Tag: Falling leaves

What’s a Hemingway?

Major props as always to Beckoning Chasm, and to David O, Epicus Doomus, and Oddnoc, for helping me keep the snark fires burning every day!

As the first autumn leaf drops, Les and Cayla pack up the old porch swing.  What is surely intended to be romantic small talk could be read as icy, dismissive sarcasm with the addition of some quotation marks:

I’m glad you’re home, “Hemingway”…I missed you while you were “doing your Hollywood thing.”

After all, Les’ ultimately doomed movie project once promised big bucks and dreams of stardom. Instead, he’s back in Ohio with nothing to show for his time in LaLa Land.

On a side note: every Sunday strip since August 3 has had these black borders around the panels…is Batiuk finally copping to how morbid and depressing his strip is?

Dimming of the Day

I hope everyone enjoyed Epicus’ guest stint these last couple
of weeks! Tune in tomorrow when Beckoning Chasm
takes a turn in the SoSF wheelhouse.

I was tempted to go with a “dark/light” theme in the post title, but thought better of it. Whatever other complaints can be laid at Batiuk’s doorstep, he’s always presented the biracial aspect of Les and Cayla’s relationship in a matter-of-fact style (of course, his eradication of almost all her racial characteristics is another story). But Cayla has spent most of her nearly five years with Les competing against rivals living (Susan) and dead (Lisa), while Les remained completely oblivious to her devotion. That’s why when TB decides to show Les and Cayla getting romantic, it just rings totally false.

Notice Les’ face in panel 2: instead of a contented smile, he offers a haughty, sidelong glance as if to say, “Good Lord, woman, what are you talking about now?” Cayla is observing the end of Daylight Savings Time (Crankshaft is observing it too, in a strip that at least tries to be funny). Les musters what little charm he possesses, and he shares with his Cayla what he likes about the early dusk: it allows him to sit with her in the dark and imagine he’s with Lisa.

The Anti-Social Network

Today’s strip

TB’s flagrant abuse of registered trademarks continues unabated today, as do Funky’s witless insights into this newfangled “computers” thing everyone’s always talking about. “Holly and Cory”…remember that, kids, because it’s going to be relevant real soon! I wonder how long that “face to Facebook” gag was clanging around in that delightfully pointy little head of his?

Check out Rachel in panel one, I have no idea what that particular little sidewards glance is supposed to indicate, but whatever it is I don’t like the looks of it. And panel three is a Batominc masterpiece, with Funky’s wry nonchalance and Rachel’s bemused background tilty-headed smirk. I would imagine that’s how every Montoni’s conversation unfolds (and I bet the visual evidence would back me up on that, too).

Your Difference May Vary

Today’s strip

Bull decided NOW would be a good time to start making a difference? Oh well, I guess those kids he “educated” over the course of the last twenty (or whatever) years were just plain f*cked, eh? What a totally preposterous and embarrassingly lazy way to end this pointless and incredibly stupid arc. It’s just an amazingly dumb thing for the Bull character to say, especially when you consider that he’s done the “reformed former bully who learned to care” bit with Bull a dozen times at a minimum through the years. Just laughably poor, shabby, lazy and witless.

So what did we actually learn this week? One, if you’re a weirdo, a giant wuss or any combination thereof, keep the camera rolling when bullies attack. Two, if you’re a bully, check for cameras BEFORE the shakedown. Three, TomBat still has the remarkable ability to throw a random Les drawing in there once in a while that makes me hate the character even more, which shouldn’t be possible. Look at that face in panel three, the smugness oozing from every pixel with the leaves fluttering around his repulsive head as he smirks at his inferior, simplistic yet lovable old pal in that condescendingly annoying way of his. What a dick.

Moia Summer, Moia Problems

Today’s strip.

Get yer Funky Winkerbean tropes here! Let’s see how many I can list:

  • The world’s greatest videographer once again has no camera and no one documenting her big event (Roberta’s dad is a better videographer, in that he occasionally shoots some video).
  • A lame pun!
  • The falling leaves…
  • The artist suddenly forgets how to draw a character (Der-hey! He suddenly looks like Conan O’Brien in panel 1).
  • The smirking moai, usually an act of Les, is now Summer’s turf (panel 2, left).

This one’s not a trope (yet), but what has been going on with that banner? Its right side is suspended by—magic? a ginormous protrusion from Derwood’s occipital skull? writing?