Seriously. I can’t take it anymore. We get it: people love cancer stories and the men who write them. I went back and counted: this is the seventh strip depicting adoring fans lining up to kiss Les’ literary ass. Seems like there have been a lot more than that. Ponderous, man, effin’ ponderous. Today’s groupie is sporting the “pink with black scribbles” jacket made popular by Ann Apple!
“…I tell ya, wives: even in death they continue to nag, amiright?” Tsk. With his projector on the fritz, Les resorts to a little standup technique to engage his fans.
This strip appears to be little more than a shout out to Brazos Bookstore, a popular independent bookstore a few blocks north of Rice University (and 20 miles from the Brazos River) that hosted TB’s tour stop in Houston.
billytheskink
December 7, 2010 at 10:54 am
A big tip o’ the SoSF coonskin for that bit of info, Billy! I had assumed that it was some kind of a play on the name Amazon (the Amazon and Brazos are both rivers, and both names have z‘s) or maybe the name of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. But sho’ nuff, TB has borrowed from real life. Compare the “exterior shot” from today’s strip with the one from Brazos Bookstore’s website: it’s the same place, with a couple TB touches, like changing the color of the building and transforming the car that’s parked outside to one of his trademark generic minivans!
Les can’t figure out why the laptop isn’t synching with the projector. I can’t figure out what is going on with the guy’s head in the third row: the poor man seems to be suffering from some hideous, tumorous facial deformity. To compliment his increasingly slack and haphazard “writing”, TB has been playing fast and loose when it comes to drawing characters that are even remotely lifelike. In recent weeks we’ve been treated to a Mr. Incredible look-alike at the book signing, a goofy band-turkey customer, and numerous characters with impossibly tiny hands.
In case we didn’t pick up from last week’s strips that Les’ fame extends beyond Westview, Ohio, Keisha helpfully hammers home the point that this book tour is national, bitches. Summer’s glee over her father’s long-overdue success triggers a face-morph: not only do her beady little eyes light up, but her eyebrows suddenly thicken, her chin recedes, and she manifests an overbite. This startling transformation is lost on Cody and Owen as they pass by in the background, seemingly joined at the hip. Meanwhile, deep in the heart of Houston, Texas, Les struggles with getting his laptop hooked up to a projector. Where’s his “wife Mike” when Les needs him?
What the hell is Les doing in Houston, anyway? Yesterday he was in New York, on the set of the Today show, and Saturday he was calling Cayla from San Diego (there were palm trees in the background, so he sure wasn’t calling from NYC). Batiuk seemed to be hinting at a plotline involving John Darling’s widow Jan, a producer for Today, getting him booked on the show. Appearing on national TV would be a major milestone in an author’s career, but The Creator spends one day on it…SMDH (shaking my damn head)…
Usually when we see the students of Westview in a classroom setting, their facial expressions suggest boredom, stupidity, or lack of sleep. This morning, however, they are all smiles: not only is Mrs. Bushka letting them watch TV, but their hero, hell, everyone’s hero, Mr. Moore, is on the Today show! Judging from the image on the (black and white?) TV, his interviewer is neither Meridith nor Matt. The snarkers who suggested Les would be relegated to hour four of the Today show were right: only Kathie Lee would be dumb enough to flub the title of the book her guest is there to promote. Her classmates’ smiles turn to looks of disbelief, but Summer takes the indignity of hearing her late mother’s name misremembered in stride. She responds not with outrage but with a smirk, and with another entry for the Batiuktionary!
Son of Stuck Funky 
