Mother-in-laws….amirite? I mean come on. What’s a fella to do? One dame at home is plenty and I already have a dog to fetch my pipe, slippers and tumbler of scotch, thank you very much. What an old bag and so forth. And now the Copa is proud to introduce…Mr. Henny Youngman!
So another three hundred and sixty-five FW strips are in the bag. It sure looks like a lot when you spell it out like that. I mean you can say the same thing about any Act III year but man, 2018 was a real shit pile, even by FW standards. Exactly four things happened in FW in 2018.
Pete and Boy Lisa left Hollywood and began working for a whimsical Ohio-based komix book company. Mindy later joined them. They presumably still work there.
Wally, who may or may not be over the worst of his PTSD, invited his apparently estranged daughter Rana to Thanksgiving dinner. She accepted.
Bull’s rushing record was broken.
Funky’s mother-in-law visited Westview for a band competition and may remain there until she dies.
Pete and Boy Lisa’s unholy alliance with Chester was by far the dominant story arc of 2018 but even so, after all that time and all that toil he’s still only at the “they work there now” part of the story, which is exactly where it’ll resume and exactly where it’ll end next time as well. And what did we learn about our old pal Wally during his nearly two month long forced march of an arc? Well, apparently he’s “almost” about to graduate and he “seems” to be “doing better”, which is hardly news. He did invite his apparently estranged and seldom-seen daughter to dinner, though, which is where the story left off. Yup, that’s some real compelling character development right there.
Pervert Mort made a late run there at the end but the RRRRRRRR thing in the Wally arc was probably the single dumbest FW moment of the year in my opinion. 2018’s SoSF Most Reviled Player award (the “Les Moore Award”) goes to Les Moore, obviously, although the overall lack of Les was 2018’s sole bright spot. Pete and Boy Lisa are co-runners-up, though. It’s easy to forget now but that AK idiocy went on for freaking months.
Son of Stuck Funky 
I’ve never seen more candy canes in hot chocolate mugs than in this strip.
” I figured they were swizzle sticks laced with cyanide.”
Naw, if they were, Holly would have said, “Now don’t be that……….”
This must have been drawn by a guest artist since they’re only holding the mugs with one hand.
Heck, the year won’t even be new from the readers’ perspective…
Last year we had Funky going to an AA meeting to whine about the sad state of the world.
The year before we had Holly’s hot flashes putting Funky into a boredom-induced coma.
The year before that Funky got banned from giving toasts for being too much of a pill for even his chronically depressed friends.
The year before that Funky and Holly reflected on becoming old and decrepit.
The year before that Funky embarrassed Cory in front of Rocky by being old and decrepit.
Gee, I wonder why they didn’t get invited to any parties this year.
Mother in law jokes…
I’d rather watch Crankshaft not understand how taking pictures of meals works…….
Not to mention the weird domestic situation Boy Lisa’s move created. Jessica and Schuyler were left behind in LA. Jessica may be filming documentaries for Cindy but any exploration of that whole conundrum has been abandoned (and probably forgotten).
On the production front, Chuck Ayers seems to have unretired and Rick Burchett has disappeared entirely.
Funky Winkerbean has become Pluggers in reverse…senior citizen humans who resemble animals. It’s the same subject matter.
Actually, Skyler is in Ohio getting free day care from Fishsticks Annie, so Jessica has zero incentive to wrap things up in Hollywood and come join them.
2019 is shaping up to be the year of the Mother-in-Law.
I forgot that detail. Thanks. TomBa does show remarkable efficiency in eliminating the “Icky Gurls”. Maybe that’s why we haven’t returned to Atomik Komix now that Mindy’s working there.
It’s funny because Melinda (I hate that I know her name) doesn’t have a proper bed to sleep in and has been kept up well past her bedtime. On the upside, she’ll be dead and buried in the proximity of her former friends soon.