Previous >>151761366Today will cover 2007 and the end of Act II.Previously, Funky had gotten engaged to Holly Budd but an encounter with his old girlfriend caused him to fall off the wagon with his sobriety. He quickly managed to patch things up with Holly the two of them, as well as Wally and Becky, got married at Montoni's in a double ceremony. Funky and Holly had their honeymoon in Paris while Wally and Becky went to Afghanistan so Wally could help mapout landmine fields as a way off dealing with his lingering trauma. There he was reunited with the girl who had helped him out when he'd escaped capture as well her family. He was also reunited with Kahn (or Khan) the bandit who'd captured him but who had now gone straight. Wally accidentally stepped on a mine but with Kahn's help was able to make it through uscathed. Unfortunately, when he returned to Kabul he found out that a car bomb had exploded and while Becky and the youngest member of the family, a girl named Rana, were fine the rest of Rana's family were killed. With Rana now having no family, Wally and Becky decided to adopt her.Bull Bushka and Linda Lopez had started dating during the summer of 2005 and a year later they were married while Darin started dating gorgeous cheerleader Jessica Darling, daughter of John Darling (who was murdered). But while things seemed to be going well, the good times weren't meant to last. Wally was recalled to active duty as he'd been sent home only a few days before his enlistment would be up and was sent to Iraq; unknown to him, Becky was also pregnant and would give birth to Wally Jr. in December. And while taking part in a research trial it was found that Lisa's cancer had returned and metastisized leaving her future looking much more grim.
>my hearing lossSpoiler: this will never come up again. Like a lot o things it was just a handwavey excuse so Batiuk could get characters where he wanted them to be. Becky needs to be the band director in Act III so this is why.
Apparently Batiuk caught some shit for this week back in the day.
This is, from what I can tell, the last time we see John prior to the timeskip. But we'll have cause to return to him shortly.
Now for a week of Chien.
Now a small digression to Crankshaft. This story starts at the same time the DC trip was running, then skips a few weeks to the end of April and goes a few weeks into May. Because of that I'm assuming it happens after the DC trip since Mooch is in it but I'm just posting the whole thing in one shot.
Also I have no idea why Mindy would be bringing Mooch to meet her neighbor and her neighbor's alzheimer's-riddled sister.
The other couple are the Lamberts, a sort of generic yuppie couple from Crankshaft. I believe they were also at Lilian's open house that Les and Lisa attended back in 2003 and in fact I think that's how they were introduced into Crankshaft.
That finishes up this detour. This collection is pretty much what funds John so I felt it was reasonably important to include. Also, it's the first time since the mid-'90s we've seen Skip... and the last time as well.
>>151788607Put the hat back on right now Batiuk
Now back to Funky. This is the start of the storyline where Darin seeks out his birth mother which will run for a few months until just before the timeskip.
>>151788913In the far future someone will combine Homer Simpson, Winslow Homer and Homer from Ancient Greece into one person and centuries after, everyone will assume it's the real history
>>151789040This was the week that inspired that Shortpacked comic. It's also my belief that Shortpacked comic is the reason Batiuk kept having Jessica refer to her dad as "my father, John Darling" or variations thereof after
>>151789065It's also a highly specific reference since the "tight end for the Browns" is referring to Kellen Winslow II who was a star player at the time despite playing on a shitty team.
You can maybe point this to being where smug annoying dickhead Les starts.
>>151789151Damn, Les, don't you remember what it was like back in high school for you
Not so smug now, are you?Anyway, this bitch is horrifically incompetent and if characters in this strip actually did anything about hardships beyond throw their hands up and bemoan their fates, Les should have been suing the hell out of her and/or the clinic for malpractice since her fuck up directly contributed to Lisa's death and saying "oopsie" doesn't fix that.
>>151789183I figure that should at least happen during the early part of the missing years between the end of Act 2 and the start of Act 3
Which one is Funky and which one is Lisa? Who's who?
Last appearance of Bulk Dombrowski, the strip's most important character.
