Previous >>151627052Today will cover 1998.Les and Lisa had planned on getting married during the summer but Lisa got caught in a bombing of the local post office. She managed to come out of it reasonably okay, however, and so the two of them got married at Montoni's on Halloween. In the spring of next year, they went to New York for their honeymoon in addition to Les taking the opportunity to do research on his book about John Darling by talking to John's ex-coworker Brenda Harpy. Back in Westview, Les interviewed more people associated with John but was first almost killed in an arson attempt on Montoni's (saved by Wally Winkerbean) and then when he was captured by John's killer, Peter "Plantman" Moss. As a coda, he got back his lost manuscript during a later trip to New York when he ran into Apple Annie, a homeless woman who had found it.Coach Jack Stropp was fired and replaced as the football coach by Bull Bushka who managed to legitimately win the first game in school history thanks to Mickey, who'd also been voted homecoming queen. In addition, Montoni's got new neighbors in the form o the Jade Dragon restaurant and its owners, Zhag Li and Liu Lin. Wally gained a girlfriend in fellow band member Becky Blackburn while Funky started a relationship with Cindy, ending 1997 by proposing to her.
>What about you Wally... what do you want to do?>Afghanistan.
It's a step up from Footlocker at least. Also, this is the last time we'll see Coach, for real.Alive, at least.
Cindy finally gets rid of the poofy '80s hair about seven years too late.
>>151655857Oh man, this hits hard knowing what else happens after
The other girl gets a name too, just in time for them to stop appearing.
Sadie really has never been anything but pretty nice, in her own way, to Susan. The worst you can accuse her of is being kind of flippant.
let's get FUNKY https://youtu.be/Z6dqIYKIBSU
In true Funky fashion, the story ends in failure. Also I had forgotten how ugly and garish everything associated with the Cavs was in the '90s.
Batiukism Alert: This is the first appearance, near as I can tell, of vendos. Vending machines in the Funkyverse are never called as such. Some times they are the wheel (or carousel, I think) of death if it's the snack variant. But almost always it's vendos. I think tis is Batiuk trying to sound cool by doing something he thinks youth would say but then he just keeps doing it. And I think the adults do it too. All vendos, all the time.Like I said, Batiuk seems to have his own language.
>>151655839sly dinkle
>>151655857strangely beautiful colors in there
Okay, Susan having a crush on Les I can understand. She was an extremely shy introvert with no friends or self-esteem who latched onto the first person who gave her positive attention and made her feel good about herself. Plus Les isn't that much older since he's in his 20s.But this woman? I have no earthly idea.
>>151656215This is where the title of that one Funky reprint book in the 90s came from; it also collected the storyline with Susan's suicide attempt
First appearance of Matt Miller. He'll play a big role coming up and will continue over into the next class... although he disappears/graduates prior to the time jump in 2007 so I assume that means he's coming in as a freshman and is intended to be a sophomore afterwards. That or he's just been held back a lot. Those are the only ways it really makes sense with him.
And by "coming up" I mean "immediately".
One little note here. There's a big jump in the way the Sundays are colored now because Batiuk decided to go out and actually hire a professional colorist instead of just leaving it up to the syndicate. So for the next few years, the Sundas are going to be colored by none other than Lee Loughridge.
>>151656014at least he's somewhat successful.
As I said in Susan's introduction, she's the strip's figurative and literal punching bag.
Oh boy, here it comes...
The big moment; the exact one where the strip really starts to go all in on being depressing and Wally's life becomes a long, long road of unending misery.
Oh yeah, we're really in Funkytown now.
Really fits in with everything else.
And now we get the first big retcon to the story of Lisa's pregnancy. Not only was Frankie now abusive but it wasn't just a mistake that Lisa made (because we're now firmly in Saint Lisa territory so she can't make mistakes), now she was raped.
>Because it's not my story!No, you'll get yours though and a lot of time in Act III is going to be spent shilling it.
And we go from date-rape, domestic violence and alcohol fueled car crashes to Lin's goofy grandmother who looks like an outdated stereotype and is heavily implied to be a character from another comic strip entirely.
