Yet another instance of Batiuk’s famous one-year leadtime biting him in the ass. I thought this was a “pitch” meeting, but apparently these dudes have already had a chance to read the film treatment. Guess Mason and Les are about to learn that Hollywood is reluctant to make a movie that might not sell tickets overseas. Remember the expression “But will it play in Paducah?” Now they’re worried about how it will perform in Panjin.
Tag: hoodie
The Bro-ducers
The author who last week gave us “Hershey Barr” and “Bubu Zayla” eschews wacky monikers today in favor of plausibly real, Jewish-sounding (!) names, in possibly his most true-to-Hollywood touch to date.
Hitorque
April 26, 2020 at 11:28 pm
Is Masone wearing A FUCKING SALMON COLORED POLO SHIRT TO A BUSINESS MEETING? And why doesn’t Les have a tie on??
Les’s lack of a tie might be his saving grace. His tweet sportcoat and Paulie Walnuts-like gray temples just scream “boomer” to the hip, hoodie clad partners. Mason’s already hurting his chances by dragging mopey Les to these pitch meetings; would it have killed him to give Les some wardrobe tips?
On Wednesdays I Go Shopping
Link to today’s strip (eventually).
Wednesday’s strip was not available for preview. THANK GOD.
There’ve been many times lately when criticizing this strip feels like criticizing a preschooler’s finger-painting. When presented with such a work, you don’t want to say, “Well, Tommy, arms don’t really come out of the sides like that, and shoes aren’t big and round like wheels. And is that a dog?” That just seems kind of mean-spirited.
Tom Batiuk doesn’t write well. To put it mildly. He cannot plot out a proper story, his ear for dialogue is deaf, and his points are buried beneath the ineptitude of his execution. Occasionally, he has a sort of ham-handed way with a phrase that has a certain off-putting charm, but that’s about it.
But what if that’s the best he can do? His “stories” over the last couple of years have started out like they might be going somewhere but always–always–end up like a balloon that’s just been unknotted. Falling to the earth with a farting noise. The Butter Brinkle thing–seriously, what an embarrassment that would have been to a professional, published writer. Here? In it goes. And once it was done, it was gone. Nothing to tie it together, nothing to indicate it meant anything…no impact at all.
Lately, the strip has been all been wish-fulfillment. Les gets showered with praise. Funky gets stepped on. Everyone talks about how awesome Les is. Bull gets an off-hand death that is largely used to push “Lisa’s Story” again. That really seems like the work of someone who doesn’t care.
But he seems to be losing his grip on the elements he’s always deemed important, like Les and “Lisa’s Story.” How many times has Mason told Les he wants to option the book? He flew out to Ohio to do it, then flew Les in to California to do it. That doesn’t seem like someone who can separate the wheat from the chaff. Both are treated with equal carelessness.
So I wonder if I’m pointing out the shortcomings in the work of someone who should do better…but can’t.
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Charles basically nailed it–and did my job for me, thanks!–in yesterday’s comments, in which he basically laid out the next month’s worth of strips. I’d link his comment here, but I don’t know how to do that. (Here ya go. —TFH)
So, what we have here is what we had yesterday–two characters talking about Les. Not a single step forward, but hey, if people are talking about Les, it has to be award-winning, right?
I don’t dare wish for anything different, because it’s certain to be worse.
Return of the LisaVirus
Well, I should have known. Batiuk’s revisiting of his “prestige arc” was so poorly performed that it should have been obvious he was going to spin up Lisa’s Story again. The world’s worst book, written by the world’s worst writer, about the world’s worst person.
Of course Summer has no idea what’s going on. Les is far too important to himself to waste valuable preening time on informing his family about anything. “Hello, Summer! How’s school? We just spent a week in California with Mason Jarre!” No, even that takes too much effort, effort that could be put to better use stroking his ego.
I would like to say something nice about the artwork. The shift in perspective from panel one to panel two is nicely handled; it looks like Cayla went toward Summer to help her with her bags. A rare instance of interesting art in this strip.
Son of Stuck Funky 