The Comics Curmudgeon

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A serious moment

Funky Winkerbean, 10/4/07

I suppose I’m expected to say something about this, right? God damn, you know, I got into this gig to make jokes about Rex Morgan’s sex life and stuff. Well, if I had to sum it up, I’d have to say:

I don’t hate it.

I don’t hate it on principle, for starters. I don’t believe that the comics, or the newspaper comics in particular, should be a all-fun death-free zone. And, to touch on a specific aspect that seems to have pressed a lot of buttons: I’m a big proponent of quality-of-life decisions in medical care. I think that, if given the option of adding a few extra months to your life at the price of constant pain, “no” is a legitimate answer.

In a bigger sense, as I noted in a quote in a newspaper story whose author was nice enough to solicit my opinion like I’m some kind of expert, I’m in favor of comics artists deciding to do things that are kind of ambitious. Whatever my thoughts are on the execution of this, my esteem for it is boosted by its context: it sits in the middle of a section of the paper full of “legacy” strips now produced by committee, whose tired punchlines seem quite often to be literally phoned in. This series was undeniably trying at something a little grander.

As for the execution of the storyline, to me it was kind of hit and miss: some of it was really affecting, and some was pretty tin-eared. That quality has been on ample display over the past few weeks. There was a lot of this final sequence that I found quite moving, but then, hey! It’s weird cheesy Phantom of the Opera/“Puttin’ on the Ritz” guy! It kind of, um, spoiled the mood for me a bit.

But in the end, the decision for this storyline to go the way it did didn’t shock or upset me because of the other context it exists in, namely Funky Winkerbean itself. Honestly, this is the strip with the missing arms and the alcoholism and the murdered fathers and the infertility and the hey hey. You want to know what FW plot really pissed me off? Harry Dinkle going deaf. Because in real life, people get cancer, people get second bouts of cancer, and people die from it, all for no good reason. But when you get ironic, O. Henry style afflictions — well, that just seems needlessly cruel.

That’s all just my opinion, of course. And one thing I do appreciate is all of you commentors who have been sharing your opinions — and your really touching and harrowing stories — over the past little while. The comments on yesterday’s post are particularly worth reading. Whether you think this outpouring is because of the strip or in spite of it, I’m touched that you chose my blog as a place to share this stuff.

For Better Or For Worse, 10/4/07

Meanwhile, Grandpa Jim: totally not dead, FYI. Ha ha, old man, you thought it’d be easy to get out of this strip? You were wrong — dead wrong!

But you’re not dead. Just to make that clear.

Crock, 10/4/07

This is the first Crock I’ve genuinely and non-ironically laughed at in about ever. It’s about the fact that Crock only shows the slightest bit of consideration towards other living things if it somehow forwards his interests or his appetites; as a bonus, there’s an undertone of cannibalism. I began to worry that I might be kind of mean spirited.

Marvin, 10/4/07

But then I was appalled at this comic, which is about putting babies in prison, so I felt better about myself.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 10/4/07

That final panel isn’t artsy visual narrative, or a metaphor for Rex’s dual nature, or anything like that. It’s actually offering us a look into Rex Morgan’s head, wherein lies … another, slightly smaller, Rex Morgan head. And what’s inside that Rex Morgan head? You’ve got it: yet another Rex Morgan head. It’s like those damn nesting Russian dolls, only with Rex Morgan heads.

Oh, and they can all talk, apparently. Damn creepy.

Herb and Jamaal, 10/4/07

Actually, Herb, he’s a 16th century writer, but what’s 1,200 years in the grand scheme of things? We shouldn’t let minor details detract from your achievement: you just managed to use an entirely irrelevant quotation that you got out of Bartlett’s to justify to yourself the fact that you’re a crappy friend. Bravo!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 05:49 pm and is filed under Crock, For Better or for Worse, Funky Winkerbean, Herb and Jamaal, Marvin, Rex Morgan, M.D..

266 responses to “A serious moment”

cheech wizard
October 4th, 2007 at 5:54 pm [Reply]

So, Grampa Jim really is frozen in amber after all. Damn.
El Santo
October 4th, 2007 at 5:55 pm [Reply]

Faint praise, maybe … but I think Lynn is right going this route in FBofW. That has pretty much been the fate of every stroke victim I’ve encountered: a follow-up stroke and long, uncomfortable nights where relatives stay with the afflicted.
Kate
October 4th, 2007 at 5:57 pm [Reply]

People were sharing stories about cancer and death. And then I sang “Mary had a Little Lamb” about giant isopods. You’re welcome, Josh!
mojo
October 4th, 2007 at 5:59 pm [Reply]

Josh, Thanks for your thoughtful comments and for yesterday’s blog. I started reading this to snark at Mary Worth but I really rely on it sometimes for something else – and got it today.
ltrftp(not so first time)
October 4th, 2007 at 5:59 pm [Reply]

Josh, thanks for your site….and insight.

I would like to thank all those who shared yesterday, too.

Uncle Lumpy, you rock.

Would someone please tell me how to do the “Tip Jar”?
Nimrod Gently
October 4th, 2007 at 6:00 pm [Reply]

I’ve got an aunt dying of cancer right this second. Hey, synchronicity! Thanks, Tom Batiuk! You really know how to cheer up a guy!
ltrftp(not so first time)
October 4th, 2007 at 6:01 pm [Reply]

Back to snarking….
In Panel two, is that John pretending to be Ellie or is that Ellie in a John mask?
The Spectacular Spider-Brick
October 4th, 2007 at 6:01 pm [Reply]

Those who think that Grampa Chinnuts is going to die in a long, sappy, drawn-out, melodramatic final exit are forgetting who we’re dealing with here: Lynn Johnston. Post-Freeze Lynn Johnston. No, there will be no drama here. Merely a parade of characters of varying levels of vapidity, reminiscing about their favorite Grampa ~~plotlines~~ stories for a month or two. Then, he’ll wake up and be back to his cranky, “Boxcar!”-ing self, and it’ll be time for someone to reminisce about when Farley died or some such horsesaturn.
Foobaphobe
October 4th, 2007 at 6:01 pm [Reply]

FOOB: Why, or why can’t that be Anthony instead? Why do the dull not die?
LightSyrup
October 4th, 2007 at 6:02 pm [Reply]

Wow, when I started reading the post, there were NO comments.

The Herb and Jamal artist/author probably never suspected that anyone would check his dates :-o.
Roonil Wazlib
October 4th, 2007 at 6:03 pm [Reply]

My junior high band teacher had to quit being a band teacher after only two years of teaching because of hearing loss. It sucked, because he loved it so much. Ironic, yes, but real-life also.
cheech wizard
October 4th, 2007 at 6:05 pm [Reply]

“Did she say something?”

“Yes – GLACCXXAAAGGGAAAACCCKKkkkahhhhggg.”

BTW, nice comments on the Lisa story, Josh – probably the most eloquent summary of the situation yet.
LightSyrup
October 4th, 2007 at 6:05 pm [Reply]

7

Didn’t you ever hear that people who grow old together start to look like one another? Either that, or Ellie and John may have heard this and, afraid that there were no similarities developing, they decided to go the plastic surgery route, instead.
fizzy logic
October 4th, 2007 at 6:06 pm [Reply]

#7 ltrftp – Josh’s Tip Jar
The Spectacular Spider-Brick
October 4th, 2007 at 6:07 pm [Reply]

williethompson @ 519 yesterthread wrote:

S-M: The Spectacular Spider Brick clonks Peter Parker, disabling his ‘spidey sense.’ He convinces a hod of his fellow bricks to do the same seconds later. Hilarity ensues.

Meh, been there, done that. That’s my origin story, after all. Couldn’t you have me flinging my way across a vineyard when I unexpectedly land in the sweater-clad cleavage of Rusty or Trudi? Is that too much for a brick to ask?
Andrea D and The Grandstanding Oddballs
October 4th, 2007 at 6:08 pm [Reply]

I’ve had some hearing loss since I was a kid, and it’s getting worse. I’m always having to ask people to repeat themselves. I’m just glad I didn’t have to watch it via Funky Crankydeaf.

Having said that, I never read Funky Cancerbean; I just read Josh’s summaries/snarks. As a result, I actually didn’t really know what Lisa looked like before the cancer until just now. Damn. That’s a LOT of hair. It’s rare that I think a woman looks better bald than coiffed, but in Lisa’s case, had she survived, the bald thing might have been the way to go.
Foolster41
October 4th, 2007 at 6:10 pm [Reply]

Msut resist the urge to say it…

FW: You know, the guy kind of made me think of “the tall man”, servant of CHKO, god of pain from the CHKO cycle of adventure games.
Ir may sound mean, but I kind of hope that FW is winding down. This seems like a very good place to end this story. I neverreally cared a whole lot fo ot, though I agree I did somewhat like these last two.

FBoFW: It’s kind of weird, having these two death-related strips happening at the same time. It seems kind of unfair, Lynn Johnson seems to be pulling read’s chains, going “uh oh! Is Jim going to die this time!” and then pulling back. Well, I might be annoyed that is, if I actually cared much about the drama in foobville.

Crock: Starved and insane, he’s actually considering canabalism.

RMMD: He’s thinking “That’s why I’m brining my trusty axe and some garbage bags. No one will get in my way of fishing darnit!”
Dingo
October 4th, 2007 at 6:10 pm [Reply]

Yes, I’m being a bad boy and replacing from another thread but I just finished writing this and saw that the thread had changed.

with apologies to Rupert Holmes…

Jim
based on Rupert Holmes’ “Him”

Over by the window, there’s a little coral reef.
Fish swim by it all day long,
Never feeling grief.
Iris forgets to feed them
Sometimes I swear she’s blind
She’ll perform a funeral and try to keep it glib
I’ve been waiting two months now
For my scrumptious damned prime rib!

(chorus)
Jim Jim Jim, what we gonna do about Jim?
She’s gonna have to live without him,
It’s Jim or Elly, ‘ly, ‘ly,
Lynn writes sado-masochistly
Let’s free this man, Jim.

Michael is the muse now,
The one who knows the score.
All Jim does is fantasize
‘Bout girls and the World War
Don’t know whose life’s worser
Iris or Mike’s wife, Dee
Either one has reason, yeah
To kill hedonistically!

(chorus)
Jim Jim Jim, what we gonna do about Jim?
She’s gonna have to live without him,
It’s Jim or Mikey. Ee! Ee!
Lynn writes sado-masochistly
Let’s free this man, Jim.

If Lynn wants she can free him,
No plug to pull, just pen.
Unlike Blanthony and Liz,
To fans there’s no amends
Send him to The Bucket
Hire phantoms or a mime
All we ask of you, Lynn
Is no bad puns and no rhymes!
Because…

(chorus)
Jim Jim Jim, what we gonna do about Jim?
She’s gonna have to live without him,
It’s Jim or let’s see… Mike’s Dee?
There’s a girl who’d like to go free.
Let’s free this man, Jim.

(repeat chorus)

And…

Something new in the animation: Dreams
Gagott68
October 4th, 2007 at 6:11 pm [Reply]

Oh, you just know that there will be a parade of Patterfoobs to Jim’s bedside ready to reminice and allow for all manner flashback re-hashment.
Cheeky Wee Monkeys
October 4th, 2007 at 6:12 pm [Reply]

At least poor Lisa gets to die. She can’t suffer now.

Jim on the other hand. It’s not enough that he is trapped in unaging eternity with a stroke, but now he’s in unaging eternity with TWO strokes. What the hell is that?
Ubiq
October 4th, 2007 at 6:12 pm [Reply]

Iris, if you really want to do what’s best for everyone concerned, you’ll take that pillow and smother Elly with it right now.
jules
October 4th, 2007 at 6:14 pm [Reply]

I wish Johnston would let Grampa Jim go with a little dignity; he and April are still the only characters in the strip I actually like. And now that we’re focusing almost exclusively on Michael and his demon spawn, I suppose we won’t be seeing April anymore, except in the role of babysitter. Even then, we’ll see her only in Panel One, and then join Michael and Deanna at the restaurant (”I remember when Mom and Dad used to bring us to the Slop Bucket…it was my favorite restaurant when I was five!” Cue three weeks of cutesy-poo reminiscence.)

Kee-ripes.

As for FW, I agree with Josh’s assessment: I don’t hate it. It’s been a little heavy-handed at times, but it ended quite tenderly, despite the presence of Masky McDeath. I’ve been very, very, very, very fortunate in never having to deal with cancer personally, so I’ll stay out of any debates about whether Batiuk handled it properly, or sensitively, or realistically…but I don’t hate it. I only hate that it happens so often in real life. And I’m very interested to see where Batiuk will be taking his strip from here.

(Speaking of FW: A few years ago, did the biology teacher at the high school go bonkers and kill a few people? Or did I dream that? The whole “Plantman” thing? Someone help me, please, if I can still be helped!)

In other news: Haw haw, Marmaduke sure is a big dawg!
Anonymous
October 4th, 2007 at 6:14 pm [Reply]

My high school band director retired because years of being a percussionist / band director had caused him to go deaf.
The Divine O’F
October 4th, 2007 at 6:15 pm [Reply]

Josh, thanks. For everything.
Loopina
October 4th, 2007 at 6:17 pm [Reply]

Marvin: are the babies talking, or thinking? They have their mouths open, so why are they thought balloons and not word balloons? I’m assming some sort of sound is coming out. Maybe they should go the Phantom route, with word balloons asterisked *In the infantile tongue.
Darkefang
October 4th, 2007 at 6:20 pm [Reply]

A3G: In the study of UFOs, there is a phenomenon called “lost time” in which people lose all memory of anything that happens for a short period of time and can’t account for their whereabouts. Now, don’t worry Curmudgeons. I know a lot of you have experienced that phenomenon the last couple of days and I’m here to assure you that there’s no need to worry: Apartment 3-G has merely begun a Tommie storyline.

Archie: Wow, you have to be really pissed to slam blinds shut!

BB: My mind is blown. Sarge makes a reference to modern day, yet Camp Swampy is stuck in 1950. Have we been fooled this whole time? Is Beetle Baily a comic look inside the Michigan militia movement, and not the US Army?

Curtis: Well, a couple people called it yesterday. Curtis is about to have his college tuition paid by Odette.

GT: Using his leet Google skills, Kurt Rambis is about to discover Cully Vale’s dark secret: He didn’t transfer from another high school. Scientists thawed him out of an iceberg last summer.

JP: “Maybe… But he’s also a deceptive, unscrupulous pirate.”

Or maybe Keith is just dumb as hell.

MT: Oh, man, if that fish eats Shirley the Duck, Mark Trail is my new favorite strip.

MW: Today we see Wilbur’s tenacity on display. Despite Dawn recoiling from his touch in panel one, he just digs in. No matter what she does in panel two, she just cannot free herself from Wilbur’s clutches.

Phantom: Aren’t mom and dad going to notice their skyrocketing monthly spraypaint bill?

RMMD: As far as I’m concerned, Rex can molest Niki in that abandoned cabin all he wants, as long as we get to see June and Heather’s panty and pillowfight party while they’re gone.
Adam
October 4th, 2007 at 6:21 pm [Reply]

I’m really appalled by the Herb and Jamaal. 4th century writer? If he didn’t KNOW it was 16th century, why did he just make up a century? And why pick 4th century on purpose? There’s not a whole hell of a lot from there to get lost in. If he had picked, say, 17th century, or even 12th century, no one except the pedantic would bother to look twice. But picking the 4th century… might as well said “The nocturnal, mathematical prodigy, KKK Grand Wizard, soup critic Michel Montaigne” and raised less red flags about the validity of your literacy. As noted bedwetter and heir to the Milkbone fortune Abraham Lincoln said “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool then to speak and remove all doubt. Now watch while I sink this putt.”
Junior Tracy
October 4th, 2007 at 6:24 pm [Reply]

I agree with Jules (#22), that Grandpa Jim sucks less than almost everyone else in FBOFW (the dogs are the best thing that it has going for it).

Note to Lynn Johnston: – for once in your life, do the right thing. Let Grandpa Jim, with his his last reserves of strength, magically leap from his bed, curse his vile daughter and her reprehesible issue in round, deeply obscene term learned during his stint in the Canadian Army, loudly rue her birth, and die of a massive, cinematic coronary. It’s the comics, after all.
Anonymous
October 4th, 2007 at 6:25 pm [Reply]

El Santo:
Not necessarily. My grandmother went a week after she had a stroke. But I thought the way Lynn carried out the Granpa Jim N’ stroke story line, by making uncomfortable jokes and the whole Iris forcing him out of his chair to dance (for some reason, I found that absolutely horrifying), was awful.
Roger
October 4th, 2007 at 6:35 pm [Reply]

FBoFW: I expect in the next few days we’ll see Grandma rudely interrupted as she attempts to put Grandpa Jim out of his misery by suffocating him with a pillow. Then a couple months of the court case. It should be entirely awesome.
Rusty
October 4th, 2007 at 6:39 pm [Reply]

Maybe it’s just me, but after all the drawn out suffering he seemed to take a very short time between her decision to stop treating and the death. Didn’t she just move downstairs last week? Why am I complaining, I’m glad it’s over. Unfortunately the strip jumping 10 years in time means he is focusing (based on the preview drawing on his website) on the children of the main characters becoming teens. And I bet nobody can name 2 of these kids. Summer? Asia? Zachary? (There’s always a Zachary in any gathering of 5 kids today). Plus, Bull should be dead of congestive heart failure in any ten year lookahead.
ChristianPinko
October 4th, 2007 at 6:39 pm [Reply]

Wait — Rex Morgan has a sex life?
Rainbird
October 4th, 2007 at 6:41 pm [Reply]

2 El Santo Actually, my father died of a stroke, after he had had his first stroke, and he was around and kicking for about four years between the two.

