Previous >>151671718Today will cover 2001.Last time, John hired a new girl named Rach to work at the Komix Korner but being unable to pay her let her go where she subsequently got a job at Mononi's while Darin also took a job at Montoni's. Chien caused some problems with articles in the school paper first about the strictness of the school's new dress code and about bullying issues while Bull led the Scapegoats to their first legitimate football championship. Lisa discovered tha she had breast cancer though with chemo, a mastectomy and support from her friends and family, including former majorette and fellow breast cancer survivor Holly Budd, she was able to get through it as the cancer went into remission.But things weren't going well for Funky. His marriage to Cindy was beginning to fall apart as her career began to take off as she was given a job offer for ABC News in New York. Funky turned to alcohol to cope with the stress which turned into a problem when Cindy got the wrong idea after Rachel brought him home, he missed her flight and ended the year passed ou on the sidewalk in front of Montoni's.
Wade's role now is basically just going to be Funky's AA guy.
Okay, see, I like schizo Jim. He's fun. It's a shame that the schizo stuff will lessen and then go away though.
>>151695690>Chien... Her exclusion from /co/'s goth girl pantheon feels like a historic wrong that needs to be righted.Chien's great but that's mostly a result of not many people here having read Funky. Even the snarkers pretty much near unanimously like her.It also doesn't help that she doesn't make the transition to Act III although there's another alt girl to fill her place... just not as well.
>>151701681Probably one of the few times Funky's college years are referenced, I'm assuming
The start of the Jim has a schizo meltdown story which will run for the rest of the month.
>>151702059It might actually be the only time.
I want to say that Bill Collins is the first cast member to die in the strip. I guess you could say Jessica's Murdered Father but he died in his own comic, not this one.
Obviously Bill's death isn't treated with the grave solemnity that some others will get.
Bill's dead, Jim's meltdown is over and all is somewhat well. Personally I like this story and I wish Batiuk would have done more in this style. These sort of Simpsonsy style black comedy stories were one of the things he actually was pretty decent at.
And we move right into our next story. Remember when Who Wants To Be a Millionaire was a big thing?
The one acually funny John joke.
Also I object to the idea that the Shadow's identity would be an easy question. It's easy if you're an aging boomer into old pulp heroes probably but not anyone else.
Look, it's Livinia and Mary Sue. In flashback form. This also seems like an attempt to reframe Les's rejections in a more pitiable way instead of them being comedic because he was being a total Milhouse.
>>151701804Imagine the effects fighting games must have.All those half/quarter circles and whatnot.
>>151702377Why do you think it's called a Hurricane Kick?
Remember the other woman Lisa was with when Les was chasing her across Europe? As it says, she's sticking around for the summer.
I guess Rachel gets to be pissy that she's not the one making all the guys horny now.
I'm sure everyone was just dying for the Apple Annie backstory.
Just remember that characters like Sadie and Chien will not make the transition to Act III but Anne will.
She'll continue sticking around for the rest of the summer but this is basically the end of the little Allison story.
The debut of Funky's, and Batiuk's, beloved PT Cruiser which will last into Act III when, much like Batiuk's real one, it's totalled in a wreck.
Another important Funkyverse First: the first time characters make the trip to SDCC. By the 2010s this will basically be an annual storyline as Batiuk's interest in what he wants to write about become narrower.
Yeah, in Act III you're going to get a lot more of these types of "Batiuk inserting his own childhood into the characters despite how nonsensical it is" types of things. John's in his 20s in 2000. He would not have been seeing new early Silver Age comics with Murphy Anderson inking jobs in the local drugstore as a kid.
>Well she may be gone but I don't think she'll be forgotten.This is literally the last time that Allison will ever be seen or even mentioned.
Get 'em Chien
The first time 9/11 is addressed which will wind up actually having a fairly big impact on the strip.
Bump
>>151703064Is Wally still in the military? Is he gonna go to Afghanistan?
>>151703129Yes, he's still in the military.
>>151703160I can't wait for the story trying to be serious of wally In Afghanistan/Iraq
The rest of the year is pretty much going to be taken up with this "Lisa wants a baby" thing.
>>151703192Oh buddy, you have no idea what you're in for.
>>151703221It can't be that bad can it?
As part of this we're getting a full retelling of Lisa's teen pregnancy story. Not flashback snippets, the whole thing. I guess it's at least being redrawn instead of merely reprinting it but I do find that to be a little lazy.
That's the end of the retelling.
