Monday, October 26, 2015

Greetings, folks, BChasm back for another round.  Today’s strip was not available for preview.   Based on John’s sad expression on Saturday, I’ll hazard the guess that John will take this week (and probably next) to extol the virtues and magnificence of comic books.  This will help Cory see the light and he’ll decide to keep and treasure the Starbuck Jones collection his mother took a year or two to complete.

However, as always has to be pointed out, this is Funky Winkerbean we’re talking about.  While unfolding, the stories ooze like molasses, but when a story-shift needs to occur, it will happen with blinding speed.  So we may get a week of band members selling frozen turkeys, or Funky at the gym.

Of course, we might get a week of Lisa Fun Run strips, as we haven’t had much Lisa in a couple of weeks.  And that may tie us into Cory.  As many (including myself) have pointed out, selling the Starbuck Jones collection would be a way for Cory to repay the eleven dollars he stole from the Lisa Fund way back when*.  And as the Army had turned Punk Cory into Saint Cory, this has no doubt been gnawing at him greatly.

Wow, three whole paragraphs on a strip that hasn’t even appeared!  You may be in a rough ride from both Tom Batiuk and me!

*I refuse to believe the Lisa Fun Run has ever raised more than eleven dollars.  I like that thought.  Because, like Lex Luthor, I’m evil.

Union Pathetic

If you are reading this, I’ve been stuck on the road quite a lot longer than I anticipated and was not able to preview or provide anything more than this filler post for today’s strip. I do apologize, but I know it is the commenters who are the real draw to this site and that you all will bail me out with some top shelf snark. Thank you in advance.

I wrote the italicized text above in case I was not able to get back to the computer in time to type something relevant about the strip before publishing time. I leave it up here, even after getting to a computer in a timely manner, because it’s as relevant as anything else I could write about this strip.  Fire away everyone.

Thanks for putting up with me for a couple of weeks. The always-excellent BC takes the ringleader’s top hat starting tomorrow.

And the guy behind the counter sez “why the long box?”

Is today’s strip a clip show? Further examination reveals that none of the artwork in these panels is reused, but I had to double check, because this is the third day of the exact same conversation.

Cory continues to sell a mystery that we all stopped caring about after Tuesday’s haiku-legram read:

Cory sell comics
Looks bad but probably is
for decent purpose

I’m not sure why we need to receive this message every day. I guess it keeps Western Union in business.

All this time is not wasted, though. We do gain some insight into Cory’s life here, specifically about how little privacy he believes his mother will give him.

Heavy Lidded

*yawn*

Sorry about that. Today’s strip is, in fact, a thing. It’s a thing where stuff happens, technically, I think.

Cory continues to sell us on the mystery of why oh why he would sell his mother’s beloved collection of Starbuck Jones comics behind Holly’s back. This is day four of the sales job but I’ll let the redundancy slide because having to half-explain it to DSH serves a minor narrative purpose even if we’re all going “again?!”

Here’s my only real problem with today’s strip: why bring Bob Hope back from the dead if you are just going to give him a silent silhouette cameo in panel 3? I mean, not even he could make this material entertaining, but I’d at least appreciate it if TB let him try.

Like a restless wind inside a comic box

Big guest star get in today’s strip. Playing the role of Cory is Deimos, the potato-shaped second moon of Mars. TB clearly has friends high up in the IAU if he’s getting celestial bodies onto the set.

So… what else is happening?
– In a ringing endorsement of the quality of Starbuck Jones, Cory has never been more sure of anything he has ever done ever, than he is about his desire to sell these comic books.
– We also learn that this is NOT a complete collection, as I and others might have inferred, but that the first few issues are reprints from an archive book.
– Cory also drops the fact that Funky once owned Starbuck Jones #1 on the guy who knows that better than anyone. In fact, we were first introduced to Batom Comics and Starbuck Jones because DSH got behind on his rent during a bad month for Montoni’s back in 2010. Funky had to crack open the Montoni’s safe and sell his non-bagged, non-slabbed copy of issue #1 to save his shop AND DSH’s deadbeat hind parts in the process. It was OK, though, because Funky was never in to Starbuck Jones, only buing the comic because an old guy, who was actually his present self but badly injured in a car accident and hallucinating that he was his present self but in the Act I past, told him to do so.

Anyways, did DSH ever pay Funky back for covering for him? Or does he think helping Holly assemble the very collection Cory is now selling squares them?

In any event, today we have what I believe is the first conversation between two characters who Funky has been far too generous with (remember who covered for Cory’s theft at the Lisa walk). May as well have Les walk in for good measure…

Sorry, I didn’t really mean that.