Not one but two astounding things about today’s comic:
Pa Winkerbean can talk! Better still: he comes out with a wacky non sequitir, mixing up Alcoholics Anonymous with the Automobile Club of America (you got that, right? Right?)Quality time spent with Dad sure isn’t what it used to be. These days poor Dad’s presence is barely acknowledged by his self-absorbed, distractable child. What’s changed? Why, it’s because of those newfangled “cell phones”! This strip’s anti-technology drumbeat is starting to give me a migraine. Are there any 21st century contrivances that aren’t making life in Westview worse instead of better?
This partnership is off to a less-than-promising start. A real man would tell his mate “Let’s tell our daughters that we just got engaged” (and did they not see Summer and Keisha, stoned again and shooting hoops in the driveway when they got home?). Rather than acting as head of this soon-to-be-blended family, Les flails his wrist and snivels: “So…who wants to tell the girls?” as he and Cayla make a beeline for that ol’ porch swing. None of it matters, since Keisha and Summer – those imps! – have snuck within earshot just in time to hear Les bring the Sunday-only readers up to speed.
Inside: Jinx looks at her camera and wonders “Where do I put the film?” while Jessica gives some background on the documentary she’s making (that no one is going to see). “I moved back here to Westview…to interview people who knew my dad…who was a TV personality in Cleveland.” Makes sense, I guess. Outside: Bull allows himself to be made to look foolish and weak by a sixteen-year-old girl.
I’m posting today from a campsite in NJ’s Pine Barrens (not so barren that the campsite has no wi-fi, fortunately). Not gonna go on at length about this relatively innocuous end to an innocuous arc, except to point out that TB sabotages the whole thing with that lead balloon of a “punchline”. “Wondering what a mind would sound like when it snapped”? File that gem under Things No One Would Ever Say, particularly if the mind in question was one’s own.
Son of Stuck Funky 