Remember how in this class's very early appearance it seemed like he was setting up Mopey and Chien as a thing and then that went nowhere? Well, time to revisit it with similar results.
Last proper appearance of Chien. RIP she was too good for this strip but at least she presumably escaped Westview.
Last appearance of Chien in any capacity, even flashback form.
>>151789116It could be. He was definitely aware of and sensitive to criticism at the time. But it's also probably just a holdover from comics and feeling the need to do it in case readers don't know who she is because they're new.
Remember Holly's like week long rival from Act I? Well if you were desperate for a Glory Daze update here you go.
Taking a break here for a few minutes.
Back in time for cancer.
>>151788607>Even Harry "Sex Symbol" Dinkle's been redesignedIt's over.
That closes off the long running plot about Lisa and Darin.
These videos will keep popping up throughout Act III as a way of keeping Lisa around who apparently precognitively knows every event that will ever happen and will have shockingly relevant commentary on it. That is when she's not a ghost.Also it will be retconned that Crazy gave her the idea to do these even though, as we see here, it was Les's idea.
The tulpa is back
I guess consider this a send off to the old high school.
>>151789381There's worse ways to go out in this strip.
First appearance of Jinx Bushka, one of the so-called Funky Kids who were presumably intended to be the focus off Act III. Like most of them that didn't come to pass and she won't even make it into the final group shot of the series that includes nearly every other major still living character.
>>151789366So is she Asian or not, I don't feel like anything confirmed either way
>>151789945I don't believe so given that she's not drawn with slanted eyes like the Jade Dragon couple or Jinx. If it was just Park I could understand but Parks isn't really a Korean name and she doesn't look Asian anyway.
>>151789952This is another Byrne guest-drew
>>151789704>Seinfeld cameoEh?
With the appearance of what Comics Curmudgeon dubbed Masky McDeath, Lisa departs from this plane of existence and heaven gains another angle.Interesting bit of triva: Lisa's death happens at the exact same time that Jim, over in Foob, has another stroke that nearly kills him. Death was trying to work overtime that week.
There's no vertical strip but given what happens I felt it was better to split this week. Officially, Act III doesn't start for a few more weeks and these next couple of weeks are an epilogue to Lisa's death. But given that it immediately jumps ahead ten years here, you may as well consider this the start of Act III.
With this strip, Act II is officially over and we're on to Act III. But don't fret, there's still 15 years to go.
>>151790070Of the signatures I can see there's Harry Dinkle's, Mindy Murdoch's, Linda and Bull's, and Susan Smith's
These cancer fun runs will be another Act III fixture.Also later on, Les will somehow be surprised that Bull donated to Lisa's Legacy despite shit like this where he's helping to organize the damn 5Ks.
>>151790089And there's the quarter they talked about years ago
>>151790182I think this was also drawn by Byrne.
Old, balding and fat. Of course Funky aged like shit.
>>151790200The faces, especially on women, are always a giveaway.
[SAD NEWS] John Howard won in the end and readers were not happy!>The November 9th strip showing Becky married to John the comics shop owner seems to have raised a lot of concern among Funky’s readers. A lot of you are jumping (actually, running screaming and leaping) to the conclusion that Becky’s first husband, Wally, died in Iraq. In fact many visitors to the Funky web site have been jumping to that conclusion for a couple of weeks now when Wally didn’t show up in the cast picture that fronts the site. (A quick aside here to note that they were also concerned that Wally Jr. was missing as well. Wally Jr.’s omission can be explained with a term of art known as a big dumb mistake. I simply forgot to include him in the cast picture.) The explanation for Wally Sr.’s not being there is due to something else… it’s called writing.
