The Last Detail

Link to today’s strip.

I don’t know what Tom Batiuk is reaching for here, but it is clear it exceeds his grasp.

Supposedly, Bull is suffering from memory loss, yet he seems to recall clearly what Coach Stropp’s last instructions to him were.  I guess it’s a good thing Bull never got fired, or crushed in a car accident when he stormed off a while ago.  The urn would have just sat there atop the lockers until someone just happened to spot it.  “Say, what’s that up there?”  “Dunno, looks like garbage.”  “I guess we should throw it away.”  Again, Tom Batiuk wants Bull to have a debilitating condition, but has no idea how to portray that.  It comes and goes when it’s convenient, when it can be used for pity.  Then it disappears until its next cue.

As for why we are now focusing on someone unseen in the strip for years (aside from a very brief appearance last September–of course, as a Les flashback), I have no idea.  It’s not like anyone really cares about the characters abandoned when Act I became Act II.  Tom Batiuk doesn’t seem to care about them.  Boy howdy, does he not care about them:  as BillyTheSkink noted yesterday, this seems to say quite openly that Coach Stropp had no family, or a family that hated him.  There isn’t an another interpretation that looks good for ol’ Stropp.

My assumption is that this is supposed to be a poignant moment here.  It fails.

You’ve urned it

Link to today’s strip.

So, Bull has “one last thing” to do, in order to honor Coach Stropp.  I’m guessing that’s an urn of Stropp’s ashes, and Bull is supposed to spread them on the field, now that…uh…now that…hm.

“Bull, when you retire, I’ll be long dead, but an urn of my ashes will be on top of the lockers.  Not in a case or anything, just sitting there, a banquet for spiders and a favorite spit-ball target.  I want you to spread those ashes out on the field.  Since I died of cancer, my ashes will give all the players on all the teams cancer.  Remember, the most important thing in the world is for Les Moore to write more books, and he can’t write those books if people are healthy.  Now, go in peace, my son.”

Amazing how we’ve gone from celebrating Bull’s career to Coach Jack Stropp, who hasn’t even been mentioned in the strip for many, many years.  This strip lacks many, many things but focus seems to be one of the big ones.

Happy Halloween 2016!

Link to today’s strip.

Hi folks, BChasm back in the saddle again.  Many thanks to HeyItsDave for a typically stellar performance.

Today’s strip was not available for preview.  I assume it has terrifying ghouls in it–members of the regular cast–so how about if I do the same?

…hey, if Tom Batiuk can shamelessly recycle things, gosh darn it, so can I!

Have at it in the comments, folks!

Aw, hell…

…it was just Cindy after all.

So it took two days for Bathack to segue from Westview to California, and this insipid, saccharine exchange in service to Cindyt’s vanity is no doubt T-Bat’s way of kicking off yet another Starsuck Jones arc.

“Promise me you’ll never get old!”

“Only if you promise the same!”

“I CAN NOT AGE, FOR I AM THE GATEKEEPER FOR THE MIGHTY GOZER! BRING FORWARD ANOTHER CHILD THAT I MAY SLAKE MY BURNING THIRST FOR THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT”

Watch your back, Skyler.

Don’t forget to check in again tomorrow for more delicious Funky Winkerbean snark brought to you by beckoningchasm!

The Bushka Fund

Is it possible that today’s strip is the last we’ll see of Bull and/or Bull’s retirement ceremony? Who knows? T-Bats stretched a three-panel story about Durwood running out of pens into two solid weeks of shitposting, so anything is possible.

Once again, though, we’re shown that Bull really is a solid dude, having established (with Linda’s help) an equipment fund that will provide future Scapegoats with state-of-the-art noggin armor. I swear, Tom never builds up a non-Les character like this unless he’s setting him up for a fall. The suspense is killing me! Or would be killing me, if I really cared about this half-rate storyline.

And someone help me out here…who dat in Panel Three, basking in the sunshine far from the Ohio night? It’s not Jinx – she had straight black hair, as befits her stereotypical ethnicity. Could it be Crazy Harry’s daughter Maddie? Has any other FW girl worn a billed cap? If it’s Maddie, why isn’t her hair red anymore?