#Tom Batiuk

[enjoymorestuff]

I don't know how to explain the rich history of Funky Winkerbean, which has just dropped its final strip.

But I will say this: all I wanted was the most ridiculously self-indulgent nonsense ever invented, and this:

...is exactly that. Incredible work. Also: JESUS CHRIST.

#funky winkerbean #tom batiuk #comic strips #lisa's story #one last time #lisa's goddamn story

[smashedpages]

Happy birthday to Tom Batiuk!

#tom batiuk #funky winkerbean #comic strips #comic book birthdays

[smashpages]

John Byrne helps Tom Batiuk wrap up the final week of ‘Funky Winkerbean’

The 50-year-old strip ends its run with a look into the future.

#john byrne #tom batiuk #funky winkerbean #comic strips

[tomoleary]

Voice For Children Signed "Cartoon Jam" Print (Stabur Graphics, 1986)

“This panoramic print features perhaps the largest number of cartoon licenses granted for one project, as well as what might be the most cartoonists participating in one cartoon jam for a commercial print. The scene also features the first licensed appearances of Walt Disney and Walter Lantz characters co-starring in the same piece. It's a veritable ‘orchestra and choir’ of characters singing for the welfare of children as the ‘Voice For Children.’

“Signed by: Stan Lee, Charles Schulz, Walter Lantz, Jim Davis, Johnny Romita, Milton Caniff, Mort Drucker, Jack Kirby, Bill Keane, Mike Royer, Moebius, Sergio Aragones, Hank Ketcham, Kelly Freas, Bob Thaves, Jim Unger, Jack Hannah, Don Dougherty, Jerry Van Amerongen, Leonard Starr, Arnold Roth, Tom Batiuk, Mike Peters, Harvey Kurtzman, Al Jaffee, Morrie Turner, Mel Lazarus, B. K. Taylor, Marty Murphy, Dean Young and Stan Drake, Russell Myers, Jim Meddick, Dick Locher, Mort Walker, MacNelly, Johnny Hart, Fred Lasswell, Paul Coker Jr, Irwin Hasen, Ray Salmon, Dick Browne, Will Elder, Bud Sagendorf, Dick Moores, Joe Martin, Jack Davis, Bob Foster, Judd Hurd, Frank Ridgeway, Al Williamson, Bernard Kliban, Bill Mauldin, and more.

“And featuring these characters: The Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Ms Peach, Mama, Wizard of Id, B. C., Nancy and Sluggo, Robotman, U. S. Acres, Gasoline Alley, Dondi, Conrad, Broom-Hilda, Mama, Wee Pals, Luann, Animal Crackers, Terry and the Pirates, Wright Angles, Dick Tracy, Family Circus, Benchley, the Neighborhood, Charlie Brown, Peanuts and Snoopy, Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Hagar the Horrible, Groo the Wanderer, Cathy, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, Popeye, Blondie, Woody Woodpecker, Little Annie Fannie, Mr. Abernathy, Little Orphan Annie, Dennis the Menace, Herman, President Ronald Reagan, First Lady Nancy Reagan, Buddy Hackett, Snuffy Smith, Garfield, and Alfred E Neuman.”

Source

#Voice For Children #Cartoon Jam

[newsaza]

Comic Strip Funky Winkerbean To End After Amazing Fifty Year Run

Comic Strip Funky Winkerbean To End After Amazing Fifty Year Run

After over fifty years in syndication, the comic strip Funky Winkerbean is coming to a close after its creator, Tom Batiuk, announces its end date. It’s been a staple of newspapers worldwide, but after more than fifty years, Tom Batiuk’s Funky Winkerbean is coming to a close. Batiuk announced that he would be retiring the beloved comic at the end of the year, closing out a truly transformative…

View On WordPress

[dirtyriver]

Kids these days...

#Comics #Tom Batiuk #Funky Winkerbean

[laughingblue12]

Comic Strips Can Make Me Cry

Comic Strips Can Make Me Cry

I have been a cartoon nut for a long, long time.  I think it goes back to a time before I really have memories.  I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know who Cat in the Hat was, or that Pogo was a possum and Albert was an alligator, or that Daisy Mae constantly had to chase Lil’ Abner afore they could git hitched.  And I have always known that cartoons and comic strip characters weren’t real.…

View On WordPress

#art criticism #cartoon #comic strips #Funky Winkerbean #humor #Lynn Johnston #pathos #Tom Batiuk

[tompalmerillustration]

Funky Winkerbean, November 5, 2017. Tom Batiuk/North America Syndicate, 2017. Pencils and inks by Tom Palmer.

