Who says comics have to be funny? Not Tom Batiuk, who realized that comics could move beyond the ‘Gag a Day” schtick and also be sad, depressing, morose, bleak, distressing, dreary, gloomy melancholy, dismal and and heart-breaking as well.
Today’s strip is a perfect example of that. Sure, you could read about the various wars being fought at the moment on the front page of any newspaper, and get biting social commentary on the matter from political cartoons but why not have the crushing reality of having a child in a war zone wedge itself between Slylock Fox and Marvin?
Son of Stuck Funky 
Never mind, of course, that Funky didn’t give a rat’s wazoo to Cory before the kid enlisted. Funky was too busy with his pizza business attend counselling sessions. He told Cory he was working at Montoni’s by phone.
Of course, Batiuk cared little for Cory at all. He didn’t even bother to give a reason why Cory enlisted.
That’s the thing about Cory: he can put him in a uniform, give him a nice haircut and have him stand up straight but it doesn’t matter because no one likes or cares about him…with good reason. He depicted him as being unlikeable and what do ya know, it worked. So while the sentiment here is nice and all, its impact is greatly lessened by the presence of a character everyone hates. Cory, I mean.
So here we have a comic strip of a man watching television. In the final panel, he says something to the television.
What’s also sad is that this strip very much suggests that if Cory hadn’t inexplicably decided to enlist, go to Afghanistan and join a mine-clearing unit, Funky would be among the masses who don’t care, and he’d probably feel no shame in being so.
Funky Winkerbean: Using whatever pretext possible to claim moral superiority over the masses.
“I wonder how my twice-POW cousunclin Wally is doing, for he, too, sacrificed much in the Afghanistan misadventure?” thought Funky exactly never, as he thinks only of himself and how to avoid any genuine emotion unless Batominc is shilling for a Pulitzer.
Oh, you mean that 40-something dude who’s been working as a dishwasher in a pizza restaurant for the past 5 years and always insists on bringing his dog to work? Yes, TB treats veterans with the utmost respect.
Perhaps Cory’s military experience will be the exact opposite of Wally’s. Cory will have a great time in Afghanistan, he’ll TAKE prisoners, come home WITH a new girlfriend, he’ll score a cushy lifetime gig with the army, he’ll get a big homecoming parade, he’ll be waited on at Montoni’s instead of working there and he’ll adopt a disabled cat who he has to lead around everywhere. And he’ll be very sociable and confident and live in a very well-lit apartment with lots of windows.
You forgot, ED, that he’ll cuckold a nerd stereotype who scored over his head with a beautiful woman who has a mild speech impediment. Or maybe he’ll be given the clear chance to do so and refrain because he realizes just how awful it is. But he’ll happily “raise” the guy’s kids as his own because they prefer their unrelated “Uncle Cory” to their own father.
But great point about Wally. It really does show how hollow the support for the troops really is in this strip.
Speaking of Wally, does anyone think that the reaction he got upon returning was “punishment” for what he did to Becky? They didn’t throw him a parade and celebrate him because he was a bad person who caused a promising musician to lose her arm? Would be pretty typical.
“….winding down????”. Apparently Afghanistan conflict has become the longest military conflict in US History. Or does Tom Batiuk just not give a fuck that this story shouldn’t be taken place in 2014!!!
I mean seriously…even goddamn Desparate Housewives managed to keep continuity with their time jump!!
If Tommy really wanted to explore war theme’s then why did he even do the time jump in the first place!!!
Cory is also a fine example of how Batom wrote himself into a corner with his ever-expanding cast of characters. Instead of having one or two “iconic” comic strip characters, he has a thousand obscure characters no one cares about…like Cory. What’s to like about him? How could the character have developed a “following” when he appears once every two years?
WO: Good point re: the time jump. He apparently gave up on that years ago. I suppose it was all for the best, though, because without the time jump the last seven years would have been “about” nothing but the aftermath of Lisa’s death and all I can say is thank God he didn’t elect to wallow in it to that extent. It’s bad enough as it is.
Once again, it becomes apparent that Batiuk only cares about “contemporary issues affecting young adults” when the influence of said events spills over onto aging Boomers.
well to be fair Doonesberry has put our various wars in the funny pages for years – from Viet Nam to Iraq – hell one of the founding members of the cast lost a leg in Iraq. The difference being that Doonesberry would have managed to show people not caring about the Afgan war without this ham-fisted talking back to the TV by the utterly self absorbed Funky.
The most important difference between Doonesbury & FW is that Trudeau is a real writer, whereas TB has never mastered that art (despite having flailed around at it for over 40 years).