Tag: Westview High School

To Have and Have Not

Link to today’s strip.

Credit where it’s due:  a nice touch in today’s strip is the kid with the trombone.  He was in yesterday’s strip as well, walking roughly in the same place, so it’s a very good way to show that time has not passed between yesterday’s strip and today’s.  In other words, despite taking a week in real-time, only a few minutes have gone by in strip-time.  It would be better if he had the same color shirt as yesterday, but I’ll be generous and put that down to an error by the syndicate.

However, I find The Odious Dinkle’s dialogue in panel one to be pretty damned off-putting.  What exactly does he mean?  Becky mentioned problems with hazing, and that was only a few minutes ago–so, no, she hasn’t had the time to do anything, so, yeah, the problems with hazing probably are still ongoing.

What I find off-putting about this is the idea that The Odious Dinkle has been treating everything Becky says as an opportunity to blather on about himself, and now that he’s blathered on for a while, he’s surprised that his blather hasn’t solved every problem Becky has.  Why, I’ve just told you I have problems, how dare you claim to have them as well.  It’s this kind of total self-absorption, this hermetically sealed worldview, that makes The Odious Dinkle so odious.   It makes one long for a replay of the Becky on the scissors-lift scene, only substituting The Odious Dinkle for Roberta, and including the payoff.

What I really don’t get is The Odious Dinkle’s reaction.  “Old uniforms?”  What does that mean?  I have this horrible feeling that these are uniforms from his tenure as band leader, and as such should be treated as sacred relics.  Which quite frankly makes good my point about his raging egoism, and thus makes me loathe him all the more.

Let’s hope someone hides his oxygen bottle.

You Get Too Much You Get Too High

Link to today’s strip.

So, more of this crap.  My God this stuff is boring; it makes me want to smother myself.  It looks like I’m not alone; given the crowd that takes up most of panel two, I’m starting to think ol’ Tom Batiuk is starting to bore himself.

Well, at least with today’s episode, we get an actual instance mention of an act of hazing, though hiding someone’s oxygen bottle seems like it might have fatal consequences.  Here, The Odious Dinkle tosses it off as a grim reminder that nothing ever changes, but Becky appears to be chuckling to herself.  Yeah, that’s what I’ll do to John.  I can hardly wait.

Neither can we, Becky.  Neither can we.

I’ve never been to band camp, but it sure looks like everyone has just been milling around aimlessly while The Odious Dinkle blathers away.  And now that he and Becky are both leaving, more aimless milling.  Aren’t there supposed to be rehearsals and marching routines and things like that?  This seems like a waste of time for everyone–which makes it a perfect mirror for Funky Winkerbean.

Prisoners of the Lost Universe

Link to today’s strip.

This is a good example of what I mentioned yesterday–the majority of “stories” in this strip are people complaining about something without being specific in their complaints.  “X stinks, man.”  “Yeah, X sure stinks.”  “Good, we agree that X stinks.  See you tomorrow.”  “Not if I’m lucky, you won’t!”  (smirk) (smirk)

If you look at the dialogue in this strip (sorry to make you read it again) you could replace the word “hazing” with anything, and nothing would change.  Smoking.  Drinking.  Farting.  Reading comic books.  Reading Funky Winkerbean.  Try it; it actually makes the strip enjoyable.  Is Tom Batiuk crediting his readers with already knowing what “hazing” is, or does he just not care?

Well, let’s see, here’s a strip with Becky and Dinkle chatting.  I left it blank what they’re chatting about…time to turn on the news!  Say, this story about hazing sounds good!

Today, Dinkle throws out “Stockholm Syndrome” with no clarification and again, it could be that Tom Batiuk credits his readers with enough intelligence to know what Stockholm Syndrome is…or it could just be the case that he threw it in, knowing it would make him sound smart.

It doesn’t really seem appropriate for a story vague chat about “hazing” though–while there have been some recent horrible stories about hazing, in those cases the hazee didn’t immediately turn around and defend those who had wronged him.  Nope, in the case I heard about, police and the courts got involved and the ending was not pretty.

I would say that particular incident might have started as hazing, but quickly turned into abuse, and abuse is another matter entirely that I don’t think anyone would find defensible (or funny).  I should note that I’ve never experienced hazing from either end, but from what I understand it’s supposed to be a good-natured trial by fire endured to enter some club or another.  You would never know what hazing is if you relied on this strip.  Or Stockholm Syndrome for that matter.

