I read the words "I'm like Wall Street…" and braced myself for one of TB's ripped-from-last-year's-headlines "topical" punchlines. Which probably would have been preferable to Holly telling us that she steps on the scale four times a year. I think when it comes to fitness goals, surely there's a happy medium between weighing oneself daily or quarterly. And I don't pretend to understand the financial world, but doesn't "Wall Street" check to see how it's doing like, every hour of every day? Isn't that why they have those stock-ticker things?
Category Archives: Holly
So Funkin' Old
We can't believe it either, especially those of us who ostensibly would be close in age to you. I'm starting to think that Tom Batiuk (born 1947) has decided to skew the ages of his main characters closer to his own, and realizes that even his most loyal fans aren't going to let him get away with a third "time jump". So he goes about it subtly: playing up Funky's health woes, framing Crazy Harry's termination as "retirement", and just generally accelerating the aging process for the original cast (except Les, of course, who's holding up relatively well), and most recently, tacking about a decade onto Funky's sobriety streak. Still, the Funkman's hip enough to quote John Mayer in panel 2!
(skip to 2:25)
Filed under BatiukButt, Funky, Holly
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
The Child Is Father to the Man
Well, we let him get away with it yesterday, but Batiuk goes back to the well again today to try and wring a little more pathos outta Pop. Today's comic is perhaps notable because it's the only time that I know of where we've seen Funky's mother, a rather nondescript needlenosed and chinless Batiuk female.
Filed under Christmas, Funky, Funky's dad, holidays, Holly, Kent State, photo album corners
O Come Let Us Adore Cory
Sigh. Gonna tread lightly today. After all, it's Christmas. I sense that many if not most of you reading this are boomers like myself, which makes us close in age to Funky and the gang. Hence, we've watched Mom and Dad grow old, and maybe one or both have passed away. And many of our first and fondest memories, especially today, are of our parents. So while I have a beef with how Batiuk uses Pa Winkerbean as a prop rather than a person (another character whose name we're never told), this one does tug a bit.
While it's impossible to read Pa's expression here, one thing's for sure: Army life seems to agree with Cory. He appears relaxed and smiling, his unruly hair now shorn "high and tight" and his Wilma Flintstone necklace presumably replaced by dogtags. I'm wondering if in the coming year he'll have an arc devoted to his life as a soldier, or if he'll simply live on as a face on Skype.
Wishing you the happiest of holidays
and the brightest of new years! Stay Funky!
—TFHackett
Filed under Christmas, Cory, Funky, Funky's dad, holidays, Holly, nursing home, technology, the internet
Christmas Past
TheDiva
December 22, 2012 at 12:06 am
Because we all know how much interest Funky and Les showed in music and singing back in the Act I days…well, I can't think of any right now, but I'm sure they exist, because otherwise Batiuk would just be pulling random bits of backstory out of his ass for the sake of a cheap gag, and we all know he has too much artistic integrity for that.
I'm not using the above quote here to show up TheDiva, because I'd never have recalled this either (the most musical one of the gang was Crazy Harry with his air guitar). But today Batiuk gifts us with an Act I strip to prove that, yes, Virginia, they really did go Christmas caroling.
I'm convinced that TB's reproducing a vintage strip here, rather than trying to recreate his old style, as he's done in the past with mixed results. The logo in panel 1 is the old style. Even the lettering in the dialog balloons is somehow more cheerful. Compare it to the lettering in the weird snow globe that shows our current-day cast: the "L's" had yet to acquire their painful hump.
Les and Funky, see how young and how likeable! The redhead, of course, is poor, doomed Livinia. I have no idea who the blond girl is, or why she'd have anything to do with Les, even back then. Dig those bell-bottoms in the penultimate panel silhouette! Lastly, it's interesting to note that before he started taking himself so seriously, Batiuk could use excessive drinking to get laughs.
Humbuggin'
So I thought this was a party? Looks like it's just the two couples. And why have they not donned their gay apparel? Cayla's dressed in purple, for cryin' out loud. Les' genius plan to cheer up his guests is to drag them around the neighborhood in the snow, singing to strangers. Humbug, indeed.
Some Timely Shit
Hey everybody, it's Les and Cayla! You win, Tom Batiuk, I have never been so thrilled to see Les and his bride! Not to mention their Talking Christmas Tree, speaking to us through the window in panel 1! Seems Funky and Holly are having a blue Christmas, thinking about their little boy in green. "I think I know what we can do to pick up their spirits!" urges Les. "Do that trick where your appearance completely changes from one panel to the next!"
The abrupt end to the Crazy Harry arc probably is due to the fact that Batiuk realized he only had til today to squeeze in his "Mayan Calendar" gag.
