Link to today’s strip (eventually).
The occasion being, of course, the first of August…and the strip thus unavailable for preview.
Of course, we know how it’s going to go. Kitch Swoon’s going to talk more about using Dullard’s work in her gallery. This will probably lead to collectors bidding for his work, and a wealthy life for Dullard. Batiuk has used this strip to construct his ideal fantasy world, where the real world has no presence at all. A world where the terrible comics that AK publishes are somehow wildly successful.
That’s one aspect of this strip that truly puzzles me. He’s got his own invented world, and his own invented comic book publishing house. He could do literally any titles he wished (providing he doesn’t violate copyright law) and he comes up with stuff that just looks terrible and dull.* I cannot imagine a comic-book reader, in any era, doing anything with these titles other than turning up his nose. Back when I was reading comics, the only one of these I would have looked at would be The Scorch, and that would only be after I’d already read everything else that month.
Where are the AK versions of Superman, Batman, or the Flash? Isn’t that the sort of book that Batiuk wanted to work on back in the day? So why doesn’t he create his own versions now (other than fears that his knock-offs would be mocked without mercy)? Wasn’t that Chester’s vision–creating stalwart and true heroes, like the ones he loved as a child? Why is it that the two dullest sounding AK titles–Rip Tide and the Inedible Pulp–are the only ones with more than one cover showcased in the strip?
Why does Batiuk’s imagination seem so small?
*The Inedible Pulp, Rip Tide-Scuba Cop, Atomic Ape, The Scorch…these are the ones I remember, am I forgetting any? And if I am forgetting, well, guess why.
