Sixty-one words (if Mary Jane is two words) and a shit-ton of ellipsis(s)…that’s not a word balloon, it’s a word billboard. At least all the characters are easily identifiable by name now. Check out the look on Morton’s face, he’s eyeing up those church ladies like he’s standing at the supermarket deli counter. That Ricca seems somewhat interested, at least. She also appears to be a solid forty years younger than the rest of the choir, which leads me to believe there’s some sort of demented back story there, but as it involves that other comic strip of his, I don’t care.
So Carl plays the trumpet while on oxygen? Seems counterproductive to me, but then again he really doesn’t have a lot to lose at this point, as he’s already clearly bottomed out.
Son of Stuck Funky 
That poor black cat wonders how it had the bad luck to end up in this strip.
As soon as Dinkle touched him, he started dying.
He absorbed the sins of his creator, T’homus Baa-tyuk.
“Ladies’ man” Morton? “LADIES’ MAN” Morton? If his nursing home behavior makes him a “ladies’ man” in the Funkyverse, what’s Harvey Weinstein, a shy Romeo? And did some of the St. Spires biddies get hair coloring done since their last appearance? I could swear more than two of them had gray hair before. And why does Lillian look like she’s chomping down on a chaw of tobaccy?
Lastly, kudos for the Roger Maris reference.
Thanks J.J. The asterisk is in case Mary Jane is one word.
These folks must have cleaned out the clearance sweater section at Kohl’s.
Oh looks, it’s Dinkle being self-important again. Who does he think he is, Elwood Blues?
“it’s 106 months to retirement. We got a full year of strips, a half dozen punchlines, it’s dark, and I don’t care anymore.”
Well, they are on a mission from God, right?
Rubber biscuits and wish sandwiches will be served.
“This is glue. Strong stuff.”
The inhaling of same would go a long way to explaining Battyuk’s “artistic” choices.
Walt’s apprehension at being inside a church might be justifiable, as it appears that he’s melting into the background here.
Bingo is looking rather demonic today.
“Last but not least, Ladies Man Mort. What a caution he is! Mort, who are you planning to rape first, you rapscallion?”
Introductions? What a waste of a strip. I don’t think that up to now the members of the choir have been identified aside from Lillian. How does this advance the story at all?
And it looks like TomBa is going with the oversexed and predatory Mort theme as the leitmotif of this arc.
Today’s strip somewhat reminds me of a basketball game at my high school. They’d take the time to introduce all the players, even from the visiting teams. The P.A. announcer would introduce a visiting player only to be met with a chorus of “Who cares?!” from the student section.
Once the game started, you’d refer to the player by their jersey number anyway.
So basically, my response to today’s
comicstrip is, WHO CARES?!Ricca looks like she might be on the positive side of the graveyard. What’s she doing in this group?
Ricca looks like she ought to be hanging out with Marianne or something. How’d she end up hooking up with the St. Spires crowd?
It’d be pretty interesting if a way younger woman suddenly started “dating” Morton, much to Funky’s consternation. Then Wally would somehow learn that she’s just bilking Morton and that it’s actually Frankie pulling the strings, at which point Les would get involved and with Boy Lisa’s help they’d…whoops, I got all Act II there for a second.
Magnificent.
What’s great is how well the altered dialog matches the facial expressions.
I prefer to call it “improved dialogue”.
Yes, you improve it greatly!
More of this, please.
As if this strip didn’t have enough named characters. I doubt that Batiuk himself could remember who’s who within a week of writing this, so why does he expect us to care more than he does?
Here’s how this introduction would really go:
“Ladies, let me introduce the Bedside Manorisms! They are lead by Harry S. Dinkle, The World’s Greatest Band Director! They were trained by Harry S. Dinkle. Their first album was produced by Harry S. Dinkle. And this is the St. Spires Church Choir, directed by Harry S. Dinkle! Did you know Harry S. Dinkle is going to be in the Rose Parade? You can help by buying one of these Thanksgiving turkeys from Harry S. Dinkle himself! That’s Harry S. Dinkle, The World’s Greatest Band Director, Rose Parade, January 1st on CBS. I suppose you guys will be working together, but I never learned any of your names.”