I only hope that Lynn lets him die with dignaty.
El Santo
October 4th, 2007 at 6:42 pm [Reply]

#29 Anonymous — That’s true. Each stroke has its unique set of circumstances. I guess I was trying to say that Grandpa Jim’s situation isn’t all that unrealistic from my experiences, anyway.

Back to the snark:

RMMD: It totally looks like Li’l Rex is taking a huge bite out of Big Rex’s brain. Also, I love June’s face. She’s up to something.
Trotzenbonnie
October 4th, 2007 at 6:42 pm [Reply]

Thank you, Josh, for providing us with this forum. Somehow you manage to keep us all relatively civil even while we’re discussing volatile themes with all of the passion we can muster. It never ceases to amaze me how you manage to create an atmosphere of free expression that doesn’t disintegrate into viscious attacks. This site is a rare gem indeed.
I, too, would hate to see anything in the comics officially censored or deemed inappropriate – almost as much as I would hate to find my freedom to bitch about the comics curtailed.
Sans Sense
October 4th, 2007 at 6:45 pm [Reply]

From someone whose two maternal grandparents both died of multiple strokes and resultant dementia, there is very little dignity in that type of death. The dignity comes from the life they led.

On a better note, RMMD is giving us a terrific view inside the mind of a pedarist. The innuendo, the lies, the elaborate planning. Wow.
Trotzenbonnie
October 4th, 2007 at 6:46 pm [Reply]

REX – The expression on June’s face in that last panel says, ‘Oooh, I can almost hear that banjo music playing from here!’
Rainbird
October 4th, 2007 at 6:49 pm [Reply]

RMMD I love the look on June’s face. She is thinking “Right, sure there is no one there, and I’m a spotted elephant.”

But, what does that mean? What horror is hiding int he capin. Another crack head? Another unibomber?
Sans Sense
October 4th, 2007 at 6:52 pm [Reply]

38. Rainbird

You are dead on. Rex will be saved from himself by some horror lurking the the cabin. I am guessing a suicidal Homer bingeing after the death by Muskie of so many little Shirleys. Muscatel, shotguns and a disappointingly slow Nikki…
True Fable
October 4th, 2007 at 6:53 pm [Reply]

#35 Trotzie, I’ll bite anyone who tries to prevent you from bitching about the comics as you see fit! Tell ‘em like it is, girl!

And ditto what she said about you, Josh. You provide us a valuable forum in which to share ideas, something most of us have always wanted but until we chanced upon it, did not realize we needed as much as we do. Anyone can have a site, I suppose, but few provide the balance of wit and intelligence that yours does.
Dingo
October 4th, 2007 at 7:00 pm [Reply]

Okay… I’m almost wary of linking this but that Rex Morgan storyline just seems to be teetering on the edge of it. If this isn’t Rex and Niki…

The Log Cabin (NSFW… um, really NSFAnywhere)

The highlight for me is that he misspelled unhygienic.
cgard
October 4th, 2007 at 7:00 pm [Reply]

I don’t post, but read every day, and I have to say, as a woman whose father just died a couple of weeks ago after a decision not to take “aggressive” measures, I cried a little. Not from FW, but from your comments. Damn, maybe you’re in the wrong business… Thanks anyway.
Marco Frisbee
October 4th, 2007 at 7:10 pm [Reply]

DIngo, I’ve been conditioned enough to accept naked gay men, but did you have to unearth Rupert Margo Holmes? Have you no shame?!?
odinthor
October 4th, 2007 at 7:11 pm [Reply]

Again, [I said, with a sigh, referring partly to my comments in the yesterthread, partly to Josh's comments above], Life’s ambiguities! How do we assess the FW matter? Do we say, “Ah, we don’t live in a world without garden-variety Death (as opposed to, say, falling down a smokestack or some other dramatic cartoon-strip death)–the comics should reflect that!”, or do we say, “No, that’s exactly why we turn to the comics–to get some relief from the sad realities!”? Do we say, “It’s good that the cartoonist has made us experience a sad loss of this nature!”, or do we say, “Experiencing Death through Funky Winkerbean is about as near the reality as is experiencing having your leg cut off through Gil Thorp!”? Does the tale in FW prepare us for something, or does it give us a false sense of being prepared for something? Does experiencing this episode in FW, with it so different from its page-mates on the comix page, give Death its due grandeur, or does it simply trivialize it? Well [I continued, pensively snapping my sleeve-garters], a case can be made for either side in these questions. One question can be answered with certainty, though: Beyond the comic per se, is it a good thing for people to be discussing an unpleasant subject, as they wouldn’t likely otherwise do, and to get some idea of the true realities from that discussion? Yes, of course.
Mibbitmaker
October 4th, 2007 at 7:16 pm [Reply]

for today’s FW, Sorry ’bout this, Hall & Oates

LISA’S GONE

Tommy Batiuk’s big on tragic writing
Everybody’s trying to tell him he should tone it down
Cartoonist tried to bore us with his ego
But it’s pain to read that he won’t pay no heed

“Sorry Lisa for the cancer mission
I know I had it, had the luck I kept from you”
He gets a ‘death’ and some earned derision
But it’s better than, woo, it began

“She’s gone” Oh, why? Oh, why? Oh, why?
It’s better than we expected
“She’s gone” Oh, why? Oh, why?
He did a U-turn to respect us
“She’s gone”! Oh, why? …What went right??

Maybe he couldn’t look in the mirror
He knew it was too much bathos in the strip
His work weren’t getting any better
So he could stir, he’s written a better death for her

“She’s gone” Oh, why? Oh, why? Oh, why?
It’s better than we expected
“She’s gone” Oh, why? Oh, why?
He did a U-turn to respect us
“She’s gone”! Oh, why? …What went right??

Guess she’ll spend eternity with the masked-man
Let the sudden flashing forward take the grief away
Aging bodies help white-wash the memories
It can never be when it was funny

It’s gone. Oh, why? Oh, why? Oh, why?
Not better than we rejected
It’s gone. Oh, why? Oh, why?
No longer starting to respect us
It’s gone: the stuff that went right
(etc. etc.)
BigTed
October 4th, 2007 at 7:25 pm [Reply]

To me, the strangest thing about today’s “Rex Morgan” isn’t its artsy-fartsiness, it’s the fact that the wacko head-in-the-circle is used to illustrate such a banal conversation. Perhaps its purpose was to indicate everything that isn’t being said: Rex knows the isolated cabin will be vacant because he’s used it many times before to “go fishing” with his “little brothers,” and can only hope no one ever digs up the bodies. June’s expression, meanwhile, has nothing to do with the discussion at hand, but merely demonstrates her increasing hatred for a husband she barely even knows anymore.
Fred P.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:26 pm [Reply]

Oh this is totally the best Rex Morgan, M.D. ever! Now, I know you’re all saying “Whoa, them’s some strong words! Every single RMMD is the best ever!” True, I grant you- they are all amazing- but THIS one! You want the ham-handed foreshadowing of adventure to come? You want that smokin’ sultry glare of June looking at yet another weekend of sexual deprivation? You want an X-ray view of the VERY INSIDE of Rex’s head? Done, done and done!

Compared to the palpable excitement here in RMMD, those pikers at the other soap strips-Judge Parker, A 3-G, Hi & Lois– why, they seem ALMOST dull!!!
Rachel
October 4th, 2007 at 7:28 pm [Reply]

Trotz- You have been saying exactly what I have been trying to put into words about why Batiuk bugs the hell out of me.

I didn’t hate the way her death was handled either, but if, when we go, we’re escorted out by the Phantom of the Opera, please please please make mine the Gerard Butler version.
Trilobite
October 4th, 2007 at 7:30 pm [Reply]

I’m not really surprised that Rex Morgan’s thought process is a Family Circus comic…but I would’ve thought that he’d get the running gag right. It’s “Not Me!”, Rex, not “No problem.”

Now draw the dashed line showing all the wonderful places you and Niki will pass through on your way to the cabin o’ sodomy, and then get the heck out of there so June can start entertaining male visitors.
opticsdoug
October 4th, 2007 at 7:31 pm [Reply]

To reiterate and further emphasize #23’s post, hearing loss is a frightening and all too common occupational hazard for musicians.

Band directors have it just about as bad as rockers. Most only acknowledge and work to mitigate the risk after they or a colleague suffer serious damage.

FW has a major following within the music community, and Harry’s deafness directly addressed a real concern of that audience. It wasn’t a cheap play for irony — or if it was, it was only being realistic.
True Fable
October 4th, 2007 at 7:33 pm [Reply]

#45 Mibbitmaker – bravo!

#44 Odinthor –

Beyond the comic per se, is it a good thing for people to be discussing an unpleasant subject, as they wouldn’t likely otherwise do, and to get some idea of the true realities from that discussion? Yes, of course.

Yes, discussion is good and we’ve had some wonderful discourses here. However, if Batiuk had actually done what he said he would do, i.e., make an impact with a well-thought out speech by Lisa before the Senate, or show a satisfying reunion between Lisa and her long-lost Darin SEPARATE from the sorry-you-have-cancer visit, or at the very least, STOP automatically drawing the smirk smile accompanied by a lame pun on the last panel every day regardless of content, I could have been a little more at ease with FW.

I know what you’re saying and I agree for the most part, but those are my reasons for not lessening my dislike and distate with Tom Batiuk.
asdf
October 4th, 2007 at 7:35 pm [Reply]

I completely disagree with today’s post. I think the comics should be primarily for fun. If I actually got a deadly disease, I would look to the comics for humor, not depression, thanks. Not to be reminded of my own mortality. Yeah, Peanuts had some more “serious” comics, but only as war memorials and as a sense of national pride. I think the trend of turning a joking comic into a serious one is the height of stupidity.
Rose
October 4th, 2007 at 7:36 pm [Reply]

Shouldn’t the French name have tipped Herb off? The closest thing to Frenchmen in the 4th century were the illiterate, barbarian Franks and they were too busy helping to bring down civilization to be producing pithy epigrams.
Jim
October 4th, 2007 at 7:37 pm [Reply]

As depressing as this FW storyline has been, there is some glimmer of hope I see in it. Lisa is being escorted off by what I assume is some kind of angel. Therefore, there is an afterlife in Batuik’s comic world, so Lisa will be able to watch over Les and Summer, and someday they will see her again.
Uncle Lumpy
October 4th, 2007 at 7:40 pm [Reply]

#53 Rose -

F’n Franks. Pith on ‘em.
Last time ranter
October 4th, 2007 at 7:43 pm [Reply]

I’ll give Batiuk credit for being ambitious with his strip, but this story really offended me. I think Batiuk is way over his head as a writer. The “arty” bits (blue cat, Masky McDeath) are affected and false to the world he’s created, not to mention loony. Worse, there is nothing in all these months that redeems or elevates the discussion of death. No warmth, no humanity, no greater understanding. Can you imagine anyone buying a collection of these strips? As I read it, not only did Lisa not get to see the leaves turn, but Les didn’t get to hear her final declaration of love. I guess the entire sum of Batiuk’s message is that death is cruel and awful. We all kinda knew that, but he wanted to rub our noses in it deep and long anyway. That’s not profound; that’s mean-spirited.

End rant. Hooray for Get Fuzzy, which was hilarious today.
Pendragon
October 4th, 2007 at 7:46 pm [Reply]

Once again, I have to say that beneath the snark there are a lot of impossibly talented people who care deeply about the comics and each other.

The ending was much like The Sopranos: long, uneven buildup, especially for people emotionally invested in it. Anticlimactic ending that told you more about the observer by their reaction than revealed about the story itself. Instant classic that will be parodied until comics are no more.
KT
October 4th, 2007 at 7:49 pm [Reply]

A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, but only because you probably don’t know him anyway, challenged me to fit Josh’s dialog into the October 2 Archie strip. So I gave it a try, and I managed to pack it all in like a good game of Tetris.
Little Guy
October 4th, 2007 at 7:55 pm [Reply]

FW: Hmmmm… in the end, Batiuk outdid Lynn, comparing Lisa’s death to Farley’s. I was expecting a single-panel “Death of Superman” tableau.

Once you get there, it was well played.
queek
October 4th, 2007 at 7:55 pm [Reply]

Josh, your comments in the quoted article are quite wonderful.

please add my thanks and appreciated to the others mentoned above.
Lovely Me
October 4th, 2007 at 8:00 pm [Reply]

Okay, I admit it. FW made me cry.
Trotzenbonnie
October 4th, 2007 at 8:01 pm [Reply]

Does anyone else play The Sims? (Haha)
Seems to me, if Bati-yuk had anything good going on, then Drew Carey, instead of The Mime, would have shown up to take Lisa away.
KT
October 4th, 2007 at 8:03 pm [Reply]

20, Cheeky Wee Monkeys:

“…but now he’s in unaging eternity with TWO strokes. What the hell is that?”

A scooter engine, I think. :}
True Fable
October 4th, 2007 at 8:04 pm [Reply]

Bee Grinding

Elsewhere in the Land of the Two-Dimensional Snark, temporarily overshadowed by Death and Near-Death… the bees continue to grind in Napa Valley.

COME ON, WOODY! Let’s turn up the speed a little past the need to Carbon-Date, shall we? Yes, we GET that the Current Evil Guy is after the water under the winery, and that he’s using legal tactics to get at it! We GET that Sophie is going to somehow mention Global Warming again to underscore the need for water, etc. etc., we GET that Busty Duncan has no more luck getting Sam to unfasten his trousers than Abbey ever has! WE GET IT! Damn it, move along already! We need more ~~sweaterpuppies~~ story, more action, more interesting ANYTHING than this constant BEE GRINDING!

Wrap this Battle for Flattop Mullet’s Water Rights up, and get back to SuperCedric and the ultimate SweaterpuppyGirl, Abbey Awesome Twosome Spencer! If you aren’t going to let Sam have a turn at some naughty, I want to at least see a butler who knows how to use a squirt gun (oh no I won’t go there, i won’t i won’t i won’t!) I want to see Abbey meet Spooky Jealous Wife and I want to see Neddy in that little black dress!

Let’s go, let’s go! I’ve had enough death and misery; I want some good old fashioned SOAP, dammit, and I mean I want it now!

Quit grinding my bees!
Calico
October 4th, 2007 at 8:11 pm [Reply]

RM – Haha, Kachinka Dolls (spelling something like that?), or an Escher creation! Too funny.

Marvin – reminds me of “Cartman’s Stupid Hate Crime.”
All we need is the sledding contest, where Niki will be eaten by a bear on Phil Collins Hill.

Take care all and good night.
Rose
October 4th, 2007 at 8:12 pm [Reply]

Omnes viae Romam ducunt, Uncle Lumpy.
fluffy
October 4th, 2007 at 8:17 pm [Reply]

In Marvin it’s never specified how old Mean Eddie actually is. It could be a teenager, or even an adult, who is biting people on the arm, and that is assault and thus a parole violation. Still a pretty heady topic for Marvin, though.
Calico
October 4th, 2007 at 8:17 pm [Reply]

#24 – Agreed.
The Avocado Avenger
October 4th, 2007 at 8:19 pm [Reply]

Well, all I can say is I hope I’m allowed to hate FW, because I think it’s a strip that takes terrible real-life things and deals with them in a shallow manner, for no reason except shock value. And possibly for publicity. It’s crude and callous and I feel terrible that it’s affected so many people here on CC negatively. I do. Whether I SHOULD feel terrible about it isn’t the issue, I do, and that’s that.

I have no problem with strips not being funny. I don’t think I’m entitled to a guffaw every morning when the new strips come out. I just think Batiuk’s motives are suspect and his execution of storylines is ham-handed and insulting.

Fable already pointed out Batiuk’s material failings with this storyline, and better than I could have, so I’m moving on. There’s a box of mac & cheese with my name on it. It is time for the devouring of the comfort food yes.
Josh
October 4th, 2007 at 8:25 pm [Reply]

#69 AA — I hope I didn’t give anyone the impression that I was telling people how they were supposed to feel. I did say that this was all my opinion (not that everything in this blog isn’t just my opinion, obviously). Sorry if it came across that way.

