Today’s strip is the second Sunday strip in a row to involve the word “rip”. Be sure to buy next Sunday’s coupon and circular delivery system at you local newsstand just to see how TB works Rip Taylor and Rip Torn into Funky Winkerbean.
Jessica now joins the long line of comic book characters based on real people, ranking among the likes of Funky Flashman and Brick Springhorn and the 10th Avenue Band. What an honor.
Today’s strip was not available preview, because Comics Kingdom’s strip uploading person has been taking cues from Pete and Durwood and put their duties off until the very last minute.
These two have been procrastinating for decades now. Here’s a scene from back in high school where Durwood has shirked his duties at the school paper in order to have kissy time time with Jessica. Pete, Sophomoric Sightings‘ alleged writer (and now artist) tries to lollygag by claiming he forgot how to write until Chien lights a fire under his rear end.
Chester ought to look into hiring Chien. I’ll bet there would be fewer offsite coffeshop breaks if he did.
Today’s strip poses the question: Is Durwood a talented artist who truly struggles with math, a gigantic tool, or some combination of the previous two things?
His MBA degree, depicted “artistic” skill, and his development of the Montoni’s app suggest the second of the three options.
Like so much of Funky Winkerbean, today’s strip invites reasonable questions that have stupid and unsatisfying answers. Use the Q&A below to guide you as you take part in the frustrating experience that is reading today’s strip.
So when is Jessica moving back to Ohio?
I thought she had, but I was apparently wrong and she is still in California doing documentary work with Cindy. Durwood believes that she would not mind moving back to Ohio, so there’s that.
Wait… Jessica is doing documentary work for Cindy?
Well, she certainly was. If you didn’t have to blink back in November 2016 (the nerve of you!), you would have known this.
So Jessica is still working on Cindy’s Cliff Anger documentary 19 months after shooting the interview with Cliff and Vera?
Well… Cindy’s Cliff Anger documentary was nominated for an Emmy award in April 2017, so it is presumably complete. Either Jessica works so slowly that she has entered a time warp, an incomplete documentary was nominated for an Emmy award, or a certain writer forgot what he wrote 14 months back.
Why did Darin move back in with his parents in Westview instead of finding his own place in Cleveland, where he works?
Because he is a notorious freeloader who deserves to be nicknamed “Mooch” more than his old high school pal Eric Myers ever did. Recall his and Jessica’s previous residences in Act III, slumming with friends until getting kicked out (free), living with Les and Summer (free), and finally getting their first “real place” in the apartment above Montoni’s (technically not free, but Funky owned the unit and paid Durwood’s salary during this time).
Isn’t it hard on his senior-citizen mother to have him and Skyler living in the house on top of having to care for her stroke-crippled husband?
Of course it is, but Durwood is all about Durwood.
Does Darin not get along with his parents?
That seems to only be implied, but given that he has spent far more time beatifying his “bio mom” and “step dad” in Act III than spending any time at all (pleasant or otherwise) with the couple that loved and raised him from infancy, it is a very strong implication. Durwood is awful.
Why did Skyler move with Durwood, who is starting a time-intensive new job, into Ann and Fred’s cramped old house instead of staying with his mother, who is still living in a whole apartment that he was already comfortably living in?
Because Jessica is awful too.
Is Darin the worst?
No, Les is the worst… but Durwood is making a genuine effort at sinking to his depths.
Pete meeting up with a girl seems “serious” to Jessica? Again, it’s difficult to imagine how her standards could be much lower, unless she started dating Les or something. Boy Lisa didn’t even remotely indicate that anything “serious” was happening but doormats are gonna doormat, I suppose.
“Critical mass” normally means something entirely different in the Funkyverse. Don’t take my word for it, just go ask Lisa, as she’s due to pop up again at pretty much any time now. So this marks the end of week six (correction: seven) and we STILL have no idea whether they accepted the offer or not. Excluding Sundays there have been 78 FW strips so far this year and this arc has accounted for 42 of them. That’s right, he’s spent more than half of 2018 thus far on a job interview and we still don’t know how it turned out. Unbelievable. The last non Atomic Comics week was that Claude Barlow Dinkle nonsense back in early February, which seems like many lifetimes ago.
Son of Stuck Funky 
