Letters to the Editor
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This is bad
Tom Batchell does a decent job with the spot illustrations for the New Yorker's Table Talk, but he clearly has no talent for comic strips. His rough style is also unsuited for sequential storytelling.
A debut strip should be designed to impress the audience. From the ugly computer font to the crap layout, this strip looks slapped this together on Microsoft Paint.
If this is the best he can produce with 15 years of experience, it's unlikely to improve. It's so bad it seems either he doesn't comic strip mechanics or is has chosen to ignore them (but not in a way whis is interesting).
As for the writing, it sucks. Toni Schlesinger may be a good journalist when it comes to quirky slice of life articles, but she has no concept of how write humor or a story. It fails as a serial for plot is merely a frame for gags and fails as a gag strip by using worse than stale spy parody.
As the defunct blog Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad might say, "I can't believe this is the work of two functioning adult brains. It looks a 7th grader trying to rip off Austin Powers after huffing copious amounts of paint thinner."
Honestly, you guys could easily do better. Salon is a big name capable of attracting good cartoonists - hell, plenty of bad cartoonists who could produce something more palatable.
You have Heather Harvelisky in your stable, who used to do an amazing job with Terry Colon. So why go with two people who have no fresh ideas and naught but minor fame which barely expands past their peers?
Why not pick up on - say - the excellent Cat and Girl? http://www.catandgirl.com/ Or if crude cut-and-paste is the appeal, why not Dinosaur Comics? http://www.qwantz.com/
I'm sure other readers can contribute their own list of worthy alternatives. I hope they do, because then this feature will serve some purpose.