I usually try to steer way clear of this strip, but at a comics-blog I frequent I caught a frame, and just had to check it out for myself:
Apparently Les’ dead wife Lisa is calling him from the grave, warning him not to get on that flight. Les of course is having none of it, and nonchalantly strolls onboard. I don’t know what your reaction will be, but I was ROTF. This is so far beyond self-mockery and self-parody that I frankly don’t understand why Batiuk keeps doing it to himself.
I thought the strips with Ghost Lisa hanging out with him were bad enough, but now this? If we’re lucky, Batiuk will kill Les off and I won’t have to watch him still pine over his long-dead wife while doing his best to suck at dating (with dead wife watching, literally) his sorta-GF. And let’s not forget that he’s seemingly being lured into the clutches of a woman who tried to kill herself over him, decades ago, and is apparently doing a great job of blocking the sorta-GF from spending time with him.
I kind of expect a woman to pop up saying something like “I’m Lisa, remember? From the book signing? You left your laptop and I didn’t want you to leave without it.”
Then Batiuk will appear looking out at the readers in an extra panel shouting “Psych!”
Then the strip will be cancelled.
Honestly, I can’t stop reading it, even though it’s gone past maudlin and shot into some sort of melodrama black hole.
Even the L’s in his dialogue have cancer.
How recently have those strips run? I’d like to see them, just for the bizarreness factor.
People in other fora have been referencing Lost. I can’t remember: was this a plot point? Someone getting a call on the courtesy phone just before the flight?
And why, after all the times Lisa appeared to him prior to this, does Les react with rage to this? He accepts his wife’s ghost when she’s visible to him; he’s even accepted a talking cat. How is a phone call so different that he calls it a sick joke and slams down the receiver?
Why would a ghost use the phone when she can appear to him? That’s why he believes it to be a joke after the book tour. 
Maybe he’s doing sleight of hand and it’s not really the dead wife. But think about all the implications of a ghost calling you from beyond the grave to warn you about stuff:
a. There’s life after death. People in the afterlife are apparently conscious, have free will, and can use phones. But she doesn’t want him to join her. So…the afterlife sucks? She doesn’t want him around harshing her buzz? She’s got inside info that he’s going to be reincarnated as a brine shrimp unless he gets his Karmic house in order? What?
b. Les is the only one getting the phone call. So what’s the deal with the deceased relatives of all the other people getting on the plane? Are they all dicks?
c. People in the afterlife apparently can also see into the future (assuming she’s warning him about a plane crash). So while you’re on the phone, why not come up with some stock tips? Or tomorrow’s Powerball number?
Seriously, if you’re going to do magic realism, shouldn’t you consider all the implications?
…And Les is alive and well.
dammit!
It’s Funky Winkerbean. He may be alive, but there’s no way he’s well.
My ignorance is fought.
This. I mean, think about it. Lisa finally escapes the misery sink of Westview and being tied down to Loser Les…but Les won’t let her go. So she keeps TRYING to foist him off on some still-living Westview resident (and potential cancer victim). Then she sees he’s getting on a plane that might crash…OMG! She’d be stuck with him for eternity! Keep him off that plane!
The fact that the plane didn’t go down in flaming plumes of oily smoke, while disappointing to us on this earthly plane we have to keep sharing with Les, was met with great sighs of relief from Spirit-Lisa.
Okay, so apparently ghost-Lisa, unable to convince Les to stay off the plane, then made an anonymous phony bomb threat call to the airport which put them on alert and, during the close examination of the plane to find a bomb, discovered an engine flaw.
Sure. Why not? I mean, obviously Lisa is so favored in the afterlife that she alone can defy the laws of physics and known reality to call her husband in an airport and let him know the plane he’s getting ready to board is going to crash if it takes off.
And if he hadn’t gotten on board, she’d have gone ahead and let the rest of the passengers die a fiery death.
Note in this situation ain’t nobody is going to be flying on that plane anytime soon-heck the entire airport would likely go into lockdown mode for a good long while (someone can correct me on the SOP of federal anti-terrorist agencies and the airports they coordinate with). Ol’ Les would likely end up having to stay over at least another day, or try to find alternate transportation.