As the baby-blue Batiukmobile® rolls into, or out of, Kent, Ohio, Cayla stares intently at her phone, as if willing it to ring. Seems the daughter she raised single-handedly and sent to college now can’t be bothered to answer her mother’s phone calls. Rather than explore her relationship with Keisha to understand why this might be, Cayla instead disparages Theodore “Ted” Paraskevakos and blames his invention.
28 thoughts on “Hangin' on the Telephone”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
Wow, he didn’t even try to draw Cayla today, instead opting for a more “abstract” approach. Les, though, is as intriguingly expressive as ever. What’s he thinking there in panel three? It looks almost as if he’s amused in some sort of smug, all-knowing way. He’s the king of the difficult-to-interpret half-smirk/half-sneer, or “snirk”, if you will. Such a dick.
Can’t help but love FW’s ever-current take on modern gizmos and such. Man, that caller ID…ain’t that something, huh? What will they think up next, you know? Note to Cayla: people tend to hate it when you call them for no reason while you’re on the way to a scheduled, planned visit…especially when you live 30 minutes away.
As usual I was going to crack on Les’ cheap North Korean “Le Car” knockoff (in robin’s egg blue!!!) but like every car in FW it’s just too easy. I’m glad they didn’t run over that rare black squirrel in panel two: that car would have no doubt been totaled.
They’re just reaching the Kent city limits (Kent is a city? OK.) and that brown-skinned superhero character is bitching because…wait. Who is that female-ish thing supposed to be in panel 3? OK, let’s say it’s Cayla. Maybe all that intense love-making during her unseen/unheard -of Honeymoon with Less permanently distorted her facial features. Sure. Anyway, Keisha hasn’t communicated with her electronically, as is the way with today’s youthages, who must be recruited as the new audience of this venerable and and soon to be venerated comic strip! To think. It is to laugh, is it not?
i would not answer call from my mother if she went an married my lovers lame ass dad,an look at Lesly lost in Lisa dreams, what at piece of doody
Who says Batiuk can’t be bothered to come up with new characters? Meet l’écureuil noir, cute and furry symbol of Cayla’s disappearing melanin content.
Goodbye, Pop Winkerbean! See you on Father’s Day- or on the occasion of your death; whichever comes first!
Super Keisha just wants to avoid her mother after all those Michael Jackson surgical procedures Crayola has undertaken. There was no honeymoon…just a trip to the “Clinic”.
Text her, you moron!
As awful as the past month spent with Crazy Harry was, the one thing I did not miss is that awful, punchable, smirk!
Maybe Summer swiped Keisha’s phone and switched the ringer to vibrate. ‘Nuff said.
Keisha isn’t calling back because Summer tied her up and Keisha can’t remember the “safe” word.
Yep, the kids today prefer the texting. Which is much harder to ignore, Cayla.
Hey, cmon Cayla…just because summer immediately responds to all of Les’s 987 voice mails each day, doesn’t mean you should be expending the same from Keisha.
….Stockholm Syndrome only goes so far!!
Wow, I see what you guys mean about Tom Batiuk deleted comments over at Comics Kingdom. So the comment accusing critics of “bigotry” stays, while mine saying that’s idiotic goes.
Nice little enclosed world you have there, Tom Batiuk.
How do you double the value of Les Moore’s car?
A. Fill it up with gas
B. Accidentally lock your cell phone inside
C. Put two blood donors in it
D. Drop some loose change between the seat cushions
E. Double park it
Ah, technology is evil – I feel grounded again. Noting Les’s anxious look I’m wondering if Cayla doesn’t take her fustation with things out on Les. Does this mean FW will delve into the world of the battered husband? As long as it’s Les I’m okay with it.
Hello–how are you
Have you been alright, through all those lonely nights,
That’s what I’d say, I’d tell you everything,
If you’d pick up that telephone.
Hey–how you feelin’
Are you still the same
Don’t you realize the things we did were all for real not a dream,
I just can’t believe
They’ve all faded out of view.
I look into the sky
(the love you need aint gonna see you through.)
And I wonder why
(the little things are finally coming true.)
Telephone line, give me some time, I’m living in twilight
Telephone line, give me some time, I’m living in twilight
OK, so no one’s answering,
Well can’t you just let it ring a little longer
I’ll just sit tight, through the shadows of the night
Let it ring for evermore.
Calling it now. Keisha’s going to kick off a “Very Special Story Arc” that will provide pointless gloom, angst, sermonizing, and (most important of all) FILLER before Lisa’s Story 3: Revenge O’ the Shoe finally unspools.
Keisha wastes no time cutting all ties with Clan Moore. And nobody is surprised.
@Helskor: Sorry to burst your bubble, but Batominc has had no burst of creativity. No, it seems that Achewood’s Todd T. Squirrel is making a cameo appearance as the Squirrel of Infinite Darkness.
An Achewood/FW crossover would get me reading Achewood again. I think Pat (from Wikipedia: “He is a generally unpleasant character — he typically plays the antagonist — and seems to hate anyone that does not live up to his impossibly high standards of behavior.”) and Les would get along just fine.
Pat could give Les rage tips, and Les could teach Pat how to smirk. Then they could drive around town being superior to everyone, though only amongst themselves.
By the way, I’m probably the only one but I thought the strip from yesterday (compare and contrast) was actually kind of good. It seems like the sort of thing Tom Batiuk actually wants to do, and while I’m not sure I get the meaning of it (the beginning of independent living vs. the end of dependent living?), still it does seem to have some kind of substance. Too late to the party, I know.
She’s not answering because she’s still pissed about not being invited home for Christmas, even though K*nt State is only about a half hour away. In fact, she wasn’t even home for Thanksgiving.
So is this BatDreck’s new look for Crayola? We had Traditional ‘Fro Black Crayola, then Angry Snake Hair Crayola, then White Crayola. Now we have Minimalist Crayola. When’s the deadline for signing up for that art class, Bat Hack?
To me, Goatee McSmirkyboy looks like one of those dicks who plods along at 10 mph below the speed limit in the “fast lane” and refuses to get out of the way of normal people trying to get somewhere.
Seriously:
I gave my daughter a cell phone and told her the only reason she has it was for me to get a hold of her. If I couldn’t get a hold of her…there was no reason for a phone….she answers everytime .
Yeah, I’m thinking Keisha and/or Summer might be on their way to having to suffer the same misfortune that befell our current one-armed band director.
Pookster: That will work if your daughter is under 12 years of age. Otherwise a cell phone is the gateway to the outside world.
@ Rusty… BUT, I still pay the bills and that is my rule.
So even at age 23…. she wannna cell phone, better answer when Daddy calls.
It’s simply a matter of economics.
Is it just me, or does anybody else see that Cayla has put a little edge on since she married The Grounded One?