Josh
skankmonkey
October 4th, 2007 at 8:26 pm [Reply]

I’m sure this isn’t the right time to re-hash what’s (probably) already been said, but my Internet was down for the past few days, and my city’s newspapers don’t carry FW, so…

I agree with Josh’s comments regarding this current storyline – it was pretty much hit and miss, with more missing than anything else. However, I did get misty eyed reading FW today, and spent most of the day thinking about my best friend, Deanna, who passed away 6 years ago from cancer. So whatever Batiuk’s motivations were, and however badly he messed this up, I thank him for making me stop my regular routine and remember a very special person and all the fun things we did in her very short time here.
Doug Puthoff
October 4th, 2007 at 8:30 pm [Reply]

FW–What gets me is that most of the bad stuff that happens in this strips happens to females. A girl gets maimed, one of Les’ female students tries to kill herself, not to mention the Lisa Moore quaruple play–gets pregnant out of wedlock, is almost kill in a post office bombing, suffers breast cancer, gets cured only to suffer a relapse (after being orginally told she was fine) and die. That reminds me of all the stuff Chris Claremont put his female characters through in the X-men in the 80s. And the only Batiuk does this garbage is for the same reason Claremont did: to increase readers. Females in trouble seem more interesting than males in trouble.
Jnny
October 4th, 2007 at 8:33 pm [Reply]

It’s spreading!
http://comics.com/creators/liberty/archive/images/liberty2007183321004.gif
migellito
October 4th, 2007 at 8:33 pm [Reply]

FW :: i’m impressed with the stark realism. maybe that sounds too easy. i think what would have been terribly easy, being a writer myself, would be to have things tidy. she gets to see the leaves. she gets to say all the things she’d like to say. les and a parade of other characters get to finish up with her, and leave it polished.

that just isn’t what happens. it’s what happens in fiction a lot, way too much. it’s more comfortable. but even in a situation where you know the end is coming, you don’t go out with all the details nicely cleaned up. a lot of them stay dirty, and they stay that way forever.
Artist formerly known as Ben
October 4th, 2007 at 8:35 pm [Reply]

I partially agree with Josh on Funky. Ambition isn’t a bad thing, and you can give Batiuk credit for it. So he has the right to deal with some not-so happy subjects in his strip (which is his, after all.)

However, I would have approved much more without the bait and switch. Was there any purpose to apparently giving Lisa a clean bill of health aside from screwing with his readers? She could have made all the decisions she did, vis-a-vis quality of life, had she been armed with the knowledge of her worsening condition from the beginning. And it wouldn’t have seemed as gimmicky.

Which is my 2 cents. I will be reading after the jump still.
Jnny
October 4th, 2007 at 8:38 pm [Reply]

You didn’t just go there, did you?
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/crrub/2007/crrub071004.gif
Jamus The Bartender
October 4th, 2007 at 8:40 pm [Reply]

72. Maybe Grant Morrison should take over Funky WInkerbean for a bit. That seemed to help the X-Men.
Nah.
Everyone will be sleeping with each other and popping LSD.
In addition to everything else.
Whalehead King
October 4th, 2007 at 8:42 pm [Reply]

I am not as anti-Funky as you usually seem to be though I have to admit you are often correct that this strip is often less than what I expect from the comics page. Oftentimes it is more or at least different. Its no Hagar or Beetle or Cathy, so I appreciate the space Funky takes up lest it be Sherman’s Lagoon or Mallard Fillmore. I am not 100% for Funky, but niether am I 10% against. I think this is a good strip all in all and this storyline, albeit heavyhanded, is doing a good thing. I don’t think I could tell a story with three panels a day for so many years, so a tip of the fedora to Mr. Batuik for trying to keep things interesting. One can only imagine what will happen when his heirs get their hands on it a-la B.C.
The Avocado Avenger
October 4th, 2007 at 8:43 pm [Reply]

#69 me – Sigh. Of course I’m allowed to dislike something. I shouldn’t have said that; I let myself get defensive for no reason.

I think I’ll replace FW with Spiderman in my daily reading. You can’t help but feel sorry for poor Peter.
Loopina
October 4th, 2007 at 8:45 pm [Reply]

74: I agree with you. Death sucks – so does life, sometimes.
But, if you’re going to do “real life”, don’t cop out and skip 10 years into the future! He has the setup, if he wasn’t such a hack he could get some good stories out of various people dealing with Lisa’s death – Les, Summer, Darin, etc.
When a loved one has a terminal illness, you go through the five stages of grief twice: once together, while the person is still alive; and then again when you are left behind.
True Fable
October 4th, 2007 at 8:45 pm [Reply]

#77 Jamus –

Everyone will be sleeping with each other and popping LSD.

That sounds like a job for a certain bartender or a certain Fable, if you ask me. >:-)
Jamus The Bartender
October 4th, 2007 at 8:47 pm [Reply]

Dick Tracy’s Crimestopper’s Textbook
Today’s Lesson: Jumping The Gun
Howdy, folks, it’s the ol’ detective here, and it looks like Jim Chinnuts ain’t dead yet.
Good for you , Jim.
I’d come up to visit ya and sneak some whiskey into the hospital, but i’m sure some nurse would brain me. Plus, i’m not allowed into Canada after what happened the first two times.
Still, surrounded by the Pattersons sounds like a fate worse than death. If you can think of anything worse than that little pansy Michael reading select passages from his next magnum opus or whatever he calls that porn, and I don’t mean porn in a good way, anyway, anything worse than reading select passages to a captive audience who can’t even spit or swear to make him go away, i’d sure as hell like to hear it.
Just say the word, Jim, Be it “Boxcar” or “Saturn”. I’ll sneak into Canada and carve up Patterson’s face like a Thanksgiving day turkey.
Again.
Oh, and Funky Winkerbean was actually pretty nice too.
I gotta wonder though if Lisa will be buried in the Robin costume she got married in.
Nah, probably not.
Too many copyright issues.
Till next time.
Dick Tracy
Jamus The Bartender
October 4th, 2007 at 8:50 pm [Reply]

81. Amen, President Truman.
Amen and Hallelujah.
Oh, how’s your back doing?
AhClem
October 4th, 2007 at 8:51 pm [Reply]

Necroposted from the discussion forum:

I have no problem with serious topics in the comics. Doonesbury is one example that comes to mind; Garry Trudeau’s handling of BD’s war injury and the female soldier’s sexual abuse story was masterfully done.

My main issue with the whole Lisa-Cancer story is that it was ham-fisted and trite, with inappropriate non-stop smirking by all involved. I know that Batuik is capable of writing a touching and well-crafted story (I thought that the nerd guy/goth chick dating story line a few months back was very well done), so why he chose to handle a subject of this gravity in this manner is puzzling.

I guess I’d give Batuik an B+ for effort and C- for execution.
Frank Parsnip
October 4th, 2007 at 8:55 pm [Reply]

Adam (27): That was the thing that got me too… you would at least figure that he would know there was some difference between the eras. The relatively modern French name is also a bit of a giveaway. Basically if you were in the 4th century and was writing anything that your name could be tied to, then it was likely your name was something like “Ugreth d’Ostrogothie”, “Biggus Dickus” or “Labnor the Flatulent” (or Mark, Luke, Matthew and John), and your writings were substantially less likely to contain cutesy musings on fear and substantially more likely to include orders for the flaying of one’s enemies.
OwenDangertooth
October 4th, 2007 at 8:56 pm [Reply]

Personally I believe Stephen Bentley takes his quotations very seriously. I think what happened with Montaigne is that he had a set of dates in front of him placing Montaigne in the 1500’s, and had one of those clueless moments in which you can’t remember whether you’re supposed to go up or down for the century. He guessed 14th Century instead of 16th, and then absentmindedly left out the “1″ before the 4.
Doug Puthoff
October 4th, 2007 at 8:58 pm [Reply]

How I want certain strips to end (I hope I’m not unintentionally stealing anybody’s ideas)

GT–The Valley Tech vandals unleash their greatest stunt yet: Killer Jock Itch.

Rex Morgan M.D.–Elvis the Goth Guy escapes jail and inflicts his revenger on Rex, Niki, Abby, and the rest of them.

Snuffy Smith–President Hilary Clinton has King Features arrested for a hate crime for continually publishing a derrogatory portrayal of hillbillies.

B.C.–Jesus returns!

Peanuts–All the kids see Dr. Phil, become normal.

DTM–Riley from “The Boondocks” really show what a menace is and kills Dennis.

Zits–the first time Jeremy gets his driver’s license, a drunk driver plows into him head-on and kills him.

DT–Rodney King and a video camera–need I say more?

MF–Communists take over King Features, Mallard gets his goose cooked.

Real-Life Adventures: All men die, depriving the strip of its source of alleged humor.

Spider-Man: Mary Jane gets tired of Peter’s whining, breaks out the Raid.

Slylock Fox–Somebody catches Slylock and Dr. Weirdly in a Minneapolis airport bathroom stall.

Sally Forth–Ted, after spending too much time with his mother-law, buy a Glock-19.
Dingo
October 4th, 2007 at 9:04 pm [Reply]

Sorry, AhClem, I just thought of the phrase “fist of ham” and saw Cherry Trail gettin’ the female version of a boner (bonette?).

When I go, I want to be surrounded by a planeful of screaming mimes, children with cigars, packets of five peanuts in a honey-salt combination, dangling oxygen masks, and an evangelical Christian woman who decides to use her final 30 seconds to tell me every sordid detail of her life from her first cock suck at the age of twelve with her first cousin through sex in a terminal bathroom with a female security guard before boarding the plane. I’ll slap her amply-proportioned lower thigh and state, “Well, now I’ve heard everything.” and then turn to the window and utter a plaintive “Charlie” right before we crash into the mountain.

If Lynn Johnston had written Alive!, the survivors would still be on the side of the mountain, debating whether or not to eat the fuselage.
Buck Ripsnort
October 4th, 2007 at 9:35 pm [Reply]

The whole sick sequence in FW just played Lisa as a dishrag, from not suing the hospital to not kicking the Death Mime in the balls. Show some spine, woman!
Joe Btfsplk
October 4th, 2007 at 9:41 pm [Reply]

Today’s Mark Trail is the reference case for why daily strips should not be colorized. A black-n-white strip would look better than one with with a green-headed mother duck, blue ducklings, pink muskies and beige bulldozers. The disconnect with reality is distracting. And now I’m craving a big bowl of Lucky Charms, and I don’t even like them. Curse you all, you comics colorizing bastards.

I imagine the raw strip coming up on the screen in some faroff coloring sweatshop, and the drones huddling around it in puzzlement. “Big… hungry… muskie? What is muskie? Is some American fish, no? What color is this muskie fish? Hey! Does anybody know what color is muskie fish? No? Ay! Is big fish like salmon. Make it salmon color, then! Hurry! The deadline comes!”
Doug Puthoff
October 4th, 2007 at 9:43 pm [Reply]

Oops, I forgot one.

Mary Worth–ZOMBIE ALDO!!
Frank Parsnip
October 4th, 2007 at 9:52 pm [Reply]

Addendum: Actually, I suppose 4th century quotable writings could include cutesy expressions about fear… it’s just that they would primarily concern instilling fear into others instead of one’s own fears. Some of my favorites:

1. A quick pynch with red-hott tonggs is verily good to cure most wrongges.

2. Choppynge down a tree warms you three tymes: onyce when you cut it down, once when you splyt the loggs, and once more when you roast your enemies upon the spyt.

(Of course, real 4th century people wouldn’t write in poorly spelled modern English. However I could not resist.)
Sjofn
October 4th, 2007 at 9:53 pm [Reply]

For what it’s worth, The Avocado Avenger, I feel exactly the same way you do about FW. It’s not that he decided to take on some heavy subjects, it’s the relentless bleakness coupled with dealing with it all in a shallow, smirky way. I used to think I was being too hard on him, assuming the worst. But then he did that one comic where he tried to make you think one of his characters was blown up, and then “ha ha, not really!” and I decided no, he really is a dickhead that may fancy himself someone daring that takes on stuff that’s “deep,” but really comes across as doing it only for cheap shock value.
Reynard Noir.
October 4th, 2007 at 9:55 pm [Reply]

So…….. Crock does not want to eat Hitler?

I guess I have to agree with him.
Ribinin
October 4th, 2007 at 9:57 pm [Reply]

JP: Napa takes its agricultural preserves and agricultural watershed zoning seriously. You can barely use the water on your own property. Forget about shipping it out somewhere. He can take the money and let Caesar’s lawyer talk to the county board of supervisors.
The Avocado Avenger
October 4th, 2007 at 9:58 pm [Reply]

#70 Josh – No, I was just defensive and angry, it wasn’t at you. Again, I’m sorry for getting all het up.
Strangely Brown
October 4th, 2007 at 9:59 pm [Reply]

#87: Since the strip is called “B.C.,” doesn;t that mean that they still have the first coming to look forward to?

Picture that if you will: The Passion of the Christ, painstakingly drawn in Johnny Hart’s style, on your funny papers every day for the next year. Or two…
Nightingale
October 4th, 2007 at 10:00 pm [Reply]

Thank you Josh. That was good to read…
SecretMargo
October 4th, 2007 at 10:05 pm [Reply]

Final thoughts on Lisa’s Final Exit–

I wanted to say that I agree with Josh; I do not object on principle. I also agree that probably the least objectionable thing to me about this was Lisa’s decision to quit treatment; the right to die is important to protect and honour.

I also wanted to say that I agree with both AA and TAFKABen’s points, as well as the one made yesterthread about how Mr. B thinks he’s showing us the fleeting, poetic little moments of this story, but instead has given us a series of leaden, tone-deaf glimpses of drear.

Thinking back, I recall what Uncle Lumpy said about the characters talking to each other using creepy adminstrative terms like “caregiver,” etc. I recall the incident with the cat and the ‘tussin. I recall the creaking horror of the video message we saw Lisa make Summer, and I recall the absurd non-eventfulness of her reunion with her son. I recall the even more absurd sequence in front of Congress, and the cheapening contrivance of the hospital screw-up.

But mostly what I recall is a three-dimensional, interesting character becoming reduced to her disease, then transformed into a “legacy,” a pink ribbon with hollow eyes and remembered hair signifying “girl/cancer” and little else.

This kind of thing has been done before, and better; I’m grading hard because the “risk” is actually not that great — who can deny the fundamental reality of death? We have been consistently told that any quibbles we may have are trumped by Batiuk’s bravery in bringing it up in the first place, that we should be grateful for his attention to this issue, and for prompting the profoundly moving writing that has occurred here in response.

And I’m sorry, but I don’t buy that. Your stories and the stunning, moving acts of language that occurred as they were told here are yours, not his. I refuse to let him co-opt your beauty, or to transform your well-defended, justified criticism into backhanded praise. If there’s anyone in need of credit or thanks for prompting this beauty, it’s Josh (thank you).

I stand by my objections in the final analysis because it was just bad writing, and on a subject that demands delicacy of touch and finesse of tone. The “tin-eared” outweighed the touching for me, by a country mile; the contrivance outweighed the realism; the misery outweighed the catharsis.

And to paraphrase the great Uncle Lumpy once more, that’s pretty much all I can say about that.
Dingo
October 4th, 2007 at 10:07 pm [Reply]

I, for one, would like to see Pontius Pilate portrayed by the guy with one leg. I also believe that the Fat Broad (as they call her) would make a very interesting Mary Magdalene.
sf_reader
October 4th, 2007 at 10:09 pm [Reply]

I visit this Curmudgeon site everyday but never post because I’m not nearly as clever as the people who do. And to prove my point – I was moved by Lisa’s death.
Thank you Josh for your comments.
Foobar
October 4th, 2007 at 10:14 pm [Reply]

4th century. Geez. You’d think that’d set one’s alarm bells ringing that maybe “Michel Montaigne” hadn’t said that. Culturally tone deaf.
Old Bean
October 4th, 2007 at 10:19 pm [Reply]

Ambition in comics I fully support. Ditto the right to choose the manner of one’s death. But as far as sincere, insightful, emotionally honest depictions of death go, Lisa’s ranks way up there with the time Generic Enemy Soldier #93 got shot by Schwarzenegger in that movie.

Say what you like about the ALGJU 3000, but next to Batiuk it’s a goddamn mariner of the human soul.
The Avocado Avenger
October 4th, 2007 at 10:23 pm [Reply]

I’d like to inject a waaaaaaaaay off-topic comment here, mainly because it involves Margo, and who doesn’t loves them some Margo?

There’s a guy named Yahtzee who critiques video games in little animated videos. Finger-Quotin’ Margo appears in this week’s video here.
SecretMargo
October 4th, 2007 at 10:25 pm [Reply]

101: Okay, I just said I was done talking about this, but one more thing: if you were moved by this, I do not think you are less than clever. Dude/tte, it’s the death of a long-standing character, stretched over months! How can that be other than moving? All it means is that you’re human, and sensitive.

But this is why I think B’s “bravery” is a sham; pathos is actually easy: it’s true tragedy, like comedy, that’s hard. All the former takes is the evocation of a universal fear; the latter is where artistry resides.

I simply think B banked on his audience’s humanity to fill in the blanks where his should have been but wasn’t.

Okay, THAT’S it. Hit it, UL:

Cut!

Fade to black.
Anna Nimity
October 4th, 2007 at 10:29 pm [Reply]

Great discussion about dealing with death in the comics. What a thoughtful, articulate group of curmudgeons!

On a different note, re: Herb and Jamal, what on EARTH is that thing supposed to be that’s pinned on Herb’s apron? A decorative broach? A high-security clearance badge that allows him access to the kitchen? Some strange code that’s communicating secret information via the comics?

Your insights are most appreciated.
Anna Nimity
October 4th, 2007 at 10:32 pm [Reply]

99. Secret Margo, are you paraphrasing Uncle Lumpy or Forrest Gump? That’s all I have to say about that.
A Different Josh
October 4th, 2007 at 10:36 pm [Reply]

On Batiuk’s questionable motives:

I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that he’ll be compiling the Lisa saga into a book and the proceeds from the sale of the book will go to cancer charities.

