While more or less the same conversation as yesterday’s strip (including the DUI AD’s awkward use of “we”), in today’s strip we learn two things.
1. Bull went to college (surprising)
and
2. Bull’s college friends hated him enough that he suspects they are pranking him (not surprising)
As a bonus, in panel 2 Bull does a Ziggy impression that rivals that of the blobfish.
Son of Stuck Funky 
I think the Ziggy resemblance is purely coincidental.
It’s a well-established scientific fact that Batiuk draws with his feet. And they have been cramping up on him as of late.
2. Bull’s college friends hated him enough that he suspects they are pranking him (not surprising)
And decades after college, too. They must have really hated him. Need I add, “not surprising”?
Didn’t Bull know like two months ago that they were considering him for a job? And now he’s acting like it’s a total shock and surprise? It’s weird that Batiuk brings back random characters from twenty years ago just to be in the strip for two days, but can’t keep continuity straight over a few months.
Wouldn’t Wedgeman be the more likely candidate to punk Bull, or does that character no longer exist?
What interests me is the unsettling implication that we’re supposed to condemn people for being upwardly mobile. This tells me that he should actually be worried about friends and family whining about his betraying everyone just to get a bit more money. Funky did it to Cindy back in Phase II so we’re primed to see it again.
Will Bull try his best and still fail, like Funky, or will he whine and give up willingly, like Les?
Bull’s “wife & family” ? What Family…..Les?
Will Bull try his best and still fail, like Funky, or will he whine and give up willingly, like Les?
Option 3: Whine and give up willingly but still somehow succeed. It’d normally be a long-shot, but considering how the previous Bull arc concluded its odds just went way up.
That water bottle behind Athletic Director High-waisted Pants’ head there in panel 2, does it have a baby bottle nipple on top of it?
On today’s strip, another episode of “things that no real person would ever say, even as a joke”. First, that AD is really selling that job offer. “Our old coach was a dick and left us to coach for a school with a team worth coaching, so why don’t you be a dick too and do the same thing to your school!!”. Second, does Bull really think that anybody would go to those lengths, with multiple people over the course of a couple of months visiting and interviewing, just to punk him? I guess it’s his way of self-deprecating, but still it’s not much of a punch line. At least Les isn’t anywhere to be seen.
The usually moribund Funky Winkerbean blog has been pretty active lately. TB has been posting rather scholarly treatises about his favorite Silver Age comics hero, the Flash. He also recaps his experiences at Akron Comicon and teases the February 2015 launch of the Complete FW Vol. 4…
Speaking of said moribund blog, check out the ridiculous, insanely detailed history of a completely fictional comic book! Dang, this borders on some kind of mania! If only BatBoy devoted as much loving care to his comic strip! Why, it’d be… nah- it’d still be dreck!
It would have to be a pretty desperate school (at any level) that would want to hire a mediocre high school coach whose “success” entails stumbling ass first into a mere two conference titles years (decades?) apart. Generally speaking, the coaches who make that jump are the ones who have had sustained high levels of success. And, also generally speaking, those coaches don’t go straight to head coaching jobs. They usually start out as assistants and work their way up the ladder.
A quarter inch removed from real life, my ass!
It’s pretty obvious Tom Batiuk wishes he was creating superhero comics, instead of this…thing. Fortunately, in this aspect if in no other, he has the self-awareness to know that he would be awful at doing superhero comics. So, resentment building upon resentment, he keeps on doing this…thing, instead.
@Jim in Wisc.: This is exactly what bothers me about this. All it would take is Batiuk to speak for 30 seconds with someone who has actually been involved in college athletics.
If I were Nate, I would sack Bull on the spot for interviewing for other positions while on school time on school property.
To escape the FW blog’s criminally horrible web design, you can at least get rid of the frame by reading it directly here: http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/blog_feed.php
So is Bull going to take the job and leave Westview and get written out of the strip? Good for him, he doesn’t want to grow old and die in Westview like Funky, Les and Crankshaft! Get out while you can Bull! Of course Bull won a state championship in girls basketball, why didn’t he get any job offers out of that?