Alex somehow manages to contain her insane glee at finally being asked out by the hottie Owen.
Tag: Komix Korner
Zombie Prom
Slager
October 1, 2013 at 1:16 am
Huh, I worked on an amateur short film called “Zombie Homecoming”. It wasn’t very good.
Yes, in case you missed yesterday’s strip, they’re doing a zombie homecoming, and Owen finds the eerie theme so enticing that he’s tempted to attend his first homecoming of his five-year high school career. No prizes for guessing who Owen will wind up asking do be his date, but if TB really wanted to explore a same-sex storyline…nah.
The Business End
Naturally, anything called “Merchant’s Day” would have to feature the only two functioning businesses in Westview. What I don’t get is how cavalierly John runs his comic book shop. Here are a couple of potential customers who, yeah, might not read comics themselves, but might know people who do and thus might buy gifts, and John can’t even be bothered to look up. Isn’t he perpetually behind in his rent payments? Isn’t the entire town continually strapped for cash? Does he not want to even try to make money? Look at the expression on his face: it just screams “Get out of my shop. Get out of my shop. If I don’t look up maybe they’ll just go away.”
Besides, given the fact that John frequently proselytises everyone about the art and value of comic books, you would think in his world there wouldn’t be anyone who wasn’t a potential fan, just waiting to have him open up a whole new world for them. Yet here he doesn’t even try.
Yes, I do know that the words “try” and “attempt” and “strive” and so forth are considered curse words in Westview, but the continual avoidance of those activities is just so. Damned. Wearying.
…come to think of it, this particular episode seems to sum up Funky Winkerbean in a nutshell. “Look…here’s something.” Lady, if you only knew how wrong you are. “Never mind…this isn’t a store.” You know what else it isn’t? A joke. The joke is right here, and it’s on us.
Not Cool
I know of something that could possibly act as a “cooler”. It’s called a “refrigerator”. It’s like a cooler, only bigger. Seriously though, nice try at one of those “these damned kids today” strips but no, I’m fairly certain that young people today are quite familiar with glass, what with their beer and bongs and meth pipes and all. This one reads like it probably should have been left in the outtake pile or maybe the blooper reel. Although I always love how he draws that creepy Komix Korner staircase, though, one of my favorite things in the strip in fact. It’s like a portal leading to some insane geek hell dimension.
And isn’t there probably a cooler full of drinks right downstairs in Montoni’s anyway? I take back that “nice try”.
Sunday, July 21
ABOVE THE POST UPDATE
Something witty and insightful actually related to today’s strip, to be published after the strip goes live.
–or it could just be Cody, Owen, and Dead Heart John talking about crap that no one, and I mean no one, cares about.
ORIGINAL POST
Since, even with my newly-acquired superpowers, my vision cannot see through Saturday, I thought I’d muse a bit on the 50th anniversary arc we’ve just been through (and may continue on into) while waiting for Sunday to show up.
Firstly and most obviously, there weren’t any jokes. Not even the most charitable teacher, grading on the biggest curve, could find anything that anyone outside of Tom Batiuk’s house could call “humor.” That’s so obvious it hardly needs stating, but there is a question: why is this?
Before we start in on personal attacks (on Tom Batiuk; you can attack me all you want, I’ve got superpowers, nyah!), I’d like to change the question: could this have been funny?
Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Not hilarious, not entertaining even, but I could see the humor if, and only if, certain things had been established. That would have required some ground work prior to the arc, of course, which wasn’t there, but let’s change things just a bit…
First of all, forget how hate-able all the characters are. Now, imagine that instead of Harry Dinkle doing these things, it was Jack Benny.
Many of you may not know who Jack Benny was (though I am older than the stars, I never heard his radio show) but his “comic persona” was that of an determined cheapskate. An affable, amiable, even helpful cheapskate, but a man who parted with a penny only after all other alternatives were exhausted.
Everyone on his radio show was aware of this, and acknowledged it openly. In this context, the idea of Benny taking his long-time girlfriend to an inexpensive anniversary party at the cheap dump they go to every week becomes kind of funny. The girlfriend would be appalled yet not want to say anything, the gathered friends would be feeling the same, and when he said he wanted her to “put out,” he’d open up his wallet for her to contribute.
The height of hilarity? Of course not. But I can see the humor.
The problem, of course, is that Funky Winkerbean‘s Harry is not presented as a cheap miser. He’s presented as a beloved father-figure; the very idea of an anniversary party at Montoni’s is not discouraged, but lauded as magnanimous. Harry’s persona is entirely wrong for this kind of story. Had he been presented as he’s perceived by readers–cheap, selfish and egotistical–than this whole arc would have some potential. Viz:
I’ll be first to admit the above isn’t funny. But it does have an actual punchline that makes sense in context of Harry’s character.
It’s a pity in a way, because if Tom Batiuk had taken the time to establish (or acknowledge) some negative traits for his characters, the overall level of humor…well, let’s not go overboard. Let me say that it least it wouldn’t be below sea-level.
As another example, take Les Moore. Please. (Ha ha…ha?) If he were presented as a semi-talented nebbishy dweeb, his “home run” at writing such a terrible teleplay would be seen as a funny over-estimation of his abilities. Similarly, the fact that both Susan and Cayla found him attractive could have been the source of some humor. That was not to be, though, as the one attempt was viciously slapped down (“I screwed up” “Yes, you did”) in order to demonstrate Les’ obvious (to TB) appeal.
So, thanks for your indulgence on this fine Sunday morning. As for today’s strip, why, let’s just take a look, and…oh good grief.
Son of Stuck Funky 
