Previous >>151788561Today will cover 2009.Last time, changes came for the residents of Westview. Due to the early stages of hearing loss, Dinkle was forced to step down as band director taking the newly created position of music supervisor and passing the band director position to Becky. The Komix Korner was flooded due to a leak in Montoni's basement but the insurance money meant that he was able to purchase a collection of complete and pristine Timely Comics that Crankshaft character Lilian McKenzie had in her attic setting him up for life. As well, Darin and Pete and Chien and the other high schoolers finally graduated. Bull and Linda also adopted a girl who they named Jinx due to the problems they faced in adopting her.But the biggest change of all was Lisa who, initially told her cancer was in remission, was told that the doctors had mixed up her files and in fact her cancer was terminal. She took the last few months of her life to record videos for Les and Summer as well as unsealing her adoption records which allowed both her and Darin to finally learn that she was his mother. Then she died and time jumped ahead ten years as Les relayed the story of the immediate aftermath of her death which involved getting pickpocketed and stranded in NYC.Summer was now a high school freshman and star basketball player and led the JV basketball team to a state championship. Pete, now a writer at Marvel and then DC Comics, moved back to Westview taking the apartment above Montoni's which was now a franchise. Funky's running of the business meant neglecting his home life which had caused his step-son Cory to turn into a troublemaker. And at Summer's prodding, Les decided to get started on a new book called Lisa's Story.
Ghosts AND his tulpa, Les is really going all outt on this one.
This is another instance of GoComics screwing up. Unfortunately, their "upload" of the 2/12 strip is just a blank space so I don't have it.More importantly, that non-Rachel waitress is actually cute. Shame she only shows up the one time.
I guess "sucks" is too risque for the comics page. Also, why the hell does Dopey know so much about basketball?
Look, I like pizza and all. Like a lot. But do these people actually eat anything else?
>>151814764Here it is
>>151814828More fat Donna, less of the cute waitress. Not a big loss.
>>151814626IT ARRIVED!Thank you OP. While I must admit the comic has not been what it used to be when we started, I have plenty of love for golden age Funky thanks to you.
>>151814855So these threads somehow produced a Dinkle statuette and somehow sold a Funky Bookerbean. I'm kind of surprised since this was at least half done out of a spiteful, snarky dislike of the recent Dumbing of Age storyline.
>>151814796It's why Funky and some others got so fat, they just can't resist the artery clogging cheese
That last panel of the last strip is basically a proto version of the Rich Evans on the couch image. It's just missing Funky's overlaid face.Anyway, this also starts what will be a long running on again, off again plot about Funky having to put his dad in a retirement home where Funky Sr. will somehow go from drooling semi-vegetable with dementia to spry and immature casanova.
>that first panelBatiuk definitely had to have been doing it on purpose given the preceding week and overall miserable tone of the strip, right?
Oh here's another thing you'll have to get used to. In spite of being retired, Dinkle does Becky's job more than she actually does because Batiuk will never, ever let the character go in spite of him increasingly being a shell of what he once was.
Yessir, you know that story about how Susan had a crush on Les because he paid attention to her but after her suicide attempt she let go of it? Well Batiuk saw fit to bring her back and completely regress her character AND have her act as an obstacle to come between Les and his Second True Love Cayla essentially turning her into something of an antagonist for Not-as-Perfect-as-Lisa Cayla no good reason.
>>151814922Something else to keep in mind is Rich Evans is 48 now, the age Funky should be in this time of the comic
Remember when Second Life was supposed to be this big amazing thing and it just turned into a place for fetishists to get together to engage in fetish shit and have some woman there get barraged with flying penises by Something Awful goons?
Les... come on...
Does Les get less smug and self satisfied or does he continue to be awful?
Oh Jesus fucking Christ, come on!>Cayla, I'd like you to know that when we finally have sex the ghost of my dead wife will be standing next to the bed and watching.
>>151815073He's only going to get worse, especially once he starts getting involved with Hollywood.
To the person who previously asked about when these are supposed to take place, here's your answer. It's explicitly happening during the Great Recession which means it's still taking place in 2008/2009 and not 2018/2019.
>>151815095>He's only going to get worseI don't see how that's possible>especially once he starts getting involved with Hollywood.???How would he get involved with Hollywood? Do they make a true crime documentary based on his book?
>>151815109But then what was Wally doing in Iraq I. 1998.
>>151815135No, that book failed. This book, though...
>>151815151Why would Lisa's story be turned into a movie. Some random book about a random woman from a flyover state dying of cancer
>>151815169Cancer is inspirational
I seriously think that Batiuk's mother once thoughtlessly tossed out his comic books when she was cleaning or something and he's held it against her ever since. The mommy issues and especially them being tied into mothers tossing out comics are way too consistent across way too many charactes.
