It’s clonely at the top

The video-conversation continues in today’s strip, with Durwood taking passive-aggressive swipes at his long-time pal. The “sponge clone” that Darin is busting Pete’s chops with, of course, was actually what Pete used to take The Amazing Mr. Sponge “to the top”. Of course, that is “to the top” of an industry whose best-seller nowadays typically moves less than half the volume of a mid-1960s issue of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen with all of its lunacy and bait-and-switch cover art.

Even so, “I came up with an idea that sold more copies of my writing” is pretty much the first thing I would put on my resume if I was an unemployed writer.

To Re-Pete This Message, Press 1

Despite his seeming disdain for most internet activity and his unabashed nostalgia for videotapes, compact discs, band boxes, and Space Invaders, TB seems to fully embrace one certain piece of modern technology, as we see again in today’s strip.

That technology, of course, is videoconferencing. TB LOVES to depict the technology of communicating face-to-face via screens that in the pre-Skype world of just a little more than a decade ago was accessible only to wealthy early adopters and Star Trek characters.

Monday, May 11

billytheskink here, back for my third non-consecutive fortnight of guest weblogging. Today’s strip was not available for preview, so we’ll have to all be unpleasantly surprised together. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get a month-long break from the usual schmucks and watch Mr. Clean repair the band box, gear by gear and piece by piece.

Mr. Clean, the band box man!

If he can’t fix it, no one can! In today’s strip, we finally meet Mr. Clean. Oh, sure, we thought his name was Keith, but drawings don’t lie.

To keep the townsfolk from organizing a posse, Funky tapes up a scrawled sign: “The BAND is in rehab.” But I say no, no, no, no, no.

It’s nice to see Funky Winkerbean featuring so prominently in the comic strip that bears his name. He appears as often as Snowball, his car.

Here endeth my stint as your guest snarker. Thanks to TFH and the rest of the SOSF crew for making it easy!

Why not vacuum tubes, Harry?

Harry finally succeeds in finding a CD in today’s strip. As Willy Nelson fills Snowball’s interior with music, Harry comments: “Its nice to see someone else still plays CDs.”

Why is that nice, Harry? You’re old enough to remember vinyl and vacuum tubes, aren’t you? If it’s obsolescence and inconvenience you’re nostalgic for, why not a gramophone, Harry? Why not Edison cylinders, Harry? Why not freaking sheet music, Harry?