Bullrush

bobanero
March 19, 2012 at 11:40 am
It’s remarkable how any player on a team that’s NEVER WON A SINGLE GAME can attract the attention of any college recruiter.

After 40 years of FW, Batiuk feels entitled to cast off any remnants of plausibility or continuity, and if the readers don’t like it they can suck it. Case in point: back when he was fake-beating Les, Bull was depicted with a rather flattering moptop. In his latest reincarnation, Bull’s teenage self sports a baffling split-level buzzcut that suggests a pineapple. As the only standout on Westview’s hapless football squad, Bull is allowed to have his own last name, not the school’s, across the back of his varsity jacket.

Don't Stropp Believin'

Once again,
Les’ upper lip has retracted under
his mustache

Sunday’s strip got my hopes up that we would at last be done with BasketBull. However, today Les’ mention of that damn highlight reel triggers in Bull a sepia-toned flashback. Well, not a flashback, because Bull wasn’t there. The coach (he’s the one in panel three wearing the t-shirt that says coach) is the late Jack Stropp, who not only fostered Bull’s athletic development but also passed along his gift for malapropism.

Whale Meet Again

Oh thank God, no basketball.

I strongly suspect that today’s strip was originally supposed to run last September. Mainly because Mr. Moore is assigning his language arts class their “first book” of the year…a week before the beginning of spring? Also because said book is Moby-Dick, which you’ll recall figured in Maddie’s plagiarism arc six months ago. I’ll let this go, though, knowing how much Batiuk hates it when his readers pay more attention to his strip than he does.