Author: ComicBookHarriet

Happy Father’s Day!

Big Daddy Batiuk decided that today, we get to create our own strip.

Here’s my version!

Okay. So it is really just an error that, as of the writing of this blog post, has been up all day and never corrected.

It’s not the only error born of laziness from this week.

For example.

Wait…

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiitttttttt…..

You mean to tell me, Summit Beach Park was…ALSO…a real place?

OH FOR PETE’S SAKE

Sigh.

I want this to be a lesson to all of you out in readerville: never take the apparent depth of the ad-hoc ‘research’ that we do on this blog as a completeness of perspective.

I was one quick Google search away from avoiding an unforced error. And for a moment, when I read iansdrunkenbeard’s post, the dumb egomonkey part of my brain wanted to smile and nod and play along like OF COURSE I knew that Summit Beach was also a real place. But I decided to fess up. Because it’s an important lesson.

I had taken what I’ve learned about the way Batty operates and my own experiences and presuppositions and decided that Summit Beach was fictional. Because from my more modern perspective it seemed far fetched to me that in real life, less than 30 miles from each other, there would be two waterside amusement parks, with roller coasters and midways and boat docks, and named dance halls that burned down.

But I was wrong. The 1900’s through the 1950’s was a different time. A time of more local amusements. A time when you could have a crowd of ladies dancing arm in arm with each other and no one would ever assume that meant the Wisteria Ballroom was a lesbian hotspot.

Does this mean that I was completely wrong, and that the Chippewa Lake Amusement Park was in no way an inspiration for all the Lucy/Lil/Eugene shenanigans? No.

Not according to this lovely little youtube video I found… (From the ironically tited DinkLife channel)

The location of Summit Beach Park was redeveloped as housing in the 60’s. So, unlike the Summit Beach of the Funkyverse, there was no abandoned park lingering on and decaying for decades that Lucy or Eugene or Lillian could wander around. That part of the afterlife of Chippewa Lake Park was stolen for the fiction.

But, while the Starlight Ballroom burned down in 2002, the real life Wisteria Ballroom met a firey end much earlier.

(Don’t think about how Pam is canonically 76. It will only hurt your brain)

And yes, the Summit Beach Dance Pavilion and Roller Rink looks much closer to the comics.

Interestly the entrance sign used for the park sometimes would revert to an older reference. An Ayers error!?

Also of note, remember a couple years ago, where Eugene went to a somehow now open Summit Beach and tried to drown himself with a dilapidated canoe?

That also is seemingly based on real life now. As just this summer, after years of planning and a couple seasons of construction, there is now a small park with concessions, a pavillion and complete with kayak rentals open at Summit Lake again.

That’s nice.

Yes, yes, I haven’t posted in forever, many thanks to Banana Jr 6000 and Narshe etc etc…

More importantly what the hell is going on this strip?

That is NOT the Starlight Ballroom in Chippewa Lake Park. THAT is an amalgamation of two different comic panels drawn decades apart, one of which included a different fictional band leader and band.

And the other, is a panel from Lillian’s imagined afterlife for Lucy. So don’t ask me how Eugene was able to pull a photograph from purgatory itself.

What unites the two, other than the copy pasting work of some poor computer intern posing as Dan Davis? They’re both supposed to be in the Wisteria Ball Room at Summit Beach Park!

This:

Is not Eugene and Lucy dancing at Chippewa Lake. Because it’s them at Summit Beach.

A location established as so important to Lucy that in the throes of dementia she somehow found her way there!

A location established for decades and decades. 30 years at minimum!

Now it’s pretty obvious, with only the barest bit of research, that Summit Beach Park was always based on the real life Chippewa Lake Park in Ohio, just south of Medina, which closed in 1978 after a hundred years of operation.

The grounds sat abandoned, the play place for vandals and urban explorers, slowly being consumed by nature and burned by arsonists for more than 40 years, providing reference photos for Batiuk to pass on to Ayers.

The ride track in the foreground was the Tumble Bug. Only one ride of its kind remains in operation at Kennywood.

I will say that the Wisteria Ballroom and the Starlight Ballroom don’t share much resemblance on the outside. Artistic license perhaps? After all ‘arcade’ literally means a whole bunch of arches. Wisteria looks more early 20th century amusement and looks less like a two story Village Inn.

Inside The Starlight Ballroom looked like this:

Until it looked like this:

And then in 2002 it looked like this:

(The Wisteria Ballroom was confirmed burned down in strips dating back to the 90’s btw. Did the Crankshaft strips inspire an arsonist? Was the arsonist Batiuk himself? Questions!)

Still, the most important question remains, what the heck is going on here?

A few possibilities.

1.) It’s an error. Batiuk is going senile, and is mixing up his fictional locations with the real world locations they’re based on.

