Where are they going? Corporal (!) Cory and Holly are dressed up to go somewhere. To the airport? Cory’s going back already? And we’ve never seen him interact with Wally, his uncle/cousin and fellow soldier. “We have to wait for your father.” “Dad?” No, the milkman, you idiot.
Here’s a rather unusual Christmas Eve tradition that comes out of nowhere: serving Westview’s homeless a sumptuous Christmas dinner…of pizza. Yellow pizza, pepperoni not optional. Would it kill Funky to put out a tray of eggplant parm, and maybe a nice salad?
May I ask my veterans and service people in the audience: does Cory have to wear his uniform while he’s home on leave? Did he leave any civilian clothes in his bedroom, or just his comic book collection?
Just how far did they go to get that Christmas tree? It was nighttime when Cory surprised his ‘rents at the tree lot. Now as they bring the tree inside it appears to be daytime. I’m also wondering if this is the first time in forty-one Funky years that Holly’s name has been used in a Christmas-y pun.
So Batiuk’s annual e-card showing Funky and Ed Crankshaft fighting over the last tree in the lot was just a mere bit o’ whimsy. While I’m a sucker for those heartwarming “Soldier on leave surprises family” videos, all I keep thinking about when I see today’s strip is camo-clad Cory, newly minted killing machine, stealthily stalking his parents between rows of Douglas firs, waiting, just waiting for the right moment to make his presence known…
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.
Son of Stuck Funky 
