Redsnifit had this case half solved yesterday.
“The positioning of the lock knob suggests that the doors are hinged at the back, meaning the car is either very old (’60s or ’70s era) or a very expensive luxury car. The iPad holder appears to be sitting in the back, which suggests he has a driver. My guess is he’s a rich nerd who’s going to enable Pete’s lifestyle for the next few years.”
And the premier rich nerd of the Funkyverse is, of course, Chester the Chiseler.
However, no one could have predicted the vehicular carnage laid before us in panel one today. That swanky luxury car has either been curb-checked all the way up the light pole in front of it or, given how high the driver’s side front tire is, Chester’s chauffeur has parked atop a pedestrian.
I must applaud Batiuk for tackling the dangerous epidemic of fashion-frenzied limo services pairing sunglasses with darkly tinted windshields. Truly a sensitive treatment of important social and educational issues.
But our chauffeur has wisely worn gloves. No fingerprint as he disposes of the underclass wedged in the undercarriage.
And Chester is wearing a bolo tie. Really classing it up Hagglemore. Bravo.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Ugh, not this jerk again. Chester is the “bad” kind of comic book fan, only interested in hoarding and profit and not the “good” stuff associated with comic book fandom, like attics and cookies and milk and that special sense of togetherness and brotherhood that “real” comic book lovers share. Why this notion upsets BatNom so much I don’t know, but obviously it does and as usual he can’t let it go. His weird comic book hang-ups are our glacially-paced and woefully unfunny gain.
BWAWHAWHAWHAWHAW! I, Chester Chiseler will buy out the krappy Komix Korner and korner the market!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I … I really want to realign Chester’s face. I don’t mean to say this and sound nasty or anything like I want to punch the guy. I just really think his face is a little off-axis and if we could patch that up he’ll get a lot less wear on his tires and probably get another two or three miles per gallon.
Frankly, I’m mildly intrigued. Mostly because the last time a guy wearing sunglasses listed Komix Korner we got the greatest FW strip in history.
I had such high hopes when I saw this strip…such a let-down afterward. Shoulda been you, DSHJawn!
“Are you the owner of this place?”
“That’s right.”
… Does … that quite parse? I would accept real people having this exchange, since real people answer the question they think they heard. But why couldn’t Comic Book John answer “I am”? Or why couldn’t Secret Agent Dying Lisa ask “You are the owner of this shop?”
Or am I being too harsh? It’s easy to reflexively harsh on something that’s been good snark fodder, and to start picking on things that aren’t actually wrong, just personality? (See how I said, I’d accept that exchange as happening between two real people.)
Honestly, crap like this wouldn’t bother me nearly as much if Batiuk wasn’t so obviously stretching it out. He could’ve accomplished in one panel everything that’s happened already this week, just by showing Chester walking in the door of the store. I seriously can’t believe that even he thinks anyone, anywhere finds this suspenseful.
Oh, but he needs to set up Chester so we know what’s going on this week! If you didn’t know he has a chauffeur and a limo, we wouldn’t fully appreciate his awfulness as much as Batiuk wants us to!
Btw, wasn’t Chester originally introduced as living outside New York City?
Anyway, this is just more evidence that he’s never going to bring back any of the subsequent generation’s characters. If he has to devote three days to reestablishing Chester the Chiseler for the slower folks, he’s have to dedicate seven weeks or something to bring back Rana or Jinx. (Maddie not so much, since she’s just a one-note carbon copy of her idiot father)
Here we go with a glacially paced reminder that Batiuk holds comics fans who don’t “enjoy” comics with the right attitude (by which he means “actually enjoying them and enjoying being a fan”) in contempt. His mother issues foreclose on the possibility of his liking fanboy chic because if mothers are seen to understand and approve of something their children like, he can’t howl that noooooo, his mommy doesn’t love him.
I don’t know about that, Holly did collect all of Starbuck Jones for her son. And Crazy Harry’s wife was a video game nerd back in the day. But he built strawman Chester the Chiseler to pillory for being a RICH SNOB about his nerdery in a way that feels totally hypocritical.
You know unless you were an obsessive reader of this strip – like the folks who post on this blog – you wouldn’t have the vaguest idea of who this clown is – really how long has it been since he’s been seen in the strip?
i’m guessing the Author was trying for a ta da! reveal but i can only imagine for most casual readers the reaction would be ‘who is this?’
He was in one panel of my last run during the comics charity auction in November. But before that he was in the Funky/Dick crossover…was that 2014?
Specifically, this one:
https://comicskingdom.com/funky-winkerbean/2017-11-17
To be fair, I think this specific strip sets him up well. He’s obviously rich, he’s probably into comics given the location, and his punch-able face suggests he’s a jerk. Somebody looking at FW for the first time would probably understand his role immediately.
The problem is that instead of taking advantage of these cues to immediately convey who Chester is without wasting time, we’re no doubt going to be hit over the head with “This guy is a rich jerk!” for the next five days before anything happens. Hell, this is the *second day* of nothing but drawings of the Komix Korner’s front door.
What would be really peak Winkerbean would be if, consistent with Chester’s admonition to wait here, we got to see the rest of the meeting from the chauffer’s point of view, with all of the ‘action’ taking place off panel.
Kudos to whoever draws this stuff these days for their persistent, if pisspoor, efforts to draw straight lines freehand.
We’re going on about the “glacial pace” of this week’s FW arc. Meanwhile in Mark Trail, they’ve spent what seems like a solid month talking about circus/zoo animals in Lost Forest, and they’ve made zero progress in explaining how they got there.
You’ll be glad to know that James Allen considers that a “whimsical, brief tale.” I call it six weeks of filler in response to Rusty seeing his shadow.