Another instance of what I said seems to be Batiuk's favorite joke as he grows older: old people doing un-old people things. In this case it's an old Chinese woman knowing a lot about baseball. Isn't that silly? Because you'd never expect an old Chinese woman to know about baseball.
And the big reveal that Becky lost her arm and musical career. This is where the snark crowd starts calling her Lefty.Also Wally is going to keep avoiding her out of guilt and it'll be years before the two of them interact again.
>>151656162NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...look at how they've massacred my nerdy girl...
Rare post-Act I Carrie appearances.
>>151656362brb, gotta hit the vendos in my convenient store
Funky MarriedbeanAlso, I'm pretty sure I see Crankshaft down in the bottom right. Actually, I should have mentioned this but 1997 was 25 years since the beginning so we're now past the halfway point.
Another big change, Lisa decides to go to law school. Once she does become a lawyer, though, we really only see her actually do anything twice.
>>151657060We're still a way aways from my favorite Batiukism and longer than that from my second favorite.
>>151656903If it's Dragon Lady from Terry and the Pirates I wonder when she took an interest in baseball
Another reunion which sees short return appearances by Holly, Barry, Tracy, Derek and Junebug. Also a not at all quickly dated Macarena reference.
Harriette's appearance is going to change by the time she actually becomes a real character.
>>151656517the difference is light and day, wow.
Not-At-All-Important Debut Note: First appearance of Bulk Dombrowski, the guy talking in the second panel of the fourth strip. Though Matt is the actual asshole sporto of this generation and Bulk, for as minor as he is, is pretty chill he's following in the Bull Bushka and Marblehead Morton role of being the big lummox with a lummoxy name so I figure I'd point him out.
>>151656626not cool, matt.
>>151656667oh shit.
>>151656750lmao
And the debut of the class that's going to take almost a decade to finish four years of school. Since there's a lot here I'll run them down.>Jessica DarlingDaughter of John Darling, Who Was Murdered.>Darin FairgoodLisa's son, adopted son of Fred and Ann.>Mooch MyersThe troublemaker of this class. Dates Ed Crankshaft's granddaugher for a short time.>Pete RobertsSon of Murdered John Darling's producer Reed Roberts, Darin's best friend. He and Darin will be the most important of this group and he'll make the transition to Crankshaft. Batiuk will inexplicably change his last name to Reynolds either on purpose or because he forgot it was Roberts.>Sara RobertsWill very immediately be renamed Ally. Pete's sister, disappears before this class graduates.>Heather ParksChien, everyone's favorite underused snarky goth girl.>Matt MillerGirl beatin' QB. Like Ally will disappear prior to graduation so I assume he and Ally are a grade ahead.>BulkBulk.
>>151656844she has a cool design at least
First appearance of Ally. And when I said "immediately" I meant "literally the next week."
Ally and Chien sound like Daria and Jane in my head. And I really wouldn't at all be surprised if that was the inspiration for them. Similar cynical attitudes, Ally being a glasses-wearing nerd and Chien being an artsy goth/bohemian type, etc.
>>151657154crazy harry and holly could actually work
>>151655890Not anymore, Dinkle...not anymore
Miss Mancuso is a very obvious attempt to give Dinkle another frustrating woman to deal with now that Becky's graduated and thus Roberta isn't around. She's another character who doesn't last very long and just quietly disappears.This could have been solved by just having one of Becky's sisters be in this class which would then keep Roberta around but I'm not the guy writing it so what do I know?
>>151657446chien feels like the return of roland, in a way.
>>151657154Ah, finally seeing this in better resolution than years ago I can finally see who's who thereAnd yes, this eventually leads to Cindy tracking down Wanda later on
It seems pretty obvious that Batiuk seemed to want to set Mopey and Chien as a thing up but outside of blatant teasing a few times it never goes anywhere and gets largely dropped until being brought back right at the end of this group's time. But seeing as Chien disappears after Act II it still never goes anywhere.
>>151657524>dr. dinklethat made me laugh more than it should.
