Tag: black and white

Carousel of Dull

Other than the fact I was able to enjoy a small side-line cottage industry in collecting option checks, Funky and my other work have always managed to avoid being exploited or stained by Hollywood as if the strips had been Scotchgarded against the very possibility.

Tom Batiuk, from The Complete Funky Winkerbean Volume Six

“Butter” Brinkel had his own carousel and a pet chimpanzee?  He’s coming off less like Fatty Arbuckle and more like Michael Jackson. Brinkel’s also got the world’s largest gun collection.  Could this be foreshadowing? Does that collection include Chekhov’s gun? Does “the starlet Valerie Pond” meet her demise by gunfire?

The Brink of Stardom

timbuys
June 25, 2019 at 1:03 pm
Are we watching them make the documentary now? That is, is he depicting Cindy doing the voiceovers narration of the scenes from What’s-his-nuts career?

Well, that might explain why today’s strip seems like it should have appeared on Monday. Maybe instead of Cindy blathering away as she and Jessica sit in front of their editing station, we’re actually “seeing” some of Cindy’s documentary. Which would make this the first time we’ve been allowed to see actual footage from any of the Funkiverse’s myriad movie projects. However, nothing can explain how a silent film star “rose to stardom in the early 40’s“.

What a Troup-er

We all recall that “brighter the picture the darker the negative thingy,” don’t we? It’s what Cindy absently muttered into her drink after Cliff confirmed that he’d once worked with “‘Butter’ Brickle” (and yes, I will continue to use quotation marks around that name for as long as I feel like it). Mason immediately predicted another Emmy for his wife, the documentarienne.  Maybe he thinks it’d look great alongside his Oscar for Starbuck Jones.

So we learn a little more about Brinkel’s backstory, namely, his beginnings as part of a vaudeville “troup” [sic]. It’s a real testament to Cindy’s ability to acquire rare footage, as it’s not clear how many “troups” back in those days were capturing their stage performances on film.

Buster Brinkel

Don
June 23, 2019 at 12:36 pm
I didn’t know the special effects were that impressive back in those days; it’s amazing how that window shifted about four feet to the left just before the building landed on him.

Professor Fate
June 23, 2019 at 12:36 pm
Well for one thing the way the joke is shown in the comic strip the stunt would have at the least badly injured if not killed Butter…Lord is this arc going to be painful.

As we saw last Sunday, “silent film actor” “Butter” Brickle tried, and as confirmed in today’s comic, failed, to replicate Buster Keaton’s most famous film stunt. Forget about a falling papier-mache wall landing on you and hurting your neck: Blonde and Blonder here are in imminent peril of being crushed to death under all that panel 2 exposition!

If you think a sore neck is bad, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, on whom Brickel is probably based, suffered second degree burns to both buttocks after sitting on acid-soaked rags at the garage where he was having his Pierce Arrow serviced.