Link to today’s strip.
ACTUAL FW CONTENT:
Oh, good grief, what crap.
ORIGINAL POST:
As is usual, Sunday’s strip was not available for preview so you get another of my ramble-o-thons.
I’m sure it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that last week’s arc consisted entirely of people sitting around while things happened elsewhere. In fact, near as I can tell, almost all of Funky Winkerbean consists of sitting around and talking about things happening elsewhere.
Even when people do act, they don’t do so because they want to, but because someone else is forcing them. Funky went to the fitness center not to get in shape, but because his wife wanted him to. Similarly, Holly goes around and collects comic books not because she likes them (though this being Westview I’m sure she’s a huge fan, pun unintended), but to take her mind of Cory’s situation and to “feel closer” to him. Even the epic trip to Kilimanjaro came into play not because it was a planned-out adventure, but because Les won an unwanted prize. The only action anyone takes is making someone else do something.
What does this say about the strip, where no one has any motivation whatsoever except to sit in chairs and chat? Think back on Les’ epic struggle to write a teleplay for a book he’d already written, and a life he’d already led–months and months of staring at a screen because he lacked the merest shred of motivation (don’t tell me the garbage about being “unable to capture Lisa’s thoughts,” that’s an obvious and exceptionally poor excuse). That seems to be the Funky Winkerbean world in a nutshell.
I’ve never read the “Lisa’s story” arc in its entirety and I have no desire to, but I’ll assume for the sake of argument that it was well-told and affecting and give Tom Batiuk whatever kudos he wishes for telling it. When it failed to win a Pulitzer, did that knock all the wind out of his sails? Perhaps he told himself, “I gave them a good story about terrible things that really happen to real people, and they dismissed it–well, the hell with it then. I’m tired of trying.” Because it sure seems like the strip has been on auto-pilot since I’ve been reading it.
Last week’s story reminded me of the Gay Promaggedon series–I came into the SoSF orbit around the tail end of that–in that there was a very slow build-up that promised a real payoff…and the payoff never came. Or rather, it did come, but it was such a let-down that it might as well never have been hinted in the first place.
Then there are the stories that just stop. I’m still curious about Becky’s mother. She hasn’t been seen since Becky told her father to stop filming. It makes me wonder if whole strips, or whole weeks worth of strips have been lost in the mail. Or perhaps rejected by the syndicate–“Gee, Tom, this week’s worth of Becky’s mom being pushed out of the scissor-lift, hitting the ground and bouncing into a dead heap is pretty interesting, but it’s a little too gruesome to run on the comics page.” “Oh, okay, just run the strips for the week after that. The only people who’ll notice are really beedy-eyed and they don’t have any jobs.”
It’s been said from time to time that Tom Batiuk is probably unhappy that the strip is called “Funky Winkerbean,” since that takes focus away from Les. I wonder if he wished he’d ended the strip when Lisa died. He could have then restarted Act III with the same cast, but under a different title.
My suggestion would be Sittin’ Around.
PS: Hm, this is only my 60th post? It sure seems like there’ve been thousands…
Son of Stuck Funky 