In addressing today’s strip, I’m slippin’ on the old “tread lightly” shoes. There are thousands of families right now, waiting and worrying over loved ones who are away serving this country. It must be a “helpless” feeling indeed. That said: how is Holly’s self assigned task supposed to benefit her or her soldier? This all began six weeks ago with Cory complaining to his mom via Skype about the lack of supplies “over there in Afghanistan”. And Holly’s idea of “doing something” about it is chasing down the missing volumes in his comic book collection? Only in the Funkiverse, man…only in the Funkiverse.
Tag: Starbuck Jones
Parents Just Don’t Understand
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV)
Batiuk’s certainly getting enough mileage out of Joe Staton’s cover for Starbuck Jones #7, which makes its fourth appearance today…
With all due respect to the apostle Paul, comic books are the holy scripture of Westview (and pizza is their Holy Communion). The Komix Korner should have been called the Ark of the Covenant. Comic books are hardly”childish things”, and even the most clueless of moms knows that they are not something to be “pitched”. Amen.
Kory’s Komix
First a couple random notes: though I don’t like to promote the, ahem, competition, Chris Sims’ Funkywatch over at Comics Alliance is especially spot on this month. Also, head on over to the offical FW site to be treated to the spectacle of Ed Crankshaft and Funky Winkerbean fighting over the last Christmas tree in the lot!
Th’ hell? Is Cory dead already? Funky and Holly rummage through his room (just as he left it, snif) and Holly speaks of him in the past tense.
While Cory’s room is actually fairly tidy, what’s a “total mess” (as usual) is the continuity. A month ago we saw Holly include this rare volume in a package that she and Funky were sending to Afghanistan (the rest of that week showed—in flashback—Holly acquiring the comic from “Rocky’s” mom). Now she reaches under the bed and files Starbuck Jones #7 in Cory’s box of Silver Age comics. Perhaps it returned through the same wormhole that enabled Les to check out Funky’s new car in the middle of the Kilimanjaro arc.
Cory, We Hardly Knew Ye
My God, Holly’s dialogue in panels one and two is brain-busting. Except for the need to fill a pre-existing, drawn-a-year-in-advance word balloon (my pet theory, I hope you don’t mind if I harp on it constantly), I’m hard-pressed to think why such a fetid stew of verbiage would get vomited up. Every time I try to think of a way to shorten that mess, my mind goes blank. But let’s try:
The actual point of the strip, hinted at yesterday, is that yes, Funky was a fan of Starbuck Jones. Since it seems Cory is too, perhaps they’ll have an actual reason to contact one another and chat. Of course, Funky being Funky, the idea of communicating with a fellow human being, other than to express contempt, is inconceivable. Note the tense of Funky’s verb: Funky was a fan of Starbuck Jones. Was. Then, he grew up, hardened his gaze, and never looked back. He was many things. He is…Funky Winkerbean.
Holly then offers up another “If only we’d gotten to know him better” lament. Well, Holly, that wouldn’t have happened with Funky (being after all, Funky), but you know, Cory is your biological child. You’ve known him all his life. You have pretty much no excuse not to know more about your own son than you do. So, yeah, I guess you can feel sorry for yourself. No one else is going to.
Bonus “Utter Insanity” note–look at Funky in panel three. Specifically, look at his neck. You see the tag there? The tag that typically signifies “size” and “washing instructions”? See how it has flipped itself up? This…this is amazing. Tom Batiuk, an artist who cannot be bothered with panel-to-panel consistency, makes certain that Funky’s t-shirt tag is realistically flipped up. And they say there are no miracles.
Son of Stuck Funky 
