Whatever happened to Funky Winkerbean?

[IndianaJones]

Why did it go away, yet family circus persists?

[sasquatch]

1. My paper carries it

lisa is about to die of cancer though, she already checked into a hospice.

[IndianaJones]

2. I haven't seen that cartoon since the 80's. Didn't even know it still ran...

it was one of my favorite fill ins for mad libs.

[Fenris]

3. It's still running.

And it's remarkably depressing nowadays.

[IndianaJones]

4. Just read the wiki. Major changes to the tone of that strip over the past 15 years. nt.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. I just checked the website for the comic strip...

The characters are so well-developed now! The last time I read it, Funky was in high school; and I vaguely remember a female character who was always bummed that guys went for cheerleaders instead of marching band chicks.

[IndianaJones]

6. I read it last in about '88. Just read the wiki...what changes. nt.

[regnaD kciN]

7. And more to come...

After Lisa dies at the end of this month, the strip will "flash-forward" again, and the story will continue with all the characters in their late 40s. I can hardly wait! :sarcasm:

Seriously, I wish Batiuk had decided to pull the plug on the strip instead of moving it from high school to adulthood, if all he was going to do was torture his characters and his readers.

[Kelly Rupert]

8. God, that's a depressing strip. n/t

[regnaD kciN]

9. Try encountering the whole...

"Lisa's cancer has returned...and this time it's terminal!" storyline while waiting for your own spouse's biopsy results to come back... :scared:

[HEyHEY]

10. It's a shit bar in Vancouver!

[MilesColtrane]

11. Ernest Hemingway comes to Batiuk's defense.

"...all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you."

I imagine that Tom's trying to write a true story.

Maybe art doesn't belong in the so called funny papers.

If you think so, you can always avert your eyes, or cut out Funky with scissors before handing it to your kids.

Maybe Alan Moore should have written about a future England that never descends into fascism, invasive surveillance, and torture.

There's always "Garfield".

on edit: this was meant as a response to those unhappy with the recent storyline, not the OP.

[regnaD kciN]

13. It's not just the recent storyline...

Ever since the changeover into adulthood, FW has been one big downer. If it isn't terminal cancer, it's a main character becoming an alcoholic and having his marriage fall apart, another losing an arm in an accident, and that character's husband being sent to Iraq (where, odds are, he's going to die before the next ten-year jump). Then there's the teenage boy who finally finds his biological mother, only weeks before she dies. It's just a whole load of fun in the Funky Cancercancer (as it has become known) universe.

[hfojvt]

12. it got taken to

Funky Town?

[HughBeaumont]

14. It's depressing as hell.

This is the comics. Life sucks bad enough without having to be reminded how bad it sucks, via an outlet in which you're supposed to laugh at.

And don't get me started on For Better or For Worse. Not only has Lynn completely ignored the wishes of her readers and hooked Liz back up with her milquetoast nerdster emotional cheat of an ex-HS boyfriend Granthony (named because even without the 'stache he looks 20 years older than Liz even though he's the same age), but she's freezing the strip in time.