So we finally got to see the fire that canonically shuttered literacy for two generations.
In contrast, here’s a normal Wednesday at Ed Crankshaft’s house, which is considered comedy:
And here’s what we saw when Les Moore needed help coming to terms with letting Marianne Winters watch video tapes of his dead wife, even though some of them were benign enough to exhibit publicly.
Continue reading “If The Burnings Were A Movie, You’d Walk Out. Let’s Write A Better One.”
The Armor-Piercing Question is the moment in a story where a character (usually the hero) asks another character (usually the villain) something that unravels their entire world. It exposes the flaw in the villain’s worldview, reveals knowledge of something the villain had tried to hide, shows them the evil of their ways in a way that will hurt them, and so on. Wreck-It Ralph has a great one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW1XX2L7g7Y
The title of this post is my Armor-Piercing Question, for this story. Why is the severity of the protestors’ crime being ignored? Not just by the story, but by the town, and by the main characters. I think this is the linchpin of why this story fails.
Yes, there are stories where the main characters can’t go to the authorities for help, because the authorities are actively helping the villains, or institutionally corrupt. This plot device is as old as Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. And, the police has shown some pretty questionable judgment. Like covering up Bull Bushka’s dubious suicide, and arresting Adeela when they wanted someone else with a similar name. But there’s no evidence of that in this story.
Continue reading “Why Is Giving “Fahrenheit 451” To High School Students A Bigger Crime Than Arson?”The first two weeks of The Burnings have been a puzzle so far.
But poster The Drake of Life said something that got me thinking:
(On Wednesday) it looked like something was actually about to happen, so (Tom Batiuk) had to slam on the brakes and give us his patented, “Look who it is! [Name], the [awkward exposition of character]!” This (is) bringing the momentum leading to a potential interesting action to a dead stop.
The Drake of Life, two days ago
Why would any writer do that? Let’s review what we know so far about the story, from the first two weeks’ strips, or the Cleveland.com article. Continue reading “I’d Like To Buy A Smirk”
FIRE!
Arthur Brown knew how to make an entrance! Tom Batiuk, not so much.
The Burnings have commenced! Both the Daily Cartoonist and Cleveland.com ran puff pieces in advance of the story, much like we saw ahead of the CTE arc. We’ve been wondering about the nature of The Burnings for months now, and these stories reveal some details:
Continue reading “I Am The God Of Hellfire, And I Bring You…”Last week, I wrote about Tom Batiuk’s blog post, where he defended his use of what he calls “non-linear storytelling.” He said that he intentionally abandons stories and returns to them later. I thought this was a nod to the fact that 90-something Eugene wordlessly rowed into a lake a couple weeks ago, and his story abruptly stopped there.
Silly me. It turns out Batiuk wasn’t talking about Eugene. He was actually talking about his favorite subject. No, not comic books. Himself!
I will go through this week of Crankshaft day-by-day, because it deserves that much attention. But first, let’s take a moment to review the history of the Centerview Sentinel.
Continue reading “Interview With The Vapid”
Son of Stuck Funky 
