I guess we shouldn’t complain: having split most of the last couple years between indulging his comic book fetish and flogging his latest collection of strips, Tom Batiuk’s finally gets around to featuring his comic’s titular character. The last Funkycentric storyline we had was in March, in which he explored an abandoned house in the woods while pondering mortality. Funky’s funk has not lessened, driving him back to AA where he assumes a Jesus pose and bemoans the absence of his book-touring best friend Les (“un-Moore-d”, get it?).
Tag: senior citizens
All About (Christmas) Eve
It sure took long enough, but today it finally occurs to Dinkle just how far from the big time he has fallen. The director whose band once marched in the Tournament of Roses Parade, the author and autobiographer, the egomaniac who envisioned his band marching from his giant, inflatable head, must spend this Christmas conducting for an audience of one.
C’est la Mort!
Well, after a week spent rehashing Funky’s failed fitness program, today’s strip is a change of pace indeed!
Six months after we learned of it, Funky finally gets around to telling Holly that his father has started smoking. As he’s telling her this, a nurse passes by pushing a wheelchair in which sits the crumpled, soulless husk of Ed Crankshaft! But that, that’s not the big news! Today we learn that Funky’s dad has a name!
No doubt his friends knew him as “Mort.” His daughter-in-law, however, in the first time we’ve seen her come to visit, stiffly addresses him: “Hello, Morton” (I imagine her intoning this the same way Seinfeld would say “Hello, Newman“). Without imparting a hug or a kiss, she proceeds to lace into him about his recently acquired habit. Mort gives no fucks: he proceeds to smoothly light two cigs with his Zippo, proffering the second one to his lady friend.
Six months ago a doctor took Funky aside and raised the prospect of moving his father into “full-time nursing care.” But Mort seems happier and more engaged then we’ve ever seen him.
Return of Momzilla
Westviewvians acknowledge the arrival of one another not with a friendly “Hello” but “What is he/she doing here?” Although surely we can forgive Becky for being less than overjoyed at seeing her mom. Dad’s there too, of course, with the camcorder, and silent, having spoken his two word quota for this decade. Roberta portrays the prom as a “fiasco” (we agree) and spins her banishment as having been “invited off” the committee. Now she looks for something else to destroy besides her “little girl’s” life. In panel 2, Becky struggles in vain to choke Mom with her phantom left hand.
Endure Thy Father
Here is Funky’s idea of showing his father a good time on Fathers’ Day: schlepping him to the food court at Mammoth Mall. What do you expect from the cheap bastard who celebrated his wedding anniversary at Montoni’s? Hell, Montoni’s would’ve been a nicer place for lunch than the crowded, noisy food court. Their “nice chat” consists of poor Pa’s persistent proffering of his too-big sandwich, and Funky’s polite refusals. Batiuk might have used today to have Funky at least attempt a conversation with his father, and given the reader some kind of insight into this relationship, rather than using the old man as a prop to make us feel sorry for Funky.
Son of Stuck Funky 
