Jessica – Page 54 – Son of Stuck Funky

The Apprentice (and: Contest Announcement!)

Nope, Bull just can’t help himself: he just has to go and get in the way of his daughter making a new friend. Too late: Jessica has invoked the Westview Employment Clause, where everyone in town must work for somebody else in town.

Contest Announcement!

In honor of SoSF’s 500th post!
One lucky commenter on today’s post will be chosen at random to receive their very own copy of Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe!

No joke, folks!
Comments for this post will be closed midnight Sunday “blog time” (which is 10:30 pm EDT) and one winner will be randomly selected and announced on Monday, August 15.

Thanks, everyone, for reading and commenting, and a huge tip o’ the SoSF balmoral to frequent snarker and guest blogger davidorth for suggesting this contest and kicking in the prize!

Son of Stuck Funky and this contest are in no way sponsored by or affiliated with Batom Inc., King Features Syndicate, or amazon.com.

Ease Off, Friend

“What’s that you say? They’ve hit it off? Well! I’d better go and put a stop to that right away!”

The role of panel two Summer is being played by Cartoon Beatle George Harrison.

Daddy, Darling

I’m trying to find her dad too. For a comic strip that ran for eleven years, there’s not a lot to be found on the web about John Darling (and I don’t mean Wendy’s brother from Peter Pan). Arrrrrgh There are entries on Wikipedia and Toonopedia. There’s an out-of-print collection on Amazon ($40 used!), and if you’ve got time, a YouTube clip where somebody pans across some JD strips collected in a scrapbook (!).

But there aren’t a lot of strips to link to online, probably because the comic ended its run before the internet got underway. JD certainly appears to have been better drawn that TB’s other projects (the art was mostly by Marvin cartoonist Tom Armstrong) in an appealing, chunky 80’s fashion. Most of what can be found on the web mentions that Batiuk was in a dispute with North America Syndicate, and decided to kill his character so that the strip could not be continued.

I mention all this because, if Darling was a real-life figure, a talk show host who was shot to death on live TV…would there not be a pretty fair amount of material to be had online and elsewhere, even 20 years later?

Nobody's Darling

Inside: Jinx looks at her camera and wonders “Where do I put the film?” while Jessica gives some background on the documentary she’s making (that no one is going to see). “I moved back here to Westview…to interview people who knew my dad…who was a TV personality in Cleveland.” Makes sense, I guess. Outside: Bull allows himself to be made to look foolish and weak by a sixteen-year-old girl.

Jinxica

Today TB confounds probably 85% of his loyal fans by dropping the word “vlogs” into his strip (it’s made even more confusing in that damn Funky Winkerbean comic font…”VhO6S”?). Upon being introduced to Jinx, Miss Haystack Head immediately goes into self-effacing mode, because in Westview, nobody’s creative output is worthwhile unless their name is Les Moore. Bull and Jinx immediately respond by ignoring Jessica.