Jimmy
August 15, 2011 at 11:22 am
I’m taking a wild guess here that Les is going to take Cayla on a walk to his favorite park bench, where he’ll wax poetic about it giving him inspiration.
Cayla! No! No-o-o-o! For the love of God, don’t sit there! Too late…
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.
File today’s strip under Pisses Me Off: a whole stupid week of Les fretting over what “that Hollywood producer” might do to his masterpiece. When at last Les grudgingly concedes to allow his book to be optioned, Ann tells him what many of you have been pointing out all week…that just because your book’s been optioned, doesn’t mean the movie will ever see the light of day.
Erich
May 19, 2011 at 11:31 am…I’m trying to remember the name of another author with a pragmatic attitude towards adaptations…when somebody asked him about Hollywood “ruining” his books, he replied “They’re not ruined. They’re still right there on the shelf.” Who said that?
redbird
May 19, 2011 at 5:17 pmErich: Finally found it at Slate:
“…Except, of course, it was supposed to be exactly that. Comics writer Alan Moore, whose dislike for adaptations of his books has been widely documented, is fond of telling a story about Raymond Chandler. When asked if he worried about Hollywood ruining his books, Chandler replied, “They’re not ruined. They’re right there on the shelf….”
My own research led me to this very old posting on a discussion board, where the expression is used by author James Ellroy (who I guess was quoting Chandler). Anyway, in today’s strip, Lisa’s Ghost says pretty much the same thing.
Today’s post title was inspired by Lisa’s cold, spooky hand on Les’ in panel 3, which in turn reminded me of this 80’s classic:
“There, There, My Dear” –Dexy’s Midnight Runners
In likening himself to Hemingway , Les leaves out a key element of Papa’s quote: “You throw them your book, they throw you the money. Then you jump into your car and drive like hell back the way you came.” Although in this case, instead of money, Hollywood would throw the book back. After using it for asswipe.
Son of Stuck Funky 
![Till [sic] I can gain control again…](http://content.comicskingdom.net/Funky_Winkerbean/Funky_Winkerbean.20110626.gif){kind=link}