Tag: Atomik Komix

Today’s Log Post

Hello SoSFers, billytheskink back for another two weeks steering this runaway bus. Lucky me, today’s strip shifts back to Pete, Durwood, and their adventures at the City of Cleveland’s newest employer. Now that Chester has acquired the remnants of Mort Winkerbean’s life savings, I guess Atomik Komix’s bankruptcy has been postponed… and that, sadly, means we have to peek at the Batty Atom Bullpen’s “creative” process.

Durwood is the star of this one for sure, offering one of the few reasonable explanations for the existence of the last decade of Funky Winkerbean. On the other hand, Pete is being Pete… that is to say, useless.

Still Better Than A Date With Les

Link To Today’s Strip

Yup, Mindy and Pete are sure getting real ellipsis lately. The Valentine, Montoni’s AND a date to go visit Gramps Crankshaft at the ol’ nursing home…move over Bogie and Bacall, this one’s a romance for the New Millennium. Kind of “steamy” by FW standards but that Batiuk is never afraid to “push the envelope”, as they say. NEXT week they’re planning to lay a wreath at the local unclaimed deceased pets memorial followed by a trip to the medical supply shop to pick up a new filter for Gramp’s oxygen generator. After that, it’s marriage, kids, cancer, the whole f*cking shebang. Let the good times roll.

Doom And Legume

Link To Today’s Strip

This one took me a while to figure out. “Bean’s End catalog”…I have to assume this is a play on “L.L. Bean” and “Land’s End”…I guess. Which means that BatNard is now basing story arcs on the junk mail he gets every day, in keeping with his “whatever I happen to see within my limited field of vision” approach to “storytelling”. While I certainly do not doubt that “someone” out there collects old catalogs (someone collects everything) it seems HIGHLY UNLIKELY that anyone could fund a fledgling comic book company with the proceeds of such a collection, especially if they just purchased (and renovated) an entire old office building to house such a comic book company. As others have already pointed out, perhaps Boy Lisa’s MBA skills might be of use here if only he wasn’t so busy doodling. What a shame.

Commander Vomit

Link To Today’s Strip

This SoSF shift is dedicated to LFB, always my # 1 fan

What did I ever do to deserve this? The (sigh) Atomik Komix gang is back and apparently they’re already being henpecked and overworked. No one saw THAT coming, eh? “Commander Comet”…”Rip Tide”…”The Pulp”…sigh.

Tom Batiuk doing arcs about the exhausting demands of being a “big time” comic writer is pretty funny when you think about it. Maybe it’s some kind of subconscious or subliminal guilt trip, I dunno. Or maybe he’s just trying to convince everyone that he’s putting way more into this than he actually does, although no one who actually reads it is ever going to buy that.

By Your Powers Combined!

Today’s strip

What powers would ‘soggy superhero comics’ give? I don’t get it.

On Friday, commentator Erdmann made the guess: “Anyone else suspect there’s a comic book cover Sunday strip headed our way?”

To which Bobanero replied: “It would be the longest lead up to a Sunday Comic Book Cover strip in history.”

Kudos for both the prediction and the comment. Indeed this entire meandering, yet linear, arc over the past three months seems to have been building to this end.

And by ‘this end’ I mean Batiuk establishing some of his protagonists in a new comics related field so he can keep getting his precious commissioned covers whenever the mood strikes. He obviously had gotten all the Starbuck Jones covers he wanted, and is preparing to branch out.

Interesting that we don’t get a tip of the Funky Feltpen directly on the strip. The name on the bottom of the line art says Fairgood. Honestly interested in who drew this.