Tag Archives: Watchin’ television

by | January 10, 2021 · 10:30 pm

Eye Don’t Have Any Idea…

First, a big hand for Epicus Doomus for taking a three week stint writing these posts. Yeoman’s work, truly. I can’t tell you how many times this strip has had me wanting to tap out after one week day.

Looks like today’s strip continues what we saw last Friday and Saturday, and what has dominated 10 of the 18 strips printed since Christmas Day… yes, it is yet another installment of At Home With The Winkerbeans. Part Pluggers… part Lockhorns… It somehow manages to fall short of even the absolute worst that those two mockable comics page mainstays have to offer. Heck, I’m not even sure what is going on here.

Is the joke that Holly’s vision is even worse than Funky’s? (Believe it or not, there is 4 year old precedent for this.) Is it that Funky’s vision is so bad that he thinks their DVR has a clock when it doesn’t? Is it that neither of these characters wear glasses regularly even though they both demonstrably need to? Does TB think DVR clocks are ubiquitous in the way VCR clocks once were? (They aren’t.)

One down, thirteen more to go…

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by | August 2, 2020 · 1:33 am

Wow, That’s a Lot of Flames

Today’s strip was also not available for preview. I’m expecting it to be a single panel of every character in the strip burning in the golf club flames, while Les stands safe to the side mocking them for not remembering to stop, drop and roll. And then Monday the strip will start all over again in Act II without any kind of explanation.

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by | February 23, 2020 · 10:33 pm

Cuckoo for Cocoa.

Link to today’s strip

Comic Book Harriet, back in the saddle again. Taking over spurring this dead horse to flop listlessly forward another two weeks. I want to thank TFH for gallantly riding us through three weeks of absolute comic book nonsense. I don’t know if I had it in my heart to handle the cringe of Chester awkwardly trying to buy Ruby’s affections and/or loyalty.

If you weren’t paying attention to the clothing change, you might think that today’s strip was a continuation of Sunday. But no, they’re just plopped in front of the TV again on another day.

A couple questions. Who is playing? Why do they care so much? Must be an Ohio team. The jerseys of the two giants being shouted at by Danny Devito on the TV are on the red spectrum. Scapegoats matches would not be on TV right? The Cleveland Cavaliers have wine red jerseys. Ohio State has scarlet. University of Cincinnati is red. Youngstown State is cardinal. And Miami University in Oxford Ohio (founded in 1809)is also just plain old red.

Something we cannot question is this strip’s weird fixation on hot cocoa. Look at Funky lurching compulsively off the couch in search of hot sugar water. I mean, I really only drink the stuff once in a blue moon, usually around Christmas. Westviewians seem to use in all seasons it as some kind of comfort currency. I looked around, but this doesn’t seem to be a specifically Ohio or Great Lakes thing.

Batiuk does like to have his characters drinking something in strip. Making and offering each other drinks. Coffee usually, sometimes cold beverages, occasionally tea. I’m guessing it gives them a little something to do at in the panel rather than stare at each other seemingly motionless blathering inane dialogue. And I get it. My parent’s marriage entirely revolves around drinking coffee in proximity to each other.

But Cocoa seems to have a special place in his heart. As the beverage of choice when he wants to make his characters unbearably twee and childlike.

But Funky seems to have a special affinity for it. In a really creepy way.

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by | February 22, 2020 · 11:23 pm

Binge and Bungle

It must have been a combination of the dramatic lighting plus Holly’s come-hither look: “How about ‘ Mozart in the Jungle‘” sounded to me like some code word for sexytime! I didn’t know it was a series on Amazon. One that I guess TB enjoys watching, perhaps at home in the evening with the missus. Which I suppose is how he was inspired to come up with today’s strip. After a three week story arc set in Atomik Komix Cloud Cuckoo Land, Batty’s finally back to writing what he knows. And here at SoSF, we binge-read and write about Funky Winkerbean, and your guide for the next fortnight will be comicbookharriet!

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by | November 24, 2018 · 11:05 pm

How Les Got His Groove Back

Link To Today’s Strip

Today’s strip was not available for preview.  Rumor among industry insiders is it was pulled at the last minute when editors realized it was an extremely explicit and detailed portrayal of Les and Cayla engaging in their traditional “Les and Lisa” roleplaying.  Those in the know say that the original strip and all its printings have been burned, and the ashes dumped into the deepest part of the sea.  Those unfortunate enough to witness the strip are being given the best counseling and seeing eye dogs available.

 

So here’s today’s strip.  You know what is one of the best things about comics as a medium?  I’d say it’s how you can pair funny or engaging writing with exciting, dynamic visuals.  Or you can just have two unattractive people in a bland, boring house stare silently at a TV while you copy and paste in jokes from “Funniest Football Banter of All Time, Volume 3”.

