Gesturing for Help

Link to today’s strip.

It sure looks to me as if Bull is trying to communicate entirely with gestures in panel one–if his mouth is open at all, it’s sure not open enough to let any words escape.  Not that words are a specialty of Bull–or of Tom Batiuk–but I’m hoping his webcam can capture all that expansive waving.

Whatever his hands are saying, his face in both panels says it all:  please give me a reason, any reason, to turn down the offer.  I’m depending on you to save me.

However, both virtual women seem to hate Bull as much as Linda does, and gleefully tell him that he needs to put his neck on the block.  Bull’s expression in panel two is an excellent example of the Oh…crap face.  I am doomed!

Speaking of the virtual women, the one on the right is Mickey (whom I had never heard of before her reappearance earlier this month–and she sure added a lot, didn’t she).  Is the one on the left Jinx?  I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before, but she sure has aged a lot since high school.  Did we miss a time jump–or is one on the way, and Jinx was first in its path.  Those things are like tornadoes, never know when one’s going to hit, to touch down, to pass over and change everything.

If we do jump forward another decade, I’m betting tomorrow’s episode will show Bull returning to Westview High.  “Boy, I sure am glad that I finally quit that job I had, of athletic director, over at Diversity University Ironton!  It was a hard job, and it made me tired!  Now I am back where I started, at Westview High School, having returned from Diversity University Ironton, where I was working–and living!  But I wasn’t really living…(panel ellipsis)

(panel ellipsis) (smirk) …until I came back here.”

Days of Whine and Roses

Link to today’s strip.

So, in paragraph one, Bull outlines Westview’s number one fear:  My life will change.  Ghastly, ghastly thought!  No, no, no, life should be spent forever in one’s high school, in one’s birth town, among the only people you’ve known in your existence!  Argh, away with you, change!

Bull then goes on in panel two to detail all the things he hates, wrapping up in the last panel with the fact that people will expect results from him in his new position.  Linda thinks it’s just grand that more people will expect better results from Bull–after all, it means a better life for her and who cares if it stresses out Bull?  He’s just a dumb jock!

It sure sounds to me like Bull is trying extra hard to talk himself out of taking the job.  You can tell this is serious–they’re eating in a restaurant that is obviously not Montoni’s, a restaurant that has some half-seen pictures on the wall instead of inexplicable stains.  Seriously, where is this place?  Is it in Westview or–gasp–somewhere outside?  Yikes!  Obviously you’d only dine here if you were expecting some really bad news, or you knew you were going to die shortly.

Look at the poor old man in panel two, squinting to read the menu, hoping that the Act II Les Moore-shaped tumor sprouting from his head won’t kill him before he has a chance to eat something other than pizza.  Quick, quick, he thinks.  What’s something I’ve always wanted to try but was never able to until this moment of release?  Uh…seafood?  What’s that?  Oh. My.  God.  My ticket is going to be punched at last!

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Blob

Link to today’s strip.

I’m guessing that Linda wants engage in a little hanky-panky, proving that she does indeed hate everyone by creating such a mental image.  And they’re going to be going at it for an entire week?  Double-yuck!

Unless she’s making him helpless to beat him senseless, in which case, do you think one week is enough?  Take your time!

Actually, I’ve only seen that “pull down the jacket to immobilize someone” trick done once before, when Humphrey Bogart was able to disarm Elisha Cook Jr in The Maltese Falcon.  And I guess John Candy did it to himself in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, though I’m not sure that counts.  It was a funny scene, though, unlike today’s glop.

Fun fact for people who hate remakes:  Did you know that the John Huston-Humphrey Bogart version of The Maltese Falcon was the third version made?

Rein on Bull’s Parade

Displaying a surprising amount of awareness of sports movie tropes, in today’s strip TB casts the generally unpleasant Linda in the “classic” Wet Blanket Girlfriend role.

She plays the role well too, waiting through Bull’s truly unrealistic expectations (national attention, ESPN) to play her passive-aggressive “rein in the chariot” line only after he spouts something entirely realistic. New helmets and uniforms arrive with new coaches at all but the most tradition-rich college football programs. Really though, Bull’s found an escape pod out of Westview, don’t screw this up for him Linda.