Questions continue to come in about the comic book covers that I use from time to time in the Funky Sunday strips. It seems that there are a lot of folks in Funkydom who enjoy seeing the comics of their youth and the artists who created them paid homage in this way…
TB’s blog, Jan. 31, 2013
Batiuk actually takes a great deal of pride in his “Comic Book Sunday” tributes, but we folks here in SonofStuckFunkydom just see them as lazy, facile filler. Today’s “homage” to Justice League of America Vol. 1, No. 5 is particularly galling. This time Batiuk has not even gone to the trouble of trying to relate the comic book cover to any of the strip’s current plotlines.
Typically he finds a cover he likes and comes up with some contrived way of shoehorning it into the current plot. He’s reversed the process today, whipping up a weak standalone gag for the inset panel that relates only tangentially with the comic cover. Batiuk can’t even be bothered to Photoshop one of his character’s heads onto a superhero body. The “gag” consists of Crazy Harry (he’s a Tea Partier, you know!), kvetching to Les about that goddam out-of-control Supreme Court. I’m not even going to Google the news from a year ago to find out what the Court was up to at the time TB came up with this gem. Clearly he figured that, no matter what was happening in the news, the “folks in Funkydom” would all nod in amused agreement at Crazy’s rant.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Looks like the DJ 3000 is ghostwriting for Batiuk now. What a bunch of clowns.
Funky has Sunday off because Less is filling in on the weekend shift. Lets see… Married double incomes, both kids on full schalorships , published Author with a Hollywood option and most off all …. house paid off with Lisa’s life insurance.
Btw , kent state women’s basket ball season is over……they sucked big time
You know, I can think of great uses for these tributes. For example, if Batuik superimposed his own art over a Rob Liefeld cover, not only would it look a million times better, but it would be his funniest Sunday by default.
(not Funky related, but how the hell does Wonder Woman think rockets work?)
You can’t help but laugh at the sheer undisguised laziness of it all. “That darned Supreme Court, always overturning those laws we love and depend upon…”, uh, yeah, right Tom, have another Nyquil.
The main item of note here is how Les appears to be working the counter at Montoni’s today. Look at him standing there all smug in his expressionlessness, as if he’s just way to cool to care about his lifelong friend’s obvious mental deterioration. Such a dick. Although in this case he really can’t be totally faulted for looking at Harry like he’s a complete idiot, because, well…you know. But then again, in Harry’s defense, any character given material this bad is going to look stupid delivering it, so it’s the usual FW outcome: no one wins.
4 comments in and there is nothing left to say. TB is a hack, Les doesn’t need the income from Montoni’s since Summer is presumably on a free ride in college, etc. The only way he can break this slump is start a new strip featuring Khan as a Westview citizen by day, sleeper cell terrorist by night.
A tip of the Funky Felt Tip to getting away with plagiarism. Maybe the Supreme Court will have something to say about that.
Repealing the law of gravity? Bugs Bunny and friends did the same joke many, many decades ago, and a) they did it in a way that was actually funny, and b) they did it without making me suffer whiplash just trying to read the fricking punchline.
Batiuk. Let’s get real. You don’t have a funny bone in your body. Even your funny bone isn’t funny. So stop trying, OK. Just make this strip all misery, all the time. Because misery is what your strip evokes in its readers. We won’t settle for anything less, or more!
This comic, how can I put this…it, um…it POOPS in its PANTS.
And it LIKES it.
@sourbelly: You don’t have a funny bone in your body. Even your funny bone isn’t funny. So stop trying, OK. Just make this strip all misery, all the time.
Wait… this isn’t supposed to be depressing?
Why shouldn’t Less work weekends, Cayla does. Last seen, she was in the bad section of Westview, near the Fairgood’s old place. She doesn’t actually accept money, but since Less decided Viagra was too expensive…well, you know, a woman has needs.
I do like Batiuk’s fond memories of comic books and his local comic book store that he bases the kreepy kidz’ “Komix Korner” on. Something i can relate to. But…
Filling a whole strip without some reference to a current story line or even current event (that anyone can remember), without any inserting your own characters (even faces) or re-doing it in your own recognizable art style? What this proves is that unlike Batiuk searching fan websites for unauthorized use, Time Warner/DC Comics can’t even be bothered to look at the comics page for “authors” passing off complete copies of their intellectual property as an “homage.”
Lazy, nonsensical, filler strip. Check. Just another Sunday in the Funkyverse. Or any day for that matter.
Look on the bright side, Crazy McBeardo. When the Supreme Court DOES overturn the law of gravity, and we all know that’s on their agenda, think of what wonders that will do for your fat wife’s saggy ass and boobs, not to mention your droop old man testicles.
