In-a-Funk Winkerbean

[poppinjay]

Whatever happened to all those new characters Batiuk introduced at the re-launch of the strip?

Has this creature ever showed up?

What about Chien at 28? When I look at the new cast, it looks like there is something there that could almost be kind of cutting edge, but these people never show up.

[JonnyT]

Whatever happened to all those new characters Batiuk introduced at the re-launch of the strip?

Has this creature ever showed up?

What about Chien at 28? When I look at the new cast, it looks like there is something there that could almost be kind of cutting edge, but these people never show up.

I believe they all died in the fire/earthquake/cesspool collapse/nuclear explosion/great hemorrhoid plague. Except for Chien, who crashed her car into that busload of orphans being driven by a nun.

[Bassweasel]

NOW she speaks up and is all concerned for Wally? After the callous way she handled his homecoming? Even if it's good advice, She's surely the last person on earth Wally wants to hear it from, and it just increases his already gigantic sense of loss and depression. In fact, she herself may be one key factor in his depression.

Tom, your writing sucks dude. Are you actually trying to make your characters so unloved that people will enjoy watching you torment them? Wally already looks dead inside, and now he has to stand there in front of his ex, with all his "weakness" on display.

[Barbed-1]

But what leverage do we have to make a difference? Cut the feature out of the paper every day and mail it back to the editor? Fax it to the syndicate? Inundate the letters page? Complain to Dear Abby?

It seems hopeless, exactly the atmosphere of the strip itself.

TB1

[Nom du Jour]

Dum, dum, dum, soldier what have you done
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound of my gun
Dum, dum, dum, soldier what have you done
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound, it's the sound...
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah....

Wally’s got a gun
Wally’s got a gun
His whole world's come undone
From looking straight at the sun
What did that Funky do?
What did he put you through?

They say when Wally was arrested
They found him underneath a train
But man, he had it comin'
Now that Wally’s got a gun
He ain't never gonna be the same

Wally’s got a gun
Wally’s got a gun
His dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
Tell him now it's untrue
What did that Funky do?

He got drunk and drove a car
Now one-armed Becky can’t go far
They say the spell that he was under
The lightnin' and the thunder
Knew that someone had to stop the rain

Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away

Wally’s got a gun
Wally’s got a gun
His dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
What did that Funky do
It's Wally’s last I.O.U.

He had to take him down easy
And put a bullet in his brain
He said 'cause nobody believes me
The man was such a sleeze
He ain't never gonna be the same

Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away

Wally’s got a gun
Wally’s got a gun
Wally’s got a gun
Everybody is on the run

Wally’s got a gun
His dog day's just begun
Now everybody's on the run (Soldier, soldier what's your problem)
'Cause Wally’s got a gun (Tell me it ain't right)
Wally’s got a gun (Was it an Afghan car bombin')
His dog day's just begun (That made you scream at night)
Now everybody's on the run
Wally’s got a gun


Toodles.

[kahvigirl]

I've gotten to the point I can't think about this strip without getting irritated. Batiuk's excuse for all this ugliness & misery seems to be to "keep it realistic." But in the real world, POW/MIA Wally wouldn't have been misidentified as dead(WHOSE body is in that grave anyway & are THEIR loved ones left at loose ends, hoping, praying?), & he certainly wouldn't have been kicked to the curb the way he's been in Funkytown. He'd be on the national news with Tom Brokaw(where's the much vaulted Cindi Summers anyway?), his senator would be clarmoring for photo-ops with him & lobbying for him to receivenot just his back pay but all sorts of benefits & commendations. I especially despise that birds nest head John, who was sniffing around Becky even before Wally was MIA, and bought the Mackenzie sisters' comic collection (when they were desparate for money) at a rock bottom price, & whose often boasted about selling it for so much more. He's so lazy I have to think he married Becky with her children so he wouldn't have to go to the trouble of siring his own. The strip went forward so all the characters could age horribly and become (more) miserable, but Les is still wallowing in the past, still obsessed with cancer & his dead wife. With no other explanation than she must be a pathethic dimbulb, Susan Smith is obsessed with Les. I used to like this strip way back when I was a teen, but the joy left it a lont time ago.

[Bassweasel]

I know there are not a lot of Doonesbury fans here, due in part to politics and the great number of repeats, but one thing Trudeau has done very well is his treatment of vet's issues and the VA. In preparation, Trudeau did a great deal of personal research, and formed personal relationships to get a more realistic idea of the issues faced by vets and the people trying to make life better for them. As a result, Trudeau has received a number of awards both from vets and professional groups.

Trudeau handles the issue with seriousness but with a sense of optimism and a good humor, and he portrays both the people trying to help, and the vets (some of whom are struggling) in such a way that is not maudlin, but still leaves you with the feeling that these folks really are heroes in life.

I don't know what research Batiuk has done, or who he has spent time with on a personal level, but he seems to be embarking on a mission to tackle the same issues, only he has chosen to make Wally look pathetic and weak, and the VA as a mindless brute, interested only in metrics of various sorts. He also seems to confuse the issues faced by active military vs veterans, which are different.

I myself am certainly no expert, but I do have enough friends who are vets to see how ugly, offensive and half-baked Batiuk's approach is, and personally, I condemn it. It also offends me as a citizen that Batiuk sees us as so callous and uncaring to those who have sacrificed so much for us. As kahvigirl said, in the real world Wally would probably have been sitting next to the First Lady at the State Of The Union and a much better writer than Les would be ghosting a book, with an option for a movie.

He'd also be getting proposals from gorgeous women he's never met.

Batiuk, if you're trolling for more "Lisa's Story" type awards, please find another issue. Our vets don't deserve this, and neither do those trying to help them if they need care.

[Charles B]

I myself am certainly no expert, but I do have enough friends who are vets to see how ugly, offensive and half-baked Batiuk's approach is, and personally, I condemn it.

I don't think you even need to be intimately familiar with the VA, or friends with people in the military to know that this is callous bullshit.

[Buzz Dixon]

From 2006, a CRANKSHAFT that plows thwe same furrow as GASOLINE ALLEY's frequent comics nostalgia, only with far more horrific results...

[Chief Ohara]

It has just come to me, how to describe the artist's problem in Funky Winkerbean. A saying of my grandfather's from many years ago: "He's got his sphincter muscle confused with his optic nerve and has a shitty outlook on life."
CO

[DAC]

Oh goody! Maybe Summer will get raped! I can see the special editions of "Summer's Story" flying off the shelves already.

[Buzz Dixon]

DING-DING-DING! WE FINALLY HAVE A SANE PERSON IN THE FUNKIVERSE!!!

[Buzz Dixon]

...but The 'Shaft goes down swingin'...

[Barbed-1]

And it gets better. Today's sentiment is priceless:



Cranky may be an unlovable old fart, but he speaks for blindsided males of every generation.

The Barbed One

[Barbed-1]

Finally. Somebody in the Fwinkydink world has a positive thought:



'Course they could have thought it through a little more and served the homeless instead of midtown office workers and shoppers.

The Barbed One