Tag: Max Murdoch

The Loan Punman

Welcome, everyone, to that damn Crankshaft theater. Today’s strip finds us back in the middling maudlin morass that came to define this strip during Act II. It certainly says something about the relentlessly positive Comic-Con arc that it failed to provide much refreshment in its departure from this strip’s trademark tone.

“Valentine’s Day may be over.” Heh, cute. Doesn’t explain how you’ve been making your loan payments for 10 years and are only now in danger of default… maybe you’ve been driving customers away by needlessly questioning them instead of taking their money.

Meanwhile, Ann Fairgood Pm nd Jff play the “Incredible Hulk” TV show’s closing credits music in their heads as their son walks out the door with his oversize copy of yesterday’s strip.

O-H! I-ugh…

Today’s strip simply confirms what we’ve all known since Monday, that this movie premiere is going to take place at “that damn Crankshaft theater”.

And we can all blame Jeff Murdoch, a passive-aggressive sad-sack who has never managed to elicit sympathy from readers despite constantly suffering under his mother and father-in-law, two of the nastiest and most despicable characters to have ever graced the comics page. We can also blame Batiukverse Twitter, which waived its character limit to allow Jeff to convey the following information in a single tweet (maybe he typed this all up in Notes and tweeted a photo, which is still contemptible):

– His first and last name
– His location
– The fact that he was a member of the Starbuck Jones Junior Spaceman Fan Club when he was a kid
– That he saw the original Starbuck Jones serial at the then-new Valentine Theater
– That his son now owns the Valentine Theater
– And that he thinks it would be a good place to hold the premiere of the new Starbuck Jones movies.

Given all of that, I’m surprised he didn’t mention how movie tickets only cost $0.10 when he first saw the Starbuck Jones serial, or how much he misses voting for Robert Taft Sr., or how great his old LaSalle ran.

Valium-tine

While Jeff Murdoch apparently violates Twitter’s character limit in today’s strip, Director Martin Johns violates general decorum by thinking Jeff’s tweet is worth reading out loud to these Hollywood types lounging about in wicker chairs.

Prescient SOSFer erdmann hypothesized yesterday that this would lead to the premiere of Starbuck Jones at “that damn Crankshaft theater”. Today’s strip all but confirms that, and I can tell you that the next several strips will not dispel the idea. If you consider this to be a spoiler then you haven’t read Funky Winkerbean for very long.

In other news, Cindy has lost her right foot. Oh, and Jeff Murdoch is apparently both old enough to have seen and remember original-run Starbuck Jones movie serials (before Cliff was blacklisted sometime in the early 1950s) and young enough to have also been attending Kent State in 1970 (on a John Sebastian impersonator scholarship, apparently). To be fair, there is a window of time in which that works, but it is narrower than Crankshaft’s mind.

Sleepless in SEATtle

SosfdavidO here, marveling at Tombat’s continued use of telling when he should show and showing when he should tell, like in today’s strip.

Here’s how this would have went down in the real world:

Crazy Harry: “I’m here two hours early for the movie!”
Employee: “Why?”
Crazy Harry: “To get the perfect seat.”
Employee: “Which one is that?”
Crazy Harry: “Well, um.. the one in the middle…”

But in the interest of *comedy* we have to go through a whole week of the employee actually leaving his ticket booth to see what the hell Harry is talking about. Who sold the newcomers tickets? Who knows!

How this should have went down:

(Harry and Holly are seated at the theater)
Harry: “Can you see the screen?”
Holly: Yes.”
Harry: “Is your seat comfortable?”
Holly: “Yes.”
Harry: “Are you in a draft?”
Holly: “No…”
Harry: “Would you switch me seats!?”

Fanboy Harry

From the looks of the empty theater in today’s strip, there wasn’t a single movie playing before 7:30? It doesn’t look like a cineplex, just a single-screen old tyme theater. If they’re only showing one or two movies a day it’s no wonder theaters like these might be in trouble.

Of course, the person who sold Harry and Holly their tickets also personally accompanied them to their seats because that’s just how theaters in Westview work? Is he also the popcorn seller and projectionist?