Nate’s prom night reverie is interrupted by what appears to be a talking castle.
More TB News
So Marvel Comics is jumping on the “Boys in the Band” -wagon, gay-marrying superhero Northstar to his non-super partner. The Washington Post sought out Tom Batiuk for comment, since he’s a cartoonist and a comix fanboy. He offers up basically the same talking points he’s given everyone else since before Promagaydon:
“I think I’ve created a space for myself” to deal with serious issues, Batiuk tells Comic Riffs. “It’s not such a big deal for myself as some other strips. It’s been incremental … that I can grab my readers’ hand and [say]: ‘Let’s come over here.”
What really makes the Post piece noteworthy, though, is this illustration:
…it depicts an alternate reality in which actual confrontation takes place! This would have been so much better than the way it went down. Note the dude holding the “It’s Our Prom” sign: where’d he come from? My guess is that Batiuk inserted him into the tableau lest non-readers assume that the same-sex couple is Summer and Keisha. The “real” gay couple (and they don’t even match; are they sure they’re gay?) stand meekly behind their fellow students as Roberta gives them the evil eye, and Mr. Blackburn silently rolls tape.
Same-Castle Couples should be welcome at the prom too!
Is the illustration from the interview the first time we’ve actually seen the gay couple? I think the real story here is Very Serious Cartoonist pretends to deal with a Very Serious Issue.
PleaseBeSummerPleaseBeSummerPleaseBeSummer.
Jason, technically it’s the second time they’ve appeared, third if you count their appearance as a pair of clasped hands on May 4.
battytak lost me,what the funk is this crap,battack needs to take my hand an drag me in
Nate: “Oh, I’m sorry, but the student handbook expressly forbids closeted gay students at senior proms. You’ll have to come with me, please”.
That illustration is definitely way more interesting than the actual arc, the one where no one can actually say the word “gay”. Now the “Camelot” theme makes sense: if he’d gone with the “Aloha” theme the palm trees wouldn’t have been wide enough to hide the gays behind. And don’t even try to speculate on who the mystery student is: this is FW, it isn’t anyone.
1. Love the expression on the guy on the right’s face. Looks he’s getting second thoughts.
2. Also, I’m sure that most of you have wondered “Gee, what did HE do? It’s not like he stood up to any huge stumbling block.”
So I guess what Batiuk is trying to say is that it’s okay to be gay, as long as you don’t draw too much attention to yourself, stay hidden, and generally don’t force him to acknowledge your existence for any longer than is absolutely necessary.
Oh, like we don’t all know the truth about Summer and Keisha already.
To Toby: Why do I read Funky Winkerbean? The same reason I follow Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan: I love trainwrecks.
Wait, so we see Summer and Keisha up there–who may probably be lesbians themselves and Les and Keisha know this, that’s why they’re marrying to make it exceedingly awkward for the now-stepsisters to get hitched–or whatever…but who is the glasses guy behind Summer and Keisha. Is Roberta mad at them because they’re a threesome?
We’re trapped like bugs in amber at some nightmare prom that stretches on into infinity.
“Mister Green…I just wanted to say thanks…for what you did for me and students like me.”
“Thank -you-, Thing.”
***************************
I had no idea Nate had done so much for Disembodied Hands. Truly, a niche group often forgot.
Better hope Thing leaves before Becky shows up, though. It could get awkward!
BatWimp won’t reveal who the hide-o-gay is. This is just another gutless, stupid gimmick. From the delicate hand, you have to conclude it’s either a girl or Ted Forth, but either way, it doesn’t matter because this person won’t be revealed.
Clearly – VERY clearly – BatDreck wants to be all “yeah, rah rah, go gayfolk,” but does not have the BALLS to reveal a regular member of the cast as gay. But he wants the reader to assume it’s a regular cast member, because if it weren’t he’d just trot out ANOTHER nameless throwaway walk-on. What a half-assed, cowardly attempt to be Mister Big Advocate For Gay Rights. Apparently is ashamed of the gayness of one of his own characters. What’s the message, Tommeh?
Okay, so now we have three — THREE gay students, ah! ah! — enrolled at Westview. And this one’s still half in the closet… er, turret. How come? Either because a three-way with the established Anon-o-gays would just be awkward, or because the transgender surgery went horribly wrong. Ah, what’s the difference? It’s not like that hand is a character we’ll ever see in this strip again (past whatever’s left of this conversation). “Thanks, Mr. Green! I mean, thanks for not rewriting the student handbook to exclude my kind from the prom. It’s lucky for me that whoever wrote it 50 years ago didn’t think ahead to exclude gay students from school activities. You’re here now, so I’ll thank you for that… I guess.”
I guess “Behind the Castle” is the new “In the Closet.” Thanks, TB. You can let go of my hand now. I don’t want to go where you’re going.
Also, could Nate possibly look more bored and disinterested than he does in that first panel?
Everything about him screams “Yeah, yeah, whatever! Leave me alone!”
On the alternate reality scene:
I find it interesting that wearing heels somehow makes Keisha shorter.
