Tag: DMZ

Dullholland Drive

Charles
December 10, 2016 at 6:04 am
Well, I thought it before, but this makes it abundantly clear. Marianne, the beautiful, successful and deeply desired actress was intentionally drawn to look like Summer Moore. Put a hoodie on her and no one would be able to tell the difference.

Your wish has been granted! Anyone lucky enough to have not read FW since late January, when we last saw Summer, would look at yesterday’s and today’s strip and suppose that dark haired gal to be Summer Moore (and “Mom” to be Cayla, having at last turned completely Caucasian).

Batiuk attempts another punny headline, either unaware of or ignoring the more common usage of the slang term “mooning.” Unless we’re to believe that it’s Summer, I mean, Ms. Winters, who misunderstands the context and thinks she’s been accused of flashing her ass at Mason.

Well gang, I’ve survived my fortnight at the SoSF desk, and I’m more than delighted to turn things over to billytheskink! If you’re in New York City this afternoon (Sunday) around three, I’ll be among the 500 tuba, euphonium, sousaphone, and baritone players taking part in the 43rd Annual Tubachristmas at Rockefeller Center (pregame at the Pig ‘n’ Whistle on W. 48th).

Happy Holidays and a Funky New Year, everyone!
From Son of Stuck Funky and TFH.

Well, That De-escalated Quickly!

Sorry, snarkers: the catfight between Cindy and Marianne will not be televised, or uh, comic-strip-tized, uh…we don’t get to see it. It doesn’t happen, apparently, because Mason’s explained to Cindy that it’s not as it seems, and very quickly and convincingly, too. This plotline has become a complete shit show, even by Batiuk’s nonexistent standards. He spends months setting up this conflict between Cindy and Marianne, brings it to a climax in the most contrived way, and then Mason explains it all away and Cindy buys it…offscreen. The paternalistic Director Guy chimes in: “Hey! Hold it down, kids. Don’t get excited! (Who’s excited?) We’ve already put out a corrected story.” Who’s “we“? Don’t “corrected stories” come from the source of the incorrect story? Is he talking about their publicist? “We” have no idea. Nor have we any idea why that massive-headed freak in panel 3—we’ll have to assume it’s Marianne in a “wife beater” undershirt—is just now seeing and is completely aghast at the “DMZ” story.

Disengaged

All of you who laughted at Frankie’s paparazzi skills will admit that the shot he took of Mason and Marianne on her mom’s porch came out pret-ty clear from about a hundred feet away! What’s not so clear is why Mason’s referred to as “newly engaged,” as it’s been almost a year since he and Cindy announced their betrothal. The “news crawl” across the bottom of the panels is a nice touch, though “MASON JARRE FLINGS FIANCÉE FOR FLING” reads less like TMZ and more like a Variety front page hed from the first Starbuck Jones era.

DuMbZ

Link to today’s strip.

Before reading anything I have to say (as if), I urge you to check out BillyTheSkink’s posting of Coach Jack Stropp’s epic takedown.  While in a way I think Bull had it worse (Stropp’s arc ends with him smiling in reminiscence, Bull’s ends with him shuffling into darkness) it’s interesting to see that, if you’ve sinned in Tom Batiuk’s eyes, he’s a very wrathful god indeed.

Today’s strip puzzled me for a moment; I thought Starbuck Jones was supposed to enrapture all who beheld its glories, but here’s this news-anchor mentioning it with a thinly-veiled dismissive comment.   Then I remembered–the “Zeton Warriors” don’t actually come from the comic book, they’re add-ons dreamt up by the current director.  While he (and the studio) no doubt consider them canon, the true fans see them like the Gnostic Gospels–something that’s trying to impose itself on the sacred texts.

If nothing else, today’s offering does show that when he’s not drawing the regular cast, Tom Batiuk is capable of rendering attractive people.  We’ll probably never see (*guffaw* *chortle* *knee-slap*) “Beverly Hill” (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha) again, for which she should be grateful.  This strip is proof positive that the old adage, Familiarity breeds contempt, is not just a good idea, it’s a lifestyle.