Coming up tomorrow-the nightmare continues, only this time with the talented and witty Epicus Doomus in charge!

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by | June 23, 2018 · 10:30 pm

Dread Head

Link To The Sunday Strip

How sad. Mort’s successful attempt to (ahem) cheer Crankshaft up is apparently bringing the old coot no joy or pleasure at all, as in today’s installment he laments the inevitable death of the universe and…oh, I see. It’s actually Funky. For a second there I thought we were seeing a FW character displaying a secondary emotion beyond their default one and I became all disoriented. Plus it’s, you know, tough to distinguish between Funky and his old man these days. One of them is a frisky, vibrant old guy who’s experienced miraculous health and well-being gains over the last few years and the other one is Funky.

Anyhow, it looks like Funky’s neck experienced a “big rip” of its own there in panel four, the one featuring his aborted attempt at drinking from a glass. It could explain his posture in panel five as well. I would assume that Funky would probably welcome some sort of apocalyptic scenario. Like maybe an asteroid strike or something, but the total atomic collapse of the universe would work too, plus there’d be no chance Les could somehow survive that.

But alas, no. He’s just complaining about it, as usual. No wonder he’s such a wildly popular and universally beloved title character who everyone’s heard of, there’s something about that hilariously morose-yet-whiny demeanor of his that really strikes a chord with so many tens of people. You can easily imagine that weird reclusive neighbor of yours who never leaves the house cutting this one out and displaying on the refrigerator door, you know?

billytheskink heroically throws himself on the FW grenade beginning tomorrow!

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by | May 19, 2018 · 10:30 pm

Sunday morning, praise the dawning

Link to today’s strip.

As twas ever thus, Sunday’s strip was not available for preview.   I’m going to guess that we’ll get a reprise of the previous week, with Funky and Holly gasbagging about texts and/or Cory, but as a guess, it’s just that.  The actual strip could be anything.  Funky and Les jogging, comic book tribute, anything at all.  Anything except good, of course.

Normally, I’d stay up long enough to add to the day’s analysis, but unlike Tom Batiuk, I have a real job that requires that I fulfill certain goals.  Unlike Tom Batiuk, if I fail to fulfill these goals, I could get fired, which would not be beneficial to me, though I would assume it would cause Mr. Batiuk some amusement, and perhaps some satisfaction.

But until the time when he has control over my life, I will continue to deny that to him, and I’m off.  See you folks on the funway, which is already in progress!

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by | February 21, 2016 · 10:30 pm

Gallup and Doper

Just look at today’s strip. Kids these days… I tell ya.

With their chullos and their scarves and their short haircuts and their closed circuit television broadcasts and their disagreeable opinion polls and their polka dot boxer shorts that they expose to the world because they refuse to properly tighten their belts because they are all disrespectful punk hoodlums who will destroy America after we retire.

Those ungrateful seniors want to chose where they go on a trip meant to celebrate their impending graduation. How dare they?
Not that Owen, Cody, and company have earned much sympathy from us over their decade at Westview High School, but given that they endure Les and Kablichnick on a daily basis, they are definitely the lesser of two evils here. I politely applaud their efforts to stick it to the administration via sarcastic opinion poll.

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by | March 11, 2014 · 10:42 pm

And in the Darkness, Bind Them

Link To Today’s Strip

Again, another baby step.  The suspense would be killing me…if it wasn’t resting on the sofa, eating chips and watching Three Stooges shorts while I’m over here trying to type.

I do like how the darkness just encroaches, panel by panel, until Funky and Holly are completely surrounded, and about to be blotted out of their sorry existence.  I’d like to offer some genuine, non-ironic praise for Tom Batiuk’s artistic choice in rendering today’s effort.  Well done!

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by | March 10, 2014 · 10:33 pm

I Thought Nothing Was Supposed to be Something

Link To Today’s Strip

Nothing really surprising here, as Tom Batiuk takes one baby step at a time through this latest arc.  To be fair, that’s how most continuity-based newspaper strips work–Newspaper Spider-Man moves at a pace that’s positively glacial.  However, when your “action” consists of one sitting person joined by another, it is possible to move a little too slowly.  You want people sitting on the edge of their seats, not sitting back and snoring softly in the afternoon sun.

I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t point out two pretty amazing things in today’s episode.  In panel one, we have a small potted plant that is absolutely black–a darkness so complete that it seems no light can reflect from its shriveled, defeated leaves.

Not really that surprising, given that it has spent its lonely life in the Winkerbean household.  But next to that, we have a tea-pot that has apparently phased part-way through the top of the shelf and is now embedded forever within the wood.   There are some comic book characters who can do this, perhaps Tom Batiuk was thinking of them when he drew this.

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