Métal Hurlant

Ring the bell! Today’s strip is funny. Implausible, sure, but it’s a comic strip (sorry, DSH John). I like how little Robo-Goat is actually screaming in the clutches of Big Walnut Tech’s menacing, mechanical monster. And in panel two, for once, Batiuk makes “tell-don’t-show” actually work, as the boys follow Robo-Goat’s trajectory, presumably through a window or wall. I’d have added a “crash” sound effect in P2, but we shall lay aside the snark hammer for today.

(Today’s post title is kind of a stretch. Did anyone get it?)

Fee Fi Fo Dumb

Yeah, anytime Cody expects things to go his way, count on the opposite outcome. “Robo-Goat” stands ready for battle; unfortunately, arch-rival Big Walnut Tech has brought along the Iron Giant. I kind of like the overhead perspective in today’s strip, but the shadow-within-a-shadow in panel 2 doesn’t work too well.

These Effects Aren't Very Special

OK, now it’s Nate’s turn to be incredulous. Odie and Cohen’s idea of making the robot “look really cool” is to haphazardly bolt a football helmet on top of it. They actually succeed in making the robot look less cool. And in what sense of the word is this a “spinoff”, Cody? It’s more of a kludge.

Pimp My Robot

OK, well, my query from yesterday’s post has been answered: the boys are not in the Technology Club. Rather, they are in the “Special Effects Art Class”. This sounded even more implausible than a high school comic book club, so I set to Googlin’…and found the “[o]nly school district in the nation to offer [a] high school Visual Effects Art Program“…the Berea (Ohio) City School District, about twenty miles from TB’s home in Medina.