Priorities!

Epicus Doomus
April 25, 2013 at 10:53 pm
[N]ote how once again the premise (“Jessica is pregnant”) IS the entire “story”, not merely a launching point for something more…

And the “story” enters its second week. “So are you two planning to look for a house? Or do you intend to live in a succession of seedy apartments in run-down neighborhoods, like Fred and I did?” Such trivial matters will have to wait: Jessica’s decided, now that she’s pregnant with her first child, it’s the perfect time to get started on that John Darling documentary, one of the things that brought her and Darin back to Westview two years ago.

Good Days and Batiuk Days

Tom Batiuk doesn’t care about stroke victims. The discussion of Fred’s day-to-day existence  is relegated to the Sunday “throwaway” panels up top (which don’t appear in all newspapers). The former Westview principal exists these days merely to generate cheap pathos or cheaper marble-mouthed speech gags. TB is much more concerned with his special “Coda to Lisa’s Story”.

“I’ll be happy if we can just be half the parents you and Dad were.” Way to set the bar, Darin. Never mind that Fred wasn’t even half a parent to Kerry, the daughter he wasn’t even allowed to see, and the older half-sister that you (and we) only recently learned about.

Back at the motel, the world’s nosiest desk clerk continues feeding straight lines to the mystery man, who is revealed to be none other than Frankie, clean-shaven and slavishly copied from the model sheet.

Nor-dick

Unless “just being Nordic” is a Midwestern idiom that’s too obscure to be found on Google, I’ll assume that Jessica is saying that Darin’s “just being neurotic.” Though if that is the case, I’m less sure whether Blondie’s joking or if she actually thinks “Nordic” is the correct term.

Whatever suspense Batiuk is trying to build here is undermined by a couple of things: mainly that he mentioned in an interview last month that Frankie would be returning. On the other hand, casual readers (as opposed to us beady-eyed nitpickers) may be hard pressed to connect the black-and-white-haired man we saw last week clutching a Beer in his huge hand with the black-and-blue-haired guy with the dainty hand, who’s just checked in for an extended stay at the Stveiw Motel.

Brds…Bees…Boxcar!

Let’s go break the news to poor old Fred, the invalid who has conveniently (for everyone but him) been given a room upstairs, where he passes the hours watching the world below go by without him. Naturally, Grampa-to-be’s reaction to this ostensibly “good” news is an expression of personal regret at never having had “the talk” with his son.

Thanks to the colorist making Jess’ shirt the same color as the yellow background, her demure pose in panel 2 makes her appear to be convulsing.

 

Burden o' Joy

Forget Batiuk’s Quarter Inch, we are in Bizarro World. Jess and Darin, who clearly don’t have a pot to piss in, are actually apologetic to Ann for their having conceived a child. “Eight Track”, meanwhile, is not merely pleased: she’s insane with glee at the prospect, declaring herself “totally ready” to help care for an infant…though you’d think she’d have her hands full, having already appointed herself as Fred’s speech therapist.