Westview High School – Page 75

Métal Hurlant

Ring the bell! Today’s strip is funny. Implausible, sure, but it’s a comic strip (sorry, DSH John). I like how little Robo-Goat is actually screaming in the clutches of Big Walnut Tech’s menacing, mechanical monster. And in panel two, for once, Batiuk makes “tell-don’t-show” actually work, as the boys follow Robo-Goat’s trajectory, presumably through a window or wall. I’d have added a “crash” sound effect in P2, but we shall lay aside the snark hammer for today.

(Today’s post title is kind of a stretch. Did anyone get it?)

These Effects Aren't Very Special

OK, now it’s Nate’s turn to be incredulous. Odie and Cohen’s idea of making the robot “look really cool” is to haphazardly bolt a football helmet on top of it. They actually succeed in making the robot look less cool. And in what sense of the word is this a “spinoff”, Cody? It’s more of a kludge.

Pimp My Robot

OK, well, my query from yesterday’s post has been answered: the boys are not in the Technology Club. Rather, they are in the “Special Effects Art Class”. This sounded even more implausible than a high school comic book club, so I set to Googlin’…and found the “[o]nly school district in the nation to offer [a] high school Visual Effects Art Program“…the Berea (Ohio) City School District, about twenty miles from TB’s home in Medina.

Owencredulous

Why, oh why should Nate be incredulous to learn that two über-geeks like Cody and Owen are in the Technology Club? Does he reckon that they (or at least Owen) are just too stupid? What extracurricular activities would Nate expect them to sign up for (unless Westview High has a comic book club)?

BLAM!

So the cash-strapped Westview football can shell out between four and seven grand for a football helmet tunnel to give the team “some real class” (because “real class” is what wins football games). And from the looks of panel 4, they inflated it with…highly flammable hydrogen? It took me a long while to discern that those aren’t leaping flames but rather letters spelling out “BLAM!” Of course, by the final panel, things aren’t as bad as they looked (unfortunately). Evidence found at the scene will later reveal the blast to be the result of sabotage by last Sunday’s player-turned-ballboy Jason Williams!