Tag: Cory

What Is It Good For?

Link To Today’s Strip

So if I told you that one of the weekly Sunday funnies contained a Nazi land mine, how long would it take you to realize it had to be a FW strip? In fact, I would venture a guess that FW has contained more land mine-centric plots than every other daily strip combined. Anyhow, the “you must love Cory” campaign continues today as Holly and Fatso toss and turn over the Courageous Corporal’s dangerous army assignment…again… as Cory’s disembodied army head hovers above them, silently judging the parenting skills that landed him in the explosive ordnance disposal detail, his snappy army helmet hiding his beady felonious eyes. I have no idea how long a modern stint in the army usually lasts but Batom is clearly enjoying this, so my guess is that Holly’s silent terror over Cory will be a semi-regular feature for a while. Hilarious.

I sort of enjoyed the comic cover tribute today, as I used to read loads of those war comics as a kid. Sgt. Rock…now THERE was a guy you didn’t f*ck with. That unit would have eaten Cory’s dumb ass alive. In fact, if Cory had been in Rock’s unit I believe “Dumbass” would have been a fitting nickname. Either that or “Petty Thief”.

It’s been quite a wild two weeks, but now it’s time to pass the SoSF baton to your old pal Beckoning Chasm for a spell. Stay Funky and see you next time!!!

Moore’s the Pity

Link to today’s strip. 

ACTUAL STRIP CONTENT COMMENTARY:  There isn’t any.  “Content,” that is.  What we’ve got is a recap post for those poor souls unlucky enough to have missed a month of Tom Batiuk’s brilliance, and are desperate to find out what’s “happened.”   To those folks, well, I can only quote the Daleks: “‘Pity’? The word is not in my vocabulary.”

I have to say that the last panel is a perfect summation of all of Funky Winkerbean.  It should be the logo on the official site.

BCHASM’S “TL;DR” POST:

In 1941, Preston Sturges made Sullivan’s Travels.  If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend it, and I won’t spoil it for you.  The premise is that Joel McCrea plays a Hollywood director who specializes in frothy, lightweight comedies.  However, he longs to make serious dramas that call attention to the ills of the day.   The film never outright says it, but Mr. McCrea wants to be known as an artist, and not an entertainer.  The lessons he learns, and the conclusion he comes to won’t be surprising to anyone, but I still find it amazing that others in Mr. Sullivan’s shoes seem oblivious to those same lessons.

I wonder, if Tom Batiuk was just starting out on his career as a syndicated cartoonist, and if he took the best strips of the past three years, do you suppose any syndicate would hire him?  Or would they show him and his relentlessly gloomy strips to the exit?

What publisher looks at the comics page and says, “We need more depressing comic strips.  Buy Funky Winkerbean!”?  I can’t imagine such a person.  (Well, okay, I can imagine J. Jonah Jameson doing this, because he hates his readers.)  Does this mean that Funky Winkerbean still appears in newspapers due to inertia and nostalgia, for a time when we were younger and the strip made us smile wryly?

In the very infrequent times that I step in the Comics Kingdom comments section, Mr. Batiuk has a few defenders, none of whom can point to the positive aspects of his work that they enjoy (it’s well drawn, the characters are realistic, it reminds me of my youth, etc etc).  None.  The only defenses I’ve seen employed by his fans is that his detractors have never won an award and must be unemployed.  Well, I mean, take that!  Oh–and there’s also “If you don’t like it, don’t read it!”  I’ll wait for you to recover from that mot juste.

I wonder what Tom Batiuk really hopes he’s accomplishing.  Does he, J. Jonah Jameson-like, take pleasure in consistently thwarting people’s desire for entertainment, because that damned Spider-Man?  Or, conversely, has he simply ceased to care?  I know that if I drew a nice paycheck doing something in which I no longer believed, I’d probably keep doing it as long as the bills kept arriving.  Everyone has the right to survive, after all.  But I’d still take no joy in it.

Of course, a creative person (an artist or an entertainer) might find a way to bring joy back to his creation.  As I noted yesterday, when Conan Doyle brought back Sherlock Holmes, he did so in The Hound of The Baskervilles–hardly an FU to the Holmes fans.  Would such a thing be possible for Batiuk?  I don’t know, but I think it’s far too late for Funky Winkerbean–Batiuk has started down his chosen path, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to admit he made a terrible mistake.  No, you will take Les Moore, and you will like Les Moore, and you will find yourself amused and enlightened by Les Moore*.  I suppose it’s a strange stance to take, to decide that this is the line that shall not be crossed.

Everyone can see the line, it’s just that no one wants to stand on that side.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

*For amusement, try substituting “horse poop” for “Les Moore” in that sentence.  It reads exactly the same!

Speaking of O Brothers, the greatest O brother of all, David O, will be driving the SoSF Funky Cart in the Depression Box Derby starting tomorrow.  Thank you for your indulgence, and exit right to Funway!

(Misshapen) Head Shots

Link to today’s strip

I wonder how Rocky got Funky and Holly to pose for photos while wearing Cory’s helmet? Oh…I see what’s going on here…never mind. I was just temporarily confused by Roxanne’s incredibly clunky and unwieldy dialog there in panel five. An understandable mistake. Too bad Cory is leaving right when he’s starting to get obnoxious again, but meh, good riddance otherwise.

Starbuck Surprise

Link to today’s strip

Wait until the cackling corporal learns that Starbuck Jones numero uno was once under his very own roof…until his idiot of a step-father sold it to save his crumbling pizza empire. Look at him there in panel three…he’s nearly as punchable as Les with those eyebrows, that sneer and the wild gesticulating. If he continues his incredible rise through the army’s ranks I think there’s little doubt he’ll eventually be “fragged”, which is military slang for “being killed by your own men on purpose because everyone hates you”.

Man, the big Starbuck Jones collection mega-arc was just astoundingly anti-climactic. No one can “frag” his own premise better than Batominc can. I mean yeah, it isn’t actually over yet but then again it pretty much is, you know?

Half The Fun Times Zero Is Still Zero

Link to today’s strip

One has to wonder how things might have turned out for Cory had his mom expressed any sort of interest in his hobbies BEFORE he turned into an incorrigible, surly punk. But better late than never, I suppose, right? Comic book collecting: along with pizza and human misery, the glue that binds Westviewian families together. I love how Cory drops the tantrum (and adopts the standard side profile hatchet-face) as soon as he realizes his mother is blowing the Winkerbean bankroll on a comic collection he was too lazy and unmotivated to complete on his own. Now if only the annoying Funk-Man would just drop dead already, Cory would be all set.

And is it just me or is something really odd going on with Cory’s head in panel one? I don’t think regular healthy skulls are supposed to be shaped like that. Disturbing, to say the least.