SosfDavidO here, and like most of us, we just can’t get enough of watching the writing and editing process being depicted in the media. If you enjoy pasty-faced nerds staring uncertainly at word processors as much as I do, you’ll really like the action in today’s strip! The sepia edges indicate it’s a flash back but it’s NOT, because he’s imagining they’re working at Batcom Comics in the 1940s because.. your guess is as good as mine.
SosfDavidO here! Now that the storyline where Cory sold off his comic books has ended we’re now headlong into a new, fresh storyline about.. comic books. Today’s strip returns us to glamorous Hollywood, where the only hint they’re in California and not 1960s West Germany is the peek of a palm tree in the P2 window. Tombat didn’t even have time to do brick-work on today’s tombstone of a building!
Today’s strip marks the long-awaited and eagerly-anticipated return of Sophomoric Sightings, the comic strip that Durwood and Pete drew for the Westview High School newspaper back in Act II. It was last seen nearly a decade ago, in early 2007 I believe, when Pete lamented to Chien in the school paper office that he was having to create the whole comic himself since Darin was spending so much time with Jessica.
Honestly, I have a bit of a soft spot for “Sophomoric Sightings”, as it is not unlike my own attempts at cartooning when I was in high school (or, uh, now even)… the simple and inoffensive jokes, avoiding drawing hands whenever possible, significant artwork inconsistencies between panels. If only given the context that they are comic strips within a comic strip about high school, they actually serve their purpose quite well and perhaps exhibit some level of charm.
When given the context that they are literally the only depicted works in a Hollywood storyboard artist’s portfolio, that opinion… changes.
Oh boy, everything in today’s strip not only unsurprisingly goes back to comics but even features what appears to be a 18 year old Pete getting the chance to haul Darin in to the clutches of the evil Hollywood.
“We’re ready to get started on the story boards, Pete?” I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t film first and then do storyboards later, given Tombat’s understanding of Hollywood.
So now we have Darin, an MBA, working at a pizza joint, raising a kid, developing apps and sidelining a job storyboarding for a major film for Hollywood. Yes, this is a normal person, sure. At this rate, by next year he’ll also be doing anesthesiology and training circus seals.
In today’s strip, Dinkle learns that there are two kinds of people in the world, those that can magically eliminate their hearing loss by forgetting about it and those not named “Harry Dinkle”.
I very much like the final panel today, or rather, the implications of it. Not only did Dinkle’s high schoolers not listen to his direction, he apparently believes the full-grown adults in the Wally plot device community band don’t either. That makes three separate bands that don’t listen to him. I see a common denominator.
Son of Stuck Funky 
