Well, I have to say that Holly in panel three is a sight for sore eyes. Finally, someone moved to exhibit an emotion, and it isn’t abject despair! This has got to be a Funky Winkerbean first. Even Funky didn’t approach this level of anger when he learned that Cory stole the Lisa’s Legacy funds. The force of her rage has actually flattened Cory’s head! Well done, well done, Mr. Batiuk!
It now pains me to point out that the sentence structure sure suffers by comparison. For one thing, Holly was vacuuming, not sweeping–and there is a difference. “Cleaning” would work in this case. But the third panel really shouldn’t be a question, based on the content of the first two panels. Panel two should have been “When I noticed something…” which could easily fit the available space in that word-balloon and wouldn’t make the final panel seem so awkwardly put together.
I guess the least aspect of this episode is the idea behind it. Holly collected the comics for Cory and gave them to him. That’s the end of the matter; he’s free to do with them as he pleases. I guess in the Author’s mind, a gift isn’t just a gift, it’s an actual aspect of the giver, and thus must be treasured forever as that aspect instead of being appreciated as an object with its own function. Thus, selling the gift is a terrible, terrible insult.
(I guess. In my mind, I have an amusing picture of Tom Batiuk in high school, and a “friend” of his finishes a candy bad, then hands the wrapper to Young Batiuk. “Tom…I want you to have this,” he says, trying to hold back the laughter. “It…it meant a lot to me.” At home, Young Batiuk has whole shoe-boxes filled with candy wrappers et al which he would never consider parting with.)
Well, at least we got a classic face out of today’s episode. It’s the best thing I’ve seen in this strip since…well, it has been a while, let me just say that.
Son of Stuck Funky 
As bobanero pointed out yesterday, this “story” is rocketing along by Batiukian standards, as we’re already at the point where Holly has flown into a drooling obscenity-hurling rage over those f*cking stupid SJ comic books. I assumed it’d take months to get this far so in that respect I’m mildly surprised.
So is Holly upset because those f*cking comic books mean so much to her or is she upset because she wasn’t finished gloating about her grand motherly gesture yet? Either way she’s overreacting and besides, they weren’t her comic books anymore anyway. Man, I am so tired of typing the words “comic books”. Anyhow, given how fast this piece of crap is moving you can bank on the lamest resolution possible which means it’s probably a ring for Rocky. Then a year from now they’ll already be married and have a kid with no explanation at all.
“You were sweeping my carpeted room, mom? Guess it’s off to Bedside Manor with you, then.”
“WHERE THE *$%#! ARE YOUR COMIC BOOKS!?” will eventually replace Funky WInkerbean as the title of this strip.
What is up with Cory’s jawline? Panel 2 makes him look like his comic books are stuffed in his cheeks.
Curse the limited space on the newspaper comics page for cutting panel 4, in which Xenomorph Holly’s mouth-within-a-mouth emerges.
Hmmm… in some respects I can see how this would hurt a person. I have actually tried to hold on to many gifts that were given to me out of love from family and friends. On the other hand, anything that causes Holly pain – I am all for. Her dumbness makes Cindy look like a wonderful person.
I swear to Bill Watterson I thought Holly was saying “sleeping” instead of “sweeping” in the first panel so I was grossed out by the come hither look in the second panel.
But yeah. Comic Books.
Comic.
Books.
Com
Ic
Books.
A mother cursing up a storm yelling at her son. There’s something you don’t see every day in the funny pages.
When you give someone a gift it becomes their’s to do with as they want. I have a Sister like this where when she “gives” you something it feels more like an unwanted loan that will be withdrawn the moment she thinks you don’t appreciate it enough.
It really is a pretty scummy thing for Cory to do, I mean he’s been home for all of a weekend (and it would appear that he is in fact home for good although there’s been no clear confirmation of that) and already he’s pawning off the comic (sigh) books his mom crossed Ohio to acquire for him. What, he’s never heard of getting a part time job at the pizza or comic book shop? He can’t fund his dreams via a few months of working the holiday grind over at Sprawl-Mart? And here we thought the Army changed this kid. Now I almost feel bad for Holly, her entire sense of self worth and her identity as a mother were tied up in that comic book collection. How can she ever comic book from such a comic book comic book?
