Westview High School – Page 54

The Biggest Prize in Sport

My God, look at Bull’s face in panel two. That’s the perfect Funky Winkerbean mask of weariness and resignation. Remember what I said the other day, about how Tom Batiuk has lost the ability to tell jokes? This right here is the proof. If Bull was wearing even a slight smile, his remark could be taken as a joke, about…uh…how the girl’s basketball team needs more training? Or they’re larger and stronger than the football players? Or something? Instead Bull has the expression of a man who’s about to walk that last lonley mile. “Any word from the governor?” Young Bob Dylan, tangled up in blue in the lower left, would be wise to quit glowering and listen in; he might get a great song out of this, maybe even a whole album! Maybe something like “Idiot Wind-Bag.”

Lastly, there is a bit of amusement on display as history is about to repeat itself: Les, not paying attention, is going to walk right into that purple-shirted girl who is distracted by her cell phone. KLANG! *OOF* THUD. On his trip into the past, one wonders what Les Moore would tell his younger self. One suspects it would be something like, “Buy that Starbuck Jones comic, kid.” After all, if your mind only has one track….

Formula Pun

Always looking for new ways to show his total disdain for his students, Jim Kablichnick takes a different approach in today’s strip. The resulting pun is not totally terrible, but, given the students’ reactions, appears to have had the desired effect.

So does this mean that students watch Cosmos in every class at Westview High except for Kablichnick’s science class? And how does Cody have the context to compare Kablichnick to an Australian magician and entertainer?

We need Owen & Cody like a fish needs a bicycle

In today’s strip, 27-year-old high-school juniors Owen and Cody complain about the—fish? Is that wedge-shaped thing fish? Owen says it’s fish, but—I’ve got nothing. ~~Les Jr.~~ Cody disgorges a Bermuda Triangle joke from the 1970s. Heigh-ho.

The good news is, this is a throwaway strip. Tomorrow, things get—oh—never mind that “good news” bit—tomorrow, things get worse, as we embark on a Les/Funky road trip.

‘s Cool, “Girl”

She’s a network TV news vet who worked her way up from Channel One to the American Broadcasting Company (and back down again); who’s spent time in war zones and who even brokered the hostage swap that freed PFC Wally Winkerbean. Time may not have diminished her looks (as it has for her ex-husband and for every other adult in this strip save Les), but Cindy is filled with trepidation as she primps for her date with Mason Jarr the Movie Star. She can’t even bring herself to apply that black lipstick she’s holding in panel one.

The shirt off your Batiuk

After teasing Bull with a free t-shirt on Tuesday, the EMU crew finally gets around to giving it to him in today’s strip. Bull is smart enough to thank them on behalf of the class, because there is no way the class is thanking these two shmucks after being belittled all week, not even for the free t-shirts (that they apparently have yet to receive). The EMU football jersey worn by a young, shaggy-haired Bull in the title panel bears a remarkable resemblance to the SMU jerseys from the same era. Coincidence? Maybe, but the football program that received the “death penalty” seems very Westview-appropriate.

Thanks for putting up with me for the past two weeks, you all make the comics page that much better. The great beckoningchasm takes the reins tomorrow.

One last Emo bit, presumably about what Becky and John Howard plan on doing when they finally escape Westview:
I was staying in Florida at a motel called The Three Palms, run by an older couple… one of whom was missing a hand.
– Emo Philips