Personally, I found the excecution of the whole storyline fairly horrible (especially the death mime and le chat bleu). But I’m not particularly upset that someone who tells stories for a living, decided to tell one that wasn’t exacty pleasant.
Trotzenbonnie
October 4th, 2007 at 10:39 pm [Reply]

#99 – SecretMargo
Can I borrow your brain, please? Well, maybe not the whole thing – just the part that you use to write so beautifully… and I promise to give it back without any nicks or scratches as soon as I finish this damn story I’m working on.
A Different Josh
October 4th, 2007 at 10:42 pm [Reply]

#106

A poorly drawn sign of Baphomet?
Plus a constant
October 4th, 2007 at 10:43 pm [Reply]

17. Foolster — Hey, I’ve played those games, too. I liked ‘em a lot. I thought it was CHZO, though, not CHKO. I think CHKO is his brother.
Suicide_Blonde
October 4th, 2007 at 10:49 pm [Reply]

FW: What’s the fuss? Lisa isn’t dead, she’s in the Construct program of The Matrix. If she hangs around a while, Neo will show up and they can learn kung fu together.
commodorejohn
October 4th, 2007 at 11:00 pm [Reply]

#99 SecretMargo – Well said. Well said indeed.

I guess I’ve said about all I have to say about this gigantic, steaming pile of feces, at least until whatever we get in the way of aftermath sets in, so I’ll sum up with this: Funky Winkerbean was in no way realistic. when my grandmother died from a heart attack following a battle with lung cancer, it was sudden. We knew it was coming; even I, as a little guy of a mere eight years, could see that, but the actual death was unannounced. She went in the night; I don’t think anyone was even there, I just woke up the next morning to learn that my Grandma was dead. It had real, lasting effects, too; even after I’d stopped with the crying, I spent a long time in the bluest of all blue funks. I still miss her; she was a huge part of my early life and an all-around wonderful lady. And my mom still gets choked up when she thinks about Grandma – who can blame her? And most importantly of all the differences, my grandmother’s death was not engineered by God to gain the approval of the American Cancer Society.
Plinko Commie
October 4th, 2007 at 11:04 pm [Reply]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/funky.asp?date=20071005

Good Lord, Les grew a goatee. Way to finally sprout facial hair after 35-plus years!

Guess we’re not hanging around for the funeral or reaction, it’s right to the future, eh? Can’t say I agree with that call, particularly doing it in the middle of the week. What will people on vacation think when they see Goatee Man lying on his therapist’s couch when this time last week Lisa was still gamely hanging on?
MonkeyHawk
October 4th, 2007 at 11:11 pm [Reply]

Golly, I like this website!

Smart people. Snarky people. People with absolutely no taste but outrageously funny and sometimes profound points of view.

Just to drift off-topic for a moment, I was impressed and frustrated by the recent Ken Burns epic, “The War.” He’s got a style for filmmaking that’s obviously popular, and he offers insights to his topics that make his films worthwhile. But his style has become self-parody and that gets in the way of his message.

The Funky Winkerbean Lisa saga reminds me of Burns’ films. It was so manipulative so much of the time, the good parts got buried under the maudlin.

Years and years ago, my Dad the doctor grumbled about a professional lecture he’d attended when the speaker said, “We’re coming to the point that everyone in America will die of cancer unless they die of something else first.” The phrase wasn’t in vogue then (maybe Dad started it, I dunno) but his disgust came out with, “Well, duh!”

Everyone is going to die of a meteorite strike unless they die of something else first.

And in some weird evoloutionary process, perhaps, cancer is a blessing in that it’s a relatively slow process which allows (as with Lisa’s Dad), an opportunity for loved ones to settle things up. My Dad died of a heart attack. Zap! Gone. A good friend’s parents died in an automobile accident and he spent many years regretting he’d been pissed at them when they left the house that evening.

I agree with you, Josh, that there shouldn’t be anything “off limits” in the comic form. I remember when some people were horrified by the brilliant “Maus.”

But Doonesbury has dealt with the death of a beloved cartoon character with elegance and class. I actually admired Lynn Johnston’s death of Farley the dog… until she felt compelled to ressurect him with the new dog, whatshisname. I was prepared, after years of ignoring Gasoline Alley when 100+-year-old Walt seemed to be approaching the end of his life at the Old Cartoon Characters’ Home.

Back to movies for a second: I remember the first time I saw “E.T.” The damned flying bicycle could have flown way before it did, but Spielberg milked the scene for all it’s worth, pumping up the John Williams soundtrack at the very moment he knew the audience would weep or applaud or cheer…. Schmaltz like that takes a master. Spielberg manipulated people and manipulated them well.

Batiuk, not so much.
Plinko Commie
October 4th, 2007 at 11:15 pm [Reply]

And, as if we needed further illustration between the sweet and sentimental, if not tone-perfect, demise of FW’s Lisa and the ham-handed orgy of sanctimonious fail that can only be FOOB, I offer you http://news.yahoo.com/comics/uclickcomics/20071005/cx_fb_uc/fb20071005, in which Gwampa’s condition (awake but non-responsive) is quickly overwhelmed by sister pathos. Who gets the magic harmonica? Who in hell cares? I’m half surprised Michael didn’t drive up to Nunchaupchuck or whereever in God’s name Lizardbreath went and took it by force so it can be on the cover of the Holy Bible v2.0 or whatever he ended up calling his 600-page murder of the written word.
Jason C.
October 4th, 2007 at 11:16 pm [Reply]

“Funky Winkerbean” should follow Lisa on her journey through the afterlife.
True Fable
October 4th, 2007 at 11:16 pm [Reply]

Wham, bam! Jump ten years, m’am!

TB doesn’t fool around, does he? I wonder if this means we will cover the mourning period via flashbacks on the therapist’s couch?

Come sit at the edge of MY therapist’s couch, Tom; I’ll give you a f’ing heart attack.
Lynny M
October 4th, 2007 at 11:18 pm [Reply]

You know what? I liked this arc in Funky Winkerbean. I know I’m wrong, but I was touched – one hell of a lot more than I’ve ever been touched by FBOW.

I won’t lie; I never read Funky Winkerbean before the last cancer plotline. I’ve read a bit of Lisa’s Story, but that’s it. All experiences with cancer have been as a third-party member.

I don’t give a flying fuck if Batiuk was wrong or right in any sense of the word. He’s an artist, and he’s trying within the limits of his field.

Rest in peace, Lisa; with her, my best friend’s father, and everyone who has ever lost a battle with cancer.

For everyone who fights it: More power to you.
Lynny M
October 4th, 2007 at 11:30 pm [Reply]

Oh yeah – thanks, Josh. As was said before: “For everything.”
NotThatGuy
October 4th, 2007 at 11:40 pm [Reply]

FW: I never read FW before this death arc, and I can’t say I feel as if I’ve missed very much. There was a death arc in another strip a year or two back– Liberty Meadows? It was a strip that I’d never read before, but it sucked me right in. But Funky just seems…heavy, or clunky, or maybe the timing’s off for me. I think it’s interesting that there has been such a range of reaction (compared to, say, Lizanthony’s linkage). And I hope Batiuk’s got whatever it is out of his system to some extent, and can concentrate on life’s absurdities as well as life’s tragedies.

And yes, Ah Clem, today’s Get Fuzzy was inspired.
Jadis White
October 4th, 2007 at 11:46 pm [Reply]

What the darn heck is going on with FW? I thought the jump wasn’t going to happen until another week or two? Is that supposed to be Les on the couch? He looks he developed a really unhealthy obsession with Vincent Price after Lisa died.
Jack Parsons
October 4th, 2007 at 11:47 pm [Reply]

RMMD: 8-Ball is using the cabin as his new lab. It works great because out in the hills nobody looks twice at a methed-out black guy with shaved head dressed like a pirate.
Poteet
October 4th, 2007 at 11:50 pm [Reply]

# 109 — Trotz, what a great idea. Dibs on the SecretMargo brain after you’re through with it, please. I just need it for a few minutes to help with a letter I’m writing to a magazine about an article that was well-intended but a couple bulbs short of a chandelier. Thanks!
Jack Parsons
October 4th, 2007 at 11:52 pm [Reply]

Last thread, #19 by Lettuce: COTW

http://joshreads.com/?p=1275#comment-338111
Jack Parsons
October 4th, 2007 at 11:56 pm [Reply]

If they’re recycling Blondies from the early 80’s, maybe they could do the one about “going out for chinks”.

Yes, this really happened in modern times.
Lou Shumaker
October 4th, 2007 at 11:59 pm [Reply]

My final thoughts on Lisa’s final days, but only because I approached this strip from a writer’s point of view.

First, let’s get the obvious out of the way: My opinions not meant for everyone; comic strippers have a right to pursue their muse; no problems with morbidness in the funny papers; if you were touched by FW, fantastic; I wish I did, and no reflections on anyone at all for what I’m about to say.

That said ….

What offended me most about the series was how poorly it was told. The artwork was fine, but Batiuk has no feel for plotting. We see Les’ depression, but only through the one episode with the cat. We never saw a memorable reaction to cancer’s reappearance, Lisa’s decision to stop treatment, her decision to go to Washington. So when he sits by her bedside and says “It’s okay for you to go,” there’s real emotional charge behind it (except in readers who’ve had to make that same decision). How powerful can his decision be when we have no idea what he thought about it in the first place.

The same goes for other aspects of the story; Lisa’s effect on her child, on her parents, on her friends. On the family’s finances. All of that muted or ignored. Batiuk had the opportunity to tell a strong story, and he muffed it.
FE
October 5th, 2007 at 12:00 am [Reply]

Call me a, well, curmudgeon, but I do object to the FW storyline on principle. A few years ago, my hometown newspaper ran a 30-day front page series about a woman dying of cancer. The whole thing smacked of bad faith to me. In between the lines of each article you could see the editors congratulating themselves on their artistic sensibility — and talking up the journalism prizes they expected to win. I get the same sense from Lisa’s story.
bats :[
October 5th, 2007 at 12:06 am [Reply]

FW: Ambition isn’t a bad thing, but for serious matters, I don’t know that it has to be dragged out in the “funny papers,” where everyone (little kids, people who are currently dealing with bad situations or are painfully reminded of past situations) is subjected to them. Graphic novels like Mausand Our Cancer Year (there’s also one with a father and small son having to come to grips with the death of their wife and mother) did fine jobs on very serious topics; OCY is brutal but real.
If Batuik had wanted to follow suit, and it might’ve been a good thought, since the characters, unlike those in many graphic novels, are “familiar” to many people and can be considered old friends, that his work appear only in the realm of a graphic novel, as is going to be the case.

So I guess I’m pretty much saying what the Avocado Avenger, the Artist, Lou and Sjofn already said…

Okay. The end.
sonneta
October 5th, 2007 at 12:11 am [Reply]

FOOB: Go April, go!

(Yes, I know she will get smacked down for this tomorrow… but let me revel today.)
Robert Fiore
October 5th, 2007 at 12:11 am [Reply]

You’ll know Grandpa’s on the way out when he says “I see . . . Farley . . .”
Dub Not Dubya
October 5th, 2007 at 12:12 am [Reply]

Ah. Gil Thorp has finally made someone’s head explode. We knew it would happen someday.
Ubiq
October 5th, 2007 at 12:19 am [Reply]

Hey, you know how amnesia is traditionally cured in media by a second conk on the head? Does that mean two strokes cures aphasia?
SecretMargo
October 5th, 2007 at 12:25 am [Reply]

FBoFW: Will Liz ever perform enough penance for daring to incorporate brown people into her life? Short answer: no.
True Fable
October 5th, 2007 at 12:25 am [Reply]

SFx Not one, but FOUR fish skeletons! All right Weber! You know what we need around here!
RMMD That’s just one hell of a creepy smile, Rex. I’m just sayin’.
JP When Abbey or Neddy come back from Paris, could they PLEASE bring some new clothes for Sophie? ‘Cause this weird frilly-pajama-y top thing of hers is beyond ugly and just looks wrong, like she’s living in a perpetual sleepover. Besides, it only underscores the point that the girl’s got a concave figure.
(DT)GT Panel Two FTW. Now THAT is the face of terror.
GA I’m dropping this strip from my must-read list. The only thing I like about it is the kitten Rufust carries around with him. I just can’t read any more of this Dumb Hick Strip. I live in Greater Metropolitan ROOPVILLE, for God’s sake; if I want to see comic rubes all I have to do is look out the window.
FBoFW Fight over the harmonica, girls! Yeah, because Grampa would really WANT that.
FC and the candles are made of metal! Holy crap, that’s like a miniature version of the Ent forest during the reign of Saruman.
Not that Family Circus would, like, EVER get that reference.
(WT)DT Yeah, go to Asterisk Not Equal To Copyright, Flatfoot!
A3G There was a sale at the Waterworks factory last month. Luann and Nora stocked up.
Dustin Knight
October 5th, 2007 at 12:30 am [Reply]

What’s really fascinating is once you realise people do taste like ham, you start to look into a more sinister crock indeed–is the author admitting with his characters that they are not real people, but indeed artwork? Is he attempting to grant his character’s self-awareness through this breach of the 4th wall? And to top it off, is he starving one of his characters, ending his non-existance, until he in fact becomes real?
Helena Handbasket
October 5th, 2007 at 12:32 am [Reply]

A3G: “I don’t want anything to ever change!” “But I love you and want to marry you.” “No, Change bad!”

Foob: “I wanted to give him something that meant a lot to me.” “Doesn’t Grandpa mean a lot to you?” “Yeah, that’s why I gave Jesse the fucking harmonica, you moron, because it was something that meant a lot to me.”

GT: I’d like to think this is going to be some kind of horrible sex predator revelation, but he’s probably just too old to play or something equally dull.

JP: Cesar’s evil goes further than we could ever have guessed; he used his youth ray to make Sophie five years old in the final panel!

MW: (lost final panel) “…but at least if you had confided in me I would have been able to say, ‘I told you so.’”

Pluggers: Shouldn’t a plugger still be using his dad’s old safety razor with the blades you can sharpen by twirling them inside a glass?

RMMD: I can’t be the only one who hears banjos on the horizon with this storyline. I envision Rex and Nikki getting hopelessly lost, now that June has their only map of the area. After that it’s anybody’s guess as to whether Rex kills Niki in a cannibal frenzy, or they run into survivalists who think Rex has a “purty mouth” or felons of some kind are holed up in the cabin and take them hostage. Hey, maybe we’ll get lucky and it will be a “Choose Your Own Adventure” RMMD! If Rex puts an extra copy of the map in the glove compartment, wait until next Wednesday! If Rex and Niki take the left fork in the path, wait to continue your story next Tuesday! I wonder what that would look like? Oh yeah, we already know what it would look like: the last three weeks of Dick Tracy.

S-M: Peter Parker doesn’t need a phone booth, because he’s happy to strip down to his skivvies in public. Bets on whether he’s going to attempt to bypass airport security?
4EvahFan
October 5th, 2007 at 12:39 am [Reply]

FW: I agree with so many of you about the Lisa storyline, both the good and the bad. The beauty of this site is there are so many very smart, well-spoken snarkers who give me many things to think about and points of view I never considered about the strips.

I was moved by the last days of Lisa and I feel very sad by her ultimate death, Masky McWeirdo and all. But I cannot forgive Batuick for not allowing us to finish our grieving. I mean, come on! You drag us along this very sad and depressing storyline and make us watch the withering away of a main character, then just like that, we’re supposed to leap into the future and forget all about the emotions we’ve felt over the last months. It’s unfair and I’m pissed.

And now to see Fu Man Les lying on the couch trying to give us a summary of the days that followed just doesn’t do it. I feel cheated. And I can’t believe that I feel so much from a comic.
True Fable
October 5th, 2007 at 12:41 am [Reply]

Fable’s PREDICTION!

Okay, obviously something will happen while Rex and Niki are out discovering nature (or at least, what is viewable to the reader, wink wink say no more) which means June will have to *gasp* Read A Map and go off in search for them. I mean it’s written all over today’s strip.

What I WANT to see, is EightBall following Niki and Rex and doing a little terrorizing on the side (or at the least, take pictures for blackmail) and Rex will actually have to *surprise surprise Sargeant Carter* use some Medical Skills somehow should EightBall shoot him/ shoot them/ injure himself/ Niki gets his ass torn up by Someone.

Or maybe Rex’ll get hurt and Niki will have to do the doctoring (apply the ointment riiiight there, Niki, don’t hesitate to rub it in) and he’ll do a great job (wow, that’s a heck of a splint, Rex! That’s no splint, Niki)

All of this will result in Niki being inspired to be a doctor when he grows up, if not a Party Boy like Rex.

And when the forest scene gets too much, we can always switch back to June and Heather’s pillow fight before Milton gets home from the hospital. I’m looking forward to that. :-)
kostia
October 5th, 2007 at 12:41 am [Reply]

FW: You know what would’ve been kind of cool? Is if whoever was leading Lisa off by the hand were invisible to dream-Les and to us. If she were drawn as though she were obviously holding someone’s hand, obviously being pulled away, obviously speaking to/hearing someone, but we couldn’t see that someone, just a void space.

That would’ve been kind of cool.

Music of the night notwithstanding.
Poteet
October 5th, 2007 at 12:44 am [Reply]

# 95 — Thank you, thank you, Ribinin. I knew there was something wrong with this nefarious plan by Caesar, and I wondered if land use regulations would ever enter the plot. Especially since it’s set in California. Even here in Iowa, where some counties don’t even have zoning, you’d have a heckuva time just plunking down a town somewhere, aquifer beneath the land or not.

