Tempus Fuggit

The most fortunate thing is that I’ve been able to do something that I really really love and again it has just worked out perfectly for me. I fell into the right type of strip, the kind of strip that could endure over the years like we’ve been talking about. I didn’t get the job at Marvel because I’d be out of work right now. [Laughs] I would have been pushed aside years ago.

Tom Batiuk
Interview at comicbookresources.com

When TB’s right, boy, is he right. No comic book publisher would pay for such silly, self-indulgent, retro crap as this. I guess comic strip syndicates are not as choosy, or at least are willing to let “beloved” strips hang on for years, which is how long this arc seems to be dragging on.

Lord of Alliteration

Get ready for a showdown between a Great Depression-era science fiction hero and an ineffectual villain whose evil superpowers nobody can understand. And in the middle of it all is “Pro-Crastinator” Pete, whose superpower seems to be his ability to shape-shift from pencil necked geek, to man with boobs, to today’s Chris Christie-like proportions.

Go Ask Alex

Everyone say hi to Alex, Westview’s only comix fangirl (since Chien vanished) and mopey Pete’s biggest admirer, in her first strip appearance in over five years. Owen and his usual sidekick Cody are apparently on the outs since that yearbook photo remark, and anyway, what does Cody know about gurlz? The Chullo’d One, like Pete, just cannot understand why women don’t find him appealing. Alex responds to Owen’s plight not with empathy but with teasing. Poor Owen is a geek even among geeks.

Park and Rocket

Erich
March 15, 2013 at 10:56 am
So, Batiuk is paying homage to Alex Raymond…by treating Raymond’s characters like idiots. Sounds about right.

Today’s strip would have actually worked very nicely had it ended at “I’m amazed you found a parking spot in New York City.” But TB’s committed to portraying Flash and Dale as a 23rd century version of “The Lockhorns”.

Rusty
March 14, 2013 at 12:06 am
…Does Flash look like Darin because [Batiuk] can only draw a few different faces…?

That’s very possible. In panel 3, Flash looks a lot like Dan from the Kilimanjaro trip…