Montoni's – Page 63 – Son of Stuck Funky

Little Old Lady Who?

Most
carelessly-rendered
neon sign ever.

Looks like Batiuk plans on letting the Kilimanjaro Saga unfold on an alternate-week basis…

Today we find ourselves in the familiar confines of Montoni’s. I always asssumed that the lettering in Montoni’s window was a neon sign, but the closeup in panel 2 reveals that the letters are not connected. Maybe they’re painted on, or maybe they’re those gummy window clings? Though that doesn’t explain how they light up.

“The Boss”, meanwhile, is finagling with the guy at the car dealership. Stress, strain, killer-shark issues, and two time jumps have beaten down our titular character to the point where he matter-of-factly renounces his very manhood, self-identifying as “a little old lady”.

Summer of Summer

Makes sense that a Dad who waits until May of his daughter’s senior year to look at schools should wait until the day after graduation to ask if she’s planning to attend basketball camp. Summer’s following Mom’s pithy advice: she’s about to tell Les of her plans to “follow her heart” and elope with Keisha.

Comin' up, one side of spatula smack!

Guest blogger DavidO here, filling in as best I can for the very funny TFHackett!

Les looks like he’s just about to set some ground rules with a spatual upside of Cayla’s head, if his tiny flippered arm will let him reach that far. Meanwhile, Keisha’s transformation into a classic Westview Turtle person is almost complete. And, of course, no gathering would be complete without at least mentioning Montoni’s greasy pizza.

Fantasy Goofball

I still can’t figure out how Owen’s fake texts were meant to dissuade Cody from pursing Summer Moore, and rather than making things better, Owen’s “fantasy girl” justification just sounds…icky.

(Note)book of Love

Jimmy
April 20, 2012 at 1:11 pm
…Seriously, what boy writes hearts all over his notebook, unless his girlfriend did it for him?

Charles
April 20, 2012 at 5:25 pm
What sort of odd high school boy writes hearts and the name of his unrequited crush on his notebook? Especially if he’s trying to keep said crush secret. It’s not as if no one would ever notice that.

Well, there’s only one other that I know of…

So I guess this wasn’t going where we all thought/hoped/dreaded, eh? As snarker Senor Taco pointed out yesterday, the Coming Same Sex Prom Couple likely will not be C&O. According to this article on The Daily Cartoonist:

The gay characters in Funky Winkerbean are not from his normal cast of characters – so there will be no drama about anyone coming out, but readers will see how other characters react. In fact the gay couple is only featured in 2 of the 24 strips – mostly to set the stage for dealing with the larger issue of intolerance surrounding homosexuality. “Dealing with intolerance is something I’ve dealt with many times before. Adding the gay angle is just a twist to the topic,” Tom says. “I’m not trying to shock anyone, I’m just telling a story.”

Oh boy. A month-long story arc. Can’t. Wait. Anyway, the whole writing the name all over the notebook thing; sorry, I’m pretty sure it’s not something high school boys (straight or gay) do.