Death has yet another near miss in Westview as it appears that Funky is going to be “ok”. Or, as ok as ok can be, considering it appears the accident gave him brain damage and aged him another 15 years. (From the looks of panel 5, he’s 46 going on 80) It looks like three things are for certain: Funky is going to live, the PT Cruiser is toast, and, from the look of panel one, Tom Batiuk has no idea what is actually underneath a car’s hood.
There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home…there’s no place like home…
Our Journey Through the Past concludes. Battered and bruised, Funky awakens in the hospital to be greeted by the once young, beautiful, happy and carefree Holly. It was all a dream…an overlong, disjointed, at times depressing and incomprehensible dream.
Now, can we please check in with Cayla to see whether she’s grown a spine?
Inside Danforth’s Drugstore, newly-blonde Summer, and Cory, wearing Maddie’s stolen cap, peruse the latest copy of Inked…what? We’re still in the past? Oh, yeah, then that must be Funky’s young self with his ace pal “Crazy” Harry, checking out the comics rack like the red-blooded high school boys of their day (yeah, right). Seeing his cue, Funky the Old Geezer winks at the boys, wags a crooked finger, and suggests that his younger self invest in Starbuck Jones #1.
So: we’ve earned an ending of sorts. Took a while, but TB has actually tied up a loose end. I like Teen Funky’s face in panel 3; almost a throwback to when he was drawn with his eyes about a half-inch apart.
Checking in with the “real” world, seems our “pal” present-day Funky is clinging to life. In Funky’s mind, he strolls through a seemingly deserted (again) Olde Westview. TB probably was too exhausted after drawing that huge crowd (including four Funkys) two Sundays ago, to draw any more background characters. Watch that traffic light before you cross, “pal”. Early ’80’s Westview probably didn’t have rapid responding EMT’s like they do today.
Imagine: the chance to revisit your hometown as it was during the finest days of your life. Only in the Funkiverse does an experience like that translate to “kind of a letdown”.
No prizes for guessing who he’s going to meet in that drugstore.
Funky’s brief glimmer of pleasure at seeing his future wife in her teen majorette splendor is short-lived: he’s back to ruminating about the very unfairness of adult life. The “saved by rock and roll” cliché is just that: did any of us in our youth really, really take it to heart? I sure hope not.
Is Funky now wandering in circles? Yesterday he was standing beside the gazebo; today he’s approaching it from a distance.
Instead of the mangled mixed metaphor in panel three (I’m thinking of a Great White swinging a baseball bat)…it would be funny to have somebody overhear Funky in panel two and exclaim, “What? Elvis? Died???“
Son of Stuck Funky 