Category: Son of Stuck Funky

Darin To Be Stupid

In today’s installment, Darin has his recent life choice validated by a guy who is the antithesis of every person ever depicted in a Coffee Achiever commercial.
And… that’s it. Frankly, I’m surprised Crazy’s dream career arc is aimed as high as it is.

All this talk of storyboarding, however, has reminded me how much Act III Crazy looks like the late Jim Mateer. Mateer was TB’s high school art teacher and an accomplished artist in his own right. He had a week-long appearance in FW back in 2006, painting several lovely murals on Montoni’s walls, murals that appear to now sit under 3 and a half coats of Sherwin-Williams’ Urban Putty.

Storybored

Today’s strip is simultaneously one of the most realistic and unrealistic FW strips in recent memory.

That a film studio outside of The Asylum (and maybe not even them) would hire a pizzeria manager to draw storyboards for a movie, even a straight-to-cellphone one, is tremendously unrealistic of course.

That Jessica is super eager to pack up her young son and everything they own and get out of Westview as fast as possible… Does this make too much real-life sense to actually happen in the Batiukverse?

School Smarm

Today’s strip marks the long-awaited and eagerly-anticipated return of Sophomoric Sightings, the comic strip that Durwood and Pete drew for the Westview High School newspaper back in Act II. It was last seen nearly a decade ago, in early 2007 I believe, when Pete lamented to Chien in the school paper office that he was having to create the whole comic himself since Darin was spending so much time with Jessica.

Honestly, I have a bit of a soft spot for “Sophomoric Sightings”, as it is not unlike my own attempts at cartooning when I was in high school (or, uh, now even)… the simple and inoffensive jokes, avoiding drawing hands whenever possible, significant artwork inconsistencies between panels. If only given the context that they are comic strips within a comic strip about high school, they actually serve their purpose quite well and perhaps exhibit some level of charm.

When given the context that they are literally the only depicted works in a Hollywood storyboard artist’s portfolio, that opinion… changes.

Do maladroits dream of selective *bleep*?

Today’s strip

Les – * There’s no DJ here. There’s no DJ here. There’s no DJ…
Cayla – Wake up, honey.
Les – * Hate Big Walnut Tech. Hate Big Walnut Tech. Hate Big Wal…
Cayla – Les. Les, dear, It’s Cayla, darling.
Les – Oh, Cayla, it’s… you.
Cayla – Yes, darling.
Bull – Hello, Les! Anybody home? I heard the you were distraught by the the big… well… you seem all right now.
Crazy Harry – Yes. He got quite a bump on the head. We kind of hoped… uh… thought there for a minute he was gonna leave us.
Donna – Oh.
Les – But I did leave you, Crazy. I came through the time pool. And then went back to our high school days.
Cayla – There, there, lie quiet now. You just had a bad dream.
Les – No.
Funky – Sure. Remember me, your old pal, Funky?
Les – Oh.
Holly – And me, Holly?
Cindy – You couldn’t forget my face, could you?
Les – No. But it wasn’t a dream. It was a time pool. And you, and you, and you, and you were there.
Barry – Oh!
Les – Not you Barry.
Cayla – Oh, we dream lots of silly things when we…
Les – No, Cayla, there was a real, functioning time pool. And I remember that there wasn’t much class… but mostly it was a reunion. But just the same, all I kept doing was wandering through the background listening to Cindy reveal her insecurities and Crazy plot to alter the present with a smartphone. Doesn’t anybody believe me?
Crazy Harry – Of course we believe you, Les. *wink*
Les – Oh, but anyway, Lis… uh Cayla, we’re here! Here! And this is the reunion – and you’re all here! And I’m not going to coordinate the reunion ever, ever again, because I loathe you all! And… oh, Cayla? There’s no one like Lisa!