We could see the effects of this hazing on a student (in a conversation with Becky), or actually see the hazing in question.  But I’m going to put my money on “No, we won’t.”  The rest of the week will be like today:

Two people having a nothing conversation.   Has Tom Batiuk been held prisoner by the forces of mediocrity so long that he now believes them to be his only friends, his guiding lights?

Art-wise, it’s eerie how Becky almost morphs into the gal in the second panel.  Same height, nearly same expression, just further left in the pane.  It’s such an odd thing to look at that it has to be deliberate.  I assume that he just doesn’t scribble stuff down and be done for the day, but I may be mistaken!

You Can’t Spell “Dinkle” without “DIE”

Link to today’s strip.

Greetings, folks, BChasm back for another stint.  Thanks to HeyItsDave for a splendid performance.  And here we go–

Oh good, we’re about to be lectured about how awful hazing is,  without being shown (or told about) any of it, so the week will be two people discussing something without defining it.  And before you ask, I have not peeked ahead; it’s just the way these things are always dealt with.  Hazing, bullying, class rings, Hollywood, Crazy Harry’s Happy Dance…you name it, and Tom Batiuk will tell you how bad it is without a single word “why.”

I cannot imagine why Batiuk keeps bringing back Dinkle.  I know that he personally loves the character and thinks he’s a font of wisdom and humor, but he is neither.  And Batiuk can’t be using him as a sop to the folks who read Act I; the character has been turned into something repellent, second only to the odious Les.  I suppose, like Les, it’s tempting to think of him as a defiant middle finger thrust at his critics, but man what a waste of energy.

The good part of today’s strip is panel three–it looks like age has finally caught up with Harry Dinkle and he’s about to dissolve away before our very eyes.

I’m kidding of course; even if that were to happen, we’d only hear about it through other people discussing it, and we’d never see a single frame for ourselves.  By Grabthar’s Hammer, what a moment to cherish.

 

 

And Then Along Came Jones

Link to today’s strip.

Yesterday, I posited that we wouldn’t see any of the strip’s promised action.  Well, I guess Tom Batiuk sure showed me!  Though I, in turn, would like him to explain Chullo’s remark.  How many graduations has he been to, exactly?

I sure hope Mr. Director Man–whose name I do not believe we’ve been given–is prepared to shoot this scene over and over again.  If you want a crowd of people running in terror, you don’t want your extras looking like they’re having a fun time.  Kinda undercuts what you’re trying to achieve.  So for take two, Mr. Director Man, you should tell the crowd to look frightened.

Technically, though, you’re not allowed to talk to the extras, Mr. Director Man.  That’s the job of the assistant director; in fact, if a director “directs” an extra–even something like “Hey, you!  Get off the set!”–that extra now moves up to become a paid player.  Yet another thing to add to the “Tom Batiuk knows nothing about how movies are made” column.

This 24/7/365 Starbuck Jones obsession clearly shows that Tom Batiuk has lost all interest in both of his comic strips.   I don’t know why he continues with Funky Winkerbean or Crankshaft–the paycheck, I guess, and the chance to win an award for longevity.  There certainly have not been any stories that engaged him that don’t involve Starbuck Jones.  The “senior trip” thing recently was an embarrassment, something he felt he had to get out of the way so he could get back to Starbuck Jones.   Before that, it was a week of Wedgeman’s class ring.  Obviously stuff that a “high school strip” needs, but interesting to no one.

The problem is, as I’ve mentioned before, Tom Batiuk is self-aware enough to know that he doesn’t have the talent to do Starbuck Jones.  This is why we’ve never seen Starbuck Jones doing anything in the strip, other than “appearing.”  When he had the vintage serial arc, we saw practically nothing of the film but we sure had a lot of people jabbering over it.  When a comic book cover is required, someone else draws it.  Tom Batiuk has written or drawn nothing of significance regarding Starbuck Jones.

So, aware that if he tried it, he would ruin it, I imagine Tom Batiuk would hire people to write and draw Starbuck Jones.  Oh, he would be the editorial supervisor, and make suggestions and create new characters and so forth.  In other words–

He would be Brady Wentworth.

Given Mr. Batiuk’s record on wrapping things up quickly, well…I haven’t seen tomorrow’s entry, but it would not surprise me one bit if it’s something like this–

Bear in mind, this is one day after filming in a high school auditorium.  Yes, it’s unlikely, but…can you prove that it won’t happen?

That’s it from me, folks!  Tune in tomorrow when the fantastic Epicus Doomus takes the center seat.  Back to the funway, which is already in progress!