Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 20, 2015

Yuck yuck yuZZZzzz…

Good morning guys!

Funky Winkerbean is here!

Funky hasn’t aged well.

Oh no!!! The A in pizza moved! Must be the angle! LOL!

It’s obviously been a LONG TIME since I read “Funky Winkerbean”!

Could someone link to today’s Funky Winkerbean? Wonder if it’s the same dialogue but different camera angles.

Good morning to all. Pizza! That makes me hungry. Have a peaceful day everyone.

Funky finally graduated from high school. He didnt age too well did he?

You can have all the anchovies, Sam!

That’s Funky Winkerbean? I haven’t read that strip (until this crossover) since he was a schoolboy and before Batiuk turned the strip dark (in terms of storylines)….

Today’s Funky Winkerbean, seems events are proceeding along two separate tracks …

I see Tracy and Catchem are in the mood to show off their biting wit today…..

This is kind of weird. I have a feeling that we’re not in Kansas anymore (or at least not in Tracy’s city). It’s another challenge to blend two styles, though I think the Funky characters in this strip look more faithful to the originals than Tracy does in the Funky strip.

Thanks, Neil. That should come in handy for the duration of this crossover event.

For those, like me, who haven’t read Funky Winkerbean lately, here’s an FAQ from the official site:

Q. Why did you do the time jump?A. I wanted the characters to be the age they would be if I had been aging them gracefully all along. However, since I didn’t do that, the time jump became necessary. If you’re still a bit confused as to who is who, go to the character groupings that front this site. When you place a cursor on a character, you’ll get a brief description of who they are and a picture of what they looked like before the jump.

Crossovers are tricky beasts …

Wikipedia tells me that they stayed the same age from 1972 to 1992, but now they’re catching up. In 1992, they suddenly jumped to four years after high school, and in October, 2007, they suddenly jumped another 10 years forward and they’re now aging in real time. Funky is about 45 now and he’s a bit fat because he runs a pizzeria, which isn’t good for your weight.

The real-life Montoni’s Pizza is located in Akron… Luigi’s Pizza. I hope Staton and Curtis are able to showcase the interior before this crossover is over.

http://thepizzafan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Luigis-Restaurant-in-Akron-OH_Outside1.jpg

So, Sam says it’s too bad that it’s not a bribe. (Heh, heh.) What possible motivation could Funky Winkerbean have for giving Tracy and Sam a bride? I wonder.

Wasn’t one of them married to a lady who died of cancer and their daughter grew up, got married and all that ?

It’s surprisingly hard to find the information, but you’re thinking of Lisa Moore. Even though the strip is called Funky Winkerbean Les Moore and his wife, Lisa, became the stars of the strip for a long time. Lisa battled breast cancer for many years and through at least one period of remission before finally dying of it in October 2007. Right after that, the strip jumped forward to 10 years after Lisa’s death.

Les is now a teacher back at the high school, he has a daughter in college and has since remarried. Apparently, Lisa still appears in flashbacks from time to time, but as I said, I haven’t read the strip in at least 10 years, so I’ve just gathered this information from various places around the Web.

I take it that Lisa may not be the only main character who has died, so you never know what may happen when Tracy’s around to solve murders and such.

I read Funky daily. Like Tracy, it’s not afraid to involve social issues such as gay students attending the senior prom. Les did lose his wife Lisa to cancer, and remarried in an interracial marriage. His and his wife’s daughters attend college together. Funky himself has battled alcoholism. I’ve always found it to be a fun strip.

what were his parents thinking when they named him?

Can’t wait for the “Pearls Before Swine” crossover

Gotta love those cross-overs

Les was married to Lisa, who died of cancer. A while back, he married Carla, who has a daughter the same age as his daughter. Both girls are in college with, I believe, basketball scholarships.

Morning, Tracyville!

I love crossovers, too, but Funky Winkerbean was never one of my favorites. I quit reading it probably 30 years ago and it just doesn’t interest me now. I loved the Annie crossover. Maybe Team Tracy will do an Alley Oop crossover some day, like they hinted.

great, they’re in Funky. That means half the cast will die ….

Why? Why? Why?

Of all the crossovers that could have been done, why?

Finally had the chance to see Unbroken. Found it to be very powerful, moving and inspirational.

Funny how they joke about taking bribes.. apparently Sam’s are taken with anchovies and Mayor Armstrong’s are taken from rich billionaire businessmen with missing kids.

would be great if Wendy Wichel had overheard Sam tho lol! :)

Hey wouldja lookit dat?!?! Stilldamatt is number one.. funny, i usually think of him as… well, nah i wont go there ;) lol

@Neil Wick: thanks for the link.

Thanks to everyone for the good info on Funky Winkerbean.

Hopefully Lena will get loose and eat the entire cast of Funky Cancerbean

Shoot me now…

The basic problem with Funky Winkerbean these days is that Batiuk seems rooted in never allowing the characters to be truly happy. Les is remarried to a lovely woman but the ghost of his first wife pervades the marriage and it’s clear the new wife will never measure up to Lisa’s saintly status. Funky’s ex-wife loses her national anchorwoman job because she is aging and is forced back to Westview television. Funky’s nephew does 2 traumatic military tours in the Middle East, is held prisoner, and comes back to find that his wife, believing he was dead, married the comic book guy. Funky himself is a recovering alcoholic who mopes through life despite having a good family. And then there is Batiuk’s obsession with comic books, which have been 90% of the storyline for the past year or so. Funky was a good comic strip, and I still enjoy its brighter moments, but even since Batiuk took it off the rails with Lisa’s cancer (inspired by his own bout with prostate cancer), it just is rarely funny anymore.

