Some history-centric humor from TB today. Well, in fairness, “humor” is relative. But you all know what I mean. It’d seem to be that “Camp Alamo” would be a perfect place for a FW cast member, as bravely staring down death in the face of insurmountable odds is sort of what FW is all about. Except for the “bravely” part, of course.
Son of Stuck Funky 
My god, Panel 2 might be the most scariest thing drawn in the comic pages!!
It almost looks like Funky is sort of Shadow Being with a mysterious blue light from hell. about to envelope the strip. The Hatman has nothing on The Funkman!
Either that or Funky is about to put on some rubber mask and rape then murder Rachel! Or maybe, murder than rape Rachel. i guess it could go either way. Pizza Twat wouldn’t be responsive either way.
“Sure, we’re all going to suffer tragic fates meted out by a sadistically cruel universe, but it doesn’t have to be so obvious about it…”
So, Funky and the gang are celebrating something-OWEEN thing year, and unless my basic sense of proportion is broken, I can’t see “HALL” and the string hanging it up fitting behind Rachel’s big ol’ hair.
My theory? It’s just plain old Oween, Westview’s celebration of injury, illness, and crying out in pain!
So that bullying thing ended not with anything by the teens, but by Bull thinking about how he’s doing a good job with this horrible punishment of banning someone from playing next season. Okay I take back anything I said that was good about it. It started with people behaving like idiots, it progressed with people behaving like idiots and the most charitable thing I can say about it is that at least they weren’t very idiotic at the end, just adults in a story allegedly about teens.
And here we see the problem of writing your series a year ahead on current affairs. U.S. forces are on their way to being drawn down and, more importantly, apparently NATO forces departed from Camp Alamo sometime between April and June.
And besides that, it’s been so long since Cory last appeared or was even mentioned that most of the audience is probably wondering who the hell Cory is and why Funky’s talking about him.
That thing Rachel is holding is the most interesting item I’ve seen in Funky Winkerbean in ages. I guess it’s supposed to be a terrified Moon with a cat in front of it, or maybe a sneering golf ball.
Last year I recall that there were some despairing pumpkins as Corey was driven off to training. Maybe Halloween inspires Tom Batiuk to throw something at least visually interesting to his long-suffering readers; I can’t recall any other time his art has impressed me…and there’ve been many examples of his art having the opposite effect.
By the way…why is Funky holding a wreath? Never mind, someone as cynical as he would no doubt already start ripping down the Halloween stuff before the holiday even starts, to make way for the Christmas crap.
Except for the “bravely” part, of course.
Or staring down death, for that matter. Lisa, after all, just gave up and let herself die, and she’s considered the apex of heroism and bravery in this world.
As for today’s, way to sell the joke in the last panel, guys. It’s also nice to explain the joke to the slower members of the audience. Funky Winkerbean: Making a full meal of other comics’ throwaway jokes.
At this rate they should have the Halloween decorations up by Election Day.
I call bullshit on Cory – or Funky – Cory’s not in Afghanistan – he’s working a car rental desk in Hoboken.
I can’t imagine that families with loved ones stationed at the real Camp Alamo will be cutting out and taping today’s strip to the fridge.
Just wait until Cory gets transferred from Camp Alamo to “Camp Goliad”. That’s when the laughs will really start rolling in…
It’s Chulloween, the holiday where all the kids dress up as Owen and go door-to-door shaking down families for their Metamucil.
As yes Camp Alamo, located in the Valley of Death, near the Little Big Horn Firebase by the river Styx, Nearest large town is Thermopylae on the slopes of Mount Pelee… ,
Once again, TB is violating the First Rule of Storytelling: Show, don’t tell. He should be showing Holly talking to Cory, he should be showing Cory at Camp Alamo (at least The Powers That Be didn’t call it Camp My Lai).
Considering, according to the Daily Ink website and that Batiuk considers “young adults” are idiots, I wonder why he things they’ll get the “Alamo” reference.
First update to the Funky Winkerbean blog page since July…
I found the missing three panels that would have been today’s strip’s ending.
BC: Awesome. Is there a Funky font available or are you freehanding it?
After re-reading yesterday’s responses, beckoningchasm, mentioned how much misery and woe there is in the characters’ lives that it’s to a psychologically unhealthy level. That got me thinking about how many bummers have been thrown at these characters to screw them up so much. Forgive me if I miss anything and feel free to throw in your own.
Funky: His marriage to Cindy falls apart, he becomes an alcoholic, has a cruddy relationship with his step-son (it’s debatable if he put effort into it), blows his chance for having a successful chain of pizzerias due to his own ego and incompetence, gets in car accident and goes through rehabilitation.
Becky: Loses an arm in a car accident which destroys her chances to go to Julliard and playing the flute, husband is thought to be dead while on duty, remarries a total loser, first husband comes back and is an emotional wreck, has an overbearing mother and is stuck being with a job she hates.
Wally: His drunk driving costs his girlfriend her future, becomes a POW for years, finds out his wife has remarried and went on with her life, has major PTSD (though he’s getting better), contemplated suicide and do his kids even visit him?
Holly: Wasn’t her first husband an ass and she had cancer before? Married a man who became a miserable jerk, has a rotten relationship with her son, is no longer the happy person she once was and her looks are gone.
Crankshaft: Was tricked into losing his chance to play professional baseball, lost his infant son, wife died of cancer, illiterate for most of his life, became a miserable sociopath, poor relationship with his daughters and later suffers a massive stroke that ruins his body.
Anything I missed?
Carrie: Lisa…pretty much her entire run in FW.
Epicus: actually, the lettering was all cut-n-paste, from Tom Batiuk’s own hand. There is a “Funky” font (as well as a “Crankshaft” one) that was made for Tom Batiuk called (I kid you not) “Chilly Autumn Afternoon.” I don’t think you can get it anywhere, though.
(The Crankshaft one is called “Summer Vacation Late” which also sounds like a bummer.)
Epicus Doomus: Oh yeah, let’s see…had an abusive boyfriend who knocked her up (retconed to be date rape), nearly lost her chance to marry Les (thanks to Susan), caught in an office bombing, got breast cancer that cost her one of her breasts, her cancer returned due to a hospital error and she died. Anything else I’m missing?
Let’s not forget that Westview is the garden spot of the Funkyverse.
Wow, a down-turned thumb. Someone must be fro Hoboken.