Tag: Classic Funky

Christmas Past

TheDiva
December 22, 2012 at 12:06 am
Because we all know how much interest Funky and Les showed in music and singing back in the Act I days…well, I can’t think of any right now, but I’m sure they exist, because otherwise Batiuk would just be pulling random bits of backstory out of his ass for the sake of a cheap gag, and we all know he has too much artistic integrity for that.

I’m not using the above quote here to show up TheDiva, because I’d never have recalled this either (the most musical one of the gang was Crazy Harry with his air guitar). But today Batiuk gifts us with an Act I strip to prove that, yes, Virginia, they really did go Christmas caroling.

I’m convinced that TB’s reproducing a vintage strip here, rather than trying to recreate his old style, as he’s done in the past with mixed results. The logo in panel 1 is the old style. Even the lettering in the dialog balloons is somehow more cheerful. Compare it to the lettering in the weird snow globe that shows our current-day cast: the “L’s” had yet to acquire their painful hump.

Les and Funky, see how young and how likeable! The redhead, of course, is poor, doomed Livinia. I have no idea who the blond girl is, or why she’d have anything to do with Les, even back then. Dig those bell-bottoms in the penultimate panel silhouette! Lastly, it’s interesting to note that before he started taking himself so seriously, Batiuk could use excessive drinking to get laughs.

 

Tea Crazy

“Our friend Roland” refers to a character who appeared in the very first Funky Winkerbean strip in March of ’72:

I don’t when he disappeared from the strip (or what happened to Livinia). I suppose his function in the early days of FW was to provide a little Doonesbury-esque topical humor. His radical views, of course, did not extend to Playboy magazine (va-va-va-VOOM!), which is why he did not bequeath to Crazy Harry any Betty Friedan or Susan Sontag.

Remember all those strips where Crazy Harry held forth about his conservative beliefs? Me neither. In order to wring another weak punchline out of the Harry Sells His Library premise, Batiuk, out of the blue, assigns a right-wing political view to the presumed former stoner. I’m just thankful that Batiuk didn’t have Crazy identify himself as a “teabagger“.

Lordy, Lordy, Look Who's Forty

Still with me after yesterday’s post? Thank you, reader.

Let the celebration begin. By some remarkable coincidence, both Funky Winkerbean and Montoni’s Pizzeria celebrate their fortieth anniversaries this week!

Jimmy
March 23, 2012 at 2:05 pm
So, 40th anniversary strips coming up? If Bathack brings us in the wayback machine, I get the feeling they’re going to be a reminder that Funky Winkerbean wasn’t all that good in the 1970s either.

Into the Wayback Machine we go: looks like TB’s going with a “now and then” theme, and if every day is like today’s strip, snarker Jimmy may be on to something. If panel 2 is indeed an original, and not a “reimagining” a la Lynn Johnston, there was probably an original first panel that set this up as an actual joke (Funky dashes into Fred’s office: “Mr. Fairgood! I need to use your phone! It’s an emergency!”). The absence of humor here leaves us to contemplate the young, likeable, slender Funky, whose cargo pants conceal the merest suggestion of a butt that forty years later would threaten to burst right through Montoni’s window.

Sunday Funday

Last day to comment on Friday’s post for a chance to win your own copy of Lisa’s Story!

You know what? I like today’s strip! I like it because in recreating a couple Act I scenes, TB has actually recalled the cartoony style of that period. Funky, Les and Crazy Harry, Holly and Cindy are their old 70s and 80s selves again. The punchlines are nothing to write home about, but I’ll settle for gentle humor over hamfisted melodrama any day of the week.

Those Old Chestnuts

Today we’re hearkening back to the days when this used to be a “comic” strip. Les borrows one of Bull’s fractured sports metaphors to illustrate his lack of success with the ladies. In TB’s latest round of retconning, Teenage Funky sports a turtleneck, and is full of worldly advice on how to score, whereas we longtime FW readers know that despite his “cool” name, Funky was only a shade less uncool than Les.

Jump to the present, where the lifelong friends are so out of touch with one another that Funky is shocked, shocked to learn of this long-simmering love triangle.