I’ll admit it: This makes me sad. 
Oddly enough, me too.
When did it change from a boring high school strip to this?
The only thing worse than Tom Batiuk trying to be funny is Tom Batiuk trying to be profound, thought-provoking or touching.
Me, too, but I think they handled it very well in the strip. Les had come around to where he was willing to let her go. Lisa kept her sense of humor, kidding Les about his dancing when he was helping her into bed for the last time.
It was a jolt, though, to have Iris in For Better Or For Worse react as though grandpa Jim had died. We found out the next day he had another bad stroke, so he’s still sorta alive. Sometimes, I wonder if cartoonists meet in a bar somewhere to drink Scotch and discuss their plot lines.
Looks like the Grim Reaper traded his scythe in for some Phantom of the Opera threads.
I read that expecting to scoff, but it actually made me really sad! I never once thought that this comic strip was funny . . . I actually think this is the best one, simply because it evoked a reaction. But now I feel like I need to call my mom or something.
What got to me in today’s strip was Lisa saying “I love you” and Les not hearing it.
I would give anything to have heard that from my wife during her last few days.
My god, with plotlines like these, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were sitting by themselves in the dark, drinking Scotch out of the bottle while Gilbert O’Sullivan plays in the background.
What imagery.
I’m trying to decide if it’s the Modern Major General bit or something from The Mikado.
I’m thinking Alone Again, Naturally.
I was thinking “mime,” but I like your interpretation better.
C’mon, Julius, Pirates of Penzance is very depressing. They are, after all, orphans. And if light opera is the soundtrack to Batiuk’s depression, then who are we to argue?
(OK, I was thinking “Alone Again, Naturally” on endless repeat. But the vision of someone sobbing in the desolate black night to the strains of “With catlike tread” and “Three little maids from school” is too funny.)
“Tit-Willow” - a cheerful little ditty about suicide.
Batiuk’s been telegraphing/talking about/showing the final strip/etc. this for months - Johnston would be hard-pressed to miss that he had Lisa lined up for the virtual gallows.
Well, at least Lisa can’t take any more abuse from her creator. Teenage pregnancy retconned into date-rape-induced teenage pregnancy, rejection by her father because she wasn’t virginal any longer (until he managed to come groveling at her bedside while she was probably comatose, and he weakly explained that he thought the giving up a baby for adoption while a teen derailed her life and that hurt him - so apparently he expected more from her than being a lawyer), cancer, remission, medical malpractice error that she shrugs off resulting in her recurrence not being noticed until late, and long drawn out spiral into death. That’s a lot of pain to inflict on one character.
Given that I never heard of this strip until yesterday, it’s surprising how affecting I found four or five days’ worth of cartoons. Perhaps I’m just a sentimental old sod.
I was amazed at how tastefully Batiuk handled Lisa’s death. He finally gave her some peace and let her go in her sleep/coma. But then I checked today’s comic…
[long string of profanity deleted to keep this out of the Pit]
Gee, I wish I could have jumped ahead ten years immediately after my mother’s death! Who needs that pesky grieving process anyway? Hell with it, on to the future! Funeral? We don’t need no steenkin’ funeral!
No, no. Three Little Maids From School would be better. Think of the delicious dissonance. Sweet irony!
Miss Purl, you are a somewhat inadvertent genius!
Or from *Yeomen Of The Guard *
Strange adventure that we’re trolling:
Modest maid and gallant groom —
Gallant, gallant, gallant groom! —
While the funeral bell is tolling,
Tolling, tolling, Bim-a-boom!
Bim-a, Bim-a, Bim-a-boom!
Modest maiden will not tarry;
Though but sixteen year she carry,
She must marry, she must marry,
Though the altar be a tomb —
Tower — Tower — Tower tomb!
Tower tomb! Tower tomb!
Though the altar be a tomb!
Tower, Tower, Tower tomb!
(out of copyright, I’m sure)
Not in this forum you don’t! :mad:
