"Sure, you're researching this whole documentary about the father you lost…and when I say 'researching', of course I mean glomming a free copy of Les' first book." At least we learn why Jessica thinks Darin should reconnect with the father who "lost" him: because it's easy.
Category Archives: alcohol
Dinner for Dummies
Calling Darin's "crustaceous ketchup" comment a "joke" is quite a stretch. And I'm really not sure why Darin's birth father is something "we" need to talk about, Jessica. Your man's had a hard day. Butt out.
Frankie, My Beer, I Don't Give a Can
From the FW Blog, Nov. 6, 2012:
At the moment, I’m hard at work on what is turning out to be a bit of a coda to Lisa’s Story. Events in the present will spark a sort of flashback/prequel which will crossover into real life with a visit to my old apartment in Elyria…as well as a crossover with Crankshaft thrown in for good measure. Oh, and lest I forget, a long lost character as well…Stay tuned.
Clearly Les does not share Cayla's excitement over his basic-cable movie getting a free plug on a basic-cable news network. Meanwhile, somewhere in Elyria, Ohio, "a long lost character" with Paulie Walnuts hair and wearing a wifebeater clutches a can of beer and talks to his TV. It can be none other than the despicable Frankie, Darin's biological father and St. Lisa's…ex-boyfriend? Date-rapist?
Tom Batiuk Talks 'Funky Winkerbean', comicbookresources.com, March 19, 2013:
I ended up writing a story where Frankie — he's been mentioned a couple times and has actually appeared in the strip very briefly, the guy who got Lisa pregnant — returns. In the return of that story we deepen the teen pregnancy story and say that it was a little more than just youthful indiscretion on Lisa's part. There was some coercion involved and it's like a coda to "Lisa's Story."
Guess we'll have to wait for TB to "roll out" the story to see how he retcons this.
I wasn't able to dig up a whole lot on the web about Frankie (he's not even mentioned on the Unofficial FW Fan Page, though Lisa's teen pregnancy is). I found the above strip from Act II, but can't provide any context on what their relationship was by the time she was pregnant with Summer.
Water You'll Have
Epicus Doomus
December 28, 2012 at 8:37 pm
…Rule #2: DO NOT try to make sense of the timeline…it is a fool's errand.
Not so much trying to make sense as just pointing out how wack this "25th soberversary" is. Funky's battle with the bottle was depicted in Act II sometime during 2006 (and was published in book form in summer of 2007). If you figure in the 10-year time jump, and the five years and two months that have elapsed since then…oh, screw it. Why do we care if the author doesn't? Careless!
Let's ponder instead why John and Crazy Harry are entering Montoni's through the back door. Is the "Comic Book Convention" we saw them at yesterday taking place in Montoni's back room? Holly and Funky toast his sobriety with a couple glasses of "City of Westview" because Funky couldn't find anything cheaper. Crazy Harry seizes the opportunity to appear magnanimous, by offering to pick up the tab on just about the only thing he can afford on what John's paying him.
Filed under alcohol, Crazy Harry, Dead Skunk Head, Holly, John, Montoni's
Ringtone in the New
Well, it's heartening to see Les kissing his flesh-and-blood living bride this New Year's, however awkwardly. Then we're treated to yet another twisted-face-o'-rage from Cayla, as TB belatedly delivers the payoff to the gag he's been setting up since last week.
Fixer-Upper
(Methinks guest blogger DavidO and myself got our signals crossed; his guest stint will begin tomorrow! –TFH)
Here's something you don't see every day: wimpy, prissy Les doing some actual, physical labor. Even more than the physical effort, query what the psychic toll must be for Les as Cayla helps him transform what once had been his and Lisa's conjugal chamber.
In Situ Whatever
Batiuk's "Funky felt tip" has been especially cruel to Linda yesterday and today: she looks like Crankshaft backed the school bus over her. I especially like the shadow cast by her nose.
The strip at first focused on gags about teenagers at the imaginary Westview High School. Over the years, it explored sensitive topics such as cancer, dyslexia, teen suicide and alcoholism.
—From just about every profile written about Tom Batiuk
But hey: writing means that you can play sensitive topics for laughs when you feel like it, right? So let's all chuckle at the thought of Jim the Science Guy, alone in his hotel room, draining tiny, overpriced bottles of liquor while his colleagues dine without him.
Flashback to the 2007 Westview Senior Trip: Chien continues to demonstrate the "esteem" she has for her culturally deprived classmates.
Filed under alcohol, Cayla, Jim Kablichnik, Les, Les' yellow shirt
Getting Wade
Jason
December 17, 2011 at 8:17 pm
So I looked through all the pictures on the “meet the cast” page, and I’m left with only one question:Who are these people, anyhow?
Seriously, hardly a third of them ever show up in the strip.
Today TB brings one of those unseen cast members off the bench. Meet Wade. Formerly a "homeless man hired to do odd jobs at Montoni's" (according to the "Unofficial FW Fan Page"), he would later become Funky's AA sponsor, and is pictured on the book cover at left. Wade's presence in Funky's Batiukmobile boosts the combined age of the car's occupants well into the two century bracket. Knock off the singing, Pop; it's disturbing!
Filed under alcohol, Batiukmobile®, bricks, Funky, Funky's dad, holidays, Wade
