Les – Page 198 – Son of Stuck Funky

…'Cause I Can't Stands No Moore

He’s flogging the damn book again…I’m pretty sure at this point that TB is doing this to punish us snarkers.

“Dad” has to wait for school to (finally!) be out before “hitting the road”? What, did he use up his “impersonal days“? And suddenly he doesn’t know how to read a boarding pass? What happened to the Frequent Flyin’ Les who had become so jaded with “the road” that he’d taken to abusing anyone who crossed his path?

Funky Cold Medina

I guess TB needs to remind readers once a year that Funky is a recovering alcoholic. Although taken with the strip from two Sundays back, could he be setting Funky up for a relapse? The Winkerbeans waltzed to that tune with the line “Till [sic] I can gain control again…” Is he losing control? Are Funky’s demons “exercising” him?

1/4″ from Reality Dept: the gazebo figured so prominently in the past week’s strips, and is rendered so lovingly in today’s; I took a notion that TB must be copping a real-life structure somewhere in, oh, I don’t know…Ohio? Sure enough, a bit of Googling yields pics of the real-life gazebo in Medina Square in TB’s hometown. And true Batiuk completist collectors may pick up a CD of the Medina Community Band‘s 2009 “Salute to Sousa” concert; cover artwork by you-know-who.

Les Sticks It In

Epicus Doomus
June 29, 2011 at 12:44 am

…Les is easily the most obnoxious, annoying jerk-off in the history of comic strips, if not entertainment as a whole.

..and today’s strip confirms it!

It wasn’t enough for Les to show up to an empty school and stand over Susan as she gathered her personal effects. It wasn’t enough for him to name-drop his “real” girlfriend and call Susan “crazy” to her face. Before he walks out the door for good, Les has to be sure to fan that little ember of Susan’s doomed, unrequited love.

Well, I Guess This Is It

Panel one, they’re all shy and demure. Then in panel two, Susan suddenly brightens at the prospect of future opportunities to stalk Les outside of Westview High. Les, meanwhile, having been thoroughly disabused of his big box-office notions, tries halfheartedly to dissuade her. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!

A Clean Break from Westview

Some story arcs are fun to snark upon. Some story arcs just make me angry. This week’s “Susan Steps Aside” saga is an example of the latter.

To summarize what has been pointed out here and elsewhere in the comics mockage sphere, Susan is a possibly mentally unbalanced individual, and Les is a complete and utter asshole. She’s cleaning out her desk because of him, and they’re both joking about it. Well, when the “writing” becomes too vexing, we can always critique the “drawing”: Les has never looked more punchable than he does in panel 3, while Susan’s bashful smile makes her look like Droopy Dawg.