On today’s strip:
TB has flat-out said that Nate is speaking for him in this story arc, right? Given that, this strip is not simply TB patting himself on the back for writing promaggedon. No, it comes across as TB actually thanking himself for writing this story arc, and doing so on behalf of gay people everywhere.
Someone please tell me I’m overthinking this, because otherwise it’s a new level of unbelievable for FW.
Nate is the new author avatar, taking his victory lap. Don’t break your drawing arm patting yourself on the back there, Batiuk.
billythe skink: Your post wasn’t visible to me when I read the thread. You are not overthinking it, Nate is the stand in accepting kudos for a job well done.
I guess this is the “undropped shoe” Batom mentioned a few weeks back, although I’m not sure how a mystery character we’ll never see again is an “undropped shoe”. I don’t understand why he couldn’t have just had the SSC thank Nate, but it’s nice to know that the WHS student handbook is standing firmly in the corner of all the oppressed turret-dwellers out there.
Epicus, don’t you recognize the skillful use of foreshadowing when you see it? It’s called…
I was so tempted to post as “Toby” today.
If we get to see this student, I’ll eat my hat.
There are only three white senior female students of any importance in this strip who come to mind (four if you give Rana the same pass I gave Jinx)…and that is definitely a girl’s hand (even if you buy into the stereotyped gay male, calling that a boy’s hand is too much of a stretch, even for Batiuk’s art)…so, assuming this is going to be a known cast member, who do you think it is?
I’m going with Sum’ Mo’, who, even with car date privileges, has yet to be seen in the back of any van…she was most recently seen declining a date with some macho jock stud…and Batiuk is about due for a major cast character to do something…
And The Grand Finale clock is once again ticking…
“Grand” Finale? What, and rob himself of more chances for awards and accolades?
This is going to turn out like Harry Dinkle’s hearing loss- Something Tom completely forgets about.
“Batiuk…said he had heard of no cancellations as a result of his ‘gay prom’ arc.”
That’s because no one actually reads Funky Winkerbean except the masochists who post here. And Toby.
Toby, do you like comic books and pizza and women’s high school basketball? You better, because that’s all you’re going to get after next week.
Actually, yes – I do like pizza and comic books. Not so much women’s basketball though – not a sports fan. I don’t much like haters and snarks either so I think I’ll depart from this thread. Live long & prosper or some such alternate universe farewell.
I don’t think it’s jinx since I think that is the back on her head in panel two. With the way this arc has been handled I don’t think it would be Summer. Since I don’t think Tb really cares to much about it. I think it might be Maddie.
My vote would be for Maddie, too. Do you really think a heterosexual high school girl would constantly wear a hat like that?
Hey, Toblerone, you don’t have to come here and tell us what a great man Tom Batiuk is. He’s devoted the last two weeks of this alleged gay prom storyline to doing exactly that.
If you want to know what Toby REALLY, um, “likes,” follow the link to his web site. Yeeeeeeaaahhhhh…….
Gee, sorry Tobes won’t stick around. Would have enjoyed his daily hands-on-hips, finger shaking lectures about how mean we’re being to BatYuck, and how disrespectful we’re being to his Great Work.
Sorry to see him get his panties all in a bunch. Don’t wanna make him cry. Maybe it’s best that he run along and go back to his… friends.
Thanks for the YAGE, Tobes. Buh-bye.
OK, so Toby is TomBat. What else is new?
Oops. I gues my comment was so three days ago. I just read Toby’s first entry and that was the first thought that popped into my head.
Maybe if Toby had spent years suffering in silence, thinking that no one understood his angst, that he was alone is a cruel world where no one experienced the same loathing, the same gut-wrenching horror of smirk after daily smirk, of Saint Lisa and of … well… Les that I did before I found Stuck Funky, just maybe he would understand. Toby, baby, here we let it all hang out! (Cue The Hombres).
I gotta give you guys credit — I didn’t think any of us would give two shakes of a rat’s ass about the identity of the disembodied hand. I figured Batiuk just didn’t have any idea how else he could pad out the last couple of days of this arc, and since actually presenting a cohesive storyline is out of the question… well, you know.
I assume Nate can see the person talking from the castle. I can believe Summer being a lesbian, but the reason Tom Batiuk wouldn’t out Summer like that is because he doesn’t want to offend lesbians by associating Summer with them, and that’s understandable.
I saw haters and snarks in ’93, before they made it big. I agree they were much better back then.
Yeah, the gay people in the storyline are real people, or close to real people. They are just plot devices.
Or statistics.
Are the cardboard cut outs TB uses 1/4 inch thick?
I would have a small amount of respect for Batiuk (what can I say, there’s a first time for everything) if he revealed the Mystery Gay to be someone who doesn’t fit the stereotypical profile (ie. not Summer). Only a little bit, though, because even if he does have the balls to follow through and out a regular cast member it’s bound to be as ham-handed and self-congratulatory as the current arc.
So the hand appears to belong to a female. Good thing. You don’t know how tempted I would be to call the hide-o-gay “Deep Throat.”
Carry on, haters and beady-eyed nitpickers.
