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Will laughter ever return to 'Funky Winkerbean'?
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Only drinking heavily can help the characters in "Funky Winkerbean" keep it all together (Chron.com)
Does anyone remember laughter? Time was the funnies were just that - brief humorous haikus with a shot of mirth delivered in less than fifty words and in about three to four panels. But as the last month - nay, the last year - of "Funky Winkerbean" has demonstrated, there's so very little to laugh about in these trying times.
The residents of this strip, which once was centered around the kooky hijinks of students at fictional Westview High School, these days seem like candidates for mass suicide. People have high blood pressure, kids act out and are brought home by the police, the high school band has to do its thing in the rain. Sweet Mother, is there anyone in this strip who has reason for optimism? Each day for the last two weeks, "Funky" has veered wildly from one depressing situation to another. One kid tells his guidance counselor he sees no future for himself. A teacher sees a layoff looming in the not-so-distant future. Is this a comic strip or Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg Ohio" wtih extra ennui?
Yes, you might argue that Funky has long been a haven for the downtrodden. Author Tom Batiuk has forced us to watch one of the characters slowly die from breast cancer, for instance. But there's got to be some light to accentuate the darkness, no? I mean, is anyone in this strip even able to muster the barest hint of a grin? Once in a blue moon, Tom, give us something to hold on to.
Case in point? Today's strip (above), in which despondent Wally Winkerbean, who has come home from being MIA in Iraq to find his wife had him declared legally dead and has taken up with the town's local comic-book-store owner and moved in her kids with him as well, wordlessly readies himself for a night of stupor-inducing alcohol intake. Who needs one six-pack, Wally seems to ask, when you can have two. Good Lord, why does the man bother to get dressed?
I suspect I'm just sptting in the wind. After all, Mr. Batiuk is the same guy who put funnies-page oldster Ed Crankshaft through a week of vegetable-like senility with very little explanation or show of remorse. While it's certainly hard to know what his own life is like, his constant emphasis on the negative makes one reel. Why does anyone in "Funky" even bother to get up in the morning? Why do we? Man, a dose of "Funky Winkerbean' is like a sip of Jonestown Kool-Aid. Why go on?
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