TITLE The Bastich By Hart
PANEL 1 (Bastich sits on a couch wearing a TMBG T-shirt as he shakes hist fist at the television.) TV: No Whammies... No Whammies! STOP! BASTICH: Come on, whammies! You can do better than that!
PANEL 2 (Over-the-head view of a strange electric swirl appearing in front of Bastich) BASTICH: What the--!?
PANEL 3 (A smiling man appears surrounded by an electric aura. He has short-cropped swept-back hair, single-lens sunglasses, and a shiny futuristic uniform with an antenna popping out of his back, rings around the shoulders and wrists and kneepads) EL-KRAHN: Greetings, friend. I am El-Krahn, the Future Guy. I have been sent to the past from the 23rd century to observe the ways of our forebears. (Bastich waves his finger at El-Krahn) BASTICH: That's nice. Stop blocking the tube!
PANEL 4 (Bastich and El-Krahn face each other) EL-KRAHN: Well? Aren't you the least bit curious? BASTICH: About what? EL-KRAHN: The future, fool! My history is your destiny, you know! BASTICH: Oh..Just one thing...
PANEL 5 (A view over Bastich's shoulder as El-Krahn puts his hand to his chin in contemplation) BASTICH: That wardrobe won't be in style in My lifetime, will it..? EL-KRAHN: Oh, no no, I do not believe so... BASTICH: Whew..!
PANEL 6 (Bastich hangs his head down with his hands in his hair) EL-KRAHN: If I recall correctly, this particular fashion comes into prominence after the two-century reign of Tee-Pee Bellbottoms and corduroy smoking jackets finally subsides. BASTICH: (Thinking) I just had to ask.
CREDITS (c) 1995 Joshua Adam Hart
Commentary
Enter El-Krahn the Future Guy - the walking, talking plot device. Adding El-Krahn to the mix unlocked a bunch of new absurdity and provided me with a nice deux ex machina to quickly bail out of any storyline I couldn't bother to resolve cleanly. I returned to that particular well a few times.
Besides all of that, El-Krahn's ridiculous silver 1950s retro sci-fi uniform is just fun to draw.
Bastich is watching Press Your Luck, a 1980s game show featuring cartoon "Whammies" who randomly appear and rob the players of their winnings. Of course, the Whammies are the heroes of the show as far as Bastich is concerned. Meanwhile, Bastich's T-shirt features one of my all-time favorite bands, They Might Be Giants. I know it's shocking to learn that the nerd behind this comic strip is also a huge TMBG fan, but I'm sure you'll recover.