Coming next week: After learning of Cory’s brazen comic book-hustling scheme, Les dashes home to secure the cases of “Lisa’s Story” he has stashed in the garage. Everyone points and laughs at him.
I just had a thought-Cory’s basically drawn like a more babyish looking Wally-why? He’s not a Winkerbean.
Again, we have an author and character who get giving someone something all mixed up in their heads. In Holly’s banjaxed mind, Corey isn’t allowed to dispose of his property as he sees fit because the image of him reading something he has outgrown makes her feel like the competent parent she ain’t. It’s like dealing with Elly Patterson but with even less self-awareness.
Yes. Where the $#@% are your comic books.
Your.
Comic.
Books.
Well, hahaha! Color me pleasantly surprised! THIS is the funniest FW strip in years! Despite the usual poor dialogue, Holly’s transition from calm and collected to full RAGE MODE–plus Cory’s reaction!–was pretty amusing once I read it again. I actually….smiled. 🙂 There’s rarely a dull moment when Cory’s around!
“There’s rarely a dull moment when Cory’s around!”
Probably worse than any action he saw in Afghanistan………..
On the minor point about “sweeping”, there is an actual regional vernacular that might be in play. My family is from Pittsburgh where a vacuum cleaner is known as a “sweeper”. What I might have heard from my mother would have been “I was running the sweeper in your room…”
Perhaps this extends into Ohio, but I’ve never studied the range of usage. I’ve always presumed that such regionalisms were very specific to Pittsburgh.
Maybe if Holly yelled at Cory about real things, he wouldn’t have grown up to be such a douchebag.
I doubt Batty’s audience cares about comic books. I’m surprised his editors don’t tell him to tone this crap down. Then again, they are just running out the clock too.
It’s telling that the only subject matter that can rise such ire in a Funkateer is comic books.
Ha ha it’s another pun of classic TB legendariness. In wars our soldiers haveto deal with mines so they go out and sweep for them so nobody get blown up. Meanwhile Holly was sweeping up for her soldier and now she blows up. Ha ha that is a real knee slapper. TB clearly knows what will give his military readership a chuckle. Or at least a smirk.
Now the question is, what did he sell it for: mafia debt? A wedding ring? Revenge against his absent mother?
Carrie Kube: Hookers and blow.
It pains me to defend TB, but many in Western Pa and Ohio say “sweep” for vacuuming, such as “I need to run the sweeper.”
Now…why couldn’t Corey tell his mother this? Why couldn’t Corey find some other way to get the money for …I dunno,… the Afghan pimps he stiffed out of money??? This is essentially a situational comedy joke based on misunderstanding. The problem here is that we don’t have a fucking laugh track or catch phrases!!
@bigd1992: Close, but no one in Western PA articulates an infinitive with the “to” included: eg, “I need run the sweeper.”
Entertaining Psychotic rage aside, this is of course a ‘stupid plot’ which requires one or more of the characters to be staggeringly dense. Of course this being FW finding characters who can fit bill is not hard to do.
Two things:
1. Since we never saw the actual presentation of the comic book collection from Holly to Cory, we don’t really have any idea of how he reacted and what kind of implicit or explicit expectations were placed on Cory as to what he could do with the collection. We do know that Cory went to a fair amount of trouble to try to keep the sale a secret, so there must have been some “understanding” between Holly and Cory that the collection is not something that was to be sold right away, and is meant to be kind of an investment in the future (the economy in Westview seems to be based on the comic book standard in the same way that US currency used to be based on the gold standard). Anyway, TB has failed to provide enough exposition over the long course of this story arc to explain Holly’s behavior in today’s strip.
2. I don’t know much about the Army, but I’m guessing that they are paid a salary on top of free housing and meals, and Cory would have had an opportunity to save some money during his deployment, at least enough to purchase a decent ring for Rocky. Based on all the hoopla surrounding Holly’s acquisition of the comic book collection, I have to assume it’s going to sell for a large sum of money – more than enough to buy a nice ring for Rocky, so it would seem there’s something else afoot.
Eh, I don’t know about Ohio, but mom always referred to vacuuming as “running the sweeper” here one state to the east.
It’s telling that the only subject matter that can rise such ire in a Funkateer is comic books.
You’re forgetting that time when Darin looked angry enough to kill somebody, and perhaps if his wife hadn’t held him back, he would have.
However, that was over the only thing in this silly world that’s more important than comic books: Lisa.