Funky Winkerbean

Infobox comic strip
title=Funky Winkerbean


caption= Funky Winkerbean
creator=Tom Batiuk
current=
status=Running
syndicate=King Features
comictype=print
genre=Humor/Drama
first=March 26, 1972
last=

"Funky Winkerbean" is a comic strip created by high school teacher Tom Batiuk (pronounced "BAT-ick"), which debuted on March 26 1972.

The strip is centered on Westview High School and initially focused on several of its students: the title character, Funky Winkerbean, Crazy Harry Klinghorn, Barry Balderman, Bull Bushka, Cindy Summers, Junebug, Leslie P. "Les" Moore, majorette Holly Budd (daughter of Melinda Budd, original majorette for Westview High) and Lisa Crawford.

Original form

While the strip's namesake was a visible character, the one whose misadventures began to make him the focus was all-around hapless nice guy Les Moore. Batiuk reserved some of his best visual gags for Les, such as his serving as Hall Monitor while sitting at a desk with a vintage machine gun bolted to it (his symbol of authority). Les, not an impressive physical specimen, had a few battles with rope-climbing in Gym class; once, he made it to the top, was afraid to try to climb down, and had to hang on while an entire Westview varsity basketball game was played below him. When Les began dating the equally nerdy Lisa Crawford, their first kiss resulted in their orthodontic braces locking together.

Other students had their own comic twists. Crazy Harry, who lived in his well-equipped school locker at Westview, was able to play frozen pizzas on his record player – "and" enjoy the music they produced. Holly, regardless of the scene or surroundings, was seen in her majorette costume (sequined leotard, with a bright grin and hands on hips holding her baton). Barry was the most successful student at Westview, while Bull, with his hulking frame, was its dominant athlete, and often made hapless Les his punching bag. Cindy, the stereotypical "most popular" one, had a hairstyle featuring a sweeping forward point that seemed to extend a foot in front of her.

Characters who served as the school faculty included its Principal, Mr. Burch; typical teacher (and future Principal) Fred Fairgood; teacher (and Fred's future wife) Ann Randall; Coach Jack Stropp (now retired); Cliff, the security guard; and, the still-famous, always-uniformed band director Harry L. Dinkle (who refers to himself as "The World's Greatest Band Director," and is featured in a running gag whereby every "Battle of the Bands" except the first one occurs during a monsoon). Betty Reynolds, the school's secretary, who was actually responsible for running Westview, retired on June 8, 2008, after completing 36 years of service to the school. She handed over her key to the school's copier with all the honor and ceremony such a important responsiblity deserves and was wished well by all of the staff.

Probably the strangest school staff member in the strip's early years was its Computer, which developed a mind of its own and became a fan of "Star Trek". It even organized "Star Trek" fan conventions to be held at the school and had a teleporter with which it would "beam" students and teachers around as it wished. In another strip, Mr. Burch was informed that the Computer was playing "Star Trek" games; when he asked how that was evident, he was told that there were several Klingons now signed up for a Math class.

The school is also known for their winless football seasons. The school mascot is The Scapegoats. However, one series had Westview winning the state championship as a result of "every" team having to forfeit their game with Westview. The teams forfeited each game beforehand with the exception of Westview's rival, Big Walnut Tech. Tech obliterated Westview in the championship game, but later forfeited due to using an ineligible player.

The 1992 relaunch

In 1992, Batiuk changed the strip's format. It was established that Funky, Les, Cindy and all the rest of the previous cast had graduated from Westview in 1988; their college years were skipped, and the story continued in their adulthood. Subsequently, the characters started to age in real time and undergo significant life changes. Funky married Cindy in 1998; they are now divorced. Les and Lisa married in a Halloween-themed 1996 story which saw them dressed as Batman and Robin. Funky now co-owned the local pizza parlor with Tony Montoni, Les taught English at Westview, Crazy Harry was the local mailman, Bull was the Scapegoats' coach, and Cindy was a national-level television newscaster. The strip followed their stories as well as those of a new generation at Westview, including Wally, Becky, Darin and Monroe. Overtly whimsical elements (such as the sentient computer described above) were now downplayed in favor of more grounded real-life incidents and stories.

