Lisa’s Trilogy of Books – Page 4

I’ve got nothing

I don’t know quite what to make of this. Usually I can tell what the punchline’s supposed to mean so I can ascertain how unsuccessful Batiuk is, but this leaves me baffled. Are the Rotary Mentors called “Angels” or something? That must be it.

And no doubt that made Cayla think for a moment that Les had lost his mind before he explained his odd comment. I wonder if she was supposed to (like me) think that Les has gone around the bend and meant that Lisa was going to make sure everything worked by offering spiritual support for the Run.

The Run… God, it’s this dumb thing again. Even worse as they have decided to have printed t-shirts with Lisa sitting on that damn bench, as if that would mean anything to anyone.

Other annoying things: The fact that it’s always called “The Lisa’s Legacy Run” no matter what. That Cayla is apparently packing Les’s suitcase. That Les’s smug smirk appears in every panel where he’s facing us. That Cayla calls Les “The World Famous Author” despite the fact that his signing at the Columbus Museum of Art apparently is a bigger deal than anything he’s done before. And finally, that damn pink shirt she wears.

Anyway, this is it for me. Have fun with Epicus Doomus as he takes over starting tomorrow!

I don’t think he knows how YouTube works, you guys

Today’s strip

So Les is overnighting at Columbus because of course he is. And I bet the museum is footing his hotel bill, although it doesn’t quite look like what Les is accustomed to when it comes to his Lisa travels. No wonder he’s miserable all the damn time.

And there’s Cayla, who spent her Les-free time constantly searching and watching YouTube updates so she could catch yesterday’s lady putting up that video of Les, because of course that woman looked exactly like someone with an active YouTube channel, and Cayla has nothing else to do. Watch as it goes viral, because of course it will, getting more views than any YouTube segment of any network and cable channel in America.

The Banality of Banality

Today’s strip

Today’s strip really isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. A woman (who is dressed in lavender shaded clothing- ever notice just how often Batiuk has a middle aged woman dressed in that color?) asks Les if she can record him signing her book for some damn reason. Les being Les screws it up, and when his screw up is pointed out, gets all pissy with the person who pointed it out.

It’s dumb. It’s banal. Why is she recording Les signing her book? Is she going to watch this video again? Post it to Facebook to have her friends watch it? “Oh look, it’s that guy who writes about his dead wife! I’m going to watch him sign his name again and AGAIN.”

And Les, naturally, gets all pissy-faced with her, as if she’s done something irritating to him. Hey man, it’s your screw up. Own it.

Anyway, I was thinking that this book signing can’t possibly last beyond this week, but I’ve underestimated Batiuk before. This guy can stretch a guy signing books out to four weeks easily. That’s a god damn story to him.

If Only We HADN’T Seen This Coming

Today’s Strip

And today Batiuk goes back to the tired well of Les running into a former teacher who can’t believe that Les is a successful published author. It’s an odd thing, because while I haven’t read much Act 1, I was given the impression that while Les was hapless (usually due to others’ shortcomings), he wasn’t portrayed as an idiot. It’s just Batiuk’s standard “every high school kid’s an idiot who will never amount to anything” trope. It’s so powerful that it applies even to The Delicate Genius of Westview.

Although I can amuse myself my imagining that instead of the obvious meaning of the punchline, Rita can’t believe that Les wrote a sequel to a book that was about a woman dying of cancer. There can’t ever be a sequel less essential than this one.

Plus, “back in Ohio”? You’re in Ohio now, you damn ninny!

This again?

Today’s strip

So now Les is back signing books, since nothing more than his crass comparison of himself to a biblical figure is worth showing of his talk.

I guess the idea is that someone’s selling Les’s personally signed books on eBay, because after all, the signature of such an immense failure would be so valuable. One of the oddest things about these Lisa’s Trilogy of Books strips, and Lisa’s Story in general, is how divergent Les’s success is within the strip itself. Is he really an author whose signature would be worth reselling his books on eBay? Or one who’s worth sending all over the country on a book tour? Apparently so from the strips, even though there’s nothing in the way that Les is portrayed otherwise that convincingly shows he’s a successful writer.

Anyway, looking at the motley bunch in line for Les’s signature, I’m puzzled by who exactly is supposed to be the audience of this new trilogy. I can’t imagine any of the people shown being interested in all three of the books as they were presented, and for some of them, I can’t see how they’d be interested in any of them. That counts as a quarter inch, I guess.