Oh, DeadSkunkHead, do you not know what “owes a favor” means? You helped Pete move out of and into his squalid apartment. That doesn’t quite qualify for a “can you send me a $8,000 piece of original comic art?” Crazy Harry looks as punchable as Les ever did in today’s strip. What happened to the “comics aren’t exclusive” arc where it was preached that the more fairer sex should be completely open to comics as a hobby? Crazy Harry is looking at her like she’s roadkill.
16 thoughts on “Sponging Off Friends”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
Like his other forays into social justice, equality and all that, Mr. Batiuk I think has the same problem many writers do. He doesn’t really focus on the issue much, so it’s more latching onto it than addressing it. So you might have a Very Special Week of it, after which you’re back to same ‘ol same ‘ol.
And since I’m a casual reader of them, let me ask any more devoted comic book fans here. Are there rules about what artists can make and what they can do with the art?
Parting shot, honestly Sosf, I wanted to punch John way more than Harry. Harry just looked like a jerk. John looked honestly repulsive. Maybe it could be argued that I’m just biased against the art by now, but there was something about John’s features that made me instantly angry.
Hey, I’m all for showing respect for the greats, but do you get the feeling Mopey Pete’s ringtone was chosen to avoid researching any popular music that happened after 1970?
Oh yeah, Pete. He’s the mopey one who procrastinates a lot, another miserable tortured writer living the dream. Poor poor Pete, there he is minding his own business, trying to crank out more paycheck-sustaining drivel and all of a sudden Skunky is nagging him to hook him up with original splash pages so a woman he barely knows can acquire even more free comic books for her no-goodnik of a son. Next thing you know he’ll be pestering him for slabbed key toppers! The nerve of some people.
There’s a one armed band director with a controlling, close minded mother. And her ex-husband, a traumatized war veteran struggling to attain a normal life with his fiancée,. And a disenfranchised middle aged woman trying to reconstruct her life after having been fired from her network job. And college women figuring out how to be adults at Kent State. All great fodder for good stories!
But a story about looking for comic books is nice, too. What is this, 1975?
You know, if you use more than five words from a song, you’re supposed to pay for it. Just sayin’. And I have to say that’s a really appropriate ring-tone for Pete to use for anyone calling from Westview’s area code.
And yes, Harry looks absolutely Les-like in the punchability department. I have a number of areas of interest and I know some fairly obscure things in said areas; however, I am aware that my interests may not be shared by all, so I’m not all contemptuous when people don’t know the same trivia I do.
Lastly, I guess “The Amazing Mister Sponge” is an actual thing in Funky Winkerbean? Quite frankly, it sounds idiotic. It sounds like the sort of thing that sells really well when there’s a toilet paper shortage.
If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think that Batiuk is displaying a Joephisto level of contempt for the fandom. Too bad that I know that Batiuk IS Joe Quesadilla in that he thinks that comics stopped in the seventies and that girls are stupid because they don’t eat, breathe and sleep obscure and irrelevant trivia.
Today’s strip did get me to wondering about songs that would make appropriate ringtones for people in Westview —
Elton John – I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself
Dickey Lee – 9,999,999 Tears
Bloodrock – D.O.A.
Bill Withers – Ain’t No Sunshine
Bobby Goldsboro – Autumn of My Life
Everly Brothers – Love Hurts
Billie Holiday – Gloomy Sunday
Skeeter Davis – The End of the World
Mott the Hoople – Death May Be Your Santa Claus
“Crazy Harry is looking at her like she’s roadkill. ”
Karma was not kind to Cheerleader Holly.
Holly: “Where does Tom get off comparing this crap to ‘Downton Abbey’? I mean, seriously, even the comics themselves were getting embarrassed by the blatant kiddie pandering of earlier years by the 1970s. They’d have rather died than use a character named “Mister Sponge” in one of their flagship titles! Is he high? Is that it?”
Harry: “Silence, WOMAN. The -MEN- are discussing things!”
John: “It just so sponges that the sponges of ‘The Spongy Sponges Sponge’ owes me a sponge!”
*****************
Pete: “Huh. Guess Tom didn’t bother to research what an actual comic book script looks like any more than he did the actual way a screenplay is made!”
Evil Technology: o/` WHOOOOOO lives in a pineapple under the sea? o/`
It’s as I keep saying: Batiuk knows damned well how comics are written (because he pals around with John Byrne) and screenplays are put together because he wrote the play Funky Winkerbean’s homecoming. He just doesn’t like how they do it and shows us how HE thinks things should be. Judging from his endless comment about how he’s a writer writing written things, it’s clear that he’s the personification of the trope “Reality Is Unrealistic”.
As for Harry, he never really did have much use for Holly growing up. I hold between thumb and forefinger a nose that remembers unsubtle digs at her intellect.
Creepy Pete’s at Marvel now, right? So Mister Sponge is a Marvel character? Surely he’s written an issue where Mister Sponge battles Mr. Fish. For those unfamiliar, “no one laughs at Mr. Fish!”… much like Funky Winkerbean.
Kudos to Pete for finding a way to hook up his Commodore VIC 20 to a modern LCD monitor.
@Bombsville Dad. may add another title
Queen – Another One Bites the Dust
So this guy is able to crank out $8,000 pieces of art at will, and draws two very popular comics, yet he still lives in a dingy walk-up apartment in New York.
I have to say that I just love Pete’s expression of utter pure dispair as he hears the phone ring. Truly sweet death can not come too soon for him.
Interesting to note that again writing is be presented as an utter misery – a sublimated cry for help from the author? A plea of please please make me stop it stopped being fun years ago.
And as a nitpicking point (two really) where else does a superhero put special gas sponges than in his utility belt, it is why Batman has one,. and two the phrase ‘with his one had finally free’ implies he has only the one hand.
well done sir.
Everything is to be presented as utter misery in order to show the world how high the stakes are. Batiuk’s got himself convinced that he’s helping us by showing us how close to the edge we….aren’t.