Today’s strip is up. And looks like when Batiuk released poor Burchett from his prison of half smirks, beady eyes, and morphing noses, he still retained his skills for comics covers. Anyone know when exactly Ayers took back over? There’s a some tea hiding behind the scenes that I’d like spilled.
Pretty exciting cover. Especially since apparently all these Stardusters can breathe in space.
Welp. I’m outta here. The ever talented and insightful Beckoning Chasm is taking over the pilot’s seat. If anyone can make beautiful snark out of the depressing malaise of a two dimensional universe slowly decaying through entropy, it’s our resident abstract artist.
If anyone can truly understand the twisted psyche of Tom Batiuk, it’s a man capable of painting something like this and calling it, “Sleep”
Son of Stuck Funky 
Callisto? TomBa does seem to have a fixation on Jupiter’s moons.
Which, of course, is better than being obsessed with Uranus.
I’d say that Bathack had set this schlock on Kallisto (asteroid #204) but that would imply he knows the difference between that asteroid and the fourth Galilean moon. Which doesn’t have an atmosphere worth mentioning, and is so cold you’d freeze solid in that converted speedboat. And what’s with that lizard and the mutant Lewis gun? Try aiming that thing, Ick-gwanna!
The Stadusters are the classic Five Man Band trope:
The Leader – The basic aryan piloting the space convertible
The Lancer – The robot, all protagonist robots are smartasses
The Big Guy – Alien tail-gunner, probably a “noble savage” stereotype
The Chick – The chick
The Smart Guy – Pete isn’t capable of writing a character that could be described as “smart”, so N/A
Being the unrepentant comic book geek that I am, I would just like to point out that Dave Cockrum and Chris Claremont debuted the Starjammers in 1977’s “X-Men” #107. Said squad of cosmic adventurers at the time consisted of dashing Leader Corsair (Cyclops and Havok’s pa, Christopher Summers), half-robotic Lancer Raza, reptilian alien Big Guy Ch’od, and gun-toting skunk-humanoid Chick Hepzibah (her name a shout-out to the comic strip “Pogo”). Their ship’s AI, “Waldo,” came along later and would qualify as Smart Guy. How original this whole thing is on Battyuk’s part.
And while I hate to beat a dead horse, all of a sudden Atom-Hack Komix is going to up their four-person staff’s monthly output of books from five to six without trying out the new characters in an existing title first? TB thinks this is how actual comic book companies operate?
This cover is such a shitstain that it turned Mopey’s shirt brown.
What’s funny, Pete, is that Hoagy Carmichael’s estate was thinking they’d give you a subpoena.
Oh, fuck you, Tom Batiuk. You did that Ruby Lith arc about women being treated unfairly in the comic book industry, and your idea of a punchline is “I’ll give half creator credit to Hoagy Carmichael!” And not the two women we just saw actually create the idea.
There you go. In the Funkyverse the female characters are the genius savants who off-handedly blurt out wise globs of raw comic book material for the benefit of the men folk who’ll shape them into fully formed comic book ideas.
Hoagy Carmichael? If a man has to get the blame here, make it Eddie Rabbitt. He deserves the notoriety just for inflicting “I Love A Rainy Night” on the world. (He claims it took him twelve years to create that abomination, a record that Todd must envy.)
And once again, we’re seeing an in-strip version of that irritating feature on his blog that has him talk about covers that make him want to buy things. What they make me want to do is join Becky’s mom in trying to have comic books banned,.
And most of the covers he picks to talk about are utterly unremarkable. But filled with commentary like “I’d pick this one up just because of the cover, because I did!” YOU’RE 73 YEARS OLD, TOM. Lots of adults still buy comic books, but not for the same reasons as when they were 12.
I know the Comics Code stamp has long been abandoned by real comics, but why is it on the masthead rather than the actual cover?
Funny, I thought Rick Burchett’s name had two “T”s at the end, but there it is with just one. Still, Batiuk ought to know, right?
You’re right, it’s two T’s. Sheesh, Batiuk can’t be bothered to get the man’s name right, even after he worked for him?
What should we expect from the “comic book fan” who misspelled the name of one of Superman’s creators (Joe Shuster), a sin akin to a history buff spelling the 16th President as “Abraham Linkoln.”
1 – God i hate the smirks –
2 – as noted elsewhere Pete was inspired (such as it was) by two women not Hoagy C.
3 – This is not a good cover the action is confusing at best – is the robot arm guy trying to rescue the woman or toss her off it’s hard to tell with the angles. And just how and when did she fall off if she fell off it’s not that clear.
4 – The comic book creative process isn’t this simplistic and wasn’t even during the silver age – Jimmy Olsen comics featuring him in drag or marrying a gorilla notwithstanding.
Just another day in the Fungyverse!
Jimmy in drag marrying a gorilla…that would have been the ultimate Silver Age cover!