Les: Was [Lisa’s journal] hard to read?
Summer: No… It’s funny, insightful…
This strip… It’s sad, pathetic…
I’m puzzled, snarky…
That is I’m skeptical, confused…
Summer: The only sad part was getting to the end and realizing that Mom wasn’t going to be writing in it anymore.
Really‽ That was the only sad part‽
Snarkers! Let’s help Summer remember the other sad parts!
Ouch! I just got narrative whiplash! For a strip that usually proceeds with the pace of a slow IV drip, it’s really unexpected to go from zombie prom, back to football for a day, and the very next day to Lisa’s Legacy Run. Has our favorite auteur suddenly decided to add cinematic flash cuts and literary techniques like simultaneous parallel subplots? Or is he just doing something incomprehensible like the time he teleported Les off of Kilimanjaro for a day to name Funky’s car?
Ah, Westview! Think of the tropes we’ll see today!
¼-inch from reality.
Check! Lisa’s Legacy Run, an event that briefly leaked out into reality, exists no more in Real Ohio, but persists like sciatica in Funky Ohio.
Being a “reality-based comic strip that depicts contemporary issues affecting young adults in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner.”
Check! Cayla’s daughter and Lisa’s daughter are back from college, to help organize the race. In October. During midterms, I’d guess. Of course, we don’t know what’s been going on in these young women’s college lives, because all we’ve seen of that is them moving into a dorm room. You know: the most interesting, most sensitive thing young people do in college—move their stuff into a small room.
Cayla’s existence subordinated to Lisa.
Check! She’s literally holding Lisa’s name before her.
A falling leaf.
Check! Can you find it? Panel 2, center of window pane. It’s tricky, because the auteur and the colorist couldn’t be bothered to discuss how the falling leaf should be red or yellow, not green.
Hi! As the great Steve Martin once said (approximately): “I know it sounds insincere to say, ‘Hey! It’s really great to be here!’ But hey! It’s really great to be here.” I hope I shall snark entertainingly during my guest stint!
I thought for a minute that “the little boy in booth two” was Rachel’s son Robbie, whom we’ve not seen since January 2011. Nope, he’s just another luckless Montoni’s customer. Meanwhile, our old friend the green pitcher features prominently in today’s story!
Carrie
October 3, 2013 at 12:14 pm
Proof that outside of Lisa, Batiuk can only draw three kinds of women: homely, fat and older than they are; look like guys or hatchet-faced.
That is generally true; however in today’s strip, Alex is made to resemble a homely, fat, older hatchet-faced guy. A grand slam! Actually, she resembles Les’ bag-lady-turned-superagent Ann Apple.
Mallory’s “costume” consists of a nice dress which would’ve been appropriate even for a non-Zombie homecoming, and a couple randomly applied dabs of grime (and is this the un-bloodiest zombie gathering ever?). Actually, she does look pretty good, particularly for a Batiuk female, but we’ll let the Goth chick enjoy her little zinger.
Lest Alex ‘n’ Owen’s relationship story gain any momentum, today the scene switches back to football. Their new quarterback is nowhere to be seen as the ‘Goats listen to their coach once again throw in the towel before the coin toss.
From Wikipedia: The game is supposed to be an “easy win” and thus weaker schools will sometimes play lower division schools.
Not Westview! The weakest school imaginable schedules their homecoming vs. Big Walnut Tech, who has for decades bested Westview in every sport (including robotics). The football coach should complain to the athletic director…oh wait…
Son of Stuck Funky 
