Holly’s Komix Kwest 4 Kory has yet to take her beyond the Westview city limits. Today she browbeats Crazy Harry into revisiting the humiliating circumstances that led him to sell off his most prized possessions. You’d think Harry might know whether or not Komix Korner has sold his Starbuck Jones comic, given that Harry now works there.
Tag: comics
Over There
In addressing today’s strip, I’m slippin’ on the old “tread lightly” shoes. There are thousands of families right now, waiting and worrying over loved ones who are away serving this country. It must be a “helpless” feeling indeed. That said: how is Holly’s self assigned task supposed to benefit her or her soldier? This all began six weeks ago with Cory complaining to his mom via Skype about the lack of supplies “over there in Afghanistan”. And Holly’s idea of “doing something” about it is chasing down the missing volumes in his comic book collection? Only in the Funkiverse, man…only in the Funkiverse.
Parents Just Don’t Understand
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV)
Batiuk’s certainly getting enough mileage out of Joe Staton’s cover for Starbuck Jones #7, which makes its fourth appearance today…
With all due respect to the apostle Paul, comic books are the holy scripture of Westview (and pizza is their Holy Communion). The Komix Korner should have been called the Ark of the Covenant. Comic books are hardly”childish things”, and even the most clueless of moms knows that they are not something to be “pitched”. Amen.
Kory’s Komix
First a couple random notes: though I don’t like to promote the, ahem, competition, Chris Sims’ Funkywatch over at Comics Alliance is especially spot on this month. Also, head on over to the offical FW site to be treated to the spectacle of Ed Crankshaft and Funky Winkerbean fighting over the last Christmas tree in the lot!
Th’ hell? Is Cory dead already? Funky and Holly rummage through his room (just as he left it, snif) and Holly speaks of him in the past tense.
While Cory’s room is actually fairly tidy, what’s a “total mess” (as usual) is the continuity. A month ago we saw Holly include this rare volume in a package that she and Funky were sending to Afghanistan (the rest of that week showed—in flashback—Holly acquiring the comic from “Rocky’s” mom). Now she reaches under the bed and files Starbuck Jones #7 in Cory’s box of Silver Age comics. Perhaps it returned through the same wormhole that enabled Les to check out Funky’s new car in the middle of the Kilimanjaro arc.
Sunday In The Park With Joe
I’ve always been a fan of Joe Staton. He currently draws the “Dick Tracy” newspaper strip, and drew a comic book I used to read back in the day, E-Man. I actually first encountered his work in–believe it or not–the old Amazing Stories science fiction magazine. His style tends to be loose and casual, but he always knew exactly where the focus should be in the image, and he has a great sense of dynamics.
I mention all this only because his work is the only interesting thing in today’s offering. The corner bit from Tom Batiuk is basically the pimple on a model’s face. Although Mr. Staton doesn’t seem to’ve put a great deal of effort into this…I’m not sure if the robot he’s cradling was a friend or foe. His arm wrapped around Starbuck says “poor fallen friend” but his feet seem to be pointed toward “fiendish foe, who nearly had me.”
Although, I do think I’ve figured out why Tom Batiuk’s dialogue is so horrible. I think he believes that his readership consists solely of people who have never read Funky Winkerbean before, and who have no intention of reading it the next day.
Tom Batiuk also thinks that this thing called “continuity” or “consistency” is a sucker’s game. Remember last week, how issue seven was the only thing lacking in Cory’s care package? Well, now Holly is “collecting” more. (I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to collect a single issue of something and figure your task is “completed” unless you’ve set your goals pretty low.) You knew the pain wasn’t going to be just one week long, didn’t you? If I recall correctly, there were to be seven Starbuck Jones comic covers presented to us over the course of this arc.
And if each of those covers gets its own Sunday page, well, you can do the math I’m sure. At least we’ll see some artists whose work should be far, far better than the usual Sunday strips.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this is the start of a globe-hopping adventure, a la Indiana Jones, as Holly travels the far corners of the earth to track down the complete set of Starbuck Jones comics.
…ah, ha ha ha ha ha. I crack myself up sometimes.
Son of Stuck Funky 
