While most comic strip artists would be content to allow their readers to assume that a mug would contain a hot beverage, that’s not enough for the creative team at Batom Inc. They’re going to make goddamned sure that you KNOW that shit is hot, via the ingenious use of the steam line. It’s those kinds of little nuances that really make up for the glaring lack of an interesting story.
The corner-thingy sepia-toned faux-flashback helps too, as the reader is forced to stare at it for an inordinate amount of time in a vain attempt to figure out the point, thus distracting them from the glacial pace and general pointlessness of the whole thing. We do have the SoSF forensics team working around the clock to figure out what that point is and as soon as we get the results we’ll post them. But don’t hold your breath.
Brilliant nuance and story-avoidance aside, two things really stand out about this one. First there’s the laughable dialog masquerading as wry banter, but you’ll get that on any weekday I suppose. Funky’s peculiar poses are more difficult to explain, especially given how Funky has been featured quite a bit lately. You’d think the drawings would get MORE consistent when he’s using the character more often but nope, it obviously doesn’t work that way around here. In panel one he appears to have been lobotomized and in panel three he’s morphing into kindly-but-dimwitted grandpa mode. And in panel two, he’s Wally. It’s just all over the freaking place, man.
“Hit or miss”…I’m wracking my brain trying to think of even one small thing that could possibly be construed as even being close to a “hit” in Funky’s post-Cindy life and all I can come up with is the time Cell Phone Girl “hit” his car. Well, at least he still has his bland, pitifully self-effacing sense of “humor” about his nightmarish delusion of a life. I think those two will definitely rekindle the romance after Holly is killed by a landmine (aka “bouncing betty”) while delivering Corporal Cory’s Comic Collection in Afghanistan. In fact, the first thing Funky should do is fit her for an apron.
Know what would have been an even bigger surprise? If she walked in through the window or the wall or the ceiling! That is one ultra-shitty slice of dialog right there, just laughably terrible. As is Cindy’s bizarre (and awfully condescending) wordplay about ladders and her stupid NYC apartment joke. Clunkier than a big bag of hammers and twice as stupid. You’d think that the guy “authoring” this thing would at least have the common decency to wait until he’s fully awake before he starts randomly filling in the word balloons with whatever gibberish comes to mind.
Son of Stuck Funky 