First post-timeskip appearance of Maddie and Old-Ass Harry.>As things move forward, I plan to reveal many of the backstories regarding what happened to the various characters in the strip during the ten years that were just jumped. All of this material will be presented, in good time, as the stories unfold. If a mystery writer revealed who did it on the first page, there wouldn’t be much reason to finish the rest of the book, now would there? Specifically regarding Becky and Wally, I’m not saying he died, that they were divorced or that he’s missing out there somewhere. For the moment, I’m not saying anything at all… almost. I wasn’t going to bring this up, and was going to leave it for those who really scrutinize every line of the strip to find on their own as a reward for their faithful and eternal vigilance, but your excitement is forcing me to be a bit of a spoiler here. There was a clue. A tiny clue, but a clue none the less. In the October 11 strip as a matter of fact. So, if you simply really have to know something, anything, right now, check it out online or at the library. Please don’t ask me to post it on the web site… I mean, you’ve got to do a little work here. Otherwise, you can simply kick back, relax, and let the saga unfold tomorrow, and tomorrow and the tomorrow after that. It’s called writing.
And we're introduced to the rest of the Funky Kids.Funky and Holly's son Cory is intended to be the troublemaker, Rana is basically the new Cindy/Sadie/Jessica. I get the feeling based on this that Jinx was intended to be the artsy theater type to contrast with Bull but if so, Batiuk gave up on that immediately and just made her Smart Asian Nerd and then gave up on her quickly after that.
>>151789985Don't get the wrong idea, Lisa's death IS sad but...jeez, this particular strip is irony INCARNATE.
>>151790312It's 100% Batiuk doing his usual thing and taking a shot at people complaining that Funky was depressing instead of funny.
Oh no, Summer is the thing that Les (and Batiuk) hates most... a sporto!
Mopey is a comic book writer which means he's achieved that most noble of Funkyverse professions and can thus safely be elevated to the status of a main character.
>>151788607Mystery Dinkles REVEALED
And as a writer, Mopey brings us the first in what will be an interminable Act III stock week: the wacky book signing where the author does nothing to hide his contempt for the people buying his books and coming to meet him.
>>151790402Sounds like Pete's family moved out of Westview
First appearance of Alex, Chien's replacement as the jaded acerbic goth. Except where Chien was tall and slim, she's short and chubby.But it's kind of a weird thing in that I assume she was intended to be an adult but will eventually be repurposed as a student in the same post-Summer WHS class that Owen and Cody are in. I guess Batiuk liked the design or something.
>>151790456I should mention, this week also includes the only appearance of Crazy's other kids who will promptly disappear and be forgotten about.
>>151790456Wait, Crazy has three kids? And we only ever saw Maddie?
This is legitimately the only time Summer's ever shown being romantically interested in a boy... or anyone from what I remember.It's part of why readers suspected she was the one behind the gay castle in 2012.>>151790483The other two were born in the timeskip. Or the second one was born just before it. Donna revealed she was pregnant in 2006 but didn't look pregnant in the strips just before the jump.
>>151789860It's interesting how despite Crazy shifting to be more grounded (or Batiuk's self insert), we still get the occasional zany storyline from him.
A big change in the art here as the year shifts. The old screentones are gone, replaced with digital gradients (done by eventual Crankshaft, and Garfield, artist Dan Davis) that look way, way shittier.Anyway, that's it for this year and Act II; next time is 2008. Summer's career as a jock both takes off and crashes when she has to deal with a new teammate, Jinx gets forced into spending a summer playing softball to her horror, while things start to become complicated for Les with the addition of a new secretary and a certain new teacher. Plus, while Montoni's thrives, Funky's home life isn't doing so hot.
As a little extra, Byrne did a bunch of design sheets for Act III characters that used to be on the site before it was changed from funkywinkerbean.com to tombatiuk.com and while I won't bother with most of them since it's characters who will show up, here's some design sheets for ones that didn't make the transition in Ally, Sadie, Chien, Monroe and Matt. I assume that Carrie and Eddie were also intended to be part of this freshmen class but if so, they never made it into the strip.
>>151790162Cindy sure aged gracefully.
>>151790089>Soldiers taken hostage>>151790270>In the October 11 stripThe absolute state of Wally.
>>151790639It's insane to me we still have 14 more years left