But in Sunday’s strip we get those stupid ticket stubs in the title panel.

Lovingly copied from an Ebay listing photo.

Seems pretty specific and high effort to have ‘Davis’ pulling up. So what is going on? Gleeb over in the GoComics comments section may have figured it out.

So I’m putting my money on gleeb’s notion that Batiuk is choosing to muck around with 30 years of continuity and water down Summit Park as a place of importance to Lucy and Eugene in order to crowbar in a current local Ohio event. Banana Jr, put me down for betting that this whole stupid arc ends with Harry Dinkle directing his choir/band of geriatrics at the opening of the new Chippewa Lake Nature Park. Eugene will shed a single wistful tear as he watches on TV from the comfort of his prison or nursing home or anchorite’s cell or desert island or wherever he’s going.

Funny that Batiuk would look back so fondly on The Starlight Ballroom. That is where, in 1937, Lawrence Welk made his first radio broadcast. And Batiuk’s relationship with Welk is…fraught.

Funnier still that Ed Crankshaft is acting like he’s never heard the name Larry Dinkle before. Because his best friend for life, Ralph Meckler, played trumpet in his band.

lol

My life has been a chaotic mess lately. Last weekend saw the passing of the mother of my dearest best friend, roommate, soul sister, and the Blue Beetle to my Booster Gold. So much of the week was tied up in funeral and funeral reception planning.

Now planting is in full swing, and my Dad has decided he completely feels up to putting the corn in as long as someone else is loading the planter for him. So those lower on the farmer pecking order than him are getting really up close and personal with 50 pound bags of seed corn a half a dozen times a day.

Still, didn’t want the day to go unremarked upon. So a little snapshot of a momentous time in the story of the most complex, fraught, and toxic relationship in the Funkyverse. Jeff’s relationship with Rose. Someday, when the world calms down a bit, the crazy old bat is due for a deep dive!

First of all.. that Sadie Summers breakdown will go down in history as one of, if not THE, greatest introductory series of posts by a new host ever. Narshe…we stand in line!

Been so out of the loop the last couple months I didn’t even clock that the Ohioana Book Festival had been cancelled for 2026. Anyone else hear about this? Any one else comment about this already and I was so gassed out on rotten silage fumes I blocked the memory?

So I guess Batiuk can scratch 40% of his hard cover book sales for the year. What he’ll do with the surplus three volumes of The Complete Funky Winkerbean that he manages to pity sell to footsore festival goers, I have no idea. But I’m sure some door in his home will need propped open sooner or later.

But the strips were already written and pasted together a year in advance, so Ohioana Book Festival 2026 exists only in Crankshaft form.

Channeling my inner Iansdrunkenbeard…

On the family and farm front, my dad is recovering well. To the point I literally had to throw him out of a cattle sorting pen by pointing at the gate and barking ‘GO ON! GIT!’ at him like a misbehaving dog. Weather has been too cold and wet for planting, but the cows and calves are mostly out to pasture.

Son of Stuck Funky turns 16 years old this week!!! Celebrate with me that a child born when this shitposting haven started would now be legally allowed behind the wheel of a vehicle without adult supervision!!!

And what an auspicious start to our 16th year of nonsense. A brand new driver to take the wheel on posting duties and guide us through a scenic bus tour of Sadie Summers. Amazing, that this late in the game we’re still adding new crew to our roster. Narshe, we look forward to whatever you have in store for us.

Four years ago, when Funky Winkerbean was ending and Epicus and TFH were indicating they’d said pretty much everything they wanted to post about Batiuk’s silly universe, I had a big decision to make. I knew they’d let me truck on, but did I feel up to continuing?

I decided to keep the ball rolling, and I’m glad I did. You all have made it worthwhile, with your comments and engagement. New people keep finding this place. Old friends check in from time to time and make me smile. It is undoubtedly worth it.

But, let it be said, that I would have burnt out long ago if it weren’t for Banana Jr. 6000 stepping up to the plate and taking an equal, and sometimes outsized share of the workload. He’s the best. The bad cop to my good cop when it comes to prosecuting Batiuk. And taking the lead on some behind the scenes tech stuff I’m too analog brained to understand.

Thank you all for being here. And thank you all for the well wishes in the comments about my dad. He had a minor setback this week, a micro stroke which put him back in the hospital and made his projected road to recovery a bit longer. In some ways I’m back to where I was four years ago, with a big, long-running operation I have to keep rolling and decide what the future will bring.

But until all the grumpy old men in my life are ready to retire: Batiuk, Dad, Sorial Promise, I’ve decided I’m gonna keep it rolling, keep it Funky, keep it Cranky, and nitpick on!

Thanks for being here for the journey!