For a vaunted and feared comic book chiseler, Chester kind of lacks a working knowledge of how auctions normally work. He’s not “chiseling” correctly either. And there’s no need to shout, the auctioneer is standing right there to the left of the panel there, Chester. In typical FW fashion, our “heroes” show up for an auction lot containing a trove of rare and valuable comic books with a whole fifty bucks scorching a hole in their pockets. Good plan there, guys. Thankfully they’re able to shrug off their idiocy with a wry remark and those “deadpan” expressions, which no doubt sent BanTom to the floor of his studio with a massive laughing fit right after he dreamed this bit of nonsense up. Well, I guess it’s marginally better than not amusing anyone whatsoever, right?
FW routinely botches even the easiest of premises, but this one might mark a new low. The guy gets an opportunity to use an “iconic” (much more so than any FW character at any rate) comic strip character in his daily strip and instead of doing anything that’s even remotely different or entertaining he decides to make it all about a f*cking comic book auction. It’s mid-week and DT isn’t even there today! Why even bother with DT at all if this is all you have? He’s a f*cking detective, TB, have the guy go find Becky’s mom or Harry’s missing kids or your sense of humor (provided there’s enough time for that last one, that is).
Son of Stuck Funky 
Hold on, they’re doing a bid for all of the comics at once? And if your early competition was for $50, I think you probably could have swept them away with a $5000 bid.
Well, so far in this gripping cross-over, Dick Tracy has given directions to a couple of clods and been offered pizza. Sounds like they’re being made to feel like a couple of rookies touring coffee shops.
Funky Winkerbean, putting characters in their place for over four decades.
That’s a lot of comics. I wouldn’t think comics that had been crammed into pharmacy’s walls would be in anything close to good shape. Definitely not good enough shape to warrant spending $50,000.
$50? REALLY??? You two nitwits live and breathe comics, you lecture everyone about the merits and value of comics blah blah blah, you knew about this auction and the contents, and you bid $50????
I… I… I’m speechless.
Ye Gods, Batom® really failed here, and failed hard. Dick Tracy doesn’t need to pump Dead Skunk Head and Crazy Harry full of lead when they are leaden as hell to begin with.
@beckoningchasm: “Well, so far in this gripping cross-over, Dick Tracy has given directions to a couple of clods and been offered pizza.”
All the makings of a classic Big Lipped Alligator Moment. Watch as Dick Tracy and Sam Ketchum drive back to Chicago and never speak of this ever again.
NJ.com also updates Dick Tracy at midnight via the Comics Kingdom database. If you don’t want to wait until GoComics updates at 1am, check it out here.
At least Curtis and Staton have actually had Tracy and Ketchum interact with Funky. Tracy’s only participation in the Funky strip so far, as Epicus and beckoningchasm have noted, has been to give these guys directions to the auction…a function that could have been filled by any random background character.
For somebody so enamored of comic books, Batiuk doesn’t seem quite clear on what a “crossover” actually is.
Comics auction for rare comics found behind the wall of a drugstore because that’s where The Jumbler hid them and that’s why they’re being auctioned off by the police aside, I still cannot understand John’s hairstyle.
So, this “crossover” basically involves two writers writing two separate stories loosely connected by the same central premise (ie. “Hey, they’re auctioning off a bunch of old comic books, let’s go check it out!”).
As a wise man once said: you keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means.
Meanwhile, Dick Tracy… wow. An actual plot development!
And who knew that there was a bank across from Montoni’s???
OK Chester the Chiseler will be the bank robber. Or maybe the biker guy. Or someone will bid $51,000 and give the entire collection to Skunkhead or Cory or Crazy because… just because. And Tracy will catch the robber.
Te End.
P.S. The artists for DT are so much more talented than FW. I have never really read DT mainly because always hated the artwork–but these new guys are good.
I just saw today’s DT. Unless those bank robbers made off with comic books, you won’t see it mentioned in FW.
And even if the heist WAS comic books, FW won’t mention it.
Would be funny/sad to have St. Les the Righteous Smirker as one of the robbery victims. Funny because… well, it’s Les. Sad because Staton/Curtis would portray Les as someone who was remotely likeable.
Meanwhile, Dick Tracy will establish that the bank robbers are trying to steal the Lisa’s Legacy fund that these imbeciles aren’t doing a very good job of building up. This means that Dick and Sam will do things and advance a story while these two simply tread water like always.
