15 thoughts on “Happy 2015!”

  1. Happy New Year. It’s funny because Dad Winkerbean is too old to party at all and it’s increasingly unlikely he’ll see another New Year’s Eve, so good one, Holly. Happy New Year.

  2. I thought his father lived in a nursing home. Does he get holiday sleepovers at Funky’s house? These two aholes are certainly not caring for him, is there a visiting nurse somewhere?

  3. Not only does Dad seem kinda tired, the first panel makes it look like his face is imploding upon itself.

    His “Zzzzzzzzzzz” dialog, however, is some of the smartest that Batom® has ever crafted.

  6. 2015 begins how 2014 ended, with a bunch of words and pictures almost molded into a form that somewhat resembles a joke in a vague sort of way. Eventually the whole strip will just consist entirely of panel after panel featuring old wheelchair-bound people sitting in the rain, nibbling soggy pizza while silently reminiscing about old comic books of the 1940s. And one guy in Ohio will be literally rolling around on his studio floor laughing hysterically.

    But hey, better to be fodder for moronic gags than to be a tragic and sad figure babbling to himself in the food court, eh? At least he breathing, which is more than some characters in this thing can say. Have a happy new year everyone!

  8. I have a stong, strong feeling, especially given how Pappy Winkerbean’s hand is clutching his chest, that he was not originally meant to be asleep, and those “zzzzz”s were added at the last minute.

  9. So, I gather they left him in his wheelchair all night long. That’s some tender lovin’ care right there.

    Holly exhibits Batiuk’s terrible way with language. Why put “last night” in her sentence? Does he think readers might wonder if they’re talking about last week or something?

  10. “No, seriously, Funk Man. He was up until 4 in the morning masturbating like a wild monkey in front of the TV while plowing through two bottles of tequila. Just let him sleep it off in his chair. The truck from The Home will swing by in an hour or two to pick him up. Help me get him out to the curb.”

  11. Who the hell brings their aged parent home from the rest home for New Year’s Eve, but not Xmas or Thanksgiving? Why did fine young man Cory vanish immediately upon his arrival, without even asking about dear old step-granddad? Where are the fracking Starbuck Jones books? What is wrong with these characters?

    Batoooooooooooooooooooooooom! Sometimes I think you do it on purpose, with your year of lead time.

  12. @beckoningchasm: I too am starting to think that he writes his strip not to entertain his fans (who’d probably love having the characters recite the phone book) but to antagonize people like us. His kind read between the lines and say stuff like “Well, the people at the home told Holly he partied hearty when she picked him up” because that’s what they did for Lynn Johnston. We focus on what we see and get angered.

  13. @oddnoc: We’re dealing with someone with the same ability to keep track of his characters as Lynn Johnston and the same need to have people love the comic strip that’s only running inside his head.

  14. My personal theory is that as Lisa (and her endless melodrama) has faded from the scene, so has Batom’s ability and desire to do those morose melodramatic arcs. 2014 was probably the most “gag-a-day”-centric year in recent FW memory. Pa Bean is a great example of what I mean. A few years ago his every appearance was sad and melancholy, but now he’s suddenly comic relief. I can’t recall any sudden illnesses, deaths or injuries since Fred’s stroke two years ago and he even eventually played THAT for laughs as well.

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