, the wife of tape-baking super nerd Crazy Harry, doesn’t know what head cleaning solution is.

Yeah, OK. It’s better than looking in on Les’ classes at least.

Quiz Bowel

It is comics like today’s strip that remind me how good I have it. I’m not taking high school English from Les Moore. I never had to take high school English from Les Moore. It is as if he is intentionally trying to be the opposite of the teacher that successful people so often cite as the inspiration that got them to make something of their life. What a miserable experience in every single way this strip is.

Les’ senior students did poorly on their quiz last Monday and now his freshman students have done poorly on theirs… I see a common denominator here. I bet these students would too if Westview High had a math teacher.

The Unknown Comic

Is today’s strip so bad that it broke Comics Kingdom? It has certainly thwarted every attempt I’ve made to view it, I’m sorry to say/glad to report. I have mixed emotions about this, obviously.

Feel free to discuss when Comics Kingdom gets its act together, or when you receive your print edition in the morning. Hoping for no Les, knock on wood.

Update: CK is still on the fritz, as far as I can tell. My Sunday paper, however, had no such issues. You can read here the photo I took of today’s strip, minus the throwaway title panel.

Saturday, May 20

Today’s strip was not available for preview. I assume we are still at Westview High School, getting poorly acquainted with the strip’s newest generation of students (the 6th by my count, though that is not canon). We know that Bernie and Maris like to skip class, that Logan has more Facebook friends than Bernie, that New Monroe/Thatsnot Hewmore rightfully finds Les unfunny and Bernie mildly creepy, and that Emily and Amelia are twins but also, like, their own people. What will we learn today?

On that note, I thought we would take a quick look at TB’s first attempt to create a new generation of students back in the fall of 1992, mere months after the first time jump. The first two students introduced were Wally Winkerbean and Mercedes “Sadie” Summers, both relatives of prominent Act I students.

Here is Sadie pulling the same stuck-up popular girl routine that older sister Cindy did, while everyman Wally breaks the fourth wall with a sideways glance just like cousin uncle Funky:

FW9-11-92

Wally first appeared at band camp, where he was bullied mercilessly by a mullet-sporting senior trombone player, interviewed by a TV news crew about being bullied, and then tied to his bunk with Saran Wrap.

Sadie’s first appearance was also the very first strip in which Les taught English Language Arts. She dealt with living in the shadow of her legendarily popular sister by wearing her hair in the exact same strange way. Back in 1992, the Westview economy was not buoyed by pizza and comic books, it was built entirely on hair spray