Tag: air travel

Shaft (Shut Your Mouth…No, Really, STFU Already)

Link To Today’s Strip
While I know a bit about the history of comic books, I’m far from being an expert in the field, so I’m just going to assume that somehow the Cleveland-based creators of “Superman” (REGISTERED TRADEMARK) were indeed somehow screwed over by those mean nasty impudent New Yorkers. Either that or TB is taking a shot at those “big city” folk, like how he’s always bashing “Hollywood”. Poor, poor Ohio, always getting “shafted” by those awful coastal folk and their decidedly un-Ohioian ways. But hey, at least they didn’t send her to Cincinnati, am I right?

Remarkably, Cindy’s plane landed uneventfully with no obvious fatalities, so I guess we’re to assume she is indeed Cleveland’s newest anchorwoman. One can also assume she’s going to spend the majority of the week bitching about it, too. Has there been a single arc so far in 2014 that DIDN’T feature a character or characters bitching and moaning about something? I’m gonna go out on a limb here and also assume that her first stop will be that f*cking town, although to what end is anyone’s guess at this point. But you can bet everything on this: whatever happens will be as uneventful and dull as watching paint dry (but at least with paint you can catch a cheap buzz off the fumes). No one can suck the life out of a premise like BatDrone can.

Harry Don’t Play That

Link to today’s strip

You know what’s happening here, right?  Harry is hanging up his coat in preparation of that putting out that he mentioned.  Do you still have any of that brain bleach left over?  Useful stuff, isn’t it!  But with Funky Winkerbean, you don’t want to rely on the store-brand stuff, you want the professional kind.

I have no idea who Andy Clark is, other than the former keyboard player for Be-Bop Deluxe.   (He was apparently the white-haired guy in the Sunday strip with the expression of wanting to be anywhere else than Montoni’s.)  I also cannot recall any strip in the past, oh, year or so in which it was mentioned he was on an airplane (oops, there I go assuming again, he could be flying by jetpack–it is the future after all) and what that had to do with any of the sad, shriveled lives in Westview.  I do remember that Harry had a book out, though.  The reason for this shout-out baffles me, though.  Of course, all of Funky Winkerbean baffles me, so that’s nothing new.

I’m going to take a stab here and look at this “Guys don’t do that” thing.  By the way, I’m a guy and I do do that, so I don’t think Tom Batiuk’s illustrating some kind of “male truth” here.  But I recall the strip from February or March in which Dopey Pete asked Darrin to give his regards to the old gang, and they both immediately agreed that they wouldn’t actually do this.  That’s some very strange reasoning going on, if “reasoning” is the right word.  Maybe “guys” don’t like to greet each other, or say “How’s it going” or some damn thing.  But Harriet said “we” so is his own refusal supposed to override whatever she might do?  Also, these people have been married for fifty years–wouldn’t she know a little bit about how her husband behaves?  This is giving me a headache.

Also, it looks as if Harriet has sewn her right hand to her blouse.  I suppose in Tom Batiuk’s worldview, that’s something that women just do, huh?  Amirite, guys?

Andy Clark also played on David Bowie’s Scary Monsters album.   Now he’s publishing books by Harry Dinkle.  “Drug overdose” is starting to look like a better career-capper, eh Andy?

Oh-Oh, Oh-Oh, There's Panic In The World

Weight Les

Let’s assume, shall we, that the warm, passionate hugs and kisses between Les and his betrothed Cayla have already been exchanged at the arrival gate. This allows us to cut directly to Cayla complimenting Les’ appearance. “I know,” replies Les (instead of something like “Gee, thanks honey!”). The always self-effacing Cayla wryly supposes that perhaps she could benefit from losing some weight. Rather than attempt to dissuade her or even smile, Les responds with a blank look. Batiuk inexplicably closes the Kilimanjaro epic by inserting a completely random sketch of some “flat top acacias” from his Africa journal.

The Great White Dope

Les and Summer arrive in Africa for their climb of Kilimanjaro, and if Les keeps this “I presume” shit up, by the time this trip’s over Summer’s eyes will have permanently rolled back in her head. Their driver immediately pegs Les for the douchebag that he is, and declines to shake his hand. That “establishing shot” of Kilimanjaro International Airport looks suspiciously like one of the first images that Google Image Search turns up. And speaking of Google, “African massage” does check out as a phrase people use to describe traveling on the region’s bumpy roads. Just don’t look up that same phrase on urbandictionary.com.