I also have no idea why Goatee Boy needs the part time job at Montoni’s. BatCopy probably forgot about the (I’d assume!) lucrative Hollywood deal and hoped we did too. And how’s that Dead Newsman documentary coming along? Interesting that nobody who interviews this putz ever asks about all those abandoned storylines. Probably afraid of Swishy Tom flying off in a snit.
Idea for BatXerox — why not use your new scanner and just copy old Calvin and Hobbes strips and submit them instead of the awful, lame, poorly drawn DRECK you’ve been handing in?
My political acumen isn’t the greatest..but is the Supreme Court really a prime target of the right wing conservatives, now? Congress, sure….Barak Obama..that goes without saying… liberal media….hell yes….but the Supreme court??
I suspect that Batiuk was trying not to offend anyone by choosing a target like the President or liberal media. ..Hey after all….Tom Batiuk is no Gary Trudeau, here. Making waves with bold political commentary is for much more courageous cartoonists.
I mean, c’mon…this is the guy that doesn’t even have the courage to make a gay couple permanent characters!!!
I’ve often wondered (okay, barely cared about..LOL!!) if Crazy Harry’s conservatism is an attempt by Batiuk to create a straw man for conservatives? If that’s the case he’s failed miserably at that too!!!!
Harry’s hair was brown yesterday; today it’s completely white. That is all.
I always took TB for a lib. That’s why I boycotted his strip twice. What drew me back? Whatever it was, it’s fading fast. Having explored teen pregnancy, cancer, PTSD, alcoholism and other edgy topics, what’s left? Jumping on the bandwagon to bash conservatives, I guess.
Speaking as a huge fan of Mike Sekowsky (especially of his work on the original Justice League comics), I can confirm that this is not an “homage” or even a trace-over in any way of the original….Tom just placed the actual cover up there, no fair use justification in play at all.
I am -so- tempted to contact Warner Bros. “Cease and Desist”, thief.
No Creepy Blue Twilight this Sabbath, but at least Batiuk did manage to find a comics cover with a Reflective Glass Surface in it, so his streak remains unbroken.
While I don’t have any doubts on TickBrain’s political views, I have a feeling that the gay prom storyline, besides grossly oversimplifying, he didn’t put into heart into it. Now, while I can’t claim to know too many gay people myself, the ones I’ve met had names and actual personalities, something TickBrain has yet to grasp.
The only likable characters in this whole comic are Buddy and the Green pitcher at Montoni’s.
Westview Oncologist asks: “My political acumen isn’t the greatest..but is the Supreme Court really a prime target of the right wing conservatives, now? Congress, sure….Barak Obama..that goes without saying… liberal media….hell yes….but the Supreme court??”
Not as far as I have ever heard. Remember, Tomboy doesn’t “get out” much. He has no knowledge of how to portray teens, minorities, women, musicians, athletes, medical people… So if you have ANY hope for him to accurately portray political conservatives (you know, those hateful guys on the radio who want you to go bomb a post office), forget about it.
As for his political leanings, he makes no secret of it. He thinks giving more money to the gubmint solves all problems. He glorifies industry-wrecking union lunkheads. He boo-hoos over “global warming.” Whatever. Happily, he’s a real goofball whenever he tries to go all Doonesbury on us with his politics.
In his defense, though, he portrays creeps and arrogant douchebags VERY well.
John has a point. There’s the “tip of the funky felt tip” but no copyright information for the characters, who are (c) and tm DC Comics/Time Warner, all rights reserved. Now i wouldn’t complain myself, but if i were a website owner that had been served with a C&D from a ‘cartoonist’ engaged in wholesale appropriation of copyrighted material, i might just copy a jpg or two off and email them to the Legal Department of said multinational entertainment conglomerate.
As for his political leanings, he makes no secret of it.
Oh come on. Do you really think he has any idea about anything? Do you honestly think he has the patience and the interest to actually follow what’s going on politically in this country? The only reason why he mentioned the Supreme Court is because it’s the only branch of government that can “overturn a law”. That’s it. There’s no subtext here. That’s giving him too much credit. It doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on in the country politically. Again, that’s giving him too much credit. He just thought the idea of overturning the law of gravity was funny, and worked with that comic cover he wanted to use, so he just went with it.
If he wanted to promote unions, or responsible environmental stewardship, or any number of political causes, he wouldn’t avoid the specifics that he does. The only thing he ever gets specific about are the education levies, and having them get voted down and everyone sad and angry merely promotes the misery porn that’s his stock in trade.
TOM BATYUCK, YOU HACK SON OF A BITCH!!!!
As a liberal, gay, secular humanist, and if Batominc is in any way trying to help my causes, I’d like to ask him to stop at once. He’s doing it wrong.
Cease, Tom, desist!