Let me just say that my mention of “hospital” yesterday was just errant speculation due to the recent shuffling of artists. I, and I’m sure I speak for everyone else in the SoSF community, sincerely hope nothing bad has befallen Tom Batiuk; I have never, ever wished anything but good fortune to him personally. As I’ve mentioned from time to time, from all reports he’s a genuinely nice guy who enjoys meeting his fans; I hope he continues to be so, and do so, for many years to come.
That said…today’s episode is…well, I was going to say “beyond awful,” but I’ll go with “inexplicable” instead. There’s no joke, there’s no good drawing, no wit, just…nothing at all. It’s impossible to imagine a new reader coming across this strip and saying, “Hey, this is a comic strip I’m going to read from now on, with relish!” It’s very possible to imagine a long-time reader saying, “Okay, this is it, I’m out of here. From now on, it’s BC Classic for me.”
The only positive bit at all is the fact that Dinkle is there, and he’s completely silent. I bet he hates that. He’s not even drawn fully, he’s just a menace in a left corner.
It’s also another avenue for speculation. Ordinarily, it would be Dinkle saying all this stuff, while Becky gazed at him in full worship mode. (Heck, I think the last time we even saw Becky, she was a silent potato at Wally’s wedding.)
Why this obvious scenario was flipped, we’ll probably never know.