That illustration annoys me on so many levels I wouldn’t like it out of context of having read this story arc:
-The anti-gay protesters being ugly and just standing around glaring at the kids.
-The “No Gay Old Time At Our Prom.” Really, the double meaning just makes it look hilariously stupid.
-The gay students standing in the background. Really, Bautik? Having them being the timid ones quietly defending themselves while the only important kid characters and a random guy defend them defiantly? It’s like a commentary on everything he’s done wrong this arc.
Overall, Epic Fail that only highlights the flaws in his attempts to address gay rights controversey.
You know I can take the lame story telling – the voice from inside the castle – I can take the smirks and the pizza obession and I can almost take the smugness. What I can’t take is the self congratulations that he gives himself – both in the strip and in the press. Apparently he feels that people aren’t giving him enough credit for what he does so he has to do it himself. really if one has to point out how wonderfull one is – one is not really wonderful. It’s a weird combintaion of preening and screaming insecurity and it grates like hell.
and dear lord – the picture he drew – he didn’t dare put anything like this in the strip no, but he wants folks who don’t read the strip to think that is what happened. What the hell is that all about? This is just dishonest and he needs to be called on it.
And in closing – Blech.
“By the power of Gay-skull!”
The most thematically interesting character to be there would be Rana, who as Roberta Blackburn’s granddaughter (?) would be most ‘caught in the middle.’ However, see TFHackett’s analysis yesterday for why this wouldn’t happen.
In fact, there is NO WAY that could be Summer, since Summer would never be that humble.
bad wolf: Correct. If something seems logical and interesting from a storyline standpoint, it won’t happen in FW. The “mystery possibly-gay-but-maybe-not-to-avoid-any-hint-of-controversy” student will turn out to be no one and he/she will never be seen or mentioned again. The next time the SSC arc is brought up will be during another puff-piece when FW “addresses” some “issue of the day”, like oxycontin abuse or adult diapers or whatever and that will be no more than a one sentence blurb.
Man, Keisha seems pretty bored with the whole thing in that truly appalling tableau. Summer’s dress is appropriately awful. I agree with our generous host that TB drew in Anonymous between them simply to avoid an audience’s obvious conclusion that S&K are a lesbian couple. It’s sad how there’s no single named senior boy who he could have used. Like the impulse that led him to use Roberta as this arc’s villain, it couldn’t be Corey because that would go against the shallow characterization he’d been given up to this point. We can’t have our obvious nogoodniks behaving in an admirable fashion.
And my feeling is with Epic earlier. That arm doesn’t belong to anyone in the cast. It’s nobody.
Although I must steal a CC comment and note how nice it is that Becky’s arm was able to attend the prom.
I’ve not seen a word balloon that hilariously misplaced since Mark Trail’s talking squirrels!
I just don’t get that Alternate Reality tableau at all. Most likely, it never appeared in the daily strip because talentless Bat Hack would have had to “write” dialog for it. That would be asking way too much.
Kaneesha looks to be about 5’1″. WTF? It’s called “drawing.” Take an art class, FruitBat. And is that CAYLA in the background of the anti-gay side??
Your challenge, fellow haters, snarkers, and beady eyed nitpickers: In the coming days, as other scenes of the prom are shown, tell us who Slumber’s date is. Good luck with that!
I think the Toby who is posting here is non other than Mary Worth’s walking partner from Charterstone.
Epicus, I’m so glad you brought up the “undropped shoe”. Here’s Batiuk’s comment from the Daily Ink interview:
In other words, he’s screwing with us. My guess is that if he’s not satisfied with the inordinate amounts of praise he’s already received for his “efforts” on behalf of gay rights, he’ll (clumsily) drop this shoe and “out” The Hand. Do the readers a favor, Mr. Batiuk, and leave it alone…you don’t need to create any more “writing problems” for yourself.
BatYecch has writing problems every time he picks up the Funky Felt Tipped Pen.
I’ve looked ahead. There’s no undropped shoe. Unless “undropped shoe” is secret code for “anticlimatic ending”.
So Batiuk’s definition of “an undropped shoe” is the equivalent of a movie ending with a cheesy “THE END?????”
Either that or having Les burst through a bass drum to say “Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!”
Well, this is what I meant by BatDrip taking the gutless way out. He lets us know there’s a gay character who won’t/can’t be revealed. What, really? After this Epic Battle (snicker) between Viagra Nate and The Forces Of The Intolerant, which was won handily by waving a copy of Wankerville High for Dummies in their faces? After Nate made that hip, slappity dappity speech about how we’re gonna look out for our gayfolk? “I’m gay, but I must live inside this castle with people of my own kind.” Really?
If that’s the case, this whole arc was a grand fuckin’ waste of time. In spite of all the posturing, the angry ones are still angry, and the gays are still hiding in castles. What has changed?
Still clearing a space for that award, TomButt?
I should also add that nearly every writer I can think of warns -against- using the device Tom uses here: having a member of a minority pop up just to act as a cheerleader for how enlightened and tolerant the protagonist is.
It’s cheap. It’s offensive. It’s tasteless.
…*…it fits the strip perfectly. What do you know?