>>151657554She definitely lasts longer than he does. I guess that's the benefit of being an attractive (as far as the art style goes) goth vs. a '60s male radical with a jewfro.
This thing with the school music program will continue into next year, as if that shouldn't be obvious.
>>151657524I just think he straight up forgotBut honestly if you want an explanation you could say that Roberta was fucking livid that Wally did this to her daughter and destroyed the whole plans to Julliard that she put Becky's sisters in a private school
>>151657577that sucks, this strip was pretty good.
Yep, it's explained away that Matt's asshole behavior at least partially stems from being hit by his dad. He'll be slightly less of an asshole after this. Still a dick, just not a violent one.
>>151657617>I just think he straight up forgotSeeing as the sisters show up in later strips he didn't forget they existed. But he might have forgotten when coming up with this class I guess. Then again, it's not like he couldn't have inserted one of them in whenever.Jessica, for instance, really only becomes important in the final year or so before the timeskip. She's an incredibly minor character prior to that.
>>151655976Why are you holding a book signing for the biography of a former TV personality at a fucking comic shop? Les deserves to sell nothing.
And the retcon that Bull was beat by his dad and also envied Les the whole time. Les will, of course, forget about any of this whenever it's conveient for him to do so.
>>151657577There used to be a gallery showing all of John Byrne's designs for Act 3 era characters. What I am surprised is that there were some from Act 2 that never showed up in Act 3, like Chien, Sadie, and Monroe.
Wally joins the Army, another step that will lead him to Hell.
To me, this is one of the definitive "Les is a giant self-absorbed asshole" moments. Instead of being happy that his students are enjoying Shakespeare, something that should be good as a teacher, he's just quietly seething and throwing an inner-tantrum over them not enoying it the "correct" way.
Also that contains what will become an annoying trait not just with Les but all the teachers, especially Linda: their open contempt for their students and the job itself in a way that goes beyond ust being comedically bitter.>VisageObvious Image riff.
>>151657724...that's it? we didn't even get to see becky or much of wally himself after the accident. there was like a week dedicated to it and then it was just forgotten, the hell.
>>151657787Welcome to Batiuk's storytelling. Unless it concerns Les, Lisa or the character he actually cares about (other nerd males) you're only getting bits and pieces.I kind of assume he just didn't know what to do with Wally after that car crash story so this was effectively him writing Wally out and then 9/11 gave him the impetus to do something more with him.Speaking of 9/11, this artist guy will die in it. These New York/Anne strips are just whatever because they're completely disconnected from everything else.
>>151657824what a disappointment. I was genuinely expecting some drama between wally and becky, her parents, and how he decided to go into the army. it would've been misery porn, but it could've been good misery porn.
Another bit of Batiuk self-inserting. Tony's story more or less mirrors Batiuk's own with this specific issue (Hopalong Cassidy #122) which was the first comic he ever saw as a kid but only the cover. Much like with Tony, he didn't acually find the comic again until buying it at a convention.
Another Tony Isabella appearance. I assume most of the other people are also comic figures but I don't recognize them.
Another of the endless flashbacks to the teen pregnancy story.
As said, waitressing at Montoni's will be a seeming rite of passage for the young women of Westview.
Two Crankshaft appearances.
That does it for another year. Next time will be 1999. Funky and Cindy's married life starts to become rocky, the football team moves into uncharted territory, and both Pete and John fall for women. But there's one big story that's going to dominate everything else. That's right...>Mammogram!>Lisa has cancer!>Mammogram!>Lisa has cancer!
>>151657900My guess>strip 4, panel 2Sergio Aragones talking to John Byrne maybe?>strip 6, panel 2I think that's Stan Sakai, I'm not sure about the other two. Also Isabella worked on It The Living Colossus stories back in the 70s so that's the reason for the reference
>>151657980This makes me wonder if the 1999 Crankshaft was doing the Crankshaft side of the story
>>151658131I mean 1998, but you get the idea
>>151658131Probably. Batiuk liked doing these types of crossovers where you'd see the same story from the Funky and the Crankshaft side. So in essence you didn't really need to read both, it was just mostly a fun little thing.
