Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye

Link to today’s strip.

Not much to say about this one, although I thought Pa Winkerbean was already in a nursing home.  Live and learn, I guess.

The visuals in panel three are pretty good, though it’s kind of an odd choice–Funky’s supposed to be thinking about what to do with his dad, and yet there are his own faces looking back at him.  I suppose it represents his self-centered nature.  To be more effective, in a character sense, I’d think lots of Pa’s faces looking back at him would be more thoughtful–of course, I’ve never been nominated for a Pulitzer, so what do I know?

And I Keep Hitting Repeat-Peat-Peat-Peat

Link to today’s strip. (Eventually)

Well, thanks to commentator Slager, we now know that Tom Batiuk has hit the end of the road.  Not only is this story arc recycled from Crankshaft of nearly five years ago, but as commentator bad wolf pointed out the other day, Tom Batiuk is now mining his own blog posts to fill out Crankshaft.  A-HREF notes that Family Circus and Blondie also recycle strips from years past (and I’ll add Archie), but there’s a difference–in those cases, it’s the artwork that’s reused, not the punchline.

Recycling artwork, while lazy, makes a certain amount of sense.  If you’ve got a joke about Billy and Jeffy watching television, you’ve probably got a dozen variants of that already drawn, how exactly is it possible to make that fresh?  Use one of the old ones–the Family Circus fans won’t mind.

Recycling punchlines, on the other hand seems lazy to a spectacular degree.  It also smacks of a certain, shall we say, dismissal of the audience.  “The damned rubes didn’t laugh the first time; I’ll just tell it again and maybe it’ll penetrate their skulls.  If not, they say three is a lucky number.”

What’s next?  What else can he recycle–John Darling stories, perhaps, since those seem lost to history and thus harder to detect, despite the beady-ness of one’s eyes.  And after that?

I suspect it’s only a matter of time before comments posted here end up as punchlines.  Ooo, I’m gonna keep an eye out for mine, maybe I can ask for royalties!

PS: You’ll note that I haven’t said anything about today’s offering.  Once again, it was not available for preview.  I may update once it goes live but kind of doubt it, it’s been a long tiring week and it’s only Wednesday.  So have at it, folks!

Where There’s Smoke

Link to today’s strip.

More bizarreness in yesterday’s vein.  And like yesterday’s episode, if Mr. Batiuk is going for “wacky” he’s still missing the mark.  There should be a punchline in panel three, rather than a flat statement.

It’s as if Abbott said, “The baseball players’ names…well, Hu’s on first, Watt’s on second, and Ida Noah’s on third,” and Costello said, “Hey, those aren’t real names.”  And…scene!  Okay, folks, that’s a wrap!

This is the first time I can recall seeing Pa Winkerbean speak, other than the “Father’s Day in the Food Court” Sunday episode of a couple of years ago–and all he did then was repeat himself over and over.  (Those wacky Alzheimer’s people!)  I must say, Funky and his dad are looking more and more alike.  I guess that’s easier to draw.  Though I’ve never seen Funky as relaxed and at peace with himself as Pa in panel three.

Also, is it just me, or has 2014 really been Funky’s year so far?  He seems to have featured in more stories than in the last couple of years combined.  Not that I’m complaining too much, because as we know, there are far worse characters he could feature….

Puffery

Link to today’s strip.

Well, this…this is just damned stupid.

For those of you new to the strip, Funky ‘s dad is in “Bedside Manor,” an assisted living facility.

In other words, it’s a place to administer health care to seniors.

They’re not going to allow anyone to smoke.  Even if they’re on fire, they’re supposed to douse them.   The receptionist might just as well have said, “He’s out bending steel girders with his teeth.”  Or “He’s on the roof, getting ready to jump into a dumpster full of broken glass.”  This is senseless.

I just can’t figure out what the hell is supposed to be going on here.  It’s not funny, except in a “Wha–?” kind of way…the way the strip sometimes was back in the 70’s.

Is that it?  Has Tom Batiuk decided after all the years of angst, whining, smirks and weak word-play, that it’s time to reboot into a wacky fun-time strip?

Well…if that’s the case, that’s certainly a good thing…I guess…I just hope he kind of gets better at it.

Unless this is going to be some kind of ham-handed treatise on medical marijuana.  If that’s the case, then this episode becomes evidence that there are a whole lot of people not giving a damn about what goes into Funky Winkerbean, starting with Tom Baituk.