New York – Page 5 – Son of Stuck Funky

Over a Cliff

HeyItsDave
March 29, 2016 at 11:15 pm
Gosh, if only there was a searchable database of movies available on the internet!

$$$WESTVIEW ONCOLOGIST$$$
March 31, 2016 at 1:07 pm
I know this has been said before, but a quick google search could probably confirm whether Cliff Anger is dead or not…

Partial credit is due, I guess: the gang has managed to use “that internet thing” to get a potential lead in their search for Cliff Anger. Not via IMDb, nor Wikipedia, nor the Google; any of which might provide fairly reliable info as to old Cliff’s status and whereabouts. But—hello, what’s this?— someone’s selling off a cache of SJ memorabilia on eBay or Craigslist. Perfectly logical, then, to assume that this mysterious seller would be the man himself, and reason enough for three people to fly to New York to go looking for the guy.

Petebusters

It’s Badly Drawn Beard Guy’s turn to speak. Mega Comics has “leaked the news” (no doubt via an anonymous Tweet) of the coming Spongeclone Saga, and cover artists are fighting over the gig like it’s Starbuck Jones. Naturally, Pete immediately balks at the prospect of tripling his workload—it takes all his strength to produce one monthly comic, let alone three! His superiors, no doubt acutely aware of Pete’s goldbrick tendencies, have already brought in an acclaimed and expeienced comic book writer “a guy who’s written a movie script for Netbusters,” which avid hate-readers of Batiuk’s strips will know is where members of the Crankshaft household rent their movies. No doubt TB means to suggest that a “Netbusters” movie is barely a notch above “straight to cell phone.”

Trilogy of Error

beckoningchasm
April 12, 2015 at 11:07 pm
Odd word-balloon separation there. Almost looks like there’s a ghost speaking.

When a cartoonist relies so heavily on verbiage, you’re bound to get some inconsistencies with the dialogue balloons. We see it again in today’s panel 1, except rather than separating, the balloons merge, making it appear that Pete is answering his own question. So giddy are Pete’s editors at the prospect of spinning the controversial yet wildly lucrative Spongeclone concept into a franchise that they breathlessly speak for and over one another, while Pete Reubens with his under-eye bags is beginning to resemble a late-career Moe Howard.

We Love It THIS MUCH!

Link to today’s strip.

Ah, the fickle world of publishing, where the trashing of your dream character, just to stir up sales, is a regular event. Where palpable alarm and twisted anger morph instantly into fervid enthusiasm. Look at the guy in the white shirt in panel one–now that’s someone so angry he’s warping his face. Hope it doesn’t stick that way, buddy. Dopey McGlasses, on the other hand, goes from stunned to happy with such ease he even does that Hummel thing with his hands to show how much he loves this idea.

My impression of this arc is that we are meant to disapprove of the way in which publishers demand that characters transform from happy and bright-eyed to dark and gloomy. I hope I’m wrong, because this, coming from the man who writes and draws Funky Winkerbean, is too ironic by half.

Anyway, I’m glad the Mega Men are all enthusiastic. Because the actual readers of this comic strip can share in none of the emotions on display here–not for us the gobsmacked alarm, the face-melting rage, the burning anger (look at GroverShave) or the unbridled enthusiasm of the last panel. Because we’ve all been locked out of this story. It’s people discussing a comic book character we’ve never seen. We don’t know if sales are down, or if the character is in danger of irrelevancy, or if the book might get cut if not for Pete’s clone-strategy. We’ve never seen a bit of Mister Sponge as he is currently, so his new direction means nothing. Even “Sophomore Sightings” made a few appearances in the strip and, apparently, it was not requested that it become dark and dreary like poor Mr. Sponge.

Of course, there is a bright side for us in today’s offering–the surety that we’re not idiots. Today’s strip reminds us that we don’t require t-shirts or easels to know where we are and where we’re working, unlike the intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic who need these things to work at Mega Comics. That easel in particular is great–normally, one might expect a sales chart or something, but that would require actual story-telling ability, a hint of what’s at stake, so instead it’s just the logo. Just sitting there, like a prop. I bet it has to be on display at every meeting or there’s a panic: “Oh Hell, where are we working? What are we doing? Who am us, anyway?”

On second thought, I’m betting this isn’t anywhere near “Mega Comics” headquarters. This is just a bunch of Pete’s friends all play-acting. They’re sitting around wondering why they got fired and fantasizing about being big shots in the comics world.

I think that’s a much better scenario; the only flaw is that it requires Dopey Pete to have friends, which is pushing things a bit far.

And, just to leave you with some entertainment….

Ex-Sponged

Link to today’s strip.

Well, Darin sure looks dumbfounded by today’s revelation, but I suspect that’s his default state anyway. And across town, at Mega Comics headquarters, that one editor (who looks like Sesame Street’s Grover has shaved his face) looks equally astonished. He may be thinking, “Haven’t we gone over this road several dozen times in comics? Spider-Man was a clone for a while…comic books these days seem packed to the gills with clones…”

(That’s my hazy recollection. Unlike some I could name, I haven’t followed comics for several decades so all my info is second-hand.)

GroverShave may also be thinking something along the lines of, “Say, isn’t this a really stupid idea? Why would a hero’s arch-enemy clone that hero, rather than kill him? Is the clone programmed to let Doctor Centipede free just as he’s about to capture him? Isn’t that kind of annoying, having his schemes stopped all the time by his own creation? Should Pete go back to his old job of bringing us coffee, while simultaneously shutting up?”

And here we have the number one problem with “tell, don’t show.” Since we’ve never had a glimpse of The Amazing Mister Sponge (or TAMS for short), much less any hint of his adventures, none of this means anything to anyone. So what if TAMS is a clone? It changes nothing. Our lives, hitherto untouched by TAMS, have not had their courses altered in the slightest by this latest development. Even the characters here are just chatting–there’s certainly no hint at all of Pete bemoaning that he is being asked to change the nature of his signature character into something else. There’s no sense of loss, or dreams slipping away, or anything…it’s just another day for Pete, and like most days, it ends with your creations ground down under commercial pressures.

Or so we assume, again. Pete looks excited in the last panel, but is that because the idea appeals to him, or is he simply desperate to keep his job? Without a hint, we’re just looking at bad drawings spouting bad dialogue, with nothing to tie either to any human experience.

I hate to say it, but the scenario below has more of a connection with an audience–any audience.

Yes…above, everything revolves around Les, as Tom Batiuk clearly wants. But at least in this scenario, there’s someone we can hate. The Amazing Mister Sponge? I have no opinion about him one way or the other. I’ve been given no opportunity to form an opinion of any kind…which, given the reception Mr. Batiuk’s work usually gathers, may be by design.