“Done something about” what, exactly? Smoldering futuristic cities? And how does Atmos hovering in the air help the situation in any way? Why didn’t he act BEFORE his planet was consumed by climate damage? Why doesn’t he ask Oceanaire to splash some water on it? What the hell do the other The Elementals do, anyway? They’ve been working on this for months and THIS is what they came up with?
Tag Archives: Fire
Legion of Dume
ComicBookHarriet
February 27, 2022 at 11:00 pm
You just introduced the Strong Force. Four villains that need to be fleshed out and differentiated. That can get you through an entire 12 issue year, if not more.
Suicide Squirrel
February 28, 2022 at 4:56 pm
New villains for the Elementals Force? Already?…Has the mighty ‘Strong Force’ already been dispatched? Were they defeated on that comic book cover before the story even started?

Pete’s eyebags threaten to engulf his prominent nose.
One of the “contemporary issues affecting young adults” that Batiuk depicts “in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner” is climate change. Jim Kablichnick has long been Batty’s go-to mouthpiece, while more recently, Funky and Les each have held forth on this important topic. Now barely three weeks after they’ved developed a personal, subatomic foe for each of their four elemental heroes, Pete hijacks the newly created franchise with a climate change angle, even leveraging his wildfire survivor cred to make his point.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Lestember: Earth, Wind, and Fire
When he came up with today’s strip one year ago, not even Tom Batiuk’s febrile, I mean fertile, imagination could have conceived what we’d be calling “the new normal” today. Unless BatAyers diverge from their famous, self-imposed 12-month lead time, expect Covid to rear its ugly head in Westview sometime in early spring.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Lestember Mourn
It’s late summer in the Hollywood Hills. They are standing in the still-smoldering aftermath of a massive wildfire. And Cindy’s got her arms wrapped around herself like she’s freezing. I guess it’s an attitude of shock and/or grief. Les, to his credit, tries to comfort her. Or, he’s using the opportunity to paw Cindy’s bare shoulders while Mason stares distractedly at a charred bit of paper.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Wake Me Up When Lestember Ends
I’ll tread lightly here, in case someone’s personally experienced the aftermath of a wildfire. It does not look like fun. Batiuk hasn’t treated us to any reference photos of the hot zone, so I’m assuming that BatAyers queried Grandpa Google for some pics. Of 1945 Dresden. Or that Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Gimme a Ticket for an Aeroplane
I put all my energy for this post into the remixed comic above. I’ll let you guys do what you do so well. Here’s today’s real strip.
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Saved by the Cave
It took all of a month, but at last the Point Dume Fire is finally out. And Jeff is alive. And Skppy is a real boy, and Murania really exists as a city thousands of feet below the earth’s crust. Thus winds up an arc that Batiuk teased last month (with Dan Davis’ much more competent artwork) in Crankshaft. You might also recall a Sunday four years ago when Batom Comics editor Brady Wentworth dragged his staff (retro Darin and Pete) to a Phantom Empire screening for some inspiration.
Today’s strip is likely the last we’ll see of Murania. Batiuk and Ayers could have spent a little time showing Jfff and his youthful alter ego Skppy exploring the fantastic underground city and interacting with the Queen and her subjects. But after all the buildup, the climax has Jeff meeting the queen on Friday and then waking up oustide the cave on Saturday. And as far as what we got to see of the underground city:
Banana Jr. 6000
August 26, 2020 at 8:08 am
Murania just looks like The Jetsons moved to Detroit.
If you want to see a place that looks even worse than Detroit, this week we get a look at what the fire did to Masone’s place in the hills!
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Jfff’s Not Ded
Mela
August 26, 2020 at 11:22 am
…Jeff is not going to die in a cave. Comic book nerds and sci-fi geeks do not die in Funky Winkerbean.

The part of the blind firefighter will be played today by Ringo Starr
Face it. It would have been cruel even by Funkiverse standards for Pete to invite his prospective father-in-law all the way to California only to have him die in a fire. Looks like Skppy’s survived too. Who’s paying his airfare back to Ohio?
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky
Maybe This is Heaven
William Thompson
August 26, 2020 at 1:31 am
Even money that Queen Tika will be played by the actress-queen who had lunch with Les. It’s a dead certainty that she’ll smirk at her guests and offer them hot chocolate.
A big missed opportunity for Batiuk right there. The Mauve Queen’s ostensibly Elizabethan attire looked much more sci-fi than those renfaire rental robes that Queen Tika’s wearing. Wikipedia calls her “the icy, blonde, evil Queen Tika,” but in today’s strip she comes across as downright friendly (aaaand, brunette).
Filed under Son of Stuck Funky