You see, Jamie Reagan would never even think of accepting anything free.

Breaking news (for Gweedo). “This just in. Vista Bill was last seen at the helm of the death coach as it went of the cliff at Deadman’s Curve near Dracula’s Castle. The passengers could be heard screaming for miles around. It is believed that VB fell asleep at the reins. Count Dracula is on the scene to assist with the cleanup of the bodies. He stated that he will be able to revive VB. The death coach was en route to an Elvis Presley Comeback Concert at the castle”.

Stilldamatt, I got it from an inside source: keep up your astute criticism of the strip and Mike & Joe will turn it over to you. They will also cede over their multiple Harvey awards to you so you can claim them as your own. TMS must have been out of their minds to have passed you up!

Is that a bribe, Winkerbean?No; given the quality of my pizza, and the statistically-improbable cancer rates in this town, it was more of a threat.

Well, well, well.

I clipped a Funky strip from the newspaper back in 2006. It is credited to Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers. It shows one of the characters up in his childhood room, talking to his childhood self, while they both read comic books. The cover of the book that can be clearly seen is a specific copy of Harvey’s Dick Tracy # 100, which I have in my collection. I thought that was very cool; that the artist drew a real comic book rather than just a “generic” cover. I figured Mr. Batiuk must be a fan of Dick Tracy.

Ooops, I just looked at that strip more closely – it is a Crankshaft strip!

We’ll you really can’t blame the poster for his being unhappy with the current state of the Dick Tracy strip..We all???.Oh, I think you meant to say; Well.Don’t mention it, glad to be of help! LOL!.S.I.T.O.A.M.O.T.S.O.T.N.M.I.

It’s apparent that I will always be the villain in the minds of a few certain posters. This occurred to me on Saturday after reading a comment from another regular poster that pointed out a factual yet very minor mistake in that days strip. I waited and waited for his comment to be condemned as being a nitpicking, fault finding new team hating post. Never happened. I decided to post a comment pointing out some silly mistake and lo and behold one of my regular bashers had something to say about it. I’ve come to the conclusion it’s less about what I say then it is that I’m the one saying it. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to live with the knowledge that some people will never like me. Life does go on! LOL!

Hmmm,,, I’m aware of the classic character of the cowardly lion from the book and movie called; The Wizard of Oz”. I’m not aware of something called Wizard of Oz. That’s what’s so great about this comments board; you learn something new every day!!!!

Rightwingmoron said, 11 minutes agoActually, the book is entitled “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. How sad one of the poster’s nits let him down, and he couldn’t pick the correct title for the literary work.

.

SIGH

Either or is correct, with or without Wonderful However THE is always present.

This is very Funky..

You can purchase a garlic necklace from the souvenir shop just inside the castle entrance, Gweedo. Mind the spiders!

Here is an excellent article on Joe Staton for his birthday yesterday.

Article on Joe Staton

LOL! What the post above me says is mind boggling in it’s desperatness! Be a man about it and admit that in your attempt to make me look foolish you once again failed miserably.

By the way, not only is the letter A definitely located differently under the N in panels one and three so are the Z’s I guess it was done because of Sam’s hat. The whole word Pizza has shifted slightly to the left. Obvious to anyone.

anybody remember the “good old days” when Matthew Hansel and I “battled it out” on the board asking for “votes” as to who should go and who should saty.. and he lost? lol!

maybe we should do the same thing for RWM and Stilldamatt.. apparently RWM doesnt grasp the concept of WHY he was banned for a while

Are you on an 85 inch hi-def 4K monitor?.NAH!! I’m just very near sighted so when I take my glasses off everything looks huge up close!!

The team continues to make the strip exciting and fun.

First Annie, now the Funkmeister!!!!!!! Can it get better? C’mon, show me it can!

A Tintin-DT crossover has too entered my mind. (Just imagine DT with Tintin, Sam meeting Thompson and Thomson, and B. O. Plenty entertaining Captain Haddock.

Unless the Herge estate shocks everyone and allows such a thing to take place, it may just be confined to the world of fan fiction. :(

Some time back I saw, possibly on a Sunday or at the site, where we got a list of all Doonesbury characters past to present with ones who had “left” the strip. I think Lacey Davenport was one such “missing person”.Yep, Lacey’s been departed for awhile now.

It’s been noted in Comics Kingdom that Funky has never looked as good as he does in DT today. It’s also been observed that he looks like Bobby Hill all grown up.

A “Funky Fresh Rabbit,” circa 1991 …

Someone may have answered this already (I haven’t read through the whole stack): Les Moore was married to Lisa, who died of cancer when their daughter Summer was still in single digits. The whole strip jumped forward ten years; Summer was in high school. Les has since remarried; his wife’s daughter, once Summer’s opposite number on her rival HS’s basketball team, is now Summer’s teammate and roommate in college. Every year Les organizes and operates the Lisa’s Legacy fundraising run; it has spawned a real-life correspondent raising funds for cancer research.

Has anyone figured out yet what could possibly be the connection between Tracy and Funky that leads to this bizarre crossover?

I’m not quite sure what prompted so many comments today, but I think the number of comments is the highest in a long time.

Funky Winkerbean!? With all his smoking, Sam better keep out of THAT comic.