#funky winkerbean #cockroach #tom batiuk #tom palmer #comic strip #zipatone #2010s

[greenjacketwhitehatdocmui]

Entertainment, NOT Frustration

Or, as I like to put it, a tip on self-care when you’re a fan of something.  This might be a bit long, but please bear with me.

Many years ago, I read my fair share of newspaper comic strips--that is, if I got to the newspaper first in the family.  Two strips that I found mildly entertaining were done by the same person, Tom Batiuk.  They were “Funky Winkerbean” and “Crankshaft”.

“Funky” was, at the time, following the high school hijinks of the title character and his circle of friends.  “Crankshaft” showed the daily life of the meanest bus driver in Ohio.  It was all fairly harmless and good for a chuckle.

Every once in a while, Batiuk would have story arcs that I would term “Very Special Episodes”--i.e., real life issues would replace the gag-a-day format.  With “Crankshaft,” it was dealing with dementia.  “Funky Winkerbean” had episodes about teen pregnancy.  They were, for the most part, fairly well done, only to go back to lighter fare.

Over time, Batiuk would go into longer story arcs.  He allowed his characters to age and did a time skip on “Funky,” allowing new characters to be highlighted.

I should point out that Batiuk frequently has the subtlety of a jackhammer when driving his points home.  He also projected a very gloomy, hopeless outlook on “Funky.”  And there is the matter of his attention to detail, or lack thereof.  Many of the story arcs would be either undone or called into question by people who knew better than him.

(What examples can I provide?  Well, when you have a 16 year-old store worker winning the lottery for adults, you have a quibble.  When you are egregiously wrong about the ins and outs of becoming a professional novelist, you have a problem.)

It became very clear that the author stopped caring.  He started treating the audience as idiots, citing that “it’s only a comic strip.”  Politely-written criticisms were rebuffed, saying that his experience trumped their knowledge.

It’s only a comic strip.  Don’t worry about it.  Just keep on reading.  Don’t criticize me, I know what I’m doing.  I’ve been doing it for forty years in a dog-eat-dog environment.  Just shut up and read.  Just praise me for how relevant and edgy my characters are.  Forget about how hopeless or depressed I might make you; I don’t care.  Just keep on reading so that I can wind you up.

People really have gotten wound up.  There is a dedicated “hatedom” regarding Batiuk’s works.  They gather and criticize the latest strip.  Some particularly critical sites have been shut down.

For a while, I was quietly critical of the direction of the strip.  It had become my daily reason to roll my eyes at the stupidity in the world.  Why didn’t the author do this or that?

And then it occurred to me:  Why the Hell was I wasting my time getting worked up over a comic strip that had gone downhill?  It was the author took some pleasure in insulting his audience’s intelligence, but otherwise didn’t really care.  It wasn’t writing to entertain, it was schadenfreude, pure and simple.  He took pleasure in depicting misery and making other people miserable.

I walked away and I’ve been better for it.  I try to stay positive because, in this world, sometimes it’s all you have. 

I’m not saying that you can’t criticize what you enjoy.  But if something you formerly enjoyed becomes a chore or causes you pain, you have the right to walk away.  Find something that makes you happy.

Well, that’s my 2 cents.  What do you think?

--Doc

#fandom #funky winkerbean

[chuckdillon]

For the past 6 months I've been slowly framing and hanging artist's (whom I admire) work I've collected over the past couple of decades. I never had a place to display them before. There's still more I need to put up but it's nice to see this work that has been hidden for so long. Seen is work by @stansakai @jimlawsontmnt @kevineastmantmnt @eric_talbot Steve Lavigne, @beetle.baily Mort Walker, @mariannabalducci_chidisegna @dennis_the__menace_ Hank Ketcham, @nancycote31 @richpowell @lifeinhelldaily @thesimpsons Matt Groening, Mark Martin, David Galchutt, @larsenproject @thefunkywinkerbean Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis. Thanks to everyone for their generosity for sharing their time and talents with me over the years. It has encouraged me and kept me inspired. #tmnt #ninjaturtles #usagiyojimbo #beetlebailey #oa #originalart #comics #crankshaft #funkywinkerbean #gocomics #dennisthemenace #penandink #ink #cartoonist #comicart #studiospace https://www.instagram.com/p/CPI8-WAnOAh/?utm_medium=tumblr

#tmnt #ninjaturtles #usagiyojimbo #beetlebailey #oa #originalart #comics #crankshaft #funkywinkerbean #gocomics #dennisthemenace #penandink #ink #cartoonist #comicart #studiospace

[paris-of-the-orient]

