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Funky Winkerbean, 9/5/17

You might remember my attempts from this past spring to untangle the nature of the “trilogy” Les has been working on for years now. I guess my real problem was that I was assuming that this was an intra-universe narrative question, that the graphic novels under consideration only existed within the fictional Funkyverse. But last week people started tweeting me pictures of actual, physical copies of said books, because of course this is a tie-in to a real series of ultra-depressing Lisa novels you can buy in real life. Just as with, I guess, the in-universe version, the middle volume of the trilogy, Lisa’s Story, was published more than a decade ago, and consists of collected strips about Lisa’s original cancer diagnosis and its later recurrence, along with “resource material on breast cancer, including early detection, information sources, support systems, and health care.” I have no idea if the prequel and sequel books are just collected comics from the strip or have new material or what, or if the third book, still apparently called The Last Leaf, has much by way of the promised Cayla material. On the one hand that looks like Cayla on the cover, but on the other it’s subtitled “Lisa’s Story Concludes,” so! Anyway, I can’t tell you any of this because for whatever reason I am not among the elect few to have received a review copy, despite my tireless efforts over the years to make the world aware of Les’s deep emotional commitment to his dead wife. If you’ve snagged a copy, let us know what you think!

Judge Parker, 9/5/17

Oh, so it’s Godiva who’s taking the public blame for the great factory implosion now? Even though it was Neddy who insisted on building a wobbly stack of shipping containers and calling it a factory and who bribed the building inspectors when they started asking too many questions? Uncle Lumpy suggested that she’d pin it all on Hank, but Hank has his, ahem, uses, so Godiva was always the more likely and less likable target for Spence-Driver PR jujitsu. Was Sophie’s kidnapping just part of a larger plot to build up sympathy for Ned?