Now you’ve done it. If you say Harry S Dinkle 13 times, ghost Lisa appears.
I only said it 7 times, so I guess we’ll just get a floating torso. Besides, the entire team of Venkman, Stantz, Spangler and Zeddemore couldn’t keep Ghost Lisa out of Funky Winkerbean.
I can already picture Les at his next goddam book signing, as if his “learning to appreciate what I have” revelation never even happened.
Thank heavens they brought Iris! What’s a New Orleans funeral march without violin players?
Apparently, Batyuk doesn’t know the difference between New Orleans-style jazz and jazz fusion.
Batyuk: “Yeah, that feller Jean-Luc Ponty plays a nifty violin. He speaks french. That means he’s from New Orleans. Right?”
Batiuk’s lack of research is perplexing. In less than five minutes I learned what a “New Orleans Funeral” is, and also what is typical of New Orleans-style jazz (i.e. no violins).
The trope that a predatory, handsy creep who leers at every woman he sees is a “ladies’ man” has absolutely got to go. It’s the equivalent of calling an angry old fart who uses words like nigger, chink, and kike a “charmingly old-fashioned gent who speaks his mind.”
No. There’s nothing charming about intimidating people just because you think you can get away with it.
Sorry for soapbox, but after Weinstein and Cosby and countless me-too stories, it’s hard to credit how blazingly retrograde Tom’s mentality is. He’s all woke about gay rights and climate change, but women being fully human is his blind spot.
Batiuk is retrograde, but he thinks he’s so damn progressive. Women are little more than providers of domestic services, poorly written award-chasing, and romantic partners whenever Batiuk decides a man needs one.
Les still hasn’t moved past his wife who died in 2007. He shouldn’t even be dating, much less re-married for a decade. He doesn’t give a shit about Cayla, except for the role she plays in his grieving fetish. Pete should be married to comic books, not an actual woman who would seem to have better options available. And they’re both just delighted with it all! It never even occurs to Batiuk that female characters might have ambitions of their own. Even if it’s only to be married to someone who’s not a complete selfish jackass.
Becky had dreams of learning at the Julliard School of Music, but we all know how that turned out. Silly girl. In the Battyverse, dreams are for dudes.
Adding insult to injury, she ends up married to Skunkhead and gets badgered daily by her “unpaid assistant” Harry Dinkle.
Cheer up, Becky. Some day it will all be over.
“Ladies’ man” Morton? Ugh.
Is his eyebrow stuck that way?
Here’s hoping the St. Spires choir is ladies-only because they’re a witches’ coven. Please turn the leering Mort into a frog ASAP.
If I had a dollar for every time I called Lillian a witch over in Crankshaft, I’d be rich.
Maybe Ricca, the young blonde, is going to have Morton’s child Morton may be senile but viagra does wonders Funky could get a new little brother! What a plot twist!
I think this is one more example of how Batiuk fails to consider how different people might react to a situation and just presumes that everyone will feel the same way he does. He thinks everything elderly people do is hilarious, so obviously Mort behaving like a sexual predator at age 90 is hilarious and a big ol’ joke for everyone.
I used to volunteer for festivals and local charities, and a local DA got the reputation as a “ladies man”, and no one who would refer to him in such a fashion viewed it as charming. It was actually gross knowing that at any event: a cocktail party, a potluck, a silent auction, etc. he’d be there smarming up to one or more of the most attractive women in attendance. He got a reputation from it and it was something we’d have to uncomfortably work around since he was a prominent local figure and often gave large sums to whichever charity/non-profit was hosting the event.
The worst was a film festival where there were actual Hollywood people in attendance (you guys would have heard of the people I’m referring to), and those of us who were on floor duty were told to keep the DA away from the young VIP actresses (who were at least 15 years younger than him) because we were all sure he was going to hit on them, which would almost certainly result in many VIPs not coming the following year.
It’s not cute. It’s disgusting. And Dinkle shouldn’t view it as charming. He should be, if nothing else, annoyed that one of his four band members is going to blow off his responsibilities to the band and the project in order to seduce one of his choir members.