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Alas, poor Funky. We knew you well (Chron.com)
While we've been busy gawking at "Luann" all this week, there are sad and serious things going on over at "Funky Winkerbean," the only comic we know of that inspires readers to dial their local suicide hotline. We fear the character who is the central figure of this ever-depressing series has just been killed off.
Yes, Funky himself has gradually aged into a crochety pizza-restaurant owner who has moved from alcoholism to workaholism, occupying himself with the most minute details of running FunkyBerg's local Montoni's pizza place - instead of spending time with his wife and churlish young son. After having the man put his doddering father into an old age home and then resist the temptation of alcohol this week. author Tom Batiuk, who, we are guessing is simply not a happy man, may have ended this poor character's semblance of life.
Which makes us ask this question of Mr. Batiuk: When is enough enough, buddy? Let's see, in recent years you have shown us your other comic-strip character, Crankshaft, as a doddering vegetable living out his last days; killed off another Funky character, Lisa Moore, with cancer; sent a Winkerbean relative, Wally, to Iraq and had him gone so long he was presumed missing and lost his wife to another man....well, need we go on?
Look, we appreciate that life is a mixture of good and bad, but you rarely ever put any good in there. Where are the moments worth savoring, the times that don't necessarily try our souls? Because without some of those, your strip is fast becoming what we turn to instead of a good, stiff drink at a bar.
Maybe we've got it all wrong. Maybe Funky survives the above scenario and becomes the better man for it. After all, we thought the machine that churns out new "Mark Trail" strips had murdered scrappy little Sassy, but as it turns out, this tough-as-nails young pup remains alive and well and the central piece of a burgeoning turf war among canine-loving transvestites.
Even so, we think Batiuk's enervating world-view will send our man Funky to the grave, with weeping, gnashing and probably a mass suicide at Montoni's in tomorrow's episode.
Who needs to dive off a 60-story building when you've got "Funky Winkerbean" to kill off any sense of hope and striving?
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Comments
It appears pronouncements of Funky's demise were immature.
On the other hand, that's two dramatic "PSYCHE!" moments in a week - first with Funky (not) falling off the wagon, and now with Funky (not) getting killed in a car wreck. Batiuk is still obsessed with cheap drama and doesn't seem to get that his drama has no depth.
Not so fast. Who says he ISN'T dead? This looks all too much like those Twilight Zone episodes in which the character is dead, but doesn't know it. Why doesn't his cell phone work, but he seems o.k.? What's at the end of that road - the guy in the tuxedo and Lisa Moore? Or will he be shown to be in a coma having dreamed the road etc.?
I have to agree that Batiuk's strips - filled as they are with disease, decrepitude and death - make Doonesbury look cheerful. And yes, when is enough, enough? To quote a line from my favorite strip these days, Pearls Before Swine, "Man, take your Prozac!"
No one's saying he's not dead, Bielby, but you also have to remember that a lot of cell-phone companies sometimes offer bad service. And we've also seen a lot of digs at cell phones in the last few strips - a woman talking on her cell caused the crash, and now Funky can't get service when he needs it. All I'm saying is this whole series of strips might be some sort of anti-cell phone diatribe
Something is certainly up. I'm betting on Dead.
I think Batuik's been spending too much time with his pal John Byrne, who made a living out of creating comic characters only to kill them off later (even if only temporarily, as happens in the world of comics).
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