Well, so we have Pm here (of Pm and Jff), and Holly is talking about comic books. Comic books, once (in the bygone days of ignorance) thought of as disposable entertainments, are now considered Holy Tracts. So Holly’s going to preach the four-color word here, and tell everyone how she was a lost soul, eatin’ pizza, naggin’ the husband, watchin’ TV until Starbuck Jones Himself came to her in a vision and saved her soul.
Apparently, Tom Batiuk’s notion of entertainment is that entertainment is evil, and every last vestige needs to be destroyed in anything that might possibly contain it. Like those poor comic books. I for one cannot imagine ever picking up a comic book again, unless it was hot inside and I needed to fan myself.
There are two types of stories in Westview: the mind-numbingly boring ones like last week, Bull and Dolt McMoron discussed football (something that clearly didn’t engage the author of the strip). The other type is the one the author feels passionately about–it’s also mind-numbingly boring, but it’s so shrill and piercing that it’s hard to ignore. At least the characters in the strip don’t suffer as much as the critics; they seem relatively okay with their benumbed existence.
I think Tom Batiuk is getting his fondest wish–that his critics become so miserable viewing his work that they actually think living in Westview would be preferable.
Son of Stuck Funky 
So this is the Westview equivalent of Jehovah’s Witnesses, huh? Figures they’d find a way to make proselytizing even more irritating.
Sorry, Supie is cross dressing again.
So this is yet another “Crankshaft” crossover? Involving Holly and f*cking comic books? Why? I never read “Crankshaft” so these crossovers always annoy me, but not as much as they bore me. I can’t even begin to predict where this is going but I guarantee it’ll be someplace really, really stupid.
P’M nd Nff!
I read recently that Tom Battic has written an anti-bullying arc, which will be published a year from now in September, 2015. Way to stay ahead of the times, Tom! I’m looking forward to 2016, when the gang at Montonis will be featured doing the ice bucket challenge!
Mason, I hate to disappoint you, but Batiuk has already done bullying. It was just about last year as I recall, and it happened on my watch. Bull said that bullying was a real “wedgie” issue, but apparently Principal Nate said he was going to address it. In Westview, problem solved.
Beckoning chasm : there’s a new bullying arc coming up! In just 12 months! Owen and Cody are now seniors and decide, SEVEN YEARS after their freshman year, that they will not be bullying the freshman.
It’s going to be a splendid piece of storytelling!
And Owen is still wearing the burrito hat!
It’s really going to happen, Battic showed the drawings to someone who recorded them.
Great. More of Batiuk boasting about his stupid “I’ll send everything in a year ahead so I get caught looking like an ignorant idiot when I’m overtaking by events” police. That’s almost as stupid as Holly going around getting women to accept Superman into their lives.
Ah yes, the legendary Jim Morrison as Orange Superman issue of Action Comics, complete with the original Nixon Administration redaction marks…
Copies of Action Comics #243 are currently going for $40-$300 on eBay. Of course, Holly probably scored hers when the seller at SDCC misfiled it in the 25¢ bin.
didn’t this unhappy looking woman have something to do with Holly getting one of her Starbuck Jones issues? I have a vague memory of the prior Crankshaft crossoever involving this . So is this Holly giving something back knowing that the unhappy husband of the unhappy woman is looking for this issue. Or has Holly just snapped and is preaching the church of Superman?
I’d like to think the latter as it would be at least entertaining in a mad way.
@TFH–typo? a poster at Comics Kingdom suggested Action #243, which looks about right. If “right” covers a lion-headed Superman, that it.