In its original form a traditional gag-based strip, "Funky" began to be driven just as often by ongoing narratives with frequent moments of introspection, drama and even tragedy. Though humorous storylines remained mainstay, Batiuk also examined real-life contemporary issues not normally seen on the comics page, such as:

* teen pregnancy [cite web
title = FUNKY WINKERBEAN REVISITS TEEN PREGNANCY: Cartoonist Tom Batiuk’s New Six-Week Series Reprises Groundbreaking Subject Matter in Reality-Based Comic Strip
publisher = King Features
url=http://www.kingfeatures.com/pressrm/PR57.htm
date = 2001-10-25
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ] (Lisa became pregnant as a teenager; she placed the child for adoption. Her son was, unknown to her, adopted by the Fairgoods, was named Darin, and is a current character in the strip.) In July 2007, the two (unbeknownst to each other) filed paperwork in an attempt to contact one another. Darin was the first to receive confirmation of their relationship and informed Lisa in a touching scene that took place on the front porch of the Moores' home.
* suicide (a student became enamored with Les; when he spurned her for Lisa, she attempted suicide, but would later help Les (her father was a judge) when he fails to obtain his marriage license in time to marry Lisa .
* censorship (a local comic book shop owner was persecuted by moralizers who accused him of corrupting children, and was successfully defended in court by Lisa)
* dyslexia (Westview's top student, Barry Balderman once failed to take his exams--and thus, the entire year; to make it up, he had to take summer school, where he found one of his classmates having trouble--being dyslexic himself, Barry was able to diagnose the problem correctly)
* gun violence
* steroids (Les is frustrated and exhausted at his efforts at weightlifting, and has a sudden dream of himself becoming instantly strong by using steroids. While he has some benefits such as being able to rip the infamous gym rope from the ceiling, his attempts to join the football team are rejected when the coach says it is obvious Les has been using steroids, and he starts seeing the side effects such as acne, which then scares him enough to wake up).
* capital punishment [cite web
title = “FUNKY WINKERBEAN” ADDRESSES THE ISSUE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: National Syndicated Comic Strip Sheds a Personal Light on the Death Penalty
publisher = King Features
url=http://www.kingfeatures.com/pressrm/PR136.htm
date = 2003-09-02
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ]
* bullying and child abuse (in the early strip format, Bull would constantly torment the very non-athletic Les; in the later strip it was revealed that Bull's father was abusive.
* teacher-student relationships (Les is stood up at the senior prom and one of the teachers offers to be his date, saying that as he is near graduation it is appropriate that he is now a full-grown man. No sexual relationship exists, and it is mainly to show Les' maturity)
* alcoholism (Funky is a recovering alcoholic) His story of alcoholism and recovery was compiled by Tom Batiuk in the book "My Name is Funky and I'm an Alcoholic" which focuses on Funky's struggle, but also provides information on how to help someone suffering with the diease.
* breast cancer [cite web
title = BREAST CANCER COMIC STRIP SERIES, "LISA'S STORY," IS NOW A BOOK: Created in Partnership with the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO), Cartoonist Tom Batiuk's Latest Book Includes Comprehensive Resources for Breast Cancer Patients, Survivors and Their Families
publisher = King Features
url=http://www.kingfeatures.com/pressrm/PR9.htm
date = 2000-09-25
accessdate = 2007-11-05] (See Lisa's Story)
* land mines in Afghanistan [cite web
title = A Funky Look at the Impact of Abandoned Landmines in Afghanistan: Comic Strip Character Takes on Real-Life Mission to War Zone with Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF)
publisher = King Features
url=http://www.kingfeatures.com/pressrm/PR203.htm
date = 2005-06-28
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ] In 2005, Batiuk sent Wally and new wife Becky (who has only one arm due to a 1997 car accident) to Afghanistan as a part of an anti-landmine effort by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation; he nearly dies after stepping on a landmine. He is saved when his Afghani companion Kahn (now manager at the gang's favorite pizza place) manages to knock the mine away (which was a design that launches the explosive to chest level), only to be punched out for selling the Stinger that killed his fellow troops. The couple returns with an adopted daughter, Rana, who was left orphaned after her family was killed by a suicide bomber.

