It’s been over a month since Harriet promised you an epic screed from me, about the three weeks Crankshaft spent on three different book signings (two for Dinkle and one for Batton Thomas). I haven’t delivered it yet, because I said I wanted to make sure the arc was over.
It wasn’t over. It’s still not over yet. It may not be over for months. Continue reading “The Two Scariest Words In The Funkyverse”
Since Crankshaft is still languishing in a Dinkle tinged purgatory, and since tornado watches had me part homebound today, (my neck of the woods was spared,) I spent some time with my Complete Funky Winkerbean volumes this afternoon. Because if Batiuk is gonna drag out the taxidermized horse of Claude Barlow, World’s Worst Composer, and whip the desiccated carcass around for a week, I’m gonna hide in my archives and soothe myself with digging through the dumb running gag’s origins.
Last month, I did a post on Dinkle’s history as an author where I touched on Claude for a bit. But at that time I still didn’t have the volume where I could definitively point to a strip as the first mention of the composer. On April 28, 1976 we get the first mention of a book on greatest band directors, which quickly turns, classic Dinkle style, into egocentric self-aggrandizement. There were only a handful of strips of Great Band Directors.
Last week, Tom Batiuk’s blog re-ran his five-week story on the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings. This is probably his strongest story after Act I, and is well-regarded even by readers of this blog. It has a few problems that are too big to ignore, though.
Continue reading “The Story About May 4 Was The Best Funkyverse Arc in 25 Years. Here’s Why It’s Awful Anyway.”
Here’s the last Mother’s Day adjacent strip that ever appeared in Funky Winkerbean!
I spent time with my mom and siblings today, and it turned into an impassioned debate on what would make the greatest Mother’s Day movie. I argued that the James Cameron double feature of Aliens and Terminator 2 would make a great afternoon for an action movie loving mom.
Friday the 13th (the first one) was considered but my mother said, “That doesn’t sound like a very nice movie about a mom at all.”
Longer posts coming soon! Happy Mother’s Day everyone!
Son of Stuck Funky 