And Mudges, can we please take up a collection and buy that poor child Sophie a set of small beginner breasts. I was a stick insect at her age, but even I wasn’t flat as all that. Thank you.
sonneta
October 5th, 2007 at 12:46 am [Reply]

FOOB (again): The thing is, she didn’t “give” him anything- he STOLE it, she let him keep it. Great disciplinarian, huh?
Poteet
October 5th, 2007 at 12:47 am [Reply]

# 135 — Sir Fable MTK, I may join you soon in departing the very weird world of GA. I honestly don’t know how much more I can stand, and life is short. Good night all.
-this-space-left-blank-
October 5th, 2007 at 12:47 am [Reply]

You know, I was as cynical and eye-rolly about the whole Lisa dying of cancer thing as most people, and angry that my usual daily cheer-up of reading the comics with a tasty dessert of Josh has been marred by this unwelcome intrusion of reality. And, like, it’s not like we haven’t all seen this coming for, what, a year?

But dammit, now she’s passed on, and I’m trying to think jeez, finally, let’s get on with things. But I’m all affected and touched and sad anyway. The message I guess is that death sucks and no one wants to think about it but it’s pervasive in our experience of the world despite all our railing against it.

It isn’t fair.
Poteet
October 5th, 2007 at 12:48 am [Reply]

But before I go, now that it’s wrapping up, does the DT plot turn out to make any sense whatsoever? I thought not. Adieu.
bats :[
October 5th, 2007 at 12:50 am [Reply]

Is it Friday? It must be Funny!

DtM: eh. Not worth the effort to photoshop, but in the same direction: “She asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up, an’ I said a cowboy. An’ then she said I must like horses, an’ I said, ‘Yes, ma’am — what’s it like to be rode hard an’ put away wet?’.”

FC: the kids are apparently watching a home video of Walt Wallet last birthday party.

FW: yow…time marches on! I have to admit Les looks way better with the facial hair and minus the DEVO helmet hair.

MW: yada yada yada; not too surprising when your dad masquerades as a female advice columnist!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9545446@N07/1488202394/

FOOB: Attack of the Drama Queens! Run!
-this-space-left-blank-
October 5th, 2007 at 12:53 am [Reply]

oh and… I’ll add my voice to the praise for the collective Curmudgeon commenters. The comments about Lisa’s death have been some uncommon eloquence and taste. And some really thoughtful writing, too. I suppose it’s an echo of how we all stop to reflect when death touches our real lives. We stop to think, consider, and feel, and with any luck we then continue.
True Fable
October 5th, 2007 at 12:55 am [Reply]

#141 Poteet, my queen! Thank you, my liege; I was beginning to wonder if I was being pervy or something, harping on as I do about Sophie’s lack of feminine charms at the ripe old age of supposedly 14. So, I’m not the only one to wonder why the hell this child isn’t at least in a training bra or something.

Come on, Barreto, the female form is not all feast or famine. It’s not just flat as a board or SweaterPuppies McMighty, you know. Or maybe you don’t know. Well, here’s a tip: There’s nothing wrong with showing a modest figure on the comics page, and most times a handful really IS all that is necessary. Well, except in Established Cases like Abbey, Trudi, Busty Duncan and Neddy.

It’s perfectly okay for Sam to take trips with his 14 year old daughter once she’s shapely. There’s nothing wrong with trips. Look at Rex, he’s going off to a remote cabin with a teenage boy he’s not even relat–
oh never mind. Fuck it.
ElSanto
October 5th, 2007 at 1:01 am [Reply]

Ahahaha! Panel 2 of Gil Thorp is one of the best panels ever! One hell of shocked face, let me tell you what.

Today’s GT
odinthor
October 5th, 2007 at 1:02 am [Reply]

#99 SecretMargo — Josh is certainly due his share of glory for having a site in which everyone not only feels free to express just about any opinion but also feels free to do so in a gracious way; and how I feel on one level about Batiuk and his effort in FW may be gathered, I hope, from my yesterthread posting. But let’s coin a phrase: It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Whatever Batiuk’s motivations or level of skill in carrying out his intentions, the fact is that, without them, we wouldn’t have posted our true tales here–we’d just be nattering about Rex and Niki, or perhaps be having a Memories of Gail Martin party. It wasn’t Batiuk’s intention to spur interesting reminiscences on our part, and so he does not get credit for doing so; and yet, dislilke his methods etc. as much as we do, he is the one responsible. If anyone here sang a song that touched anyone, it was Batiuk’s annoying and out-of-tune bagpipe which called it forth. Fair’s fair! Many a time in life, I’ve found, ugliness can nevertheless give birth to something beautiful; and rather than to just grab that beauty and run away with it, I can give something back and love that ugliness which, even unintentionally, gives us beauty. The world’s a funny place! The columns don’t always add up right; the figures don’t reconcile; the income is often less than the expenditure; we need to buy another bottle of red ink; but by god it’s wonderful to be able to enter things on the ledger at all!
Binky Betsy
October 5th, 2007 at 1:10 am [Reply]

#137: Did Liz even realize the harmonica was missing from her stuff until Jesse’s aunt mentioned it? And don’t forget, when April first offered it to Liz, she gasped, “This is Grandpa’s harmonica! You can’t give it away!”
Non Compost Mentos
October 5th, 2007 at 1:17 am [Reply]

So fast-forward Les is on a shrink’s couch…and so is the little bird in Bizarro. For my money, everything would be greatly improved if it were Les saying “My mother used to puke in my mouth.”
bats :[
October 5th, 2007 at 1:18 am [Reply]

148. True Fable: You may Rex’s little jaunt so positively smarmy! Nothing could be further from the truth:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9545446@N07/1488352992/
True Fable
October 5th, 2007 at 1:31 am [Reply]

So, will Liz make another journey to Mtiwickiwackiwocki to play First Nations Giver and take back the harmonica from Jesse? I mean, it shouldn’t surprise the kid, since she hasn’t kept her word to him a single time before. One more going back on her word won’t matter.

While she’s at it, she’ll run into Paul again, which should be entertaining in a Most Awkward way. By golly, Lynnie; don’t tell me I’m actually looking forward to Foobville! That is, if you are going this alternate route.

But if it’s going to stay with Poor Grampa and his Quarreling Heirs in a fuss over a harmonica, then I’m just as meh as usual.
True Fable
October 5th, 2007 at 1:34 am [Reply]

# 153 bats:[ –

You are pure evil, and that is what I love about you most. >:-) I invite you to peek in on Mark Trail Theater in the Forums.

Vous and me, baybee: vee make vis zee beautiful muzik, no?
Frank Parsnip
October 5th, 2007 at 1:34 am [Reply]

MT: What’s up with Homer’s blue prison hat? In panel 1, he’s got what looks like a floppy baseball cap on. In panel 2, all he needs is a red star and some Mao Zedong buttons and he’d be ready to take on some “capitalist roaders”. However, the only pink menace we’ve got is represented by the muskie’s bizarre coloring. Now, here’s a real muskie: http://www.ratemyfish.com/?action=ssp&pid=5017

A3G: Ewwwww… WTF with the enormous fake-looking tear in panel 3? It’s not like he said it was going to be a “bad” change yet. Alan had better run while he can — Luann is clearly nuts.

MW:

Dawn: “OK, Dad, the deal is this: I didn’t want to tell you about Dr. Drew for the same reason I find it difficult to talk about your combover.”

Mr. Weston: “What combover?”

Blondie: Blondie’s “putting on her face” — as if anybody actually looks at it. In panel 3, even Dagwood’s trying to figure out what it might look like.

RMMD: Rex and Niki are going up there to “test themselves”, fully in the role of Rex tutoring poor Niki in the skills of a blossoming manwhore. At some point in the weekend, Niki is likely to “disappoint” Rex (the word “disappoint” is put in quotation marks here only because the word has been used so many creepy times in discussions between Rex, May and Niki that even now I’m not sure what it means anymore) by simply cracking the eggs for a “Portuguese omlet” at the wrong time.

In panel 3, we have Rex offering June the map with his best-possible “here, have a nice cup of shutthefuckup” face.

~~Jugs~~ Ironingboard Parker: Remember, in Judge Parker, all of this is going to be a morality play in which it matters more whether somebody is a “liar” than if they can put up some real cash to back their offer. Flattop McMullet already has his neck out of the noose because Sam has already credited him as being a guy who merely didn’t tell the whole truth. But Caesar is a real baddie, so no matter what Caesar offers, Sam is going to screw it all up just to teach that Caesar a lesson. Caesar will of course learn to lie more convincingly.

Slylock Fox: I pick numbers 1 and 4 from the lineup. Heathcliff, Garfield… you can go home now.

GT: My guess is that if the Cully Vale porn site justifies their facial reactions at all, Cully won’t have to worry about being recruited to go to Iraq.

FW: Future Les is laying on a psychiatrist’s couch with a box of tissues at his side. Hopefully Bizarro World Les is laying on a chaise lounge on a beach with a bucket of chilled Coronas at his side.

Mallard Fillmore: How many more days of Ann Coulter ass-kissing is Tinsley going to do?

DtM: Dennis, master of the menacing creepy questions, goes after the elderly guest. After asking her what it’s like to have been “around the block” so many times, he didn’t really need to keep doing that “nudge-nudge, wink-wink, knowwhatimean…” Eric Idle bit.

Beatle Bailey: Who knew we were going to see tiny pinups of J-Lo on the wall. With references to the Iraq and Afghan wars yesterday and J-Lo today, Walker figures we might overlook Camp Swampy’s ancient Jeeps and 1950s-style army uniforms. Perhaps their “jump forward” has already been accomplished. Next, they’ll be wearing modern army helmets, body armor, Oakley sunglasses, light-brown boots, gray-green digitized camo uniforms, and Sarge’s stripes will be a little black chevroned notation in the center of his chest.
Donald the Anarchist
October 5th, 2007 at 1:35 am [Reply]

FW I don’t have a problem per se with the way Lisa’s final exit was handled, but by now I’ve read and viewed so many fictional deaths that a fictional character dying in any medium only matters to me if 1) I wanted to continue experiencing the character and their death makes it impossible or 2) a character I care about is forced to deal with the loss of that character.

The last fictional deaths to truly move me in a memorable way were in the Buffy-verse, when in a three year period the viewers lost Joyce Summers, Cordelia Chase and Fred Birkle. These deaths were handled in such a manner that the actors themselves had trouble dealing with them; David Boreanaz had difficulty finishing his farewell scene with Charisma Carpenter due to one or the other of them breaking down during various takes. And no one smirked.

Killing off a character can be easy or brave. It depends on how much emotion has been invested in them by both the creator and the audience. Those who were moved by Lisa’s last bow have nothing to be embarassed about; neither do those of us who were less than impressed. I think most of us like fiction in which both the characters’ lives AND deaths mean something to us (Personally I think Richard Powers’s novel Gain is excellent in its portrayal of a woman’s death from cancer; I much prefer it to the FW sequence) but even those who HATED the strip seemed to feel passionate about that, so, maybe, it did all that could be expected of a daily comic strip. But I do think it would have been more effective without every other character being dragged through their own private misery on a daily basis, but that’s just me…
Mibbitmaker
October 5th, 2007 at 1:39 am [Reply]

10/5:

FW: Yeah, that’s Les in the (already??) flash-forward. But I’ll contend, just for this one, that it’s Batiuk himself pictured. And the answer, Tom, is: Sorry, Charlie.

FOOB: AP-RIL! AP-RIL! AP-RIL! (looks like there’s only two of us here, so far)

FW: ……………..ALREADY???
bats :[
October 5th, 2007 at 1:53 am [Reply]

155. True Fable: I attended Mark Trail Theater…and I feel so…dirty…not that that’s a bad thing!

Ze undertones…zhey heave and undulate like Mme. June’s twin brioches….only eet iz ze bagettes of MM. Trail and Morgan that amuse me ze most…

156. Frank Parsnip re A3G: eye boogers. It’s apparently a chronic condition among many of the women in this reality.
CrabbyGenes
October 5th, 2007 at 1:58 am [Reply]

#153 Bats. I was kind of daydreaming just now as I scrolled up from the end of this thread, looking for commenters I liked. I saw True Fable’s comment about your #153 and decided to click on it.

But I must have REALLY been daydreaming because between the time when I clicked on your link and when it booted up, I somehow drifted into a world where I was reading regular comics as usual.

In other words, when your comic finally came up, I looked at it thinking that I was seeing the Houston Chron comic page. I actually stared at it in horror for a long moment wondering how in the world the word “condoms” had gotten into a comic. Not to mention thinking “What the hell comic am I reading?” when I saw Steve Canyon. After a shocked minute I remembered I was looking at one of your creations. Talk. about. WEIRD.

Maybe I’d better start getting more sleep?

Anyway, great mash-up!
Dub Not Dubya
October 5th, 2007 at 2:00 am [Reply]

GT: Maybe they just found out that Cully was a Negro League player.
CrabbyGenes
October 5th, 2007 at 2:02 am [Reply]

MrJ: I’m on p38. Love it!
Helena Handbasket
October 5th, 2007 at 2:13 am [Reply]

#139 True Fable: I’d like to add a little crossover action to your scenario there, with Mark Trail busting in the door, Fist O’ Justice swinging, to deal out facial-hair-destroying blows to whichever bad guy is actually in the cabin. God knows he’s being underused in his own strip right now, and I don’t see a big muskie punching coming our way any time soon.
CrabbyGenes
October 5th, 2007 at 2:13 am [Reply]

Of MNG, I mean.
Mibbitmaker
October 5th, 2007 at 2:27 am [Reply]

More ten/five:

9CL: …..WILLYOUGETONWITHITALREADY??!!??[/Ralph Kramden]

A3G: Don’t tell him, LuAnn! Tell Tom Batiuk!……. back in 1993. (By the way, Lu, I think that big fake tear belongs to someone else in your world)

Archie: BETTY’S DRESS HOW-TO: Cover shirt in glue, then roll around all over some broken potato chips. VioLA!

DT: Don’t give Vladamir Putin any ideas there, Tracy. We have more than enough problems with the real mideastern terrorists as it is!
The Avocado Avenger
October 5th, 2007 at 2:28 am [Reply]

FBoFW: “Doesn’t Grandpa mean a lot to you?” “Yeah, that’s why I gave Grandpa to Jesse and kept the damn harmonica.”

But I kid. I think April’s got a good point, although the timing of the argument is a bit tacky.

Tank: I’m the only one who talks about Tank here, and that’s fine, because it’s not usually snarkworthy (or understandable) but this week’s storyline about a coach with mild dementia in the old folk’s home has been kind of touching.

GT: Panel two, I love you.

MT: Week 3 of the exciting “ugly fish sometimes eat cute baby ducklings” storyline! Will that fish ever move? Tune in next week!

Sally Forth: I dunno, I’m getting pretty tired of Faye. I’m sure part of it is my experience in school, where all the friends I had eventually caved and spent their days trying to be popular. I was so uninterested in the popular kids that everyone, even teachers, were completely baffled by me. By my junior year in high school I had two girls pretend to be my friends just to “spy” on me and report back to the rich, popular girls; I was some kind of alien or zoo animal that needed to be researched. If Faye’s wanting to be friends with the popular girls so much that she’s willing to get food dumped on her, then I say let her go.
The SanDiegan
October 5th, 2007 at 2:29 am [Reply]

First off, I want to praise Josh for creating a community where some can disagree with a cartoonist so vehemently, and yet disagree with each other so respectfully.

OK, now the silly vaguely related story. Seeing death look like a mime reminded me of the other weekend when I was staying up late talking to my Mom. My Dad suddenly walked out, made some vague, silent gestures, and then fell to the ground, completely still. He was trying to tell us Marcel Marceau had just died.

Yeah, it was probably tacky, and not very funny. But I’ve got to love him for trying.
Trilobite
October 5th, 2007 at 2:48 am [Reply]

Hey, check out Friday’s comics:

A3G: Psst! Alan! Brain damage, remember? Lu Ann’s got the cognitive ability of a drunk goldfish, so she’s not even going to NOTICE if anything changes. Just pat her hand, tell her that everything’s always going to be the same forever, and then go ahead and do whatever it is you were planning on doing. She’s not going to figure it out.

Beetle Bailey: I believe I speak for everyone, everywhere when I say that no one wants to know what’s being done over in Killer’s area.

Dick Tracy: Words simply cannot express how little I care about who those two guys are or what their plans were meant to accomplish. Even if there was a rational, sensible explanation for anything that’s happened in this story (and there isn’t), I wouldn’t care. The rotunda is saved, the tiny-armed terrorists have been arrested, Gretchen is a greasy red film smeared on the front of Dick’s cheap suit, and the story is OVER. JUST SHUT UP AND GO HOME, DICK.

Gil Thorp: I’m a little afraid to Google “Culver Vale” now, since the shocked expression in panel two suggests that it links to the most horrifying porn image since goatse. Oh no…could it be that Rule 34 (”If it exists, there is porn of it”) has finally been invoked on the misshapen creatures of Gil Thorp, of all things? Oh god, just imagining it is making me feel ill. Curses upon you, internet!

Mark Trail: It’s on days like today that I really wish that Mark Trail was an animated feature. In the foreground, we’d have Homer and Mark having their insipid conversation. Then the theme from Jaws would kick in, low and urgent, as we cut back and forth from their blandly grinning mugs to the lake…happy ducklings paddling along above, insanely angry muskie below. Back to the chatting idiots, and just as the music hits its peak, we see in the background one of the baby ducks getting sucked under the water. And then another. And then another. Finally, the “QUACK…AAAAH!” of a duck in distress cuts through everything else, and both Homer and Mark slog their way into the lake to punch the crap out of that fish as heroic fight music plays!

