Mindy continues to play editor in today’s strip. Just think, had she been employed at Atomik Komix from the very beginning then we Chester might not have had to endure the launch title flop that was The Inedible Pulp.
How does Mindy know that Armorilla is not so named because her super power is skin that is as tough as armor? Oh right, because she knows as well as we do that TB, Pete, and Durwood are not creative enough to come up with something like that. Frankly, “Armorilla” sounds more like she should be a clothed gorilla adversary of Atomic Ape and Charger Chimp (ugh) than a presumably human villainess who fights someone called The Scorch. One might think that wearing lots of armor would be easily exploited by a superhero called The Scorch, who surely has heat-oriented powers. None of these characters = “one”.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Armorilla, Weaponamundo, Binocular Guy and The Negotiator…the AK “Mediocre Four”. They don’t have “adventures” as much as they sometimes participate in random occurrences. So anyway, why is Pete shooting comma eyes there at Boy Lisa in panel two? He has a sort of barely-perceptible smirk going there, does this imply that he saw this coming and set his old pal up for one of Mindy’s withering critiques?
Nah, just kidding. It’s lousy writing and bad artwork is all. By the end of the week after BanTom gets tired of coming up with idiotic superhero names, Mindy will be as much of a blithering moron as the other two are, as by then whatever this is will have devolved into wordplay and puns, like every arc does.
Tomorrow: “Hey Mindy, what do you think of our new superhero duo, ‘The Daring Darrin’ and his sidekick ‘Pint-Size Pete’?”
It would explain an awful lot, and really is just the next stage in Batiuk’s wish fulfillment fantasies.
The Dimwitted Duo. Their superpower would be repelling women.
“OH NO! THERE’S ONE NOW! QUICK, BOY LISA!”
(Boy Lisa reaches for special felt-tip on belt, begins sketching huge-breasted cartoon woman)
“Ewww. You guys are disgusting. Grow up.”
“She’s gone! Good work, ol’ chum!”
Oh, no! She’s going to inspire Dopey Peat to create Atomik Komix’s newest series, “The Working Dead.”
I was wondering about that, too. She probably died of boredom.
I ain’t too bright, but this is how I read this strip:
Mindy is offended by a scantily clad woman in a comic book.
If this is the case, she was never really a fan of the comical books in the first place. My limited comic book experience revealed that the human form, male and female, was exposed to ita maximum effect.
Coming next week (contains spoilers): Mindy pitches her superhero idea…”Jane”…the frumpily-dressed female superhero who thwarts super-villains with her unassuming-yet-quietly confident nature. Pete and Boy Lisa begin to communicate with one another solely via eye gestures and smirks.
Via The Daily Cartoonist: peep this list of comic strips which ceased production for U. S. newspapers in 2018. Yes, Henry dated to the 1930’s, and Hazel originated in 1943, but neither strip had any pretenses at Art. And Pirhana Club a.k.a. Ernie was really quite funny. A couple others of these I never heard of, but the shittiest of them would be a far worthier use of ink and paper than Act III Funky Winkerbean.
The whole comic strip industry is so mysterious and shrouded in mystery. Who chooses which comics get published and on what criteria? Are they ever subject to review and renewals? Who decides to cancel and/or stop running a particular comic? What’s the criteria for that? How many people are still reading the comics in 2019 and how does the industry generate revenue?
I mean FW is chugging along into its rather incredible forty-seventh year, a run that absolutely boggles the mind when you take into account how obscure and crappy it is. It never ceases to amaze me. Aside from a few books there isn’t any official FW merchandise. No calendars, no Christmas ornaments, no refrigerator magnets, no action figures or (ugh) plush toys or some sort of online subscription-only archive. And he never pimps anything in the strip other than his own crap, so how exactly does FW continue to remain profitable in any way? It baffles me.
If only Dairy Queen had inked a marketing deal with Batiuk instead of Hank Ketcham back in the 1970s! Can you imagine a Les Moore collectable head cup like this?
Syndicated comic strips and fast food franchises have a LOT to answer for in terms of endangering our oceans!
I think he did well with all the Marching Band merchandise. He also does small projects for the Ohio Music Educators Association. (OMEA).
All that other stuff is just too low brow for him.
But back to your original point, the comics industry is indeed a mystery. Do they look at numbers from Comics Kingdom and other newspaper sites?
Everyone interested in such things has at least a passing familiarity with how the movie, TV, music and publishing industries work, but does anyone outside The Syndicate know the ins and outs of the comic strip business? Who sits atop this industry? Who pulls the strings? How’d they get the job? It is all just a huge scam? Someone really needs to write a book about this.
“You’re right Mindy! We’ll redraw her in a metal burka!”
Adeela’s back in superhero form. Her weakness is her eyesight. That’s why she couldn’t see her adopted father from across the classroom during their freshman orientation class.
The word I hear when I sound that out is “armadillo” so I would have assumed that they were talking about an anthro with the power to roll into a angry living wrecking ball. That’s just me, though. Derpwood and Lethargy Lad are obviously plagiarizing the Female Furies.
Mopey Pete pleasures himself with the young men’s-inspired Armor-dildo…