Well folks, it was bound to happen. We’ve been skating on some thin legal ice here for quite a while and unfortunately it’s finally caught up with us. I have been informed that our humble blog has received a cease and desist order from King Features Syndicate regarding various copyright and trademark infringements, which means there are some immediate changes in store for our site.
For starters, we must change our site name and URL. Effective tomorrow we will be located at www.comicstripsnarkblog.com, so please update your bookmarks. We are also no longer permitted to link to the strips themselves, thus our readers will have to locate the strips themselves going forward. We apologize for this inconvenience, however continuing to link to the daily strips without paying a licensing fee could result in legal issues.
Going forward be advised that we may not use full character names, as those names have been trademarked. Posts where characters are referred to by their full names will be deleted. Also we have no choice but to ban all parody strips and right now we are in the process of deleting the old parody strips from the blog. We may decide to delete the archives entirely after we assess how much work will be involved in bringing it “up to code”. As we currently understand it, even using the word “funky” may be deemed infringement, which will be limiting to say the least.
We sincerely apologize to our loyal followers. This will mark my final post here, as I cannot risk the possibility of a protracted and expensive legal dispute. I may still comment from time to time, particularly regarding the crowdsourcing effort we’re setting up to help defray some of the legal expenses we’ve already accrued. I’d like to thank everyone on our site for their continued support through the years and I hope you’ll all consider donating to our legal defense fund if and when that becomes necessary. It’s been an honor and a privilege amusing you all through the years. If you have any questions or concerns please contact TFH at comicstripsnarkblogadmin@aol.com for more information. Thank you all and goodbye for now.
Son of Stuck Funky 
I got a very frightening email today, so I can confirm. I’m trying to delete my PS works and animations.
Is the lawyer who sent the cease and desist letter named Li5a Mo0r3? If so, I think there may be a legal loophole.
I got some emails about possible defamation for my prior critique of Batiuk’s depiction of women’s issues. They’re asking me to delete some of my best researched posts. Anyone know a good legal council looking to take the patriarchy down a peg?
What a turd. He’s now shut down the only people who paid attention to his shit comic.
I always thought that the vast majority of hits on TB’s blog and at CK were hate readers.
Todd proves, yet again, that he has no sense of humor.
I’ve gotten letters from King Features Syndicate and ICE regarding my profile pic. But my lawyer says that ICE can’t sue me without also suing Batiuk, so maybe I could take one for the team…
I wonder how long he’s been lurking here. And how far downhill is the bandleader/organist arc going to descend? See all you a the new site (hopefully).
Thanka for the memories.
That’s weak…
Wow, this is really sad news! As others have said, the only time I ever read these comics is here, so it’s not like his readership is magically going to increase suddenly.
Anyway, thanks so much for being one of the sites that has made me smile during this past wretched year, and best of luck to you in whatever you do next!!
I’ll bet that he’ll be going after the other comic snark sites as well.
Whatever this is, don’t think it’s Tom Batiuk’s doing. He has obviously known about this site for years and probably reads the blog. TomBat can’t help it if his corporate bosses somehow have decided this little site is somehow a threat to them
I think you could be right. Comics Kingdom has become massively money-grubbing lately.
This truly sucks! Fun’s fun, until somebody gets sued by someone with no sense of humor.
Thank you, ED, for all your work and all the laughs you’ve given us. Thanks to all who did the lead commentaries, and all who posted hilarious stuff here.
I was really looking forward to Banana Jr. 6000’s porno parody, too.
I always knew TB was lurking here!
I will post “Harry Dinkle and the Mysterious Organ” on Sunday. I don’t want to post it now, because some of the humor builds on real strips that haven’t run yet.
A lot of this seems extremely legally dubious, to say the least! Not much you can do if you don’t have the representation to tell them to pound sand, though.
But enough about legal stuff for now. We can still discuss the strip! We just have to play by the new rules, that’s all.
In today’s installment (April 1st 2021, if you’re looking it up later), we see…”Music Guy” telling the choir ladies that they need to sing louder. One older lady says that she’s out of breath and feeling dizzy. This makes Music Guy frown a big frown, because he has to put up with this weak crap. Except, y’know, he doesn’t. He volunteered for this gig. No, wait, he didn’t even do that; he volunteered for the organist gig, and they slapped on the choir director role after he accepted. So he has no one to blame but himself, twice over. Plus, y’know, it’s a sweet old lady who’s out of breath, so frowning at her automatically makes him a jerk.
More importantly, SHE doesn’t have to put up with it. These are not 14-year-olds who lack the wherewithal or social status to stand up to this kind of treatment. These are adults.
There’s also a tone problem. The old “Dinkle is making the band practice until 3 AM again” bit worked in Act I because of its more irreverent tone. Now that everything is so real and serious and “a quarter inch from reality”, this just comes off as selfish bullying. Which it is.
Argh, that sucks. That stinks so much. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been an honor. I mean that sincerely!
FUCK YOU KING FEATURES SYNDICATE!
FUCK YOU TOM BATIUK!
You guys! I got an email from their lawyer Dick Hertz, (how did they even find my email address?) who informed me that I needed to post a long apology for everything that I’ve said here dating back to July 2011, which I am still composing. Also, I can continue to discuss the strip here if every time I refer to the Bearded Dick with Ears, I call him “Les Moore, Our Lord and Humble Savior, who is superior to me in every fashion” and if I don’t phrase it in that exact way each time, they’re going to take my house! So fuck, I’m not sure how much longer I can post here about Les Moore, Our Lord and Humble Savior, who is superior to me in every fashion, especially if Batiuk goes back to the movie plotline, which will require me to refer constantly to Les Moore, Our Lord and Humble Savior, who is superior to me in every fashion. I mean, I can’t STAND Les Moore, Our Lord and Humble Savior, who is superior to me in every fashion. I mean, virtually every single sequence here at least tangentially refers to Les Moore, Our Lord and Humble Savior, who is superior to me in every fashion, and for those that don’t, they’re often featuring Harry L. Dinkle, A Veritable Superman Among Men, Who Is The Greatest Character Ever Created. And man, those weeks featuring Harry L. Dinkle, A Veritable Superman Among Men, Who Is The Greatest Character Ever Created are an enormous drag.
