archive deep dive – Page 2 – Son of Stuck Funky

Poppin’ and Lockin’

Well, I’m back, from Outer Space (Seattle). I just walked in to see Cranky sitting there with that dumb look upon his face.

Specifically this one,

*NGL: This one got a chuckle out of me.*

And if Cranky seems unfazed to be haunted by the disembodied soul of a former coworker appearing to give him advice, well…

*Clutch Grinder, no relation to the late ‘Pop’.*

This isn’t Ol’ Ed’s first Dickensian Rodeo.

Once again, Tom is pulling an old running gag outta his tattered old gag bag. Treating us to an entire week of that famed Bus Barn mentor and legend, Pop Clutch. And giving me another opportunity to sit awkwardly on the floor of my kitchen taking pictures of Crankshaft trade paperbacks that I’m holding open and flat with my toes like some kind of spy gorilla.

*No idea who these two are. Early Crankshaft had some Bus Barn randos that never got names. The woman could be the principal, but this seems out of character for her.*

Picking up Speed

The Marvel Character Speedball circa 2006

An Engaging Response.

Did you know Tom has an email newsletter? Randomly, months apart and with absolutely no schedule, a little update from Tom Batiuk shows up in my email inbox, because of course I’m on the mailing list! I can’t miss an important update!

Such as,

So is it life imitating art or the other way around? Whatever, if you were following Crankshaft in mid-July, you saw Crankshaft’s granddaughter Mindy and his son-in-law Jeff at SDCC (that’s cool code for people who don’t want to write out San Diego Comic-Con), along with Mindy’s boyfriend and soon to be fiancé (oops spoiler alert… ignore that) Pete Reynolds who’s a writer for Atomik Komix and proof positive that Funky characters would indeed begin showing up in Crankshaft.

I can’t tell you all, just how absolutely vibrating with anticipation and glee your dear CBH is to see the LONG AWAITED proposal of Pete Reynolds to Mindy Murdoch.

Uselesses

Skeletal, pallid Wally Winkerbean came from the airport, bearing a face of woe on which a smirk and a frown lay crossed. A green dressuniform, hatless, was hung stiffly upon him on the mild afternoon air. He held the door ajar and intoned:

—Introibo ad altare Lisa.

Becky Blackburn Winkerbean Howard, displeased and sleepy, leaned her body on the seat of the parkbench and looked coldly at the shaking gurgling face that regarded her, equine in its length, and at the light closecropped hair, grained and hued like pale oak.

Unexploded Ordinance

This post. This whole arc. Wally’s return. It’s been a struggle for me to attack. For a very long time I couldn’t really figure out why. On paper, there’s a lot to work with. Maybe too much, maybe that was part of the problem.

At first I wondered if it was because I was, once again, taking this marathon half-year of a deep dive away from John Howard. Should I save some of this stuff for a potential Wally retrospective in the future? But with the literally hundreds of stupid minutiae that the Funkyverse waves around in my face, begging me to snark and dissect, would I ever get back around to it? After all, I’ve got green pitchers and Jinx Bushka waiting for me! This is a John dive, yeah. But you can’t talk about DSH without talking about Lefty, and you can’t talk about Lefty without talking about Wally. And you can’t talk about Wally without talking about…this.