But alas, the three-panel static format is all we have, even though it cannot possibly do justice to this dramatic setup. Such a pity.

Rex Morgan: I think the “playful banter” and tightly-gritted teeth of Rex and June in today’s comic tells new readers everything they need to know about how this marriage works: they remain married only because a thin, barely-civil lid covers the seething cauldron of resentment and immeasureable rage that are their actual feelings towards one another. Divorce is off the table — the only conclusion to this relationship that will be remotely satisfying to either party is the painful death of the other.

Spider-Man: This is why I could never hack it as a superhero — I just can’t remember all those little rules of etiquette. I’d forget to keep my pinky extended when punching a mugger, or not realize that changing in a phone booth is less dignified than stripping out of a skin-tight costume while squatting down between a couple of cars in a parking garage. It’s so complicated!
Foolster41
October 5th, 2007 at 2:56 am [Reply]

Bah. How did I go from #1 to #17? (That’s what the “resist the urge” comment was about in case anyone was wondering)

Plus a constant: bah. you’re right. CHZO. I realized that it didn’t look right, but I was too lazy to look it up and post again. Thiose games were awsome.

Have you checked out Zero pronunciation by the guy who made those games? Their hilarious and so so so true.

FW: I agree that him not hearing the last “I love you” was badly played.

H&J: Today is a fine example why I don’t follow Herb and Jamal
dale
October 5th, 2007 at 3:01 am [Reply]

There’s no connection to any particular strip, and if you’re lucky, I won’t try this again.

There was a man from Nantucket
Who had some live fish in a bucket.
“I caught ‘em for naught;
Release ‘em I ought.
But I’ll just leave ‘em out here in the sun.”
nsr
October 5th, 2007 at 3:08 am [Reply]

GT- it looks like panel 2 took so much time to draw, they had to rerun panel 3 from 10/02.
Binky Betsy
October 5th, 2007 at 3:20 am [Reply]

#166: Okay, but what April said. When should they have this discussion. A, this is exactly the kind of thing that comes up during a family crisis, and B, it’s all about the crises with Liz. She has a bad breakup. She has to go to court. She doesn’t have a date for the wedding. Her shoes are stuck in the lawn. If everyone left her strictly alone when everything wasn’t perfectly right in her world, she’d never interact with anyone.
Lynngineering
October 5th, 2007 at 3:33 am [Reply]

FBOFW: Well, April appears, so now the death motif can really start up!

The two sisters are even looking like themselves a bit, hm….

Harmonica given to Jesse, yes, April, Liz is selfish. OH, and also ignorant. About any family relation or meaningful exchange. Just look at her April. She gave away your gift, that Grandpa gave you – for what? Because she wanted to reward herself. She’s so “good to the natives”, and she did it by giving something that wasn’t meaning anything to her – it was yours. That’s what pisses you off. She obviously has. no. idea. Let it seethe April. When the time comes, use that anger! Let’s get something going finally! Don’t go for guilt, go for revenge! PLEASE, let’s get this party started again…
dreadedcandiru2
October 5th, 2007 at 4:08 am [Reply]

FBoFW: I’d like to join in all the cheering because I know we’ll be booing tomorrow as April is told to stop being a picky-face who doesn’t want her grand-dad to get well. The Patterswine, who don’t want to be called on anything ever, will decide as a group that that’s why she brought the thing up.
Lynngineering
October 5th, 2007 at 4:25 am [Reply]

On FW / Secret Margo: well said, as always. Wish I was more able to synch up whatever time zones we write in!

Although I’ve already cast my lot in the best-deaths-ever comics, the Trudeau examples set the bar high and shows what is possible if you are bothering to develop memorable characters, plots and “lives” to follow. Yes, his “death” had devices (Lacy seeing her husband after she passes..etc..) but it was making sense for the character. FBOFW handled the April/Farley storyline, or April/Rabbit, by matching to a certain distanced, secular, humanist feel the family has, that used to keep them in check from going all on and on about themselves. And it was fast in comparison, but still something interesting enough on its own, to go back and read again.

The FW ending in contrast I thought more along the lines that in fact, death arrives packaged in a way more like, deferring from thinking how it may end for someone… just…wow…as soon as the costume came in, some mime-butler from an 80s MTV music vid crossed with a hockey-masked psycho.. It’s like a marketing analysis for a younger generation asked how might death appear, and the results are 2 parts MTV music vid, 1 part slasher horror movie, some “classy” as understood by tuxedo, existentialist as understood by “spatial vacuum”, maybe also Phantom Opera mask because that was a “cool” musical… etc…

It didn’t seem to match any readership at all – which is the opposite of the deaths as mentioned above…

So I remain ambivalent about the whole FW past days. Death in newspaper comics has to be considered because it is a topic with a big T. While it is great to read an unusual day with the CCers relation to a topic of “death” being brought in, what was always nice about Josh’s framework is the daily recollection of comics many of which have serial/melodramatic plots based on kneejerking readers around: “death!”; “non-consensual sex!”; “illegitimate baby!” “Margo!” and so on. I recall what I enjoy is alot of the CC that just ran with the plots we read in Josh’s daily insightful picks, or developed a great side-line of comments to them, a set of theme lyrical updates to songs here and there, a homage, or a grabbed line from a strip reannointed as forum names, and so on… a range of expressions.

In contrast to that, I think with FW there was a moment that spirit feels…flatlined, just being too far into the mechanics of the melodrama. Which I believe stands for the lack fo artistry in the overall handling – of death, of character, of comic.
KT
October 5th, 2007 at 5:50 am [Reply]

GT: Maybe he’s just been Rickrolled.
Frank Parsnip
October 5th, 2007 at 5:59 am [Reply]

Truefable (139): Agree that the map is going to be a central part of all of this. If this were a TV sitcom, Rex would give June the map out of some sort of blustering notion that he “knows the mountains up by there like the back of my hand” and then (heh-heh) prove he’s a typical guy who can’t ask for directions and thus leading into a bunch of bad-vacation hijinks. However, this is a comic strip in which the map is going to be an essential part of June or somebody else getting up to Rex.

My guess is that they will excitedly jump into Rex’s car, completely forgetting to bring any of their fishing gear. This will prompt June to drive up to deliver the stuff but not before she gets at least a couple of text messages in which they proclaim how “great” the fishing is.

The strong emphasis on how secluded and alone he and Niki will be plays right into our existing notions of Rex being a pederast bent on bending Niki without the prying eyes of others. However valid that may be, my sense is that the writers are mostly trying to emphasize: 1) their expectation of being alone at that Forest Service Cabin that will be ruined shortly; and 2) how difficult it will be to get help if they do find themselves trapped in the middle of nowhere with Eightball or another similar sort of goon.

Keep in mind that the perils of such cabin-bound goons are always manageable — note how expeditiously Heather was able to clock Peter with a frying pan. The real “tragedy” here, of course, is going to be the unspoken one in which at the end of it all Niki and Rex realize that their romantic boywhore getaway has been ruined. All those bags of fresh rose petals that Rex was going to spread about the rooms will be wilted to brown moldy clumps by the time the bad guys have been cleared away and June (or someone else) has driven up there to the rescue.
Little Guy
October 5th, 2007 at 6:07 am [Reply]

FOOB: Well played, Soon-to-be-ex-Mrs. Johnston!

I was lulled into the ennui of the ‘preserved in amber’ hybrid that I thought the rest of the way would be an endless clipshow of past strips and retrostrips.

And here you are, bringing up Liz’ cavalier disposal of the harmonica which Grandpa Jim gave to April, after months of CCers, FOOBiversians, and r.a.c.s.ers pillaging Liz letting Jesse steal it.

Then, after a thought, it still goes into your plan of hybrid and retcon. This is just a bridge (heh heh) to Liz waxing poetically about Mtigwikipedia, retconning her desire to get out of Dodge and into Granthony’s pants, and making her less of a wishy-washy trollop (while inflicting the reader with more Paul-bashing).

In the end, April will be subdued losing about a treasued heirloom from a beloved and apparently terminal grandparent, and accept her fate in the world as an eternal spoiled pickyface.

Again, well played!
smacky
October 5th, 2007 at 6:30 am [Reply]

#134: SecretMargo, didn’t Liz give away the harmonica only after she discovered that Jesse had stolen it? She pretty much had to give it away after that so she could be the big white hero. Plus she figured April wouldn’t want it back after a native touched it.
smacky
October 5th, 2007 at 6:38 am [Reply]

I’m sure most of us have googled “Culver Vale” today. The first hit is “This Week In Milford: The Gil Thorp Blog.”

Clark Kent just discovered that he is a fictional character in a fictional world. How David Lynchian! No wonder he said “Holy Smokes!” (Why pural, by the way? Is there a pack of cigarettes somewhere blessed by the Pope?)
Ryl
October 5th, 2007 at 6:54 am [Reply]

Okay Batiuk. You handled Lisa’s death tastefully and touchingly, I’ll give you that. But to jump ten years THE DAY AFTER SHE DIES? Gee, I wish I could do that after someone close to me passes away. Sure would save a lot of time in that pesky ‘grieving process.’
Frank Parsnip
October 5th, 2007 at 6:57 am [Reply]

Trilobite (168): I recall Mark Trail’s Sunday nature-educational strip was once done in live action to excellent effect. It was the one about the larch. However I do agree that this muskie attack is just screaming out for a cinematic treatment.

Re: GT, I think Cullyporn will be up soon if not already. With his Neanderthalesque hairy good looks, somebody will simply photoshop Cully’s head onto the Hedgehog.
The Spectacular Spider-Brick
October 5th, 2007 at 7:04 am [Reply]

Helena Handbasket @ 137 wrote:

Hey, maybe we’ll get lucky and it will be a “Choose Your Own Adventure” RMMD! If Rex puts an extra copy of the map in the glove compartment, wait until next Wednesday! If Rex and Niki take the left fork in the path, wait to continue your story next Tuesday! I wonder what that would look like? Oh yeah, we already know what it would look like: the last three weeks of Dick Tracy.

To which The Spectacular Spider-Brick replies: COTW nomination!
Whippersnapper
October 5th, 2007 at 7:23 am [Reply]

Unseen sixth panel of Foob: “An’ anyway, he stole it from me first, an’ it says right here in my child psychology book that the best way to teach a kid that stealing is wrong is to….oh….my bad.”
Plus a constant
October 5th, 2007 at 7:40 am [Reply]

169. Foolster41 — Yeah, Zero Punctuation’s really good. I wish there were more of it. I also wish Herb and Jamaal would get a new facial expression for those last panels. I’m sick of that expectant look, waiting for a laugh that will never come.
AhClem
October 5th, 2007 at 7:40 am [Reply]

MT – The reason the salmon-colored muskie hasn’t moved in over a week is that it isn’t a real muskie. It’s a Cabela’s ad on the back of a magazine that some fisherman threw overboard out of frustration over not catching any muskies.
JamesinMaine
October 5th, 2007 at 7:50 am [Reply]

MT: While I am quite sure that this duck episode will somehow reunite Homer and Human-Shirley — I predict her arrival on the lakeshore within three days, which will make this duck shoot about as lame as it can possibly get (Hey, a pun! Duck! Lame! HAHAHAHA!) — I just hope that Homer stands strong and refuses to have kids. One or more of those kids will certainly be eaten by a muskie. Trust me on this.
ISBN
October 5th, 2007 at 8:00 am [Reply]

Mini-mental Rex Morgan makes me a bit afraid. Tomorrow’s strip will just be Mini-Rex saying “All work and no play makes Rex a dull boy. All work and no play makes Rex a dull boy. All work and no play makes Rex a dull boy. All work and no play makes Rex a dull boy.”

Run, June, run! And Take Nikki with you!
The Divine O’F
October 5th, 2007 at 8:08 am [Reply]

115 Monkeyhawk: Good discussion, but I must take exception with your praise of Spielberg. ET was one of the most manipulative (in a bad way), unbelievable pieces of schlock I have ever had the misfortune to see. Well, duh, YEAH the bicycle could have flown earlier. Well, duh, YEAH with all his advanced technology that little troll could have gotten back to the mothership earlier. IMHO, ET set the cause of real science fiction back so far it’s still trying to crawl out of the hole. (Movie SF, I mean.)

168 Trilobite: Your Jaws scenario is one of the funniest things I have read here. If only we had an animator as talented as our mashup artists.
Regina M Markowski
October 5th, 2007 at 8:17 am [Reply]

137:Helena Handbasket: “Foob: “I wanted to give him something that meant a lot to me.” “Doesn’t Grandpa mean a lot to you?” “Yeah, that’s why I gave Jesse the fucking harmonica, you moron, because it was something that meant a lot to me.””

COTW
Artist formerly known as Ben
October 5th, 2007 at 8:17 am [Reply]

10/5*

FW: Les’s therapist hasn’t heard a word he’s said, so captivated is he by the Vandyke beard.

S-M: Spidey faces his two greatest enemies–airport security and the DC Comics legal team.

SFx: Could it be any more obvious that the cat ate that fish live? I mean, it’s still gaping side-eyed in shock, people!

A3G: Oh Lord, Luann’s got Nora Mills Sticky Tear Syndrome.

FC: The Green-Filtered Baked Good Network, where it’s all green-filtered baked goods, all the time!

RMMD: Donner party, table for two.

GT: Tomorrow I know Culver Vale’s secret will turn out to be pretty mundane. For now, let’s pretend his teammates just saw a porn clip he did with members of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow.

BB: Congratulations, Marc Anthony! Killer form Camp Swampy smacks his rifle around while staring at pictures of your wife. You must be muy proud.

H&L: Yeah, whenever a despondent neighbor crashes at your place because his marriage is imploding, wackiness is sure to ensue.

Peanuts: Today’s reprint is kind of sweet. Tom Batiuk doesn’t do talking leaves anymore, so you take your fall foliage humor where you find it.

HtH: “Why don’t you try writing the punchline, smart guy?”

DtM: Mark your calendars people. The menace level spikes to a twenty year high, as Dennis basically calls his aunt Ginny a mattressback slut.
Plinko Commie
October 5th, 2007 at 8:17 am [Reply]

More FOOB: I’d feel more sympathy for April’s outburst if there was any logic to it. It’s not whether Lizardbreath the Colored Lover thinks Ol’ Chinnuts means anything to her, it’s the April really REALLY wants that harmonica. So much that the update on Jim’s condition was a clumsy pretext to bring it up, like when you ask someone whether they went to the baseball game last night before you fire them and announce your affair with his wife. Which April should do, though who wants to steal Anthony other than the Mask of Death?

FW: I’ll cut Batiuk a break on the incompleteness of the story because the medium doesn’t really allow for a comprehensive tale to be told. Three squares a day except six or seven on Sunday — doesn’t really give an arc room to breathe. It’d be cool if he wrote extra strips to fill in the gaps for this book he’s doing, or at least wrote backstory like Lynn did for one of those FOOB retrospectives.
Chris
October 5th, 2007 at 8:18 am [Reply]

24 hours later and Lisa is still dead.

Quick, someone poke her with a stick!

Funky has never been a great comic, never even been a decent comic. I can’t figure out why it is still carried.

The Lisa dying arc is an act of self importance from someone thinking the audience needs to have a health nanny. Some people get cancer, it sucks, but it happens. People don’t need to be preached at by bush-league theatrics and those who want a group hug because they are wearing the latest cry-fest colored ribbon on their lapel.

Life is hard, suck it up and deal with it.

What happened to their kid? Momma is dying a slow painful death complete with dream sequences and does not even give a thought to her kid? Did Lisa and Weenie Husband Guy bury the kid in the yard with thoughts of freedom? Did Weenie Husband Guy then get greedy and “Lisa” just happened to get assume room temperature? Will the FBI be digging up the yard and then investigate the mysterious circumstances of Lisa’s death and that life insurance policy Weenie Husband guy took out last year? Or did the long lost son finally take revenge on his Mother who tossed him away so many years ago by offering his half sister and then settling the score by offing Momma? Did Weenie Husband Guy finish off Lisa and the kid so he can finally come out of the closet and take up life with his new wife name William?
DarkAudit
October 5th, 2007 at 8:31 am [Reply]

FW: You couldn’t even give Lisa a Margoing funeral, you bastard! That’s not dealing, that’s cowardice.
True Fable
October 5th, 2007 at 8:31 am [Reply]

Batiuk is probably doing Les and the gang’s grieving process as a part of a retrospective, look-back-in-depression part of the ten-year leap, which again would be MUCH better served in a BOOK, Batty, not on three squares every 24 hours and multi panels on Sundays.

Whatev. Just shut the hell up and get away from my car, Tom. I don’t want you sticking anything under the windshield wipers, like that pamphlet of smirky platitudes in your hands.
SatanicMechanic
October 5th, 2007 at 8:32 am [Reply]

HEY! HEY, Yall! Crankshaft might be dead!!!
Godzooky
October 5th, 2007 at 8:32 am [Reply]

Time-jumpin’ Batiuk smites; and, having smit,
Moves on…

P.S. Ditto, what UL, SecretMargo, Trotzenbonnie, Last time ranter, and so many others have expressed so beautifully. Lisa’s death: Valid subject matter, executed poorly.

