Oh, good, it’s Chullo and Glasses, back for an arc. Actually, it’s not good, but it could be worse. It could be Les.
And Glasses, no, you’re not a senior until you start senior year. That’s how it works. Here’s an example you’ll understand. If you want to go from your house to Montoni’s, you’re not AT Montoni’s as soon as you leave your house. You’ve still got all those steps to take.
No wonder it took Chullo and Glasses 14 years to get to senior year. They’re dumber than rocks.
Son of Stuck Funky 
If there was any doubt that Owen is basically “Young, Somehow Even Less Interesting Les”, this should remove it.
Anyone remember how a copying a photocopy would get weaker and weaker with each iteration until it was completely monotoned and flat? Behold Funky and Les, copy four.
I just can’t believe he’s firmly establishing these two idiots as seniors…finally. Of course they still might be “seniors” twelve years from now so who knows? Also nice to see Cody getting a speaking line, the last one no less (I’m not calling it a punchline as traditionally a punchline means a joke has been told). Why, I’ve been reading FW for so long I actually remember when OWEN was the sidekick!!! My, how the years have just trudged by!
I look forward to the new school year — Batiuk is famous for his hilarious observations of the youth culture. I have to admit, though, I will miss the focus on Les and the rest of the gang. Hopefully, Batiuk will go back and forth between the younger and older generations.
Of course this means that Tom Batiuk will have to come up with new younger charaters to replace “Mini-Funky” Owen, “Mini-Les” Cody and “Chien x 2” Alex… who have only been juniors since 2009 because of his utter disinterest in doing so. Because comic books.
Funny how “Mini-Les” broods about “summer…” apparently KSU’s vanity comic strip collection printing arrangement with KSU was on the one condition that he couldn’t portray Summer, Keisha, Maddie or anyone else who takes classes at the university. So I’m mildly surprised “Mini-Les” brought her up after she was retconned out of the strip.
Wow. I meant Cody, not Owen. Shows how boring these characters are.
Yesterday we saw Cayla cracking wise, Cody is getting face time and Boy Lisa is all over the place…the whole Funkyverse is all topsy-turvy. But seriously, Nathan makes a good point regarding Summer, the character who’s fallen the farthest since Act III opened. Not that I miss her, as I most definitely do not, but she used to be a way bigger character in early Act III. She kind of “peaked” after that free throw went in, it’s been downhill ever since for her.
And when you really think about it, Owen’s star has probably climbed higher than any other Act III character’s has. He’s become TB’s “go-to” high school character, usurping Cody and stealing the show with his daffy chullo-ized antics. Seriously though, it’s just weird how Batiuk became so enamored with Owen and disenchanted with Summer right around the same time.
The Defender: I was buying it there for a while, but now you’re just being silly. Made me laugh, though.
Having these characters show up in a long while doesn’t make me think that this comic strip is for or about young people any more than a graphic novel that suddenly got put off makes me think that Les and Cayla are actually married.
The funny thing is, even if everyone kept laughing at how Owen and Cody were still in school, I was willing to accept it. Comic strips ideally keep going for a long time, so the writers need characters who stick around for a long time. So honestly tying down an age to the characters the writer needs so he can claim he writes about young people is a mistake.
So once Owen and Cody graduate, will Batiuk finally stop pretending to have any interest in anyone under the age of fifty?
Poor naive Owen, nothing is “official” in the Batiukverse. Nothing.
I actually employed Cody’s logic… when I was in 6th grade. I went to a school where the middle and high schools were in the same facility. At the end of the year assembly, the principal took to the podium and declared “6th graders, you are now 7th graders” which was followed by “7th graders, you are now 8th graders” and so on and so forth until the seniors were declared high school graduates. This was followed by much high-fiving amongst my friends about how we had just graduated from high school.
Stupid? Oh yeah, which is why this strip reminded me of it.
Oh hey, I forgot this strip had young people in it! Not just middle-aged sad sacks and their dumb younger selves. And wow, we’re moving them along into senior year! What a significant developent. We might be in store for some Pulitzer-nomination caliber storytelling yet!
What I see when I look at the kid in the stupid hat and the kid with the glasses is the first blast across our bow by the most ridiculously ill-conceived and poorly researched bullying arc ever. We’re sure to see the athletes Batiuk lived in terror of as a student and held in contempt as a teacher given a mighty scraping so that long dead bogeys can finally feel the burn of shame.
Now that Chullo and Glasses are seniors, and TB is due to deliver on his promise on a bullying arc, wouldn’t it be elegantly ironic if Chullo and Glasses took on the role of the bullies and used their new Senior power to abuse the incoming Freshmen?
NAAAAH, we’ll just have some one-dimensional Wedgeman character come back and shake down Alex for her Metamucil again, then we’ll be back to Les toiling over his Lisa prequel.
How many of you guys wanna bet that Batiuk forgets these guys are seniors by September next year we still see these two idiots back in high school?
Cody and (pre-chullo) Owen’s first appearance, 9/29/2009
@$$$WESTVIEW ONCOLOGIST$$$: Actually, didn’t these two already graduate in June of last year?
So it took these kids seven years to graduate high school…big deal. Took a lot of kids in my district that long to graduate high school. I’m just wondering why they haven’t been moved to the ‘alternative’ high school in some re-purposed elementary across town. I think this strip could use a healthy dose of “Welcome Back Cotter.”
@Westview Oncologist: Either that or senior year will last as long for them as it did for Funky and the gang……
I’ll be damned. Hackett has proven that Tom Batiuk actually does have a sense of what Owen’s head looks like without the chullo. I seriously thought that the only reason why we never saw him not wearing something was that his head was designed and drawn with a hat always on it.