This is like peak depressioncore Funky.
>>151815246I think it's a tie between that and >>151814922
Oh man, here we go. This is going to take up most of the rest of the summer.Remember, it's called writing.
Wally's back. Again.
>professional name is Cynthia Summers now but the chryon still says Cindy
Would the military actually allow the media right on top of them for something like this? I'm going to assume no unless it was something they themselves were in charge of which doesn't seem to be the case here.
>>151815323John's reading FX, a comic by Wayne Osborne and John Byrne that was published by IDW in 2008. That cover doesn't match any of the covers I've seen though.
>Gosh, I've known this guy since he was in school and I'm friends with him and his family and he's been through a lot. Boy I hope he doesn't cuck me out of the family I usurped from him because that's my biggest worry, not feeling glad that he's still alive.Go fuck yourself you fat piece of shit.
>>151815148Maybe 9-11 happened in 1993 instead of the smaller bombing
I am reasonably sure there'd be all kinds of ways to verify that the remains were his and that they're not just going to grab some random corpse, say "Wally Winkerbean" and be done with it.
To this day, this particular strip still pisses people off for being excessively depressing and pointlessly cruel to Wally and I don't really see any reason to disagree with that.
Anyway, back to softball and what pretty much amounts to the end of what little bit of relevancy Jinx has.
Basically Summer's friendships with Jinx and Maddie get replaced entirely by Keisha.
>>151815538Isn't he supposed to be friendly with him at this point?
Remember, despite the decades of ffriendship and time spent as co-workers and all the things Bull has done for him, Les will never not take an opportunity to whine about what happened in high school.
>>151815555Les will never, ever pass up an opportunity to bemoan his teenager years or invite people to feel pity for him.
Top strip is the first appearance of Owen. He and his buddy Cody will be the Funky/Les or Darin/Pete of the class that comes after Summer's. They graduate in 2016.
Random Mike Majors appearance for the first time in a long time. Also, explicitly reference to the year.
Did I not tell you about the digressions that will be taken about Batiuk complaining about people complaining about the strip's tone and how the funnies should be funny?
Really, Act III as a whole is way, way more self-indulgent than the previous two, especially once it hits the middle part of the 2010s. That's ultimately its biggest sin.
>Hey "Dad" but I'm gonna go spend some time with me REAL dad.Rana definitely respects and likes Wally more than she does John.
Here we have the first appearance of Cody, the Les to Owen's Funky.
The Happiest Man in WestviewAlso, seriously, more should have been done with Rana because she absolutely is different around Wally than she is around everyone else. Almost as if there could be some complexity to her character.
>>151815373Adult Cindy is giving off major "If only you knew how bad things are" vibes lately.
Oh well, who needs complex characters when those characters can talk about comic books instead? Also, nobody who's not like 8 years old has ever argued about this. How in the hell can you be into comic books, especially as a teenager, and seriously try to argue that Wonder Woman, whose origin is well known and established, came from fucking Krypton? Is Cody just trolling to be an asshole?
>>151815893Dammit, here
>>151815562I can understand Les being worried about Summer starting to drive, but this sudden focus on Bull’s bullying is bizarre. They’ve made up over it several times and been friends for what, 20 years at this point?
No young Wesviewian woman can escape the Montoni's waitress gig.Also Pete, what in the flying fuck are you trying to do? You're an almost 30 year old man flirting with a 16 year old girl who's not only underage but your best friend's sister. Seriously, what the hell?
>this nigga singing showtunes
Yes, of all the characters to get carried over from Act II it's not Chien or Sadie or Matt or Monroe, it's Apple Annie.Anyway that finishes off another year. Next time it'll be 2010 where Funky's life continues to go into the shitter when he has to deal with his dad, his business shrinking and a bad car accident. Les's life, meanwhile, continues to go up as Lisa's Story is published and he has not one but TWO women vying for his attention for some reason. Meanwhile, Wally starts trying to deal with his PTSD when he begins dating eternal Montoni's waitress Rachel.
>>151815893>>151815904This is just reminding me that Zack Snyder originally planned for the Greek Gods in Wonder Woman to actually be descendents of Kryptonians who landed on Earth and were perceived as Gods by humans, and it would make one of those Kryptonians the ancestor of all the Amazons
>>151815893>>151815904I think if this were 90s John, John would've flipped out and banned them from his store since he's a fan of Wonder Woman and was more of a hothead back then
>>151814997She's going for the John strat.