For one thing, that’s clearly not pizza on their plates. For another thing, I don’t believe Montoni’s has a “coffee” sign in the window or those little table jukeboxes. Yet another, they would be actual paying customers, a very unlikely sight in Montoni’s. Another, there is little need for a bank across from Montoni’s or anywhere in town with Westview’s comic book-based economy. They may not even be in Westview, really. What sane person would call it a “nice little town”, much less express interest in retiring there,
Anything worth mentioning about TB’s strip? I suppose one could note that he can’t even do a Dr. Evil reference correctly…
With any luck at all, Tracy will bust Les for the murder of Jessica’s father, John Darling, about whom Les wrote a book.
Worst. Bid. Ever.
Well, artistic license on Staton/Curtis’ part probably enabled them to depict a small diner that wouldn’t exist in Westview otherwise. After all, few people in Northern Ohio (outside of those GoComics subscribers and those who follow DT on Cleveland.com’s Comics Kingdom database) know that this is happening. All Batom® lets us see in FW is Montoni’s, Westview High School, Komics Korner, and if we’re (un)lucky, St. Les the Righteous Smirker’s home. And sometimes the Winkerbean homestead. Just think about that limited scope Batom® has on the strip.
I would be curious as to how today’s DT matches up with the panoramic shot of Westview with the 1996 Post Office bombing… which could arguably be the most descriptive Batom® has ever portrayed Westview. (The Post Office bombing page here on SoSF has dead image links, I’m assuming because of copyright issues?) Of course, that 1996 strip was basically the Medina, Ohio town square with Montoni’s thrown in somehow.
And wait until Dick and Sam find out about the closed post office…
I can just envision Sam Ketchem retiring to Westview and becoming a cranky bus driver who runs over mailboxes daily and making frazzled mothers chasing his bus all the way to the school with their kids’ lunch.
Oh wait.
TB has updated the official FW blog again, this time to flog The Complete FW Vol. 4 and also, in classic Batiukan tortured logic, to give props to the Kent State football team for allowing Ohio State to use them as a confidence builder on the way to the national championship.
The reason Chester bid so high was because Frankie and Lenny are waiting to kill him, on orders from James Mason Jarr. So Chester is being disruptive so Tracy and Sam will arrest him and, thus, save his life.
Actually, you probably recognize that as a classic scene from North by Northwest, but if you imagine that’s the scenario here it makes the strip kind of entertaining. A bit.
@TFH – I’m not sure if it’s hilarious or appalling that “Roses in December” has gone from a (no doubt) sensitive Les book about how sensitive he is, to a Crankshaft book.
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/01/archie-and-the-unexpected-virtue-of-forgetfulness/384678/
What do we all make of TB titling his latest blog post “Son of Sneak Peek”?
@beckoningchasm — Dammit, no way. NO WAY is he still using “Roses in December” on Crankshaft. Who’s the author here, anyway?
@Saturnino – interesting article. It kind of hints but never outright says that non-serial stories can never be important stories, as they require change in a situation to make an impact. Clearly Tom Batiuk considers his work to be “important,” hence the abandonment of gag-a-day stuff. Ironic that his efforts now remove “change” and “growth” from his serial comic–making it just as dependent on the (missing) punchline as the gag-a-day stuff.
I love how Dick Tracy, a detective in a crime ridden city strip, Dick Tracy thinks Westview is a more crime ridden hell-hole.
I think Dick Tracy used that as an excuse to save Same the misery of spending his declining years rotting with Pa Winkerbean. After all, when you smoke as much as these two, cancer really isn’t a deal breaker for Hank.
@ beckoningchasm (January 21, 2015 at 11:35 am): I wonder if Batbrain realizes that Roses in December: Comfort for the Grieving Heart was published about nine years ago?
OK, so I had a little more free time, and did a quick Google search. Turns out the title “Roses in December” has already been used more than once,
• It’s the title a highly regarded 1982 documentary about the nuns killed by El Salvadoran security forces in 1980.
• Ironically, it’s also the title of a gay-themed Glee slash-fic story.
You can read the official FW blog without the annoying framing here: http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/blog_feed.php
oddnoc: My retinas thank you. I read that blog yesterday and I can STILL see it.
to quote one of rifftrax’s rfff’s on Birdemic “And an absurdly round number for the win.”
THis it reads like the author is bored of comics as well. and wouldn’t and shouldn’t this involved Dick Tracy somehow?
Stan Lee has made some questionable decisions, but writing a forward for a “Complete Funky Winkerbean” collection is probably the dumbest thing he’s ever done.