TFH sez: Thanks, wolf…I’ve updated my comment. Also sorry for the spoiler: Holly doesn’t site the issue number until tomorrow…
OK, my real username should be Captain Cab but my old wordpress info isn’t letting me log in right now so had to resort to using a really old Facebook account. I post on mst3kinfo.com, maybe the reason I keep coming back to FW is because it’s one of the most riffable comic strips ever made. Anyways, longtime lurker, not sure if anyone would remember me at this point but I used to post occasionally on the old Stuck Funky sites off an on back in 2008/09. I started reading FW back in the early/mid-90s back when Wally was first introduced as a high school student and I was in HS myself (because of that I personally find Wally to be kind of an odd, very general parallel to myself if I’d ended up having a very unpleasant life, post-school) and the strip still was somewhat enjoyable to read now and then (at least in between truly classic comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes, Farside, Bloom County/Outland). Now it’s just a self parodying, awful mess. I stopped reading regularly back in 2010 (thank goodness for the yearly summaries on this site, it made catching up on what’s “happened” super easy) and jumped back with the Les-goes-to-Hollywood debacle. I can’t believe what a contemptibly awful character he’s become and Batiuk really does come across as unnervingly arrogant more and more (I greatly disliked Les’s rude “apparently” remark to the exec’s comment that “The Latino audience is hard to ignore,” was actually taken aback). Anyways, might be posting here a bit more. I think the last time I posted anything was way back when Pete was trying to think up a Superman story/lame writer’s block arc.
“So this is the Westview equivalent of Jehovah’s Witnesses, huh? Figures they’d find a way to make proselytizing even more irritating”
Maybe she’s publishing the second coming of Montonti? Surely Cory is the antichrist, that’s one doctrinal truth you can bet on. On a side note of did-know, what a lot of people don’t realize is Jehovah’s Witnesses have won approximately *50 cases* in the Supreme Court the results of which have all strengthened freedom of speech rights and other general religious freedoms for everyone in the country. Westview theology must be mighty scary and not sure what they would contribute to their fellow citizens’ overall rights other than just sitting around commiserating about suffering and then celebrating failure as a blessing? :p
Meant to type “On a side note of did-you-know.” Had the “know,” missed the “you,” darn typos.
Also, if anyone needs to correct me as to exactly when Wally was introduced as a student, please feel free to jump in. Just going off my memory and my memory from my teenage years of goneby days says maybe 93/94?
Weird… since when is CK’s archive open further than a month back? Anyway, here’s the opening salvo… from last March.
http://comicskingdom.com/crankshaft/2014-03-24
TFH and Bad Wolf – well, you’ll just have to pretend to be surprised when tomorrow’s post goes live.
Hmm, I wonder if this women really “gave” or she just lied to blow her off?
Van Nostrom: Welcome back! Here’s everything you missed over the last few years…
Lisa is still dead. Les married Cayla, finally. Summer is never around anymore and no one cares. Funky is still fat and miserable. Wally has a service dog now. Harry no longer delivers mail. And that’s pretty much it.
Thanks Epicus Doomus!
“Hmm, I wonder if this women really “gave” or she just lied to blow her off?”
Probably the latter. Would YOU be in a hurry to chat it up with the wife of the town drunk AND mother to the town’s most loathed juvenile delinquent?
And got my proper username back, whoo.
After I pick up a Bloom County collection I have my eye on , I think I might get at least one of those Funky collections, had no idea they started releasing the complete series. What kind of quality are they? Also might get a cheap copy of “Might Be a Book Deal Here.”
captaincab: After completing the chin-up challenge at the big county fair (the first fair Wally was able to attend without freaking out, BTW), Cory enlisted in the army and he is now Westview’s favorite son to the point where strangers pelt Holly with rare collectible comic books as she wanders about confusedly.
Meanwhile, Funky almost fell off the wagon a few years back but fortunately he was involved in a near-fatal car wreck that catapulted him backwards in time instead. He is now the (chortle) beloved president of the local (guffaw) chamber of commerce, believe it or not.
And Wally got married! To Rachel, who works at the pizza parlor & has either red or blonde hair depending on how the colorist feels at the moment. Their dog is the most appealing member of their family.
@Epicus Doomus
Thanks for bringing me up to speed even more on Wally (still would like to know what year/story introduced him back in the 90s if anyone knows). And I just found that Harry works for Dead Skunkhead?? Batiuk’s obsession with having everyones’ lives and futures tied to Monotoni’s and John’s comic store is either just stunning laziness or sheer sociopathy at this point.