>>151657878why does the old chinese lady seemingly knows what thanksgiving is?
>>151656014>We don't get to see him react to Bull finally pulling a win.Damn.
>>151656281>>151656305Charlie Brown if he glasses
>>151657707There was also designs for characters who I assume were intended to be new characters for Act III but I think the only ones that actually showed up were Cayla, Keisha and Alex. The last of which I don't think was originally intended to be a high school student in her first appearance but got reworked into one after Owen and Cody were introduced.
>>151656706>>151656724>>151656737>>151656788I...the hell? What...but I...What about...what happened to...I mean I knew they did some drama but...>>151656750Oh COME ON! You can't do the funnies right after the other thing!After this, I feel like Lisa's Story's gonna be way more fucked than I thought...
>>151656362>You call vending machines "vendos"?>Yes! It's a regional dialect>Uh huh, what region?>Uh... Northeast Ohio?>Really? Well I'm from Cleveland and I've never heard anyone use the term "vendos">Oh, not in Cleveland no, It's an Akron expression
>>151657065>We've already done 25 years
For me it's:>Billy West as Funky>Rob Paulsen as Les>Scott Menville as Harry>Frank Welker as Dinkle>Danny DeVito as Crankshaft>Ashley Tisdale as Cindy>Laura Bailey as Lisa>Billy West but high pitched as Wally
>>151617754it was hard but not impossible
>>151657945damn she lost an arm!?
>>151659209No, you're seeing things.
>>151657154Junebug peaked in high school, I see. What is up with that hair?And don't worry, Les, Wanda was tougher than you'll ever be
>>151659120I picture Dinkle as Christoph Waltz. Though I will admit, for his first few strips, I thought Dinkle was supposed to be wearing an SS officer uniform, and the joke was that he was so strict as a band instructor that he was like a Nazi, so that’s probably where that comes from
>>151660096It 100% was the joke since one of his first strips is him telling the band to start by yelling "Achtung!" but comparing him to a nazi got dropped pretty quickly.
>>151660096For comparison>>151660220Glad I’m not just brainrotted for thinking that
>>151656162She wasn't attractive before but she's attractive now.
>>151656411Conventions make people horny, it's just a fact.
>>151656551Speaking of illuminated manuscripts, was the "new colorist" supposed to make everything look like a noir drama?
>>151656626Gay and cliche.
>>151656667
>>151656667Well at least it's not the sign with the bat signal on it. >>151656534
>>151656737If he REALLY wanted to push the drama envelope, Les should have fucked her. Coward!
>>151658746Don't worry, no one was actually reading this in the papers. Strips like this and Mary Worth were just fluff no one paid attention to until the internet revived it.
>>151656667Yeah, re-reading for the first time, this really is the point where Moody Wincerbean begins assuming full control.>Happy go lucky Wally shaves his head and goes Full Metal Jacket>Becky the musician loses her arm and opportunity at music school>Their sweet romance ends end mutual misery with Wally hating himself and Becky pining for himThat crash barrier is the Funky Rubicon.
>>151656788Everyone is getting karen power mom cuts and I can't tell them apart.
>>151656884I wonder how many times Dave Thomas of Wendy's has been mentioned in entertainment media.
>>151656903Japanese, yes. Chinese, not so much.It'd be funny if she got fat on American food, though.
>>151656966Can we hurry up and get to the arc where she's old and replaced with a younger newswoman already
>>151656966I skimmed down to the bottom left panel and I thought for a second she was referring to herself as "Daddy" and that's kinda hot>>151657403>VIPER t-shirtlol. lmao. i remember that showalso always double lol at boomerism interpretation of video games. surprised there was no "High score!"
>>151657446So.. does "Chien" identify as chinese, or is Heather her slave name?
>>151661495She identifies as a dog.
>>151657724>I have to go now, my country needs me
>>151657746>>151657775I think he's pretty justified being annoyed that his students allegedly made it all the way through Romeo and Juliet and still aren't aware they both die in the end.
