So we’re now in day two of Young Harry being baffled that a thing such as “comic book store” exists. And we also have Old Harry naming John Howard to someone in the past, which is extra funny because he still hasn’t mentioned having a wife or daughter.
And it’s also just a terrible thing to do if you’ve travelled back in time to the past. I expect tomorrow that he’ll tell his young self about the collapse of the USSR, 9/11 and COVID-19. Who am I kidding, I doubt Harry cares about those or even noticed they happened. This week will probably just end with the two of them hugging and consoling each other about the Death of Superman.
I feel like Batiuk missed a major setup for a Funko Pop related joke, given that one of Harry’s closest friends is named Funky.
Son of Stuck Funky 
“And John Howard will marry a woman named Becky, who will lose her arm when Funky’s nephew gets loaded and crashes his car, thereby ruining her promising trombone career. Funky’s nephew will then join the army, where he’ll be held captive in Afghanstan for years. Then he’ll escape with help from a guy named Khan, who’ll later open a short-lived deli near Montoni’s.”
(Young Crazy slowly backs away to the door, then breaks into a full sprint)
Damn it, man! You missed the chance to clown on Batiuk by switching Wally from Funky’s nephew in paragraph 1 to Funky’s cousin in paragraph 2.
They’re definitely cousins though, because otherwise Funky would have a sibling who we’ve never seen and who played no role whatsoever in their son’s reintegration into society after returning as a POW *twice*.
Komix “Corner”?!
*sigh*
You know, I can’t even feign surprise for humorous effect any more…
No prob BTS. I got it.
SHOCK! Tom didn’t proofread his comic! Who is driving? Bear is driving! HOW CAN THIS BE?
No, it’s Toonces at the wheel!
“I got the reference!”
That may have been one of the first things I ever watched on then-nascent Youtube, actually.
I’m sure I’ll regret this, in that pointing this out will only lead to me reading another boring day of this lousy Funky Winkerbean plot … but there doesn’t seem to be a link to today’s strip.
You asked for it!
Thanks, fixed!
Thanks! As it turns out, the strip was lousy and boring, and I do regret asking for it!
What a bizarre, terrifying silhouette of Old Crazy Harry in panel 1!
Reminiscent of the one with Mort being an affable and insufferable horndog with Lillian in the van.
Very John “Elephant Man” Merrick. “I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!”
Oh, ha-ha, confusion over how a word can have different meanings in different eras. A splendid example is from the 1929 talkie “Broadway Melody,” where Bessie Love tells an annoying character “Screw!” Back then it meant “Scram!”
But I’m sure we could all say that word in both the 1929 and modern sense.
Wait, doesnt young Crazy already know John? Don’t they go to high school together?
I wondered the same thing, but I think John appeared during Wally’s first MIA experience and that his origin before owning the comics store has never been addressed.
The mold in his Batman t-shirt became sentient. That’s why he can never take it off.
DSH John seems to be of an age with Becky, who would be a generation younger than Crazy and crew. Not sure when he showed up in Act II, but it was before Wally left the first time.
1. And here I was foolishly hoping this arc wouldn’t have anything to do with comic book geekdom… At the bare minimum I was thinking Harold would tell himself about the advances in video gaming but that’s never been Batiuk’s forte…
2. In addition to lacking ambition, Young Harold is surprisingly indifferent about knowing anything of his future…
3. Why even place this flashback in Montoni’s on April 15, 1980 if no other characters show up and the specific date has nothing to do with anything? Batiuk could have just drawn the entire scene in a cloudy void instead of wasting time establishing the “scenery”
It’s like Batiuk selected the date to emphasize the boringness of the plot.
If you look at what happened on April 15 in the 20th century, it’s quite a lot, but 1980 nothing happened and actually it’s almost in the middle of the longest period in 20th century when nothing happened on April 15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_15#1901%E2%80%93present
“Day two of being amazed that comic books exist”? Like the entire week isn’t going to be this.
Get help, Tom.
So this is what happens. Young Crazy thinks having a comic book store above Montoni’s is a great idea. So after old Crazy leaves, he starts plotting to get the store for himself before John gets it Years later he does So when Old Crazy is horrified to find that the store is now called ‘Crazy’s Comics’ and he now owns it! He has unintentionally changed history by going to the past and giving his younger self John’s idea Old Crazy is overcome with guilt and sets out to find whatever happened to John
Yeah really. Last week was nothing but Harry worrying “oh no, will I cause a temporal anomaly?” when he now seems to be actively trying to cause one.
Deutscher defeats Eckels, and there’s a sound of thunder. Holy Ray Bradbury, Batman!
And what’s with Crankshaft today? A watering ban in April? It’s been raining nonstop here for days. I think this strip should have been scheduled for August.
Perhaps a product of TB moving Crankshaft forward in time to match Act II FW… Who knows what month it is in Centerville anymore?
On the Funkyblog today, Tom Batiuk is having his “On 9/11, I had finally reached people” moment. Read this to yourself in Tim Negoda’s voice and try not to laugh.
“And then the darkness flew in like the Nazgûl of Sauron on 9/11.”
Except that in LOTR Mordor has been a known direct threat to all of Middle Earth for some time. The shock of 9/11 was the unexpected coordinated attack on New York and DC.
And the strip itself is just as vacuous and self-aggrandizing as Tim Negoda’s “imagine all the people” strip:
I don’t know how soon this ran after the attacks and what we knew about the attackers by then, but this hasn’t aged well.
The date appears to be 10/5/2001.
He was finally talking about what HE wanted to talk about.
Nazgul.
I actually cracked myself up just remembering that bit while I was making dinner last night. We miss you, Dan Ronan.