Despite an erratic and inexplicable production schedule, it looks like buzz is building for “the upcoming” Starbuck Jones movie to the point where the first images are being leaked online. Crazy Harry should know better than to think he’d have the “scoop” on ultimate fanboy John, who has managed to automate the process of gathering these treasures from the web. I can’t goof on DSHJ too much, as yours truly has a Google Alert set up that notifies me of online mentions of “tom batiuk”, but hey, it’s my job.
Mentions: beckoningchasm
Look at that Caveman Go
Okay, there seems to be a motif at work here…I mean aside from the fact that today’s strip is a rehash of the day before, with Wally as a cartoon caveman in the last panel instead of the first. It’s a pretty safe bet that everyone recognized Fred Flintstone in Monday’s strip; no doubt some of you recognized Alley Oop, but I had to shake my head at this Tip of the Funky Felt Tip to a character I thought obscure even by Tom Batiuk’s standards.
According to Wikipedia, the Alley Oop comic strip was created by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin in 1932. This surprised me, as I’d had Oop pegged as a prewar contemporary of Little Nemo and The Yellow Kid. I was even more surprised to learn that the strip survives over 80 years later and today appears in more than 600 newspapers. That’s roughly half again as many papers that carry Funky Winkerbean.
Great, Maybe Les Will Write A Book About It
“Failure To Charge: Bull’s Phone’s Story”. Talk about an anti-climax. After all that, Bull merely skulks home all sad-sack and sorry while Dick Facey smirks away like driving Linda home was some historically altruistic act of kindness, what a dick. His “phone died” (actually it was working fine until he threw it against some filing cabinets but I digress) and he was unable to find his wife who works in the same building? Oh, that’s right…the head injuries. Interesting how a story about Bull becoming forgetful makes the average FW reader’s brain malfunction as well, although in fairness any TomBan authored story is going to fry some synapses, what with the total lack of logic, continuity and common sense and all.
This has long been one of Batiuk’s favorite tactics. He introduces a premise that’s rooted (at least somewhat) in a “real issue affecting real people and blah blah”, then that’s it. They never actually go anywhere, nothing ever actually happens and nothing ever changes when they’re finished. Then he’ll gloat about how he “explored” the issue of concussions among football players even though in actuality he did no such thing, he merely brought it up is all. It’s like going out with your friends, saying “hey, how about this election, huh?” then claiming you “discussed politics” all night. I thought he might at least try to wring a “what can WE do about this issue?” kind of thing out of this but apparently even that’s too much to ask.
Sepia Water-Colored Loss Of Memories
Dick Facey once again steals the show with his always-annoying presence. He looks more disgusted than concerned in panel three. He is impossible to draw in any way that isn’t completely objectionable. And I totally love how Bull’s scrapbook is helpfully labeled as “Bull’s Scrap Book”, just in case he forgets which, ironically enough, he apparently has! Amazing.
This is a rather baffling arc so far. I mean it’s a certainty that he’s find some completely insane way out of this than no normal person could have ever seen coming, that’s a given. I’d be very surprised if he wrote Bull out of the strip and I’d be equally surprised if the lovable hapless gym coach Bull suddenly became the hapless insane maniac who angrily stormed around forgetting things, as intriguing as that premise does seem. Imagine it, Bull suddenly thinks it’s 1980 and viciously beats Les to a bloody pulp, now THAT is promise. So rule that out.
Is it at all possible that Bull is just all annoyed about something else entirely and is just being badly misread by his wife? Like maybe she forgot their anniversary or something, I don’t know. Based on everything I know about FW I can say with some confidence that this is guaranteed to go nowhere, but how? Maybe it’ll turn out that he’ll “be fine” followed by a Bull-led crusade against concussions, that’s the most boring resolution I can come up with right off the top of my head.
Un-Bear-A-Bull
Blech, imagine being stuck in a car with that cretin. Especially that horrible robin’s egg blue car of his…(shudder). A picture (in so many words) is very very slowly beginning to form here…Linda is “worried” about Bull. Yes, after decades of smirking at his antics in that condescending somewhat bemused way of hers, she’s concerned about her husband’s obesity or mood swings or something. Well, it’s about time. It’s actually a good thing that Linda and Dick Facey never got together, that much wryness would have torn a hole in the fabric of the Funkyverse.
The most hilarious thing about today’s episode is the way BatNom totally butchered the word balloon in panel two. Looks like he ran out of dialog there or something, I’m sort of surprised that he didn’t find some awkward clumsy word salad to fill all that space. Then again, Les is speaking so maybe he just took some mercy on us. Still though, knowing how he operates and all, it’s a pretty glaring anomaly. At least bother to print larger or something, you know?
Son of Stuck Funky 