Hey gang, taking an impromptu family trip, here’s a link to today’s strip!
Category: Son of Stuck Funky
Back to School
Summertime means it’s time to see what’s new with Wally, whom (except for at Dinkle’s party) we’ve not seen since the carnival was in town last August. Though he still has that gaunt, hollow-cheeked look, Wally’s “doing pretty well” and is considering resuming his education (“community college”? Why not KSU?). A very admirable goal indeed: one would hope that Wally could avail himself of some tuition assistance under the G.I. Bill, get his sheepskin, escape his dishwasher job and hell, he and Rachel could get married. But a thoughtful response from Rachel doesn’t make for a good punchline, so Batiuk has her put on a Hanna-Barbera smirk and reveal her weird pedophilic “homework” fantasy.
Not the Retiring Type
I “So she makes me come here [to Montoni’s] every day.” We know the feeling, Funkman: over the last three months, the majority of strips have been set in the pizzeria, a.k.a., the Chapel of Love, a.k.a. Center of the Funkiverse. Since today’s strip won’t be online until midnight, as a “treat” I’ve scanned the strip from my newspaper.
I looked through the rest of the funnies to see how other cartoonists use Photoshop for their Sunday strips. No doubt they all use it at least to color the panels, and a few more employ Photoshop to add small touches like background gradients. Doonesbury and Get Fuzzy are a little more judicious in their use of digital enhancement: used sparingly, it gives the panels a little extra depth. Tom Batiuk, or whoever colors his Sunday strips, pulls out all the stops, and the result is scenes that appear artificially (and dimly) stage-lit. Observe the two-tone highlighting on Funky’s big head. Where’s that blue light coming from? Have hours lapsed between the daytime first panel exterior shot and the interior shot in panel 2? Interestingly, over at Crankshaft, Chuck Ayers has a much lighter touch with the shading.
You Know You Know
Boy, that first panel–yeah, Funky, Les needs more encouragement that he’s the greatest genius of our age…you know? Wait, did I say “genius?” Of course I meant “ass.”
Speaking of which: who’s the blonde in panel two? It’s not Rachel, since she (usually) has red hair and hers is less than shoulder length. Do we have a new character?
Probably not. Pretty much all the new characters introduced in this thing disappear right after they’re introduced. Aside from Chullo and Glasses, all the high school kids were shed last graduation day, and have barely been seen since. Tom Batiuk doesn’t seem to like new characters; they serve a plot point, then disappear. Take Blonde Waitress, here. Her plot point is to show that, just below her elbow, there’s another customer at Montoni’s, so take that, all you beady-eyed nitpickers!
Well, Tom, I don’t like any of your old characters, and even if I did, you seem hell-bent on making them unlikeable. Take Crazy Harry for example. I liked him because he seemed to have a positive attitude toward things he cared about (admittedly, Tarzan comics, but still). There was a strip about a year or so of the young Crazy surrounded by Tarzan books which was genuinely good, and really reflected a “sense of wonder” that stories can embody. So I thought Harry was kind of cool…well, Tom Batiuk can’t have that. So Harry was made just as obnoxious as everyone else. If any character is to be liked, by gum, it’ll be Les Moore or it’ll be nobody…which it is. Eventually the whole town will be populated by Les-clones, probably hatched from pods in Cayla’s garden. Lestables.
When I started my sidekick stint here, I was hoping to get a Les arc–the guy’s so damned punchable and pathetic, I figured the jokes would just fly from my fingertips. I should have known better, though–Tom Batiuk has become very protective of Les, and the arcs in which he plays a central role have been carefully set up so as to deny most of the potential for sarcasm. The story this week has been, basically, Funky tells Les that he, Les, is a genius. Les agrees. Cayla sits in admiration of Les. The reader vomits.
Of course, I think Tom Batiuk has become pretty protective of almost all of his characters. I’m trying to think of the last time that any of them made a simple mistake. The only example I can think of was last year, when Funky accidentally left a CD in his leased car when he returned it. Notwithstanding Chullo and Glasses, who are the only characters played for laughs (and I’m being charitable), can anyone think of mistakes made by the main cast?
I have to admit, I can’t get over Funky’s line in panel one (I would have used a different finger, though). “Wow, you are such a brilliant, talented, handsome man, Les…you know? Well? Well…did you know that? If you didn‘t know that, can I get credit for telling you? Please don’t wish me into the cornfield, Les.”
Rough Bark Roof
Yeah, I can imagine Les Moore, super-athlete, dragging a typewriter, desk and chair up to Montoni’s roof. Then, of course, I can easily imagine him hanging off the roof to run a long extension cord through a window to power the typewriter. Then I imagine him pouring a cool lemonade, cracking his knuckles, poising his fingers over the keys, and being carried off by a Space Pterodactyl. I made up the last part myself, and I hope I’ll be forgiven if I say it’s my favorite bit.
Do we really, truly need any more of Tom Batiuk writing love letters to himself? Hasn’t it already been established that he thinks Les Moore is the greatest character in the history of literature? You might say, “He has to help new readers understand this” but can you actually imagine a new reader who says “Hang on, this Les guy is pretty cool! I think this is my favorite comic strip”? I can’t, myself, but I think I’ve just thought of a great way to get out of jury duty!
Lastly, and most germane to today’s strip…groan. Double secret groan. Are there any puns in the world worse than those of Les Moore? Yet look at those two chuckleheads, guffawing as if they’re listening to George Carlin or David Cross or even that dumb cousin of yours who tells those stupid knock-knock jokes. Or maybe they’re laughing at a knife-wielding serial killer coming up behind Les, in which case this is the greatest Funky Winkerbean ever.
Son of Stuck Funky 
