Tag: coffee

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Listless

 Link To Today’s Strip

Every so often The BanMan throws one at you that just leaves you completely befuddled. I THINK that’s Wally, Rachel, Tony and Funky in that photo although I’m not 100% certain about that. I had to Google “Margo Lanes” and sure enough, Margo Lane was a character in an old-timey 1940’s serial, “The Shadow”. Surely there are four or five still-living people that might get that gag, although the odds on them also being FW readers are, uh…fairly slim, I’d say.

“Why was everyone wearing Santa hats…?”…I’m just gonna go way out on a limb here, Jess, but I’m guessing it was because it was CHRISTMAS TIME, which would be the most logical reason. Good thing she isn’t a detective, huh? I have no earthly idea where this could be going (other than “nowhere”) although “the gang at Montoni’s starts a bowling team” would probably be as good a guess as any. It’s also pretty obvious that Jess is spending WAY too much time in that pizza place too. Where have you gone, Boy Lisa? A boring strip turns its yawning eyes to you.

 

Sans Comic

SosfDavidO here! Now that the storyline where Cory sold off his comic books has ended we’re now headlong into a new, fresh storyline about.. comic books. Today’s strip returns us to glamorous Hollywood, where the only hint they’re in California and not 1960s West Germany is the peek of a palm tree in the P2 window. Tombat didn’t even have time to do brick-work on today’s tombstone of a building!

Novel Idea

I had no idea Les was teaching a class in comic books but it makes sense, considering Westview’s entire economy runs on the currency of comics, pizza and heartache.

It’s almost weird seeing Les without his yellow shirt in today’s strip— it’s like Charlie Brown without his striped shirt!

Pant-a-losers

He’s been spending a lot of time in the past, Batiuk has, dating to this past spring when Les got yoked into being reunion chairman. The reunion committee meetings reacquainted us with Junebug and Barry Balederman, and set the stage for a Lisa tribute. The reunion itself of course was the setting for the time pool silliness, in which the Act I cast were trotted out to meet their present-day counterparts (uh, sorry Lisa!). We’ve had a couple Sophmoric Sightings sightings. And speaking of sightings, we saw Les sharing the park bench again with Lisa’s ghost. And speaking of Lisa, we’ve once again dragged out those damned VHS tapes , this time to bake ’em and digitize ’em and preserve ’em for. Ever.

Along the way, Batiuk has of late altered his visual shorthand: the flashback scenes retain their photo album corners but are in full color instead of washed out sepia. Like the central triptych of today’s strip, which offers a perfectly passable gag and which for all we know is a redraw of a published strip from that era. Compare and contrast Coach Jockstrap’s humorous, deadpan style with that of his protege Coach Bushka, who harangues his players with Crankshaftian malaprops.

Huis-clos

Link to today’s strip.

So…for Les, life is watching blonde women interact with their lockers while he endlessly walks down a brick corridor.  Or some damn thing–who honestly knows what the point of this strip is supposed to be.   I’m starting to think that Tom Batiuk is simply trolling us (as others here have pointed out).   I’ve read this episode over carefully and I cannot make head nor tail out of it.  Is the point supposed to be “High school lasts forever”?  Is it that Les hates his job because it makes his life Hell?  Is it that hairstyles on blondes are getting shorter?  (Panel four must be from a previous year, since Les is dressed differently.)  Or is the point that, every time the school year starts, there are blonde women with lockers–only, get this, the women are different each time!  Really, that sounds the most plausible but it’s weak, even for this strip.

So, I don’t get this one.  I honestly thought we’d get the “bullying” arc started up again, but I guess Mr. Batiuk thought we needed some Les Wisdom(c) dropped on us.   Too bad he forgot the Les Wisdom Decoder Ring(c) to go with it.  It just looks like a hellscape to me, with a pair of word balloons pasted on.  (Look at that dialogue.  Tell me than any random sentences couldn’t substitute there and make the same amount of sense.)

Sorry for rambling, but I don’t see this one as an “episode.”  Instead I see things like the adult Les’ face in the “Westview Class” masthead image among all the teenagers and I think, Is that supposed to mean something?  Les has always been old?  Then I note that in the penultimate panel, Les’ hair is all disheveled, and it’s neatly combed in the last panel.  Again, is there a point to that?

I do like the Modigliani face in panel five, and I like that someone went nuts with the Scotch tape in panel three.  And all those bricks.  Endless bricks.

Bricks.

Ah, I get it now.  We’re supposed to want to slam endless bricks against Les’ head.  Okay!

Thus ends my time in the Les Chair.  Tomorrow, the fabulous DavidO takes over the hosting duties…and good luck to him!

See you then, and thank you for your indulgence!