>>151702328I'm torn about it because while in real life it shouldn't be the $100 question, I get the impression that in Funkyworld it's full of misery, puns, and (usually) people who know way more about pop culture/comics than in the real world. Like in Act 3 while Jessica is doing the documentary about Her Father, John Darling; Brenda (from the John Darling comic) refers to John Darling as "Ego the Living Planet" in 2014. This is before Kurt Russell got cast for GOTG 2 and Ego barely had any appearances outside of comics up until then. or that time when Harry Dinkle gifted Clinton a box of comics and Clinton was excited to see Mystery in Space and The Flash, in >>151582387As far as I know the only comic thing related with Clinton is that when he was younger he sold used comics and got $150 from it; he never really said what he read or what he sold The Shadow's popularity came from the radio show moreso than the pulp; it even outlasted it--radio show ended in 1954 while the pulp ended in 1949. And there was The Shadow movie in 1994 as seen on the marquee in >>151597078 Both the radio show and the movie perpetuated the idea that The Shadow's real name is Lamont Cranston, so this kind of a mistake seems reasonably plausible. In a world where someone who doesn't appear to be a comics reader knows about Ego the Living Planet before GOTG2, I could believe the Shadow's identity would be a $100 question.
One of the things is that the art style has been shifting away from the cartoonier stye it had and will definitely change again after a certain story. So this is like a weird inbetween thing. But get used to those heavy-lidded weary smirks because you are going to see so, so many of them.
Another year in the bag.Next time will cover 2002. Big changes are in store for the Westview guys as Funky's marriage comes to an end, Les becomes a father and Crazy Harry's old rival, the Eliminator, returns. Things will also become even more dramatic as Frankie makes his return and Wally ships out to Afghanistan in what will be one of the most infamously dramatic turns yet.
>>151701696that has to be another iconic strip
>>151702059>>151702080Gonna be honest I wish they did show the college years cause a lot of these serious stories would probably work better, as means to show their maturation afterwards. It would also have more opportunity for the humor and drama to coexist. It was so jarring seeing Wally in a car crash and Susan leaving a bad boyfriend only for "WHAM, John the comic dealer haha lol".
>>151704023One of the things you come to realize reading the series is that Batiuk tends to like the shocking moment and seems to not care as much for the surrounding stuff. You know how in Episode IV, you're basically dropped into what's sort of the later part of a broader story about the Rebels vs. the Empire like it's an old serial you've missed the preceding parts of? But it still feeds you enough so you're not actually missing he important parts and the story makes sense and all the missing stuff is more flavor to make the setting feel a lot more vast than this two hour movie?Batiuk's storytelling is kind of like that, just a lot more incompetent especially as he gets older. It's like reading an old silver age comic book where something from the past only exists because it's needed for explaining the story. Like some evil gorilla scientist is trying to kill Superman and it recounts some past encounter that never actually happened to explain why the evil gorilla scientist wants to kill him. When you realize that his storytelling sensibilities come from silver age DC comics, movie serials and old comic book covers it begins to make a lot more sense.
>>151702175Hey that's Coach Stropp in the second strip
>>151703427Also, there was a revival of Old Time Radio during the 1970s, and they rebroadcast The Shadow radio show during that time as well. That was how David Koepp became a fan of the show (keep in mind, he was born in 1963, 9 years after the Shadow radio show ended) and later brought on to write the screenplay for the 1994 movie, so for a lot of Boomers/Gen Xers they probably found out about The Shadow through that.
>>151702396>hurricane capcom
2001 was a lot less miserable than the preceeding couple of years
>>151702693The Funkymobile
>>151701626Damn, that's cold, Funky
>>151701750Not to start an argument about religion in these comfy Funky threads or anything, but it always struck me as bullshit that AA basically demands people believe in a god as a major part of the program. No wonder a lot of alcoholics don't go to them for help, you either believe or you don't. Someone can't force themselves to believe in something, so for non-believers it would merely be pretending and I doubt making a liar of yourself is a very good path to recovery.
>>151702846>Good on Batiuk for sticking to the irony.
>>151702080>netlossOkay, that's actually funny. And I had to look, that domain is empty but for sale for $981 if any /biz/ friends want to make it a reality.
>>151702311Kek, John on not /co/ because it didn't exist yet, probably alt.comics.
>>151702550I understood most of the previous Funky references because I pride myself on my useless trivia knowledge, but I genuinely had no idea who David Merrick was. I had to look that up. Guess I've added some more useless trivia to the repertoire.
