Lesmaze

More photo album corners and sepia in today’s strip, as Les and Durwood continue to show off their unparalleled procrastination abilities.

So, in a game we are surely going to play all week, did this actually happen this way in Act I? More or less, yes.

The strip from TB’s 2001 rehashing of Lisa’s teen pregnancy is pretty much the same as well, only name-checking Lamaze this time. And let us all be glad that TB is, thus far, not revisiting Lisa the way he did during that 2001 rehash, where he re-drew at least two panels of nearly every single one of strips from the original 1986 story arcs.

While I can’t say this for Act II, I kind of enjoy diving back into the Act I strips, mostly because Les is an idiot and the strip regards him as such. That attitude, sadly, died loooooooong before Lisa did, early in Act II.

Swing and amiss

I will give Tom Batiuk this, he rarely reuses artwork. Story arcs, dialogue, themes, comic book references, potentially fatal diseases, and whatnot, sure… but not artwork. No, he loves redrawing Act I scenes in his current “realistic” style.

Which we see in today’s strip, where he has redrawn a pair of panels to almost exactly match the strip from May 10, 1985.

FWcompare8517

Lisa appears less desperate in the 2017 panel than she did in 1985, though one could say she appeared Les desperate in 1985… On the Funky Winkerbean retcon scale this is RETCON NINETY-FIVE. Today’s strip hits RETCON ONE in panel 3, though.

Les, who alleges that he was so in love with Lisa back when this happened, actually asked three other girls to prom before he asked her: Cindy, who Les files a sex discrimination suit against after she turns him down; Allison, who Les asks via world’s worst wingman Crazy Harry; and Tracy, who Les openly insults before asking.

Oh, and he doesn’t appear to know or remember Lisa’s name until after they dance, (in some pre-prom dance in the gym that they are both attending? I can’t quite figure out what is going on.) referring to her as “that girl” in his thoughts before asking her to dance.

Oedipus Quax

Hello loyal SOSFers, noted Betamax enthusiast billytheskink here for another couple weeks at the helm. My goal today is simple, to see if I can get more writing done than Les did over the last couple months. Let’s dive in:

Here’s the link to today’s strip.

Let’s see; 1, 2, 3… 6. I wrote six words! “Once upon a time” is; 1, 2… 4. Four words. Mission accomplished!

Also, major newspapers across the country are now printing and delivering today’s strip, in which an adult son ogles a photograph of his late mother from when she was in high school while telling her widower about how attractive she became after high school. And we all called Pete the creepy one…

For reference, Lisa looked like this for much of Act II:
lisamoore

Durwood, meanwhile, looked like this before his nose went all Pinocchio/Jughead/Doonesbury in the early 2000s:
darin

Separated at birth? Why yes, actually, they were.

Chess Flub

Link to today’s strip

Oh, because they both include the word “club”. I get it. I mean hey, I’ll take Bernie over Les, Lisa and Darin any day of the week but still, this is a really weak (and not especially timely) gag.

Speaking of Dick Facey, the header seems to indicate that we’re in for at least a week of more Lisa wallowing, just what absolutely no one was clamoring for. Believe me, I’ll have plenty to say about that, as nothing enrages me more than Batiuk’s pathetic Lisa fetish does. That pic is nauseating beyond words, just like everything else involving BanTom’s imaginary girlfriend. Stay tuned as billytheskink takes over and bravely leads us through Tomban’s latest deranged Lisa fantasy! Stay Funky and keep that barf pail handy!!

makeitstop@dickwithears.com

Link to today’s strip

“After successfully learning to walk, talk and use a spoon, there was only one more young childhood demon for my beloved Lisa to face and slay with her special brand of feminine heroism and courage. On that crisp autumn day, with the dying leaves spiraling to the cold barren earth like so many ugly brown snowflakes, Lisa faced down the latest barrier the cruel universe had placed between her and happiness. In the same stoic unselfish way she’d later use to battle the horrors of cancer, Lisa entered the bathroom as a baby and emerged as a developing young woman. Against all odds she’d done it…she’d successfully gone potty on the toilet like a big girl!

I wasn’t there that day but just thinking about it makes me weep and sob uncontrollably. Why did the universe conspire to take her away from me? Why? WHY??? WHY?!?!?! WHHHHHHHHYYYYYY!!!!!!!!*”

*(I assume every chapter of every Lisa book ends this way)

The fact that his “writing studio” has a computer makes it even funnier how Cayla has to exit the house and visit Les’ creepy workshop to fetch him when one of Lisa’s kids calls. He NEVER would have forced Lisa to do that, in fact he’d have left the studio every five minutes to check on her, which in fairness is somewhat reasonable considering how often she’d get sick or blown up. It’s only a matter of time until that stupid imaginary cat returns to mock Les as he struggles over writing about Lisa’s first day of middle school or that time she skinned her knee. And I guarantee it’ll all be even more downhill from there.