Lisa's Story

, Lisa's cancer went into remission. Lisa would later use her law practice to defend a client who was wrongfully fired from her job due to disability, and still later, a client unjustly charged with selling pornographic comic books to children.

In March 2006, Lisa's cancer returned in a more serious form. Following another round of chemo, her cancer appeared to go into remission again in early 2007, but on May 9, 2007, her doctor revealed that her medical charts had gotten mixed up and her disease was not only progressing, but had become inoperable. In a King Features press releasecite web
last= Berkowitz | first = Lana
title = Comic strip takes on disease: Character in Funky Winkerbean faces a new battle with breast cancer
publisher = Houston Chronicle
url=http://web.archive.org/web/20070512041432/http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/entertainment/4786493.html
date = 2007-05-08
accessdate = 2007-05-12 ] , it was revealed that "Lisa will start chemo again, learn that her long-range prospects aren't hopeful, stop chemo, deal with telling her daughter about her cancer situation, [and] testify before Congress about the need for cancer research and cope with friends and family." Batiuk was very open about the fact that Lisa's latest ordeal would end with her deathcite web
last= Klimkiewicz | first = Joann
title = Funky' Cartoonist Knows Cancer's Not Funny
publisher = Courant
url=http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-comiccomic0514.artmay14,0,2665422.story?coll=hc-headlines-life
date = 2007-05-14
accessdate = 2007-07-17 ] and some of the events that would take place as a result.

The entire storyline, which did culminate with Lisa's death in the October 4, 2007, strip (excerpt at right), was collected and published in a book entitled "Lisa's Story: The Other Shoe". [Citation
first = Tom | last = Batiuk
title = Lisa's Story: The Other Shoe
publisher = [http://upress.kent.edu/books/Batiuk_T.htm Kent State University Press] | year = 2007
isbn = 0873389247 ] [cite web
title = King Features Syndicate’s Popular Comic Strip Funky Winkerbean Concludes Riveting Cancer Storyline, “Lisa’s Story Revisited,” on Oct. 4
publisher = King Features
url=http://www.kingfeatures.com/pressrm/PR269.htm
date = 2007-09-26
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ] This book, which includes the strips from Lisa's initial battle with cancer (which had itself been collected in book form in 2004), was in fact published before the series had finished running in syndication.

After the May 2007 strip ran, Tom Batiuk discussed his reasoning for pursuing the plotline was inspired by his own personal battle against prostate cancer.

The Second Time Jump

On October 21, 2007, "Funky Winkerbean" underwent its second "time warp," this time jumping ahead to a point ten years following Lisa's death and aging the cast of characters accordingly; those that were children will now be of high school age, and the original cast will be in their mid-40s. Readers actually got a small "preview" of the new-look feature starting in the October 5 strip, in which a now middle-aged Les talks to an unseen psychologist about events that immediately followed Lisa's passing, which are then depicted in flashback form. The strip on the 21st [http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20071021&name=Funky_Winkerbean] showed a younger Les talking with Summer about death in general to help her understand that of Lisa's, before switching to the new-look Moores in the closing frames, and the first week of strips that followed, following the Moores participating in a Making Strides walk, had a banner saying "Act III: Ten Years Later" in the first frame (an "Act III" statement directing readers to the official website would be discretely included in fine print for some time afterwards).

