Well, that didn’t last long. The shared affection seen yesterday has evaporated, like much of Lake Chad, by today’s strip. In its place we get ennui, hairy sofa cushions, and a plot synopsis for the Waterworld prequel.
None of that surprises me, though. What does surprise me is that TB didn’t have Kablichnick deliver this joke to a class full of terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad young people. In any event, it adds to the clip show feel of this whole week.
Today’s strip is about as inoffensive as Funky Winkerbean gets. In fact, if you weren’t familiar with this strip and its characters, you could conceivably enjoy this.
Such is the trouble with reading this strip regularly, we know these characters and we know the tone the strip usually takes. We are generally given little reason to like either. Instead of finding this sweet, as Holly does, we are contemplating how out of character it seems for both of them. We are left wondering if Funky is really paying her much of a compliment as the only chocolate available in Westview is probably Dinkle’s awful band candy. We are pondering where this affection was when these two were disagreeable or despondent as they pretty much always have been in the recent past.
That said, we also know the depths that this strip can plumb. Thus, I probably shouldn’t protest too much.
Today’s strip makes it two strips in a row for Donna. That hasn’t happened in a good long while. Wait… Wait. Funky’s there, so this has got to be Holly.
Sorry about that. I’m sure the whole “Holly and Donna look alike” joke is wearing thin these days, but when they appear in back-to-back strips I think it is obligatory. At the very least, it sure hasn’t worn any thinner than jokes about old people getting older. What is Holly looking at on that computer anyway, a Punch and Judy fan site?
You know, I’m starting to think this week is a collection of deleted scenes from other week long arcs. It’s like getting a bonus DVD with Ishtar.
Is today’s strip so bad that it broke Comics Kingdom? It has certainly thwarted every attempt I’ve made to view it, I’m sorry to say/glad to report. I have mixed emotions about this, obviously.
Feel free to discuss when Comics Kingdom gets its act together, or when you receive your print edition in the morning. Hoping for no Les, knock on wood.
Update: CK is still on the fritz, as far as I can tell. My Sunday paper, however, had no such issues. You can read here the photo I took of today’s strip, minus the throwaway title panel.
Today’s strip has words, which is interesting until you read them.
Grandpa Google tells me that Funky’s thoughts today are not quoted from someone notable (shocker!), or from a dollar store rip-off of the Book of Lamentations, but I’m pretty sure I read them on someone’s LiveJournal page 15 years ago. It was probably TB’s page.
I guess/hope Funky has satisfied his curiosity about this ramshackle house. I know mine was satisfied before I’d finished reading the third panel on Monday.
Son of Stuck Funky 
