Ex-Men

SosfDavidO here, Guest Hosting for the week!

I actually won’t be able to get to today’s strip when it posts tonight but that’s not going to stop me from using this title in
today’s strip!

..and I’m back. I don’t even know what to say about today’s strip, it’s so mind-numbingly awful. There isn’t even a bad pun to call out. As someone pointed out, the idea that Donna just noticed the photo of her that’s been hanging up at Montoni’s since 1984 is ridiculous. What’s the point of this entire week? Girls like comics, and show their appreciation by cross-dressing as video game enthusiasts? My head asplodes.

The Name Game

SosfDavidO here, Guest Hosting for the week!

We’re talking about comics here, right? Comics are little stories printed on paper that are told in serial format and sold monthly or told in daily strips. How did Donna leap from comics to video games in today’s strip?

Jeez Loiuse, how many topics are there to talk about in the Funkyverse? Comics, pizza, cancer, FaceSpace, Alzheimer’s and PTSD appear to be it. We *know* girls enjoy comics too, and though the fanbase isn’t nearly as large, the comic-based movies (Well, Marvel ones, anyhow) enjoy a large audience of men and women alike.

Do I even have to mention Comic Con? For crying out loud, girls are even cosplaying as Rocket Raccoon.

I don’t want to bash comics, as I liked them a lot as a kid, but I don’t think they’re quite as deserving as the reverence TomBat gives them. I mean, the whole Superman is Clark Kent without glasses thing could *only* work in a medium where characters are as one-dimensional as the paper they’re drawn on.

My protests are against a comic writer that wrote this over a year ago. I might as well be shouting at Judge Judy on the TV, it would do about as much good.

Y Bother

SosfDavidO here, Guest Hosting for the week!

Hoo-boy. Two middle-aged clone women prattling on about comic books, what’s not to like about today’s strip?

And just to save people the trouble… The Y Chromosome on Wikipedia.

From the entry:

“The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes (allosomes) in mammals, including humans, and many other animals.”

I can see why TomBat couldn’t pass up a comedy goldmine like this! The strip practically writes itself!

I See You

CONTENT BASED ON FUNKY WINKERBEAN
SoSAfDavidO here! Having some technical issues but I think they’re worked out.. another day, another pun title for you!
Actually, our previous host did such a good rant I’m going to let it stand and thank them for their hosting job and picking up Sunday’s strip!

It–it’s–there’s nothing there.  There’s nothing there!
Link to today’s strip.
ORIGINAL TL, DR POST

Link to today’s strip.

As always, Sunday’s episode was not available for preview, so…time for one of my marathon blatherings?  Well, probably not.*

I’d like to apologize to all the SoSF staff and readers for the rather uninspired posts I’ve done over the past couple of weeks.  Being a guest host is usually fun, and I really enjoy thinking of odd theories and weird insights into the Funky Winkerbean world.   Though I tend to go on (and on and on), still, it’s fun.

But facts must be faced.  2014 has been one of the worst Funky Winkerbean seasons in recent memory.  It’s not that it isn’t bad–it is.  And it’s not that it’s getting good–it isn’t.  And that’s the problem in a nutshell:  Funky Winkerbean isn’t.

I don’t know Tom Batiuk, but he seems remarkably thin-skinned, and it feels certain he scours the web for critical views of his work.  It also seems certain he feels he doesn’t have to address the source of those criticisms.  Someone saying “It’s a cesspool of misery and Les Moore is horrible,” would be met by the thought, No it isn’t, and he isn’t.  How can I get this to stop?

And I think he’s found an answer:  make the strip so bland and forgettable that it becomes a struggle (at least for me) to have anything at all to say about it.  Funky exercising.  Funky and Holly sitting around watching TV.  People reading comic books.   People sitting around.

There’s not a lot you can say about people sitting around.  It’s like criticizing Andy Warhol’s movie Empire–a single, eight-hour shot of the Empire State Building–by saying it’s static.  Well, duh!

Of course, you can go after the creator, but I’ve honestly tried to focus on the work and not the man.  Everyone has the right to earn a living, after all, and as noted I have no idea what Tom Batiuk is really like (reports are he’s a nice guy in person).  I really don’t like the ad hominem attack when it isn’t really merited (the guy’s not a criminal, he draws a comic strip).

The way I see it, this has to be a deliberate choice–make it so bland that it becomes critic-proof.  And when all the critics have gone on to other targets, you can feature Les Moore all the time, and bask in your achievement.

What this ignores is that critics do have a function in the arts–no one, not even a Picasso, is born a genius sui generis, after all; valid criticism can help focus an artist to work toward his strengths and overcome his weaknesses.   (And even invalid criticisms helped create Impressionism and Cubism.)

If, on the other hand, you already feel that you know it all, and those who say otherwise are beedy-eyed nitpickers, well, I guess you’re the ideal person to take over Funky Winkerbean when Tom Batiuk retires.

(Okay, that was a bit nasty, and I apologize.)

But guess what!  There’s hope after all, a light at the end of the tunnel!  No, no, silly, not for Funky Winkerbean, but for SonOfStuckFunky!  For tomorrow, your humble host yields the guest chair to none other than David O, the best of the O clan!

*On the other hand, look at the mess I managed to cough up anyway!

The Mote In Funky’s Eye

Link to today’s strip.

Pretty weak word-play in panel three…yawn…what I’m curious about is Funky’s statement in panel two.  Really?  He…he–Funky– uh, gets emotional?  “Pretty Emotional”?  Really?  I mean, honestly, no foolin’?  Emotional–Funky Winkerbean?  Tears in his eyes blurring his vision–as, um, opposed to the food court thing, where Funky was like, Dad, eat your Mall Food Court Sammich.  Damn you.  And now…How, exactly?

Talking to his dad about Dad’s diet of coffin nails, he seemed more–well, alarmed than sad.  Like, Oh crap, I’ll probably have to , argh, you know, INTERACT with this “Dad” guy (shudder) way more than I wanna.  Funky’s downright phlegmatic most of the time, showing it with his rarely-changing mask of a resigned, weary face.  In the (cough) actual panels we saw with Pa Winkerbean, Funky didn’t look sad.  He looked like someone had just told him he’d have to stay an extra half hour, as the staff was still cleaning Pa’s room.  And they were really concerned about the toilet…