And, thanks for providing and managing this forum, Josh (even though it keeps making me late for work).
Tonio
October 5th, 2007 at 8:33 am [Reply]

Sam Driver’s “pirate” remark sounded ridiculous – it made Caesar sound as if he was bootletting DVDs while talking in a Keith Richards accent.
Scrog
October 5th, 2007 at 8:34 am [Reply]

I had a dream last night that Dick Tracy repeated action IN THE SAME STRIP. Maybe it’s time to cut back on my Curmudgeoning? Nah.

I, for one, praise Batiuk for exploring the depths of human pathos with Funky Winkerbean. Because if he weren’t, he would be trying to make it funny. And we see how well that works in Crankshaft.
Tweeks_Coffee
October 5th, 2007 at 8:37 am [Reply]

A3G: I assume Alan is about to reveal something that’s generally unimportant (”I dye my hair!”) and we’ll have to endure the nonsensical drama that surrounds it. I think it’d be great if he revealed something really Earth-shattering, though. Something like the fact that he’s actually an evil scientist.
Archie: Worst. Blog. Ever.
DtM: Calling an old woman out on her promiscuity; 7 on the menace scale. Things are looking up!
DT: Is there really a such thing as East German sympathizers? Wouldn’t they just be rebel Commies?
FC: Is it actually some anniversary that would require a cake like that? If it is, than this joke might work. Otherwise it’s completely nonsensical. Of course being funny is another matter altogether.
FOOB: Yeah, it’s a good thing you cared so much about those kids. Of course you ended up bailing on them and running back home, but you cared about them.
hateeachothers: Personally, I love Disco Leroy’s outfit. Not that I’d ever wear it myself, but it’s nice to see the ’70s are still kicking.
Kilgore T.
October 5th, 2007 at 8:37 am [Reply]

FW: One would think the manifestation of “Death” would not look like Woody Allen in “Sleeper” when he disguised himself as a robot.
John C Fremont
October 5th, 2007 at 8:44 am [Reply]

A belated “Well done,” Josh. (Regarding FW, that is.)

Dingo – I just read your Rupert Holmes parody. You are a genius. Possibly an evil genius, but a genius none-the-less. Bravo!

# 157 (Donald the Anarchist) – I appreciated that you put the whole FW situation in Buffy terms. Well stated.

RMMD – Man, Rex has really gotten in touch with his inner Fred McMurray. Again.

FW – I still call cheating today. That’s got to be at least a ten yard penalty. But how can I put that in Buffy-speak?
DarkAudit
October 5th, 2007 at 8:49 am [Reply]

#202: Buffy-speak would be a stake through the black space where Tom’s heart used to be.
Dennis Jimenez
October 5th, 2007 at 8:52 am [Reply]

A3G – As suspected – LuAnn’s O2 deprived brain, now burns quite a few watts dimmer than even before. No wonder all the boys are breaking for her – if you’ll just bend over and be distracted by this shiny penny….

Blondie – Her tits, Dag – you’ve been looking at her tits.

DtM – Well, that and fucking the 7th fleet.

FBoFW – Liz will always have memories of gwampa, mouth and organ – that and Jesse’s special purpose. I wish Lynn would swing down those memory lanes.

MW – So, beneath the panel line, Dawn is jacking off Wendy/Wilber – right?

RMMD – Pederasty is just like riding a bike, eh Rex.

JP – Sophie – Expose him, eh – do you think he’s this big, Sam?

FC – Wow – they pay people for this?
Hal Jordan
October 5th, 2007 at 8:56 am [Reply]

RMMD: Even if you are able to look past the homoerotic undertones (I know – but hypothetically speaking) and the ham-handed foreshadowing (the map stupid, take the map with you)… it still makes no frickin’ sense!
This is a Test – Really? You’re going fishing and will spend the night (presumably – ignore that foreshadowing!) in a warm and toasty cabin accompanied by warm clothes, sleeping bags (I also said to ignore the homoerotic undertones!), yummy, bad-for-you snack foods and all the cold beer you can stuff into your SUV.
How exactly is this a test? It’s not like you’re going to be dropped off for a week in the wilderness with nothing but a pocketknife and your military survival training. Jeesh!
Deborah
October 5th, 2007 at 8:56 am [Reply]

I laughed out loud at Thursday’s Garfield. Am I banned from the site?
Lettuce
October 5th, 2007 at 9:10 am [Reply]

FOOB: But maybe the harmonica will civilize those savages! They’ll hear Jesse play it, and the dulcet tones will instill in them a craving for strip malls, planned communities, landscaping and, most importantly, naked rubber suction-cup dolls you stick to your windows.

Thus, when Liz returns to Mtigitwigginominiskirtde, she’ll see the tundra terriformed into the perfect ecosystem that is a Toronto suburb. Native women will be jogging through the morning fog, griping about diets and menopause. The kids will all attend a large public school while dressed in the Gilmore Girls castoffs. Special needs kids will freely cavort with the Canadian version of 90s-era Britney Spears at the mall, where, of course, all things focus.

In the center of the mall, near the Cinnebon and the fountain shaped like Ronald McDonald, the harmonica will be mounted upon a pedistal, with a brief note about how, at the site — the ancient muse of pounting, the blessed Paved-Earth mother, the tamer of the Great Brown Moustache — once got scratched by her cat or something.

The prophesies say that upon her return, she won’t be impressed by her influence or the loss of the native culture — but will rather rain down her whinging on the people like a fire rain because she’s “got to get that harmonica back, you know, because my sister made me feel bad.”
Eau de Plugger
October 5th, 2007 at 9:15 am [Reply]

When this Gil Thorp googling thing started earlier this week, I almost instinctively went for google to see for myself.

I have to keep telling myself it’s all make believe.

I feel pathetic now.

Also…Based on the pluggers never throw out disposable razors thing…I’m most definitely a plugger minus about 300 pounds.
Professor Fate
October 5th, 2007 at 9:16 am [Reply]

FW: God what a hack.

I did some checking – the first major comic strip chracter to die was Mary Gold in the Gumps in fricking 1929! So much for cutting edge.

looking back at the whole twisted soap opera mess of the story arch it’s obivious Batiuk was competely incapable of handing it. The absurd ‘we switched the x-rays’ plot device, Lisa’s non-reaction to the doctor’s utter incomptence, the birth mother side track, Lisa’s transformation into a bald cypher with cancer (didn’t she have a personality before this?) The pointless testmony before congress, the vanishing of the their kid, the shift of the focus onto Les (le Chat Blu nonsense) – Lisa’s father’s horrifying self absorbtion (I know that was intended to be a touching moment but it made me want to puke) and now (after a short moment when it didn’t completely and utterly suck) we jump ten years ahead and we have Les with a beard (Les again. By the by I could care less about Les -) . A box turtle on drugs could have done better.

i have no problem with the comic strips trying to do things – and tackling issues that make us uneasy. But hell – this piece of self indlugent soap opera hackwork pisses me off no end.

Hell Calvin and Hobbes did a couple of strips on death – which without having to bang your head with it were moving and deep.

which i guess is the difference between an Artist and a guy who draws pretty well.

Feh.
Uncle Lumpy
October 5th, 2007 at 9:19 am [Reply]

FOOB — What is it about property ownership in this strip? Mike ‘n’ Weed about Ned, Iris ‘n’ Mrs. Chinnuts the First about Jim’s future ashes fer Chrissake, April’s “My Own Furniture”, Elly seduced into a new house by new furniture, the Sacred Photos, Super-f’n-Teddy and on and on an’ on.

What a nasty, grabby bunch these people are!
Sully
October 5th, 2007 at 9:21 am [Reply]

Poor old Grampa Jim is just a metaphor for Johnston’s own love life. First failed marriage: Stroke One. Second failed marriage: Stroke Two. Careful Lynny, Stroke Three and you’re out!
Dennis Jimenez
October 5th, 2007 at 9:26 am [Reply]

Is it a metaphor, a simile or an allegory?
Fightin Vague Shape
October 5th, 2007 at 9:27 am [Reply]

MW: Oh, will Dawn and Wilbur just do it already so we can all go blind and never have to see this strip again?

GA: This strip is basically America’s Funniest Home Videos from Hell.

GT: Wow, Google made death rays shoot out of that guy’s head. “Don’t be evil,” my ass.
Uncle Lumpy
October 5th, 2007 at 9:28 am [Reply]

#209 Prof. Fate –

Lisa’s transformation into a bald cypher with cancer (didn’t she have a personality before this?)

Nope. Lisa exists only to reflect on Les. Her relationship with Summer doesn’t matter because Les’s endures. The Darrin arc was dispatched with such weird efficiency because it’s just a loose end — he’s just another student to Les.
Lucy’s Spunk
October 5th, 2007 at 9:31 am [Reply]

From yesterthread #582 Jim

There have been individuals on the board (Lucy’s Spunk, cheech wizard, ect.) who have gone through the actual pain of losing their mother to cancer. If you don’t mind my asking, have there ever been times when you contemplated suicide following such a tragic loss?

Jim, I don’t mind you asking. Honestly the thought never crossed my mind, probably because of a number of factors. First off, I dealt with death very early on beginning with losing my dad at age 5. From then, I lost both sets of grands, aunts, uncles, close friends. Each loss was devastating and a struggle to get through, but I knew from experience that I would get through.

In the case of my Mom, she had been dealt a lot of adversity in her life, not the least of which being left a widow with three young kids at age 30. While that would lay anybody low, and my Mom did have her moments, she dealt with the situation with such strength, honesty, and (sometimes) humor that she showed me and my sisters by example that you can survive this. When she died that was (and is) the worst pain that I ever felt, especially since it was so unexpected. You see, the cancer was caught early enough that she had a good prognosis but she developed fatal complications from the chemo. I grieved so intensely, but at the same time there was something inside me that said that if I chose to be consumed by that grief I would be dishonoring Mom’s memory and example. So from early on I worked to turn that grief on its head. It wasn’t easy (see the Mother’s Days from hell examples yesterthread) but the big lesson I took from this tragedy is that life is so short that I have to be all about what makes me happy and not be hemmed in by the expectations of others. I changed careers, became an avid world traveler, and have just become more fearless about what life may bring in general. That’s not to say I’m not blindsided by tears from time to time but I know that it shall pass.

That’s probably way more than you wanted to know but there it is. I have really enjoyed (not sure that’s the right word) the posts from the last couple of days. Death and grief are such taboo subjects in this country and I think if more people had honest conversations like the ones here it would go a long way to remove that mystery.
BuddyandHopkins
October 5th, 2007 at 9:35 am [Reply]

Herb and Jamaal: It takes a genius to be able to take a 16th century writer’s quote and turn it into a gag punchline. Pure genius. Wish I could do the same with Buddy and Hopkins.
cheech wizard
October 5th, 2007 at 9:38 am [Reply]

FW – Yow! Batuik didn’t waste any time putting Les on the coach. Just when you think he’s reached the ultimate depths of despair and misery, Batuik sucks it up and gives the knife another twist. You go, guy!! I think….
Jim
October 5th, 2007 at 9:44 am [Reply]

117: Maybe Lisa can establish a friendship with “Dead Grandpa” from Family Circus.
Anonymous
October 5th, 2007 at 9:46 am [Reply]

If I were Les (I’m pretty sure thats his name), I’d sue that hospital so fast its other patients who don’t know they have cancer heads would spin. What kind of a hospital mixes up documents like that? I mean, honestly, thats something that should make national head lines. Especially the dude who thought he had a terminal illness for however long it was that Lisa thought she was okay….
Howard Erk
October 5th, 2007 at 9:47 am [Reply]

You know what, we are all terminal. Get over it and live. Or go take a rope to the basement.
Niall
October 5th, 2007 at 9:48 am [Reply]

206 Deborah: Don’t worry, there is actual humour for once. Understated, choreographed, well-punctuated humour – and it’s almost lyrical, too.

Don’t worry, it’ll be back to nonsense tomorrow.
Jim
October 5th, 2007 at 9:48 am [Reply]

After reading today’s Funky and seeing the time skip, I feel I must paraphrase “Futurama’s” Morbo:

THERAPY SESSIONS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!

I’ve been to therapy and counseling, and have not seen or been part of the whole “lie down on the couch while you pour your heart out” cliche. I believe most people sit upright while having their discussions.
Dennis Jimenez
October 5th, 2007 at 9:54 am [Reply]

218 – Hey, I wonder why we never see the ghostly visage of Thel’s brick shithouse like mom gaffawing from above at the cavorting FC clan?
SecretMargo
October 5th, 2007 at 10:02 am [Reply]

210: UL — Fetish, fetish, fetish, fetish, an’ mo’ fetish.

Wouldn’t you willfully mistake your relations with things for relations with people if these were the people you’d otherwise have to relate to directly? Sometimes I think Lynn is secretly Friedrich Engels.
reader-who-posts
October 5th, 2007 at 10:03 am [Reply]

FW: Ok, I’m confused…since Funky Winkerbean had essentially been in the present – given the one guy in afghanistan – and now it has jumped 10 years into the future, does that mean the strip is now set in 2017? Will they have jokes about robots taking over the world, or talk about the moon base? Most importantly, will they be driving hover cars powered by Mr. Fusion?
Saxman
October 5th, 2007 at 10:05 am [Reply]

FW:
I’m not sure how this 10 year leap forward will work. Is it now going to be 2017. Will everyone wear headbands and pointy shoulders like on Krypton? Or will Florida be submerged due to global warming and the Iraq war spread to Bulgaria?

Or will panel 4 be, “I stayed in a daze through most of Hilary’s first term. That giant blue duck taking out Saint Paul was what really shook me loose.”

MT
And speaking of ducks, I remember my father and uncle dragging me muskie fishing out on the lakes of Wisconsin. Must have been the early Sixties. They each had tackle boxes with the weirdest set of lures you can imagine. (One shaped like a mermaid?!) But my favorite one was shaped like a baby duck. Must have been a couple inches long and had a couple rows of hooks. I think it was years later when the implications sunk in.
Niall
October 5th, 2007 at 10:08 am [Reply]

Hmm, to snark or rant? Wait, there’s a difference here? :)

I posted yesterthread about how I felt it was possible to have intelligent strips without foregoing humour – in fact that it could elevate the strip and us (see: Calvin & Hobbes). I felt it was possible to have a dash of reality even in pure humour strips – in fact, that a dash of reality could make them even funnier, and break them out of a long-standing dreariness.

I see signs of this in Blondie now and then. Friday’s strip has may seem corny, but it’s one of several slight departures in the usual routine of Dagwood and Blondie; they don’t completely accept what the other says at face value (ahem) and even pass comment on the occasional weirdness of language and expressions. I like those strips.

There’s no sign of it in Beetle Bailey – this particular joke is making some sort of reference I don’t get (the obvious ‘in jello’ makes no sense). We also can’t tell if the reference comes from the character or from the authors. A difficult feat to do in humour strips, I’ll admit, but not impossible (again, see C&H).

I also ranted about the overuse of clichés as storytelling shortcuts when they’re not necessary; if the dialogue tells all the clues we need, then the visuals can be freed up from the necessity of saying the same thing. As expected, Funky Winkerbean makes an abrupt 10 year transition, and a natural one, sort-of (at least one that has a direct link); I can see that the depiction of a funeral in a comic strip is more difficult to pull off than in a comic book, and I’m sure many here would say they’d have handled it differently (to put it mildly), but it still does show an acknowledgement of consequences, which is the main thing that needed to be done. However, the visuals still irritate me; I’ve been to a psychologist and there was no couch – the couch is a myth. In order for a good soul-bearing to work, it has to be done to someone’s face, not in a void, and the social worker specialist has to be able to read all body language cues, especially the face. We can already guess from the first panel that it’s later, it’s Les, and he’s confiding to a specialist, and it can be done without the bloody couch. If there were no dialogues, just a silent “dealing with” strip showing three different scenes, then the couch is the necessary shortcut-loaded-with-info.

(Yeah, it’s a personal rant, and one of those ‘if i were doing it’ things that’s basically useless, I’m aware of that.)

The soap strips still operate in a 1950s attitude, and that makes them somewhat laughable today (were they laughable back then too?), though their goals may be at times laudable. Object lessons can still work well, watch others make a mistake so you don’t do it yourself. Except, of course, that throughout history, this has rarely worked, and in fact even doing the mistake repeatedly doesn’t sink in many people’s brains, or now finds it worthy of emulation (the Jackass series as prime example). They go for realistic art, but often just achieves woodenness (eyes always open the same way, very few mouth positions). This can turn what should be a positive family frank discussion that more children should have with their parents and think about their experience, into Mary Worth’s creeporama whcih Dingo increased tenfold with his animations. (I saw it once, yesterday, and I still shiver when I replay it in my mind.)

FC: I also was creeped out by this. I know of no one making a cake with that many candles, as blowing them out would create a layer of wax on the frosting. Also, candles don’t make smoke like that – and not black smoke. Black and white smoke at that angle. Seen on a television. I could not stop myself from remembering the last time I saw smoke like that on television, and that’s probably just my mind, but I was appalled. Nothing made sense. Why???

HtH: whoa. Is this the first time they consciously break the fourth wall? Are they suddenly aware of how crappy their “humour” has been for the last 20 years, are finally reduced to the most lame joke possible, and finally rebel, staring at their creator in a “what are you making us do??” feel? Or are they instead imploring pity on the reading public, since they’re not in control of their actions, that it’s not their fault they have to bombard us with those incredibly stupid attempts at tired jocularity, and that it hurts them as much as it hurts us? I honestly don’t know what to think.

