Biddy Budd

A hearty salute to Epicus who, like all of our fine folks here at SOSF, deserves credit for finding something to say about this strip… especially when it spends two weeks on a remarkably contrived and amazing uninteresting road trip. Yep, billytheskink here to play tour guide on this journey from an Ocala retirement community back to Palookaville, Ohio which, of course, continues in today’s strip.

Holly’s mother is a nag. That’s it. I’m reasonably sure TB used this same gag with Jeff’s vile mother over in Crankshaft several years back. If TB stretches this gag out over the week there are going to be a lot of short posts.

Going With The Flow

Link To Today’s Strip

Another rather listless outing, but on the plus side they’ve finally picked up Holly’s mom, which means this arc is at least half (or maybe a quarter) over. Hey, I’m just trying to find the any upside here. On the downside, just think of all the airplane bathroom gags he passed on here. So many missed opportunities.

Sweet merciful Ohio, what a miserable two weeks, eh? It flew by like bunion surgery it did. Stay tuned for the return of billytheskink beginning tomorrow, let’s all hope the BanMan “skips ahead” to something a tad more, uh, “interesting”, like the looming band reunion or maybe the looming wedding. Ah, who am I kidding? It’s gonna be comic books and we all damn well know it.

Depends What The Meaning Of “There” Is

Link To Today’s Trudge

Bah, it’s the most tired “long car ride” gag of all-time, a joke that was tiresome back in the 1920s, which means it’s right in BatNard’s wheelhouse. No Holly, you’re obviously not “there” yet and believe me, we ALL wish you were. I certainly hope he’s not doing another week featuring the ride back to Ohio, as based on these gags he’s already totally out of “car trip” material, but then again I wouldn’t put it past the sick bastard either.

That’s STEP Significant-Other-In-Law To You, Fat Man

Link To Today’s Strip

Nice to see BatLoaf slowing things down a bit today and letting us know that he’s in no rush at all to marry Cory and Roxanne anytime soon. Hey, 2023 is going to need a highlight too, ya know.  As usual, BatWad is apparently plumb out of dialog already and resorting to desperate babble, which is sort of harrowingly accurate when you really think about the scenario here. But I digress.

Perhaps this will mark a new direction for the strip. “A reality-based comic strip that depicts unbelievably mundane issues in a yawn-provoking and tedious manner”. Oh, wait. Never mind. 

It’s The Little Differences

Link To Today’s Fascinating Installment

Good ol’ McArnolds, known for Arnold McArnold, the Beef Thief, Mayor O’ Patty and of course Sneer, the big purple one. “I will have a One-Fourther with cheese, a Sea-O-Sandwich, some Belgian fries and a box of McArnoldland cookies, please”. Over ten billion bored witless. The “soda” vs. “pop” gag was pretty funny the first ten thousand times I heard it so the impact is somewhat dulled here for me, although it’ll surely resonate with the new (guffaw) generation of FW readers who didn’t read “Archie” back in the early 1970s like I did.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be as easily amused as Holly is? “WOW, the f*cking fire hydrants are painted YELLOW here!”…”The power lines are…are…they’re UNDERGROUND, man!”…”I can’t BELIEVE that place just sold me three handguns!!”…but alas, I’m from New Jersey thus way too cynical and jaded to be impressed by these trivial cultural differences. Just wait until they arrive in Florida and order themselves a cup of brown sugar bubble water with frozen water chunks and a sipping tube.