Okay, today’s thing is actually kind of funny, in a “Family Circus” kind of way…by which, it isn’t actually funny but you can at least see that a joke was intended.
And who among us here has not said the dialogue in panel one, after reading Funky Winkerbean or Crankshaft?
Apparently, Tom Batiuk’s psychic powers are more formidable than anyone could have anticipated–as I had a whole Sunday essay ready to go, and it has been utterly destroyed. So, talk among yourselves as I try to reassemble bits here and there.
Saturday’s strip was not available for preview, but it’s a safe bet we’re going to get more of Cindy’s desire to do a documentary on Butter Brickel. It seems Batiuk has a nostalgia fever and he’s going to cough it all over this strip come hell or high water.
As Cindy said the other day, “It’s a story that still resonates today!” and I couldn’t agree more. The past few years have seen dozens and dozens of “Judge them in the press” stories, and the internet allow these things to spread with frightening speed, while the truth (as Mark Twain observed) is still getting on its pants.
Which is why it’s odd that Batiuk chose to tell this story about a pretty much long-forgotten comedian of the silent film era. There are many more examples that might appeal to “contemporary young people.” The cynic in me says, this way he can fudge the details as much as he wants, and no one will call him on them. The other reason would be that anything that happened in recent years would have partisans on both sides, and favoring one side might lead to controversy…which Batiuk courts only in the most superficial manner.
There is also the matter of his very intense, narrowly focused nostalgia. The past few years have seen a very strange parade of things that seem to be going further back in time–from silver age comic books, to old movie serials, and now to silent comedies. I wonder if he’s casting backward because the things he used to value are becoming less and less satisfying.
Speaking of less and less satisfying, let’s enjoy the first strip of June!
Montoni’s is busy in today’s strip! What? And Holly is flustered to the max and jealous of unhealthily self-conscious Cindy all the sudden*? Crazy!
Speaking of Crazy, his advice… isn’t ironic? I don’t know, actually, but I do know it’s been relevant to TB for decades. If only TB would take it one day.
Wait, Montoni’s is busy with regular FW cast members. Sheesh, this strip doesn’t even truly earn its “the rare Montoni’s customer” tag. This, THIS level of business has Holly frazzled and exhausted? She is as cut out for food service as Funky is for giving out marriage advice.
* Holly being self-conscious about her body hasn’t happened in a while, but to be fair, it actually isn’t new. It even goes back to when she was the other shoe.
Thanks for putting up with me and my blue tongue for the past two weeks. Thoughts and prayers for our next blogger…
Well, I never! Cindy called Harry! Someone better stop all this hilariousness, before it’s too late.
So many of the story lines in this strip lately have started this way. Somebody needs to go back to Westview because somebody there has something old timey that apparently nobody else in the world has and can’t be shipped or sent digitally. And even though apparently it’s so rare and forgotten that it only exists in Westview, somehow people will end up being wildly passionate about whatever old crap it is.
Here’s Batiuk’s writing process now:
“Gosh, I sure like old comics/movie serials/decoder rings/silent movies. If only I didn’t have to write this stupid strip, I could spend all my time reading back issues of Old Timey Junk Quarterly. I know! I could do a four month arc where someone in Westview has silent movies, and somebody else wants to see them, for some reason!” (runs the bases in his mind)
Also, am I crazy, or should it not be Cindy Jarre now? I don’t know if this is just Batiuk not giving a crap about his strip or “She was Cindy Summers in high school and that’s the only period of her live that matters”, but either way it’s dumb.
Son of Stuck Funky 
