Son of Stuck Funky

Attack Interrupted

Today’s strip was not available for preview…hey, remember when I said that about six times in a row? Ah, memories.

I assume that we’ll get the “pizza monster” shambling around some more, and raising, well, noise levels if nothing else. Still have one more day before we can reveal the scamp behind it all!

Of course, Batiuk could throw us a curve ball–it’s not unknown for him to suddenly break, say, an arc dealing with CTE and suicide so that he could, say, shill his book for the billionth time.

I guess we’ll all find out later!

I suppose I should be thankful that Halloween allows Batiuk to indulge his more whimsical side (a side otherwise kept carefully suppressed). And bravo to Tom Batiuk for trying something light. Especially considering that some of those New York Times readers might still be around.

The concept of a monster costume made out of pizza boxes is somewhat unique, I’ll give him that, though he has to admit in turn that it’s kind of stupid. In a kind of amazing twist that only happens in this strip, it’s very creative and yet short-circuits itself by its own blandness.

And why are those two lamebrains gaping in fear at this spectacle? Do they think it’s real–even for a moment? Do they feel threatened? Are they worried about how it will impact business? (Speaking of which, I have the feeling when it turns out to be Cory, Funky will just berate him for wasting resources.)

Whether it’s fake or a real monster, the worst thing this creature could do to you is fall on you. It doesn’t even have a mouth! See, a pizza box opens at a hinge, just a like a giant mouth, but this feature couldn’t be worked in. Its hands could wield pizza cutters, or a cutter and a spatula…Jason Vorhees did a lot more with less.

The lack of these things kind of dampens my initial interest in this story. I have this awful feeling it will wind down in the most boring way imaginable.

Finally, the vertical style should have been skipped. The artwork is too damned crowded together. Spread out over a typical horizontal strip, it might have made a more impressive tableau, but I guess Batiuk spent all that time lettering the boxes and was damned if anyone could escape that detail.

Ignorance is Bliss

Link to today’s strip.

First, hats off to SpaceManSpiff85, who had to suffer through one of the strip’s worst storylines in recent memory. Glad to see you lived through it.

As for today’s offering, well thank whatever gods frown down on us that “Lisa’s Story” is no longer the focus. I’m not sure what’s beginning here, but it almost looks like…whimsy? Can Tom Batiuk do whimsy? I’d have thought that he felt such things were beneath him, but who really knows.

At any rate, looks like someone’s build a costume out of pizza boxes. I’m guessing it’s Corey.

Sunday=Winkerbean Romance Day

So I guess Sundays are “Funky and Holly have a stretched out but harmless and slightly sweet moment together” day now. It could be a lot, lot, worse. Maybe that’s the point of all the Les strips, to make a typical boring strip seem okay by comparison. I’m guessing those are pages from Lisa’s Story Funky’s burning? I’m also extremely happy the punchline wasn’t about how if you get your news on a computer you can’t use that to start a fire.
Thanks for putting up with me for two weeks! BeckoningChasm takes over tomorrow. May God have mercy on his soul.

Bench+Leaves=Double Symbolism

There are so many times I’d love to have an honest talk with Batiuk about this strip. Like this week’s story. Are we honestly supposed to feel bad for Les here? “Aw, poor Les, he got peer pressured into doing something he doesn’t want to do.”, or something? I mean, he’s an adult, if he’s already regretting it, he can say “Actually Mason, I don’t want to do this.”. Or he could, once again, act like an adult and accept it and make the best of it. Batiuk so often goes for “deep and conflicted” but hits “in need of intensive therapy” instead. I wonder how soon Les is going to hallucinate a talking blue cat?