Son of Stuck Funky

Allow me to take a tenative step atop the rickety defender soapbox for a moment. Because in my humble opinion, if anyone has earned it, it’s me.

Today I wish to lay out some thoughts about Batiuk and his editors and if/how he takes others constructively criticizing his work.

Tom Batiuk has said, in many interviews and in his book forwards, that getting editorial control was precious to him. He goes on and on and on about how he wanted to be free to pursue his vision of his strip. All of this is undoubtedly true.

“There were times when I would imagine that I lived in a world where cartoonists were free to write about whatever interested them, that their creations would belong to them and no one else, and that the concerns of commerce were not their concerns. In essence, that they were happily free to pursue their art. Then a butterfly would flap its wings and I would find myself back in 1984 (not that 1984, but close) and the vexing realities of the real world would set in. ” Introduction to TCFW Volume 5.

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Day 4 of The Great Dinkle Ohioana Disaster of ’24. After the unfortunate repeat of an incident with an errant brick and a computer, be ware of eve hill has been asked to stay home from work for the rest of week. Her stylist is optimistic that he will be able to hide the bald patches with some strategic combing. csroberto has been wearing out the capslock on his keyboard writing purgatorial fanfiction to get the bad feelings out. Sorial Promise is searching for just the right emoji to express his singular brand of jovial disgust. Banana Jr is fuming in the background preparing a screed of epic proportions. And, as always, Epicus is holding his hands in front of his eyes refusing to take a peek at the horrors beyond imagination masquerading as Crankshaft on GoComics.

And how have I been coping? Of course, with an archive dive.

Because this is a tragedy we really should have seen coming and prepared better for.

After all, Dinkle was pecking out crimes against literature decades before Loathsome Lil, or Lamentable Les were ever bitten by the radioactive writing bug. Dinkle’s autobiography goes all the way back to March 1979.

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Oh Lord, we’re getting a Loathsome Lil, and Dinkle go to Ohioana arc this week! Can someone check in on be ware of eve hill? Make sure she survives this with at least enough sanity intact to operate a motor vehicle.

Even worse, we’re starting in that darned choir loft again. So Davis can pull out the half dozen Ayers panels he has of Harry and the Harridan gabbing, and reuse them AGAIN. Putting the dinosaur into the Dinosaur Comics formula.

Makes you long for the good old days of last week, when we just had Cranky time traveling 20 seconds in a single strip to buy one tiny piece of hardware.

Buying metal fasteners in the exact opposite of bulk is apparently an old habit for Cranky going back decades.

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