Bull – Page 3 – Son of Stuck Funky

The first cut is the derpest.

Yesterday our amazing Batiukstorian, Billy the Skink, was able to dig back in his prodigious archives and find us some context.
The horror...the horror...

So Batiuk is, once again, referencing actual past strips and not wildly making up new scenarios set during Act I as many of us had assumed. Which is the niggling pebble in the metaphorical shoe that is Batiuk’s relationship to his ‘canon’.

On the one hand, he’s always ready to wildly re-contextualize the past, or out and out retcon it. Major arcs and characters get Memory Holed and never show up again, even when it would be appropriate. Such as, say, the wedding of a parent.

On the other hand, we have this. Batiuk calling back to an obscure strip that was printed before my parents had graduated high school.

If Les was only on the team for a week, who took this picture? Why was it taken? Who developed it? And who thought to give it to Bull? And why, of all the piles and piles of memorabilia packed in that basement Bull-pen, did Linda think this one picture was significant?

I’m guessing most of us have shoved in a box somewhere an odd collection of random pictures from highschool. Including several standing next to that one kid in choir. That awkward smelling kid, whose name we now couldn’t recall if someone had a taser to our armpits.

Running on Empty, Running Blind.

Today’s strip, when it drops.

Comic Book Harriet, back in the saddle again. I want to thank BeckoningChasm for a great stint through this horrorshow. He really puts me in a tough spot. Because what is there to say about this nightmare abortion of a plot arc that hasn’t been said already by our crack team of beady-eyed nitpickers?

I’d never expected to see the loss of a father, spouse, and friend, approached with every character acting so sedate that depression is indistinguishable from boredom.

I remember those times when our esteemed historian Billy the Skink has put up strips from Act II full of intense soap opera pathos. Les running down the street shouting “USA! USA!” Wally trembling and crying while standing on a landmine begging whatsisface to tell his wifey something something he loves her.

Bull’s been dead for over a month, and we’ve yet to see a single tear.

Watch Out, The World’s Behind You

Link to today’s strip (eventually).

As usual, Sunday’s strip was not available for preview. It’s impossible to know what we’ll “get,” except that pneumonia would be better. But me, I’ll go on and on for paragraph after paragraph!

I’m thinking we’re going to get more Les-Linda commiseration.

It’s an interesting compare-and-contrast with the characters Batiuk likes and those he’s, at best, indifferent to.

Les, Dinkle, Dullard and Pete have fortune rain from the skies on them. They’re handed good luck, wealth, perfect jobs (in the case of P&D), and (in the case of Dinkle) awards with no effort at all. Heck, Dinkle’s deafness and Mort’s dementia have been completely reversed (though the latter was only to bedevil Funky).

Linda, on the other hand, just can’t catch a break. Of course, Batiuk is using her to Prove A Point, so she’s doomed.

If only she’d thought to start writing comic books.

I’m also thinking that the commentators here are correct, that Linda is going to ask Les to write a book about Bull. “After all,” she’ll lie, “you were his friend. You knew him best.” Of course, the resultant book won’t be about Bull, it’ll be all about Les. He could call it “Bully Pulped–How a man discovered he was a monster, and got what he deserved.”

It also might be, as others have guessed, that Les will encourage Linda to write her own book. That seems to be Batiuk’s gateway to redemption; if a horrible character like Lillian can write a book, why now she’s a lovable old coot like Crankshaft.

The only thing certain is that it will be done completely ineptly. As the whole arc has been. If this story had focused on Bull’s perspective, on his anxieties over his condition and his fears about what he might do, and his worries about Linda’s future, well, then the story could have been an interesting one. But Batiuk being Batiuk, Bull is barely in his own story and it’s all about how Linda Feels Bad. Say, that’s a great title for her book!

Well, that’s it for my turn in the chamber of torpor. Tune in tomorrow, as Comic Book Harriet takes the reins and educates us, as the Batiuk Zone rotates trivially around us.

Same Brain, Different Damage

Link to today’s strip.

The expressions in today’s strip are really something. Panel one’s Les looks like he’s ready to burst into a whine. “I’ve been listening to you talk forehhhhhhhver. It’s miiiiiiiiiiii turn!”

Panel two’s Linda counters with “Gad. Why am I talking to this excrement stain. I could be watching TV, or eating toast.”

I’ve no opinion on the NFL-as-monster issue, though it’s pretty clear Batiuk is saying they have blood on their hands because they won’t fund Linda’s post-marriage lifestyle. “It’s not fair.” Well, Linda, I’d say that if Bull never played in a game, his brain damage can’t be ascribed to the NFL. Some players have a career in the NFL that lasts years, and I’m sure their brain damage would be far worse that someone who (apparently) got his CTE while in high school or college. The NFL can reasonably say “We don’t know who this guy is.”

Fair? Maybe not, but life isn’t fair. Never has been, never will be. The NFL is not, repeat not in the business of providing health care for its players. It exists to make money through entertainment. That’s an argument that ought to be applied to comic strips, but somehow never is.

1962 Called….

Link to today’s strip.

“And I mean I literally made sure to preserve his brain for study. If you look inside this closet, you can see that I severed Bull’s head and put it in this photo-developer tray. I attached some tubes to his head so it would look cool, but they’re just for show. Oh, and you can see he’s got plumber’s tape over his mouth; that’s because he kept yelling at the big mutant in the other closet to break out and smash the place up, and I’d just vacuumed.”

So, is Linda’s dialogue (in panel two, blimp one) supposition, or did she find a note explaining Bull’s plan? Because he could have been wearing his helmet because dementia. Or because he forgot he had it on, or simply wanted to wear it. The longer this arc goes on, the more apparent it is that there was no plan at all here, just another pathetic stab at getting attention. A phishing attempt that somehow managed to snare the New York Times.

And if Linda did find a note, how many weeks will it take her to read it? At one word per day….gee, are you sure ten weeks are enough?

Special Movie Bonus: has anyone here seen…this?