>>151661224The Batiuk Blondes all have that problem. It's either a sensible bob or long and straight.
>>151661495No, she wears a choker which is kind of like a dog collar so she insists on being called the French word for dog. I can kind of understand a pretentious goth teenager doing that thinking it sounds deep and slightly edgy.AFAIK she's white. The only Asians in the comic are the Jade Dragon ones and Jinx.
>>151659120Mopey Pete is 100% Rob Paulsen doing his sad guy voice. It can't be anyone else.
>>151658030Yes, Funky! Drink! Drink some more!! Aaahahaha
>>151656044That hairstyle in conjunction with those shoulderpads? Welcome to the late '80s, Cindy.
>>151656534That happened to a traffic sign by my local high school; pretty much from the time the first Burton movie came out until at least two decades later, every time it was cleaned or replaced, the sign would be turned back into the Batman symbol inside of a week. I need to check the next time I go by there and see if it's still like that or not.
>>151655831Bump
>>151656681
>>151657746Yeah no, if this is 1998 then he IS actually justified. There was a Romeo and Juliet movie in 1996 starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Titanic was in theaters during 1997-early 1998. Leo DiCaprio was fucking popular at this time and there is no way the 1996 Romeo and Juliet was not a big rental during the late 90s. These high schoolers would be mocked by other high schoolers at the time for being that out of touch. If it were like Pete and Darin thinking that they're gonna live, then I could buy that they were nerds who focused only on comics and nerd stuff but somehow overlooked Shakespeare, even if that strains credibility.So yeah, Les deserves to be dunked on for various things, but this is not one of them.
>>151656445Going by John Byrne's sketches, they indicate how old the characters are supposed to be when Act 3 starts. Byrne's sketch of Matt indicates that he's supposed to be the same age as Pete/Darin/Jessica/Chien/etc
>>151662790I would assume it can't be a hard rule because it would be impossible for him to have been in school the same year that Wally and the others graduated and then be the same age as the people who started after him.
>>151662800if we're basing it on what we see in the comic that I assume he was a freshman the year Wally graduated but then got held back because of his grades and such so he ended up with Darin's class instead
>>151656116>>151656162Yeah, Sadie is a bit superficial in her values but she was clearly listening to Susan and noticed her distress at not being able to sell fundraising candy before immediately moving to take steps to address the problem and gave Susan a much needed confidence boost in a way that nobody else ever tried to do. Not only that but she actually paid for everything for the privilege of helping a friend.
>>151656445Seeing as how it's spring and after football season, I could see him being a freshman but being at least a sophomore or junior makes more sense. He gives off the vibes of somebody who switched schools because he probably wasn't going to get much playing time before graduating.
>>151656681Timeline shenanigans here in those flashback panels as Les and Funky are in their teens while their present-day versions are just in their late twenties at most if you take the timeskip plus four years for Wally's class to go through high school into account. Even if that flashback was when Les and Funky were freshman, Wally himself should be just be entering high school.
>>151661873Needs a Sicko edit.
>>151657060vendos sounds like Aussie slang>>151659209Matt hit her and it fell off>>151656626That sucked, and her makeover sucked. I don't even feel bad for her here.>>151661224Yes. I'm glad someone else said it. This shit looks terrible.>>151656667Maybe I'm just fucked up, but this was the first time I actually loled while reading this comic. Something about it is hilarious to me.
>>151663099It's really just trying to make sense of something nonsensical. Matt was created to fill a role in a story and then was reused regardless of how it worked. Matt in the Susan story comes off as a senior so him being a freshman and having so much pull isn't believable, but he's the same age as the new group which means he can't have been held back a bunch of times.Either Susan's boyfriend or the guy introduced with the current class should have been Matt and the other a different person. Trying to make them both confuses things but it works with how flippantly Batiuk treats things.
>>151657577>>151657612This coloring is really great.
Just got to the denouement of the John Darling murder mystery, I have to ask why Batiuk decided Mossman needed to be ‘in character’ other than being insane.
>>151662078