The subtext in Rex Morgan is shifting away from NAMBLA terriroty into outright snarking by June, and Rex being oblivious. She almost seems to be saying outright “if you go, don’t expect to find me here when you return”. She’s using complete and total logic and common sense, and he’s evading it with weak excuses. That would make any spouse have second thoughts.

And dagnabbit, I’m really trying to read no lesbian subtext in Sally Forth. But I have a dirty mind, and so many cheap coming-out stories “between friends” start this way, that it’s tough to… what do you mean, how do I know about so many stories? …um, moving right along…

We have mildly complained to Mr Bob Weber, Jr. that he has missed several golden opportunities to regale us with a dead fish skeleton. Ah, we of little faith – today he delivers in spades! This done, I’d like to mention that it’s been quite some time since we were graced with a (canon) Cassandra appearance. :)

For some strips, there is no excuse. Spider-Man is a moron.

Should Scaduto repeat so closely similar ideas? “Some assembly required” was done what, mere weeks ago, with the battery-operated car requiring assembly? And this is definitely a 1970s strip style, since virtually no toy needs assembly anymore…

Stop the presses!! there’s an Archie joke that’s both current and realistically funny because it does happen – not often, but definitely within the realm of possibility! Plus it does fit in Betty’s personality, more than Veronica. It’s not a vanity thing but a social aspect.

There’s some middle panels missing in today’s BC where the aardvark goes home dejected, checks his email (why not, in BC? it’s all about the anachronisms now), and responds to a spam about Snout Extensions…

Now we already know that Dick Tracy is no longer supposed to make sense. It’s an extended surrealist riff or something. But I’m amused that Dick’s eyes were open comically after Gretchen exploded, and stayed shockingly wide-eyed and agape until he mentions Monday a “failed terrorist attack”, words that soothe his brain back into squinty-eyed normalcy. We all need a dose of routine to recover from shock. :)

I was willing to give Johnson a chance. Today, she blew it for me. I have no interest in reading about utterly, despicably selfish people like this. Wishing for things being just like they used to be never works – but that’s not the way to point it out, even in character. I just want to scream “GROW UP ALREADY!” to the both of them then stomp away. So this is me, stomping away from this strip.

Yesterday’s strip of Gil Thorp was a rare occurence, when all three strips made an internal continuity and sense. A normal strip you’d find elsewhere, no sudden weird outside shot (like today’s strip) for no reason, dialogue reasonably natural even. Of course, now we’re absolutely free to think of what shocking page they found Mr. Culvert Vale in. But the admission by the typist that he’s a “stud” is the really frightening part… even in jest, in mockery, the word had never approached my brain. And, really, that middle panel is simple glory of some sort. I give it hours before someone here does something really amusing with it. :)

I’d go on, but this already overlong and I have work to do… I hope I’m making some sort of sense to somebody. :)
Saxman
October 5th, 2007 at 10:10 am [Reply]

225

Wow, reader who posts. Talk about synchronicity!

Now what would be really spooky is if as soon as I hit “post” I look and there is another message from you talking about synchronicity.
cheech wizard
October 5th, 2007 at 10:10 am [Reply]

223/Dennis Jimenez – and speaking of grandparents, how come we never see John’s parents in FOOB? Have they been dead these past 30 years? Or are Lynn’s in-laws simply irrelevant to the world that revolves around her and her DNA?
Lynngineering
October 5th, 2007 at 10:13 am [Reply]

224 – Secret Margo and Uncle Lumpy -
If only Lynn were closer to Marx, as in Groucho.
What else do these people work for? They have no relations to anything, Elly was working in a GIFT store for a reason.

But speaking of commodity fetish, I think all those object relations just tell of the once-upon-a-time plan for a Foobian theme park plan in Canada, probably cancelled along with so many of Lynn’s intentions.

There was the Ned doll already. Michael’s book existed for a few chapters. April’s music downloads did occur for a moment or two. Now I am sure a “Grandpa Harmonica” is on its way. The “Super Teddy” kit will consist of towel and invocation. Let’s see, what else – Dee’s diary, and John’s signature Lionel Trains – HO gauge of course. .. choo choo indeed.
Niall
October 5th, 2007 at 10:15 am [Reply]

Gah, forgot to wax eloquent about Curtis too – now there is a strip that tackled a touchy subject (ahem) in a realistic way, had the mother react originally in a certain way, then have her (gasp) think on her actions and have a change of heart!! Now that’s the power of positive comics.

And from today’s trip in bed, I can only interpret that watching the video with daddy in the room awoke certain urges – cut to later! :)
SecretMargo
October 5th, 2007 at 10:18 am [Reply]

I can’t quite figure out if it’s intentional that the Montaigne quote in H&J is actually counseling Herb to man up and talk to Yolanda. The worst is over, saith Montaigne of the Hill People, the only thing to be scared of is the fear of getting involved itself, which you’ve already experienced. Wouldn’t that be better set up not with “as the Early Mesozoic sage Michel Montaigne…” but with, “on the other hand, the Pre-Cambrian philosopher Michel Montaigne…”? Otherwise, it kind of sounds like Herb doesn’t really know what the quote he can somehow summon to mind in toto unaided actually means. And that can’t possibly be true, can it?
Saxman
October 5th, 2007 at 10:19 am [Reply]

227:

Note to self. By the year 2017, they will have couches in psychiatrist offices. Invest accordingly.

(and thus the “Global PsyCouch” conglomerate was born.)
Justafooob
October 5th, 2007 at 10:21 am [Reply]

Man, Liz HAD to give away the harmonica, didn’t she.

They really could use it now.

Stick it in Gwampa Jim’s mouth and they would have a perfect monitor to how he is doing.

Heeee hawwww Heeeee hawwwwwww Heeeee Hawwwwww ( doing fine)

He haw he haw he haw he haw he haw he haw he haw heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwww (code blue)

Damn that Liz.

(with due apologies to Robert Klein)
queek
October 5th, 2007 at 10:27 am [Reply]

On a day that wasn’t much for being funny, I got a chuckle out of PBS and GF today, and a “booo! bad pun!” for RwO.

MC: Vin Weasel movies! *dooks*
Gagott68
October 5th, 2007 at 10:28 am [Reply]

S-M: Wouldn’t an airport parking garage have surveillance cameras up the giggy to catch his no-so-special method of “quick change”? And how long did it take him to change into his Spider-Duds in the back of the car? Even if they were under his street clothes, the cabbie and no one else in the multitude of cars noticed? And they had one freaking bag? And they were riding with the bag rather than putting it in the cab’s trunk? I could go on and on but I have a headache now.
Nightingale
October 5th, 2007 at 10:30 am [Reply]

A3G: Ya’ll I don’t think Luann is in any danger. Nothing EVER really changes on that strip. I’ll tune back in in six months when Tommie says ,”But, I hate change. I don’t want anything to change….” Or maybe that was just the cartoonist’s id speaking….
printable
October 5th, 2007 at 10:41 am [Reply]

FW: Speaking from the survivor’s viewpoint, I think Batiuk has done a relatively good job here. Some of Lisa’s existential musings have been right on the money. (I was a hell of a lot angrier than Lisa ever was, though…)

However – if I had read this storyline when I was first diagnosed 2 years ago, it would have scared me witless. So I understand those who feel this is inappropriate subject matter for the funny pages. I think opinions of Lisa’s Story have a great deal to do with our personal experiences with cancer, which are as variable as the disease.

RMMD – With a triumphant glance, June apparates to Rex’s left side in panel 2. A woman of many talents.
Little Guy
October 5th, 2007 at 10:43 am [Reply]

Funky 2017:

Ahem….

CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN!

(hadda say that….)
mattt
October 5th, 2007 at 10:46 am [Reply]

#234 “…He haw he haw he haw he haw he haw he haw he haw heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwww (code blue)” I laughed at that way more than I should have, I’m sure.

FW I agree with several here that Lisa’s storyline was itself a story of missed opportunities and an artist with grand ambitions who was in a bit over his head. Most of this story bugged me. Lisa’s actual passing moved me, though. And it pissed me off. I mean, geez, Batiuk. Les doesn’t even get to hear his wife’s last words to him? Come on!
reader-who-posts
October 5th, 2007 at 10:46 am [Reply]

MW: I think what Wilbur is trying to say is that his daughter is a slut and it’s ok with him.

Spider-man: It’s becoming more and more obvious that Peter Parker also has the proportionate intelligence of a spider.

RMMD: So let me get this straight – Rex is going to take Niki “fishing” in a remote cabin that is inaccessible to others? No wonder Rex looks so happy.

Wizard of Id: Sounds like how Cuba is today…

Crankshaft: I’m disappointed – I expected today’s strip to involve Crankshaft complaining while his bus route is delayed to let a funeral pass by.
mattt
October 5th, 2007 at 10:49 am [Reply]

#241 reader-who-posts Re: Spider-man. Hahahahaha!
cheech wizard
October 5th, 2007 at 10:51 am [Reply]

239/Little Guy – aren’t you the optimist?

Besides, this is FW. More likely would be “Airplane ferrying cancer-riddled baseball team to bone marrow, stem cell therapy crashes – Cubs die! Cubs die! Cubs die!”

Although to be totally accurate, it would proably be the Indians or Mudhens.
Never teh Bride
October 5th, 2007 at 10:55 am [Reply]

Mirror Universe Les has also suffered a loss. Let’s not belittle that.
Ribinin
October 5th, 2007 at 10:58 am [Reply]

FW: Thinking back to 1997 and how much (or little) society has changed since then, I suspect that TB won’t have too much problem dealing with it. Ten years is a very short time and changes happen gradually enough that they don’t dominate conversation (except the new iBrick, perhaps).

People are still people. Look how well Sparky has done with his decades-old strips.
gh
October 5th, 2007 at 10:58 am [Reply]

I have absolutely NO time for the thread today, but I just want to send a personal thanks to Bob Weber, Jr. for a record-breaking four fish skeleton Friday. It shall sustain me through the long weekend. It’s been an exhausting week, what with the FOOB and the FW and the 500+ thread, but I am refreshed, revived and reinvigorated — and Bucky’s hat is just icing on the cake.

Play nice, everyone!
Bootsy
October 5th, 2007 at 10:58 am [Reply]

Josh, you are the best. Always funny, and thoughtful as well. I giggle whenever you use the phrase “and the hey hey”. I don’t know why, I just find it funny.

And hats off the Cruminions, who opine civilly, share stories, commiserate, laugh, and make the rest of us laugh too.
Dick the Doorbell
October 5th, 2007 at 11:02 am [Reply]

Once again I’m in the minority. Or maybe as the … uh …9th century philosopher H D Thoreau said, ‘a majority on one’. Well, I’m used to the solitude.

Enough – if not more than – has been said here about cancer and death in comics. Hardly anything, and certainly nothing truly curmudgeonly, has been said about the pandering to the afterlife crowd.

Yes, people didn’t care for the masked stranger taking Lisa away. But so many have enjoyed the comforting image of her continuation in some vague blank boundless off-whiteness. It brings folks hope for their own post-mortal existence.

One problem. It’s pretty well certain to be a false hope.

Before humans could write, they made up tales to comfort survivors. But since empiricism came along, those theories have been punctured again and again.

Of course, reason seems never able to stop people from believing the pretty lies.

This is not an isolated rant on my part, btw. I get like this whenever someone trots out the pretty lies.

The hope of an afterlife is a vestige of humanity’s infancy. Let’s grow up.

/rant
Hobbes Fan
October 5th, 2007 at 11:03 am [Reply]

So, exactly which flashback is FOOB setting up: Liz recalling her teaching stint up north, or Chinnuts’ first stroke?
SecretMargo
October 5th, 2007 at 11:03 am [Reply]

FW: It’s nice to know that the pubic hair upholstery manufacturer that recovered Les and Lisa’s armchair not only failed to go out of business, but has diversified to include small-ticket items as well, like Kleenex cozies.
Bootsy
October 5th, 2007 at 12:10 pm [Reply]

Dick the Doorbell, I agree, but we are in a minority anywhere in this country.

Divine, O’F! Oh you are so right! I’ve always hated ET for that reason. Talk about being in a minorty…

Foob: Jesus, picky face, when you give something to somebody, it is hers to dispose of as she sees fit. Now you know in the future, don’t give any family heirlooms to your idiot drama queen sister.
bats :[
October 5th, 2007 at 12:27 pm [Reply]

205. Hal Jordan: yeah, sounds like a field trip I had while in college. The professor was telling us that the Petrified Forest was pretty rugged, and doing a mammal survey was going to be “out in the wilds,” so we all packed accordingly (read, like we were crossing the continent with Lewis and Clark).
Evidently, the National Park Service was so happy to see us doing something constructive (like not stealing petrified wood or defacing petroglyphs) that all 20 or so of us were put up in ranger housing…real beds, hot showers, flush toilets, full kitchen. It was only missing a TV (or good TV reception)…at least we’d packed a lot of booze (also at the advice of the professor…).

207. Lettuce: beautiful. Only you left out the part of the First Nation mega-casino…it’s probably named “Farley’s” or “Big Bird In Sky With Wheel On Top That Goes Up and Down And Whose Master Boinks The White School Marm” (”Chopper Liz,” for short).
Krohmdohm
October 5th, 2007 at 12:30 pm [Reply]

241/ Crankshaft: Now THAT I woulda loved to see!
249: I thought it would be the Origin of the Harmonica
jerseygull
October 5th, 2007 at 12:48 pm [Reply]

Re Family Circus: What is THAT? The Flaming Birthday Cake channel? Reminds me of that Yule Log clip they used to play on the old WOR in New York so everyone who worked at the station could have Christmas Eve off.
EricSW
October 5th, 2007 at 3:37 pm [Reply]

Just a short fact, for at least a year now, my paper has relegated funky winkerbean to essentially its own section. The page with dear abby, a sewing or child rearing article, the chess guy, and the word jumble. It used to be occupied by Ziggy, but they moved him to the comics page, reshuffled, and Winkerbean gets its own area.
4EvahFan
October 5th, 2007 at 3:39 pm [Reply]

FOOB: Anyone else think that Liz looks like she’s having a Calgon moment in the last frame?
M
October 5th, 2007 at 8:01 pm [Reply]

She was taken to the other side by Taco? Weak.

On the other hand, I think the single most poignant line I’ve ever seen in a comic strip is “Did she say something?”. She strained to croak out one last “I love you,” and he didn’t even catch it? Aww. :(
Dave 2
October 5th, 2007 at 10:29 pm [Reply]

For God’s sake Lyn, let Jim die
Little A.
October 6th, 2007 at 7:47 am [Reply]

I’m glad I looked at today’s FOOB before breakfast, on an empty stomach. A few dry heaves weren’t pleasant, however.
Little A.
October 6th, 2007 at 7:54 am [Reply]

ARCHIE sucks. I read it only because I think Betty is cute, even when she remembers to wear her pants.

I’ve said this two or three times already, but I think that it is drawn even more rapidly than the “jokes” are “written:”
the heads are drawn in first and the bodies are then attached to the heads. Frequently the bodies don’t look quite correctly attached. This is a cheap, fast, bargain-basement way to draw a strip, maybe two or more hands are involved. But at least Betty is worth looking at, even when she wears macaroni on her blouse, as has already been pointed out.

This strip is so bad, it wasn’t even worth spending five minutes of my time commenting on it.

Sorry about the stinky grammar and sentence structure, I was educated in The Bronx.
Bill
October 6th, 2007 at 8:39 am [Reply]

FW. Oh boy. Now it’s raining at Lisa’s funeral. TB is just cruel.
David S. McQueen
October 6th, 2007 at 8:49 am [Reply]

Josh, your comments on dying are profound. You wrote, “…a few extra months to your life at the price of constant pain…” which describes the inane obsession with keeping terminally ill patients alive and in pain for as long as . . . the insurance money lasts.
gleeb
October 6th, 2007 at 9:57 am [Reply]

10/6 – Oh, Baldo! For a strip that gets its dander up about the use of “literally” to mistake the adverb “really” for an adjective is disappointing.
cerberus
October 9th, 2007 at 3:04 pm [Reply]

FW: I didn’t hate it as much as I thought that I would. Having lost a parent to terminal cancer, I’m not happy with how it was handled. I can see Lisa ending the fight at some point, but to just give it up – stupid. Mothers tend to fight this to the end. And the utter, banal flippancy with which the X-ray mix-up was handled – not believable. It’s not as if people never survive recurrent cancer, though missing a critical treatment window by three months doesn’t help.

The topic itself is not unreasonable, but the inept and careless way in which it was handled was not reasonable.
Alan
October 10th, 2007 at 10:41 pm [Reply]

I’m not sure why “Funky” pisses me off so much, but I’ve loathed the whole Lisa deathwatch thing. It’s not that comics oughtn’t tackle serious subjects; several have done it very touchingly. But Batiuk gets tons of kudos and free publicity for his lame-ass strip by tossing traumatic subjects in his melodramatic crap-machine and pretending that the treacly result is art. Having horrible things happen to your characters does not make it deep. Where’s the insight, genuine feeling, even HUMOR for Pete’s sake (yes, humor can be found in illness if the author is a real artist and not a phony hack)?

FW used to be funny, and back then, it was a zillion times more humane and moving than the garbage it pukes out now. “Peanuts” is art. Latter-day FW is fish wrapping.

BTW… loved Uncle Lumpy’s poem on the subject.
Alex
August 12th, 2008 at 8:10 pm [Reply]

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

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