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!
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.
Son of Stuck Funky 