Tag: Les

We got The Bleat

Were you all worried we would go an entire week without a reference to comic books?
Well, fear not true believers! Today’s strip brings us back to that which makes the heart of Westview pump. “Comic books, comic books, comic books”… the beat hauntingly comes through the stethoscope.

The power of comic books is so great that Bernie doesn’t even need to go through the interview process that Maris and Logan did in order to join the staff of “the Bleat”. He’s in simply because he wants to review movies and comic books and believes he can score free comics from DC and Marvel by being a critic on a closed-circuit high school announcements broadcast (good luck with that, because it doesn’t happen… period).

I am curious about two things, though:
First, Marvel and DC but not Mega Comics? Bernie is, after all, a known fan of their signature property, The Amazing Mister Sponge.

Second, what is Les’ problem here? He left these two schmucks to do his job for him and now he wants to gripe about the results?  Gimme a break. “I left these teenagers without direction or supervision and now they are pursuing their interests, oh they are so terrible at all aspects of life. If only there was a place where they could learn things and people there who could teach them…”
Maybe he’s just mad that they have clearly learned more from Bull than they have from him. Specifically, they want to score free stuff, which is Bull’s primary motivation in life.

And finally, after all of this exposition, Bernie had darn well better review the Starbuck Jones movie when it comes out… provided he hasn’t graduated by then of course.

Blushed Aside

Today’s strip… oh boy. Buckle up folks, it looks like we are getting a whole week of job interviews conducted by “The Bleat” triumvirate.

Eh, better make that bi-umvirate, as Les appears to be taking the Gil Thorp approach to his job… that is, letting other people do it whenever possible. His utter disinterest in this process is not surprising, but it makes little practical sense. Yes, it is worthwhile to give Owen and Cody some real world-ish experience and let them help make hiring decisions for “The Bleat”, but it is Les alone who will have to deal with the results for three solid years. I assume this is how he wound up with the current staff of Owen, Cody, and Cam Eraman’s sagging pants.

Maris Rogers, meanwhile, appears to be the latest incarnation of Westview High School’s real mascot, the appearance-obsessed, stuck-up blonde. This would be a bit of a reach based simply on this strip and the fact that she has written a blog about applying make up, but consider too her first appearance, back in August. Les, wandering the halls of the school, is lost in total déjà vu as he sees Cindy, Jessica, Mallory Brooks (I think), and Maris in quick succession. That’s pretty on the nose, even for TB.

Cardigan Vet-er

What is this? New named student characters in today’s strip? A rare sight indeed.

I think our last new named student character was Travis Tanner, who we have not seen since Bull told him to go back to class back in November 2014. I like to think that Travis left Bull’s office, went right past his classroom, and did not stop walking until he reached whichever ocean Westview High School’s front doors face. Good for him.

Anyways, Les seems to think he’s hosting a revival of “The Dating Game” with today’s panel 1 expository dump. Apparently, he is the faculty sponsor of “The Bleat” (which I guess is what TB believes to be the “modern” equivalent of a school newspaper), a position he takes so seriously that he is letting Owen and Cody decide which of these three oddly-named freshmen make up the broadcast’s staff after they finally graduate.

Let’s see, we have:
Contestant #1 – Maris Rogers – Maris is presumably the blonde in the foreground and is very thankful her parents didn’t name her Ruth Babe. Owen has already chosen her, but Les informs him that he will still have to play the game because the syndicate requires the show to fill its entire time slot.

Contestant #2 – Bernie Silver – Bernie may or may not be a vicious mid-century London gang leader looking to add Westview High School to his criminal empire by seizing control of the media. He sports a winning smirk.

Contestant #3 – Logan Church – Logan is “eclectic” because she thinks that is what high school kids who wear cat-eye glasses and over-sized earrings call themselves. Chien, sitting in a dark room far from Westview with a smoldering cigarette in her left hand, is not impressed.

Gallup and Doper

Just look at today’s strip. Kids these days… I tell ya.

With their chullos and their scarves and their short haircuts and their closed circuit television broadcasts and their disagreeable opinion polls and their polka dot boxer shorts that they expose to the world because they refuse to properly tighten their belts because they are all disrespectful punk hoodlums who will destroy America after we retire.

Those ungrateful seniors want to chose where they go on a trip meant to celebrate their impending graduation. How dare they?
Not that Owen, Cody, and company have earned much sympathy from us over their decade at Westview High School, but given that they endure Les and Kablichnick on a daily basis, they are definitely the lesser of two evils here. I politely applaud their efforts to stick it to the administration via sarcastic opinion poll.

Ring, A-Ding-A-Ling

Link To Today’s Idiocy

Special thanks to the SoSF team for steering us all the way into February! Time sure does fly when NOTHING WHATSOEVER is happening, huh?

Once again Guy McAuthor tackles yet another contemporary issue facing young whatevers today, as he at long last uses his delightfully poisonous felt-tip to take on the scourge of…class rings. Boy, I was wondering when he’d finally go after those evil Jostens folks. Nice to see BanMan taking off the gloves and aiming for such a deserving target.

Anyway, Owen (the inexplicable host of “The Bleat”…har har) is looking at this all wrong, as a class ring will be a nice investment that he can pawn to buy a new chullo or some valuable comic books down the line. And if he can’t afford one now, no worries, as he can always buy one next year or the year after that or the year after that. And what the f*ck is Dick Facey sneering about? Are the morning announcements cutting into his smug wordplay time again? And why is he dressed like a parking valet? What a dick.