Journal 11

I started the day early, 5am, which I haven’t done in quite awhile. Gives me a certain appreciation for my restful nights. My doctor says sleep heals the soul. By that, my wife tells me, he means it’s a key part of keeping our body working. Helps with brain health and what not, gives you the energy to maintain yourself. I always try to sleep a full night, though I get just as hooked on my books before bed as the next person. Anyways, I got up early specifically to enjoy my morning before heading over for my youngest grand kid’s birthday. My daughter lives about two hours away from me, so it’s a bit of a drive and I like taking my time in the mornings. I like to go for a walk to wake up and contemplate alone about how I’d like the day to go, I find it helps me stay focused. I then tend to my bird feeders and plants that need a little extra attention. Then have a cup of tea, read some of whatever novel I’m on, and get ready on the day. This little ritual helps me get in the right mind space to take on the day. The party was lovely as well, the grand baby turned seventeen and is entering his senior year of high school. I got him Crankshaft, by Tom Batiuk who’s comics he’s been into recently. We decided to stay the night at my daughter’s to avoid driving home in the dark, I helped with dinner and we had a peaceful meal followed by watching The Savages.

[crinoline-gremlin]

OMEA was long but the dealers hall was fun. I found a bassoon ornament, got to meet Tom Batiuk, the author of Funky Winkerbean, and was throughly amused by our booth neighbors who took a dead sousaphone and ran it over with a steam roller. The sign was written by someone who has met band children, ever

[duhragonball]

Futher thought on Rohan Kishibe: Fiction-within-fiction is kind of a pet peeve of mine because the characters in the story are all into it, while the audience is left in the dark.

For example, I sort of keep up with the comic strip "Funky Winkerbean", which for years has been obsessed with a fictional franchise called "Starbuck Jones". Occasionally, Sunday strips will be drawn to look like mock covers of Starbuck Jones comic books. But beyond this, we really don't know anything about Starbuck other than that he's a sort of Flash Gordon archetype.

Now, up to a point, this is acceptable to me, except that at some point Starbuck Jones became the focal point of the whole strip. Characters obsessively collect the comics, characters help other characters make a Starbuck Jones feature film, the guy who used to play Starbuck Jones in the old days got to come back for a day in the sun, and Tom Batiuk "celebrated" Jack Kirby's 100th birthday by adding him to the strip as the famous artist who used to draw classic Starbuck Jones comics. There was a Starbuck Jones themed wedding a few weeks ago. Starbuck, Starbuck, Starbuck. I know people make fun of Funky Winkerbean for being fixated on death and cancer, but it's actually a lot more insufferable when it's an imaginary sci-fi property that no one in the real world has ever seen. At least I have some emotional context for cancer.

That's kind of how I feel about Pink Dark Boy. If Hirohiko Araki wanted to, he could have done a comic-within-a-comic, to showcase Pink Dark Boy for a while. Sort of like how Li'l Abner would read "Fearless Fosdick", and Al Capp would just turn the whole strip into "Fearless Fosdick" for a few months. The point is to bring your audience into the situation.

Instead, the conceit in DU is that everyone loves Pink Dark Boy, but the guy who writes and draws it is a pompous dick, and that's the part you get. So you have characters like Koichi treating Rohan with all this respect, only we never get clued in to what he respects him *for*. Granted, Koichi's polite to a fault, and Rohan is entitled to a modicum of respect simply for being older, but it probably goes deeper than that. I'd argue that Koichi only puts up with Rohan as much as he does because he really, really enjoys the comic, but we don't know why because we know nothing about it. I *think* the main character of Pink Dark Boy resembles Heaven's Door, but that's it.

#i kind of went down this road with my fic #i put in a running gag that they made a movie about the main character and it's very inaccurate #but that's more of a noodle incident #i just refer to how bad the movie was every so often and have the characters roll their eyes and move on #i remember once reading this listing for a short story anthology #they were accepting stories but they added the condition: #ABSOLUTELY NO STORIES ABOUT WRITING! #which made me wonder just how many crappy metastories they had received over the years to force them to include that

[beyondspock]

Leonard Nimoy in Tom Batiuk’s John Darling, a comic set in the same universe as Crankshaft and Funky Winkerbean. https://twitter.com/StarTrekWreck/status/741481403288674305

#comic strip #Leonard Nimoy

[dirtyriver]

And this Sunday’s very special Funky cover is by John Byrne and Joe Giella.

#Comics #John Byrne #Joe Giella #Funky Winkerbean #Tom Batiuk #Starbuck Jones

[aunti-christ-ine]

  Tom Batiuk’s  ’Funky Winkerbean’ Comic Strip (December 20, 1978)

#comic strip #Funky Winkerbean #Tom Batiuk #christmas #1978 #1970s #70's #tree #irony