HeyItsDave

Been Nice Knowin’ Ya, Bull.

So today’s strip confirms what the SoSF community has been speculating all along – Bull has CTE. Maybe. See, what Batty isn’t saying is that CTE can’t really be diagnosed until a post-mortem examination of the brain is made during autopsy.

There’s hope for Bull yet, though. Funky’s dad Mort has made a remarkable recovery from the vegetative state he was in when Funks dumped him into Bedside Manor. Dinkle stopped being deaf when our backs were turned, as Dinkles often do. And don’t forget Wally: he came back from Afghanistan with PTSD and without the ability to recognize faces and look at him now, all goin’ to school an’ sayin’ hi to folks he recognizes and carving out a normal life with a hot redhead who seems to have conveniently forgotten about her kid.

(With all that miraculous healing going on in Westview, the Lourdes of Ahia, you have to wonder how poor Becky feels about the arm that stubbornly refuses to grow back.)

Honey, I… I Think There’s Something Wrong With Me

So, after months of mood swings, violent outbursts, and memory loss, Bull finally admits to Linda today that he “needs to see someone.”

I find it hard to believe that everyone around Bull has noticed his decline and openly discussed his symptoms and yet no one has bothered to investigate what all of this might mean. I think part of the reason his characters are so unlikable is because they are so damned stupid.

If this does turn out to be a long-term story about CTE, we should have some kind of pool to predict how long it takes T-Bats to make another Pulitzer attempt by having Bull commit suicide.

Bull Likes It Rough

In today’s action-packed segment, we see Bull fly off the handle after a bad call. The Scapegoats are probably like 3rd and 50, it’s no wonder Coach is so tense.

roughing-1 Also this guy. What the hell is going on with his shoulder? Is his arm growing out of the side of his neck or something? And aren’t penalty flags yellow? Maybe the ref is surrendering so Bull will back off.

The Running of the Bull

Hello there, fellow snarkers! HeyItsDave here, back from hiatus with more Funky Felt Tip adventures.

Yesterday, the leaves in town were falling as fast as Funky’s hair, hopefully without leaving some kind of nasty clog that Holly will have to dig out of the sink trap later. And falling leaves in Funky Winkerbean always mean that we’ll be segueing into some kind of melodramatic tale of woe.

I was really hoping that this week was going to stay focused on Frankie and Lenny. They’re like the Funkyverse version of Pokemon’s Team Rocket – all nefarious and blackhearted and always tripping over their own goddamn feet. But no, today we’re back in Westview to watch Bull Bushka descend into concussion-induced madness. What is it with T-Bats and autumn, anyway? Seems like as soon as the foliage turns he starts obsessing about decay and death. And maybe domestic abuse, given Linda’s face in panel three.

Speaking of decline, is Tommy farming out some of the drawing duties here? I detect a distinct stylistic difference between the way background extras are usually drawn and the way this crowd is rendered.

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Dinkle….SAVES things.

Peer through this window into Dinkle’s wizzled soul.

Holy crap, Dinkle saves stuff. And he feels comfortable enough with this creepy habit that he willingly shows Lefty one of his collections. This one seems innocent enough – tufts of grass from each years’ band camp – but will he ever show her his other collections? The ones kept in that special room behind the hidden door in the basement? The ones lined neatly up on narrow little shelves lining the walls…tiny jars holding little trophies and mementos of past achievements and heartbreaks…

Look! Here are sets of false teeth, taken from the nightstands of women at Bedside Manor who received “special music lessons.” And those jars near the door with all of Hallie’s nail trimmings from when she was just a baby. There are many, many others…Harry had access to the locker rooms at Westview High for so very long, and even now he visits from time to time, to see if there is anything else he might want to…collect.