Tag: Kent State

If This Made Any Sense At All I'd Call It Retconning

My head asploded as I attempted to summarize today’s strip.  At first I was as confused as hell because I thought the sepia-toned flashbacks were hearkening back to Les’s college years except for the fact:

1. He still looks in his 40s.

2. He still has that now retcon-yellow yellow shirt.

Then I realized that Les is getting all sentimental and reminiscing about something that happened literally *yesterday*.   The problem is, does his reference to “planning my getaway” refer to when he wanted to leave Kent State as a college student after he graduated or is he referring to want to leave yesterday?  ‘Cause if it’s the latter, hey, Einstein, get in your car and drive 90 miles to home.

One last thought: please, God, I don’t ever want to see that Panel 2 expression on Les again unless I can see where his hands are.

Funky Cold Medina

I guess TB needs to remind readers once a year that Funky is a recovering alcoholic. Although taken with the strip from two Sundays back, could he be setting Funky up for a relapse? The Winkerbeans waltzed to that tune with the line “Till [sic] I can gain control again…” Is he losing control? Are Funky’s demons “exercising” him?

1/4″ from Reality Dept: the gazebo figured so prominently in the past week’s strips, and is rendered so lovingly in today’s; I took a notion that TB must be copping a real-life structure somewhere in, oh, I don’t know…Ohio? Sure enough, a bit of Googling yields pics of the real-life gazebo in Medina Square in TB’s hometown. And true Batiuk completist collectors may pick up a CD of the Medina Community Band‘s 2009 “Salute to Sousa” concert; cover artwork by you-know-who.

Moore than This

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20110202&name=Funky_Winkerbean

Tom Batiuk Les Moore and his old college pal share a sepia-toned memory. Ronnie’s present-day wizened appearance belies the fact that she once was a hipster coed who drove a bitchin’ VW Bug.

Les’ comment in panel 3 sent me to look up the definition of “cocksure” (I’ll leave the dick jokes to everyone else):

  1. feeling perfect assurance sometimes on inadequate grounds
  2. marked by overconfidence or presumptuousness :cocky

…so the “punchline”, while not funny, certainly has the ring of truth.

Update:
Reader “crisis du jour” has very helpfully pointed out that today’s scene plays out on the campus of Kent State. He even included a picture of White Hall, the building in the background.