I can only imagine the absolute clusterfuck for me if there’s a crossover sequence featuring Harry L. Dinkle, A Veritable Superman Among Men, Who Is The Greatest Character Ever Created and Les Moore, Our Lord and Humble Savior, who is superior to me in every fashion. I could lose my house and my car! And what would happen if Darin Fairgood, The Powerfulest and Handsomest Protagonist You’ve Ever Read showed up?
Hmmm, is it April 1 already?
Is it? I hadn’t even noticed.
It does appear that the folks at comicstripsnarkblog have masterfully April Fooled us.
Re today’s strip – If TomBa did his research, he would know that most churches now have sound systems that include microphones in the choir loft.
Aww wait, is it really just an April Fool’s joke? If so, dammit — you got me!! Also, if so, yahoo!!
Technically this was posted on March 31st…
I was two time zones over at the time.
I hear Greenland is lovely this time of year.
Delightful, but pack a parka and extra socks. It’s a lot like Ohio but way fewer pizzerias and comic book stores.
I’m a trademark attorney and the threat of trademark litigation stinks to high heaven. Stinks like Skunky Stinkerbean, if you must know.
Kudos to Epicus for coming up with this April Fools gag, and to the SoSF staff for playing along. And a big thank you to the readers who expressed outrage at the idea of SoSF being shut down by the man! We’re committed to continuing as the Web’s Premiere Source for F*nky W*nkerbean snark until Batiuk retires. Those of you who haven’t been with us for the past almost eleven years: in 2012, Batiuk actually did sic his lawyers on us (and on the original Stuck Funky, which begat SoSF). Read all about it here.
Yes, I’m pleased to report that our legal issues have been resolved. We had to buy a copy of the Trilogy, a Crazy Harry coffee mug and two pairs of Dinkle marching shoes. Harsh, yes, but worth it if only to put this ugliness to bed.
The link to today’s strip is the comma after “themselves”, by the way.
You think that’s bad, Batty made me eat a Luigi’s pizza as my punishment!
So SoSF once got a real letter saying “Please ensure there is no unauthorized use of the Funky Winkerbean name, trademark,or comic strips in the future.” That’s pretty goddamn rich coming from a comic strip that routinely does this:
I don’t see any (C) or TM* or any other marks indicating Funky Winkerbean has permission to use these copyrighted, trademarked characters. These aren’t ersatz versions, they’re genuine. There is no fair use justification in evidence. The ungrateful prick doesn’t even acknowledge the author, like Bloom County did in their closing arc where everyone got jobs in other comics strips. And look, it says copyright Batom, Inc.! I guess Tom Batiuk owns Batman, Robin, and Spiderman now! He sure he acts like he does.
Boy, Les sure is lucky that they didn’t switch costumes, or else he might have married Funky by mistake!
Dang, I bought the whole thing! Well played everyone!
I’m glad I read the comments before posting how sad I was to hear about all this! You got me.
Well played Sir, Well played. You had me until I remembered what day it was.
Kudos again to all of you at SoSF. The premise of your joke rang true on so many levels. Knowing of the action against Stuck Funky and remembering the speculation about TomBa’s apparent presence few years ago on Comics Kingdom’s comment section under a defunct superhero avatar reeled me right in. Does anyone remember the exact name of the commenter at CK who appeared to be TomBa? I think it was something containing “Red”.)
RedRonin?
I think it was one of his KSU buddies, the same ones who wrote glowing Amazon reviews for Lisa’s Story
That’s it! Thanks for the additional info. I was commenting on CK back then (before I found this fantastic site) and remember a number of people were speculating that RedRonin was TomBa. If memory serves, RedRonan was eventually banned.
From what I’ve read over there, CK seems easy to get banned from. The banter here is far superior anyway.
Probably true. I’ve paid scant attention to the CK comment section since I discovered SoSF.
You had me going until the third paragraph and then I remember what day it is. Well done and well played!!
Wow I was totally fooled and bummed to lose one of my favorite corners of the internet.
So you pranked us on April Fool’s Day? Piker! In the Funkyverse it’s prank-the-readers every day!
Awwwwww, you got me!!! xD Aww, man! Hahaha!
FUNKY WINKERBEAN IS FUCKING SHIT
Oh thank goodness that Bill Clinton reads SOSF!
Do you suppose Batiuk fell for this? Can you imagine his reaction? “The lawyers shut down this terrible vicious site–and they didn’t inform me? Why didn’t they consult me first? I’m important, damn it!”
So glad I came back and read the stack of comments today! I was aware of the prior run-ins with the original site, so I totally fell for this. Well played, crew! This might be the time to thank you all for the enjoyment I get out of visiting here-I actually dreamed recently that I went to Cleveland to a fan show and met Tom himself-and heaven help me he looked just like Les.
Carry on, snarkers!
Sorry about that, gang and thanks for the outpouring of anger, it’s appreciated. As far as the Thursday strip is concerned, LOL the elderly women are struggling… simply hilarious. Sigh.
Whew. When I read the post last night I was outraged and saddened. I was going to post something, but instead just went to bed. When I awoke this morning and saw the date on my clock I thought “Son of gun! They got me!” I’ve never been more relieved about being fooled.
It’s been awhile since I fell so hard for an April Fool’s gag. Well played!