Could Be a Movie Deal Here. Or Not.

John
May 10, 2011 at 5:50 pm

…See, an option (despite what Tom [Batiuk] thinks and is depicting in-strip this week) does NOT mean the studio plans to actually make the darn movie! All it does is make sure one can’t sell the story to anyone else while they decide whether or not they want to put it into development.

Les (and TB) are a little slow on the uptake regarding what “optioned” means, and Apple Annie’s explanation clears things up not one bit. I guess “straight-to-cell-phone” is one notch below “straight-to-DVD”? Who knows? Even if the movie never gets made, though, Les does stand to see a nice chunk of change (and his agent slash publicist will get her cut). Maybe he’ll be able to afford one of those newfangled cordless phones.

You Got Optioned

Annie has actually insisted that Les sit down before she tells him the news, and Les dutifully complies. Since Les is new to the literary biz (remember, this is only his first second book), he doesn’t understand what “optioned” means. His glib reference to the Cleveland Indians is intended to be funny, see, because Les is so terrible at sports. Or maybe he’s confused: Les hasn’t been optioned, his book has been optioned. By Hollywood!

Tales of the Unlikely

Jeffcoat Wayne
May 6, 2011 at 12:17 pm

…[S]ince Funky has become such a non-entity in this strip, I’d like it if Batiuk just renamed the damn thing “Tales of the Unlikely”. If this week wasn’t bad enough, next week is as good a time as ever to rename the strip once and for all.

You said it! What’s worse than another week of more Les? More of Les’ friggin’ book tour! I don’t have the time or inclination to research bottle feeding’s link to adult insecurity (and neither does Batiuk), but if one exists, then Les is the poster boy for LaLeche League.

Sunday Morning Quarterback

Link

Sure, Bull played football in his glory days (though not as a QB). But doesn’t everyone associate tossing wads of paper into a wastebasket with, um, basketball? Not in the bizarro world that is Westview! Bull sees the trashcan not as a stationary goal but as a mobile and sentient wide receiver. What sport does he coach again? But I guess if he was pretending to be shooting baskets, he’d have no excuse for missing every one. To readers whose newspapers don’t run the upper “throwaway” panels, the “joke” is even more perplexing.

The thing that today’s strip gets right, though, is the cold, sickly glow of institutional fluorescent lighting.

Schwing!

Okay, kids, you can open your eyes now! Dressed and back out on the porch (although wisely keeping clear of that front door!), the newly minted buckfuddies engage in a more traditional form of “swinging”. Cayla notes that the afternoon has been “special”. “Because…?” Because that skeezer Susan didn’t happen by…Because our obnoxious teenage girls are outta the house…And, oh yeah, you got through the afternoon without invoking your long-dead wife. Les’ smug attitude is off the charts in panel 3: not only are his brows in full arch, but he’s sporting a dimple! And what’s going on with Cayla’s blouse in panel 3? Didn’t she see the “Wet Paint” sign?