The relaunched "Funky", Batiuk claims, "is going to be a different strip, a little bit quieter." He also promises that despite Lisa's death, she will remain a presence in strip through flashbacks, remembrances, and a series of videos she recorded for daughter Summer just before she died. [cite web
last=Batiuk | first = Tom
title = Funky Winkerbean - Bio
url=http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/bio.html
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ] Montoni's will have opened several locations, including in New York City, Summer will have grown into a popular 15-year-old basketball star (in contrast to her geeky father), and Bull's adopted daughter Jinx, as well as Becky's daughter Rana, will also be high-school aged. Batiuk explained that he wanted the comic to move so far ahead in order to prevent it from being an extended grieving process, to ensure that the next generation of students he followed were related to the original cast of characters, and that he wanted to bring the ages of his original characters closer to that of his current target audience. After the flash forward, all of the strip's prominent adult male characters -- Funky, Les, Bull and Crazy Harry -- will be 46 years old. [cite web
last=E&P Staff
title = A Sneak Peek at the Flash-Forwarded 'Funky Winkerbean'
publisher = Editor and Publisher
url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003648740
date = 2007-09-28
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ]

Wally Winkerbean, who was serving in Iraq, is not in the core cast as shown on the Funky Winkerbean website, and there is a reference in the updated cast bios (on the main page) that Becky has remarried. At this time, Wally's fate is unknown, though on his blog page Batiuk mentions that it "may not be what you think happened." Batiuk also revealed that a "clue" to Wally's fate could be found in the October 11th strip which features Les getting mugged in New York after Lisa's death after walking past a newspaper vending machine with a headline saying "Soldiers Taken Hostage". [cite web |last=Batiuk | first = Tom
title = Funky Winkerbean - Blogs
url=http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/blogs.html
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ] Darin Fairgood, another prominent character who appeared in the strip throughout the '90s and 2000s, had also been AWOL since the 2007 relaunch, but has recently reappeared in the strip helping his old high school buddy Pete Roberts move back into town. Pete is just the latest resident of the apartment above Montoni's (Les and Lisa lived there before buying their home. Becky and Wally took it over and than apparently during the time jump John and Becky lived there together before John turned into a storage space for his comics, probably since the basement shop has flooded in the past). What has happened to Wally since the time shift remains a mystery, but the strip that ran on May 26, 2008, Memorial Day, shows Becky driving home with a POW/MIA bumper sticker on her car. Whether this is just her long time support for veterans and their causes or a hint to Wally's fate is unclear.

Controversy

The more dramatic turns of the storyline have led to mixed responses from readers. Negative reaction to a 2007 strip featuring Wally getting blown up by an I.E.D. (which turned out in the next strip to be him playing a computer game), including two papers that ran the strip receiving irate phone calls and letters to the editor, led to Batiuk issuing an apology soon after the strip ran. [cite web
last = Gardner | first = Alan
title = Funky Winkerbean depiction of IED blowing up american soldier generates angry response
publisher = The Daily Cartoonist
url=http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2007/02/26/funky-winkerbean-depiction-of-ied-blowing-up-american-soldier-generates-angry-response/
date = 2007-02-26
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ]

Reactions to the most recent chapter of Lisa's Story led to further complaints over the comic's gloomy content. Web comic "Shortpacked" produced a strip poking fun of the storyline's prominence. [cite web
last = Willis | first = David
title = Shortpacked!, April 16, 2007
url=http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20070416.html
date = 2007-04-16
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ] Batiuk has also mentioned in interviews about the storyline that he has received complaints about the current direction of the storyline.

A "Crankshaft" strip from May 23, 2007, sarcastically addresses the more recent controversies from Batiuk's perspective.cite web
last= Batiuk | first = Tom
title = Crankshaft, May 23, 2007
publisher = Houston Chronicle
url=http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20070523&name=Crankshaft
date = 2007-05-23
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ] In the "Funky Winkerbean" strip published on September 30, 2007, Les essentially echoes the "Crankshaft" comment.cite web
last= Batiuk | first = Tom
title = Funky Winkerbean, September 30, 2007
publisher = Houston Chronicle
url=http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20070930&name=Funky_Winkerbean
date = 2007-09-30
accessdate = 2007-11-05 ]

Over the week of July 7th, "Pearls Before Swine" parodied the tendency of "Funky Winkerbean" towards killing off main characters when it killed of Rat and even the strip's own author, Stephen Pastis, even utilizing Batiuk's representation of the Angel of Death [ [http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2008