>>151815053Dinklebros... Even the old outfit doesn't fit anymore...
>>151815348Oh boy!I'm sure this won't be horribly awkward at all!
>>151815485>Was supposed to be rotated back home in a monthAlright Batiuk, we get it, stop twisting the knife.>>151815512Hey kids! Know what goes great with a man coming back from being presumed dead only to find out his wife and kids moved on from him? Softball with living fossil Crankshaft!
>>151816130>Funky's life continues to go into the shitter>Les's life, meanwhile, continues to go upI have theory that the Funkyverse is maintained by balance between Funky and Les' lives in that things going well for one means things going to shit for the other. Balance can be slanted for a short time, but eventually must return to equilibrium
>>151815538Didn't Les and bull make up? Multiple times now?
>>151816013Average /co/ user
>>151817480Yes, but what does that matter when Les can use getting bullied to score pity points and ass pats. It can also be reasonably argued that Les never truly moved on and forgave Bull for it and basically their entire relationship on his end is a lie (while Bull truly does think of himself as a great friend to Les). It's why a certain later storyline is so universally reviled and is probably Les's lowest action.
>>151817373You can pretty much say that Funky spends a lot of Act III suffering from pretty bad and untreated depression. Like he hit a midlife crisis and never really was able to get out of it. He's just stuck in one giant, endless funk.
>>151814959You know, all the trombone jokes over the years have been funny to me because all the trombone players when I was in band in high school were all retards lmfao
>>151815073>Does Les get less smugLMFAO
>>151815148>But then what was Wally doing in Iraq I. 1998.Being written by an old boomer idiot who doesn't give a shit about his timeline. This all bothered me a lot at first but then I just said fuck it, enjoy the misery porn and don't try to make it make sense.
>>151815138>Apple Annie is still aliveWHY GOD WHY
>>151815169Soccer moms go nuts for that kind of shit.
>>151815485>remarried after a yearOne-armed whore
>>151818339It's just Batiuk being self-deprecating because IIRC he played trombone in his high school band. I was never in band or knew anyone in band so I'm assuming trombonists being dumbass slackers is just a regular stereotype. I don't even know what you'd do with a trombone besides playing in a ska band.
>>151818430Because the story he gave her of being connected to lots of famous people meant she works as a deus ex machina. How can Les get a book published? Well the homeless woman who read his first manuscript and who his good friend Cindy befriended is now a high powered agent since she has all kinds of connections.
>>151814884Act I and most of Act II was pretty good, in my desu.
>>151815053man dinkle punchlines doesn't work half as well when it's a smug old man face instead of hat and smile
>>151815079hahahahahaha this is mental, I love it.
>>151815485Jesus, poor wally. that one night drinking really fucked him over.
How do you feel about the theory that everything from 1/1/2001 onwards is all in Funky's head as he's drunk and lying out in the snow?
>>151815079Lisa's ghost is probably why Cayla becomes more and more Caucasian, to mold her into the perfect Stepford wife
>>151820384Sounds pretty funky
>>151814657Out fucking skilled
>>151814884>produced a Dinkle statuette
>>151815138What happened to "Cynthia"
>>151819555>Well the homeless woman who read his first manuscript and who his good friend Cindy befriended is now a high powered agentKill me
>>151815163>Funky is ancient, bald, fat, wrinkled>His ex looks maybe 42Am I missing something
>>151815211My mother threw out underground comics of mine which included personal correspondence from R. Crumb. I remember this about once a decade but don't seethe over it.
>>151820696She only goes by it professionally.
>>151820962lmfao are you sure about that
>>151814657OUENDAN!!!
>>151820696>>151820962>>151820991Batiuk seemed to have forgotten he did that line in the reunion because he reiterates it years later at some point after Cindy comes back
>>151821531>Batiuk seemed to have forgottenIn other news: Water is wet and the sun comes up in the morning
>>151815298This is a cruel parody of how Flagstaff got its name
>>151815443>the family I usurped from himWally was fucking dead we just don't know how many yearsIf he wasn't actually legally dead (5+ years) then Becky's complicit. We went over this yesterday.
>>151815485>And I told him to go get fucked unlike the last timeI'd have torn off the other arm
>>151815499HE WAS YOUR FUCKING HUSBAND BECKY, NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND HE BROUGHT RANA HERE NOT JOHN
>>151815696How much hate mail did Tom have to read before he decided to do this
>>151815868>Mom said you have her permission to borrow your child brieflyHe doesn't actually require it
>>151821863Less to do with permission and more to do with whether it'd interfere with whatever Wally Jr has to do for the day
