I've been an avid reader of comics in the newspaper since I was kid in the Denver area, following them in the Rocky Mountain News. I remember when "Bloom County" ran the telephone number for the switchboard at the White House, I remember thinking "Family Circus" sucked even then and I remember when "Funky Winkerbean" fast-forwarded from Les Moore's high school years to his adult life as a teacher at his old high school.
Now "Funky Winkerbean" author Tom Batiuk has fast-forwarded again, following the death from cancer of Les' wife, Lisa (at right). Never mind that I found the Lisa death sequence maudlin, manipulative and not at all comforting (and I write this knowing exactly what it's like to lose loved ones to cancer), Batiuk couldn't find a better way to illustrate older-Les than with a mangy goatee? Was he so grief-stricken he stopped grooming himself for a decade or so? His daughter, Summer, is old enough now to sit down with ol' Dad and let him know that unless he adds a beret and starts writing stream-of-consciousness fiction, his scraggly whiskers don't cut it.
The time warp makes NO sense. Lisa died in 2007--- what year are they in now, if they're ten years in the future, 2017? That makes sense, right?
No, they're in... ummm, 2008. Tom put up a half-hearted attempt at an explantation on his blog then took it down.
"It's called writing" he often sneers.
I'm doing something on this end called "reading" and Funky makes no sense at all. It makes "Lost" almost seem coherent.
Posted by: David | April 07, 2008 at 04:16 PM
Did you know that there was a musical version of Funky Winkerbean? My high school performed it my senior year some 20 years ago. It shames me to this day.
Posted by: Rob | January 03, 2008 at 08:59 PM
There's only one solution:
Joe Mathlete's Marmaduke Explained. (http://marmadukeexplained.blogspot.com/)
Posted by: Flann | January 02, 2008 at 11:28 PM
When I saw the strip a couple of days ago, it looked like Batiuk was about to give old Les a heart attack, too... sheesh! Between this and For Better or For Worse's annoying time-travel, I'm at a comic strip loss.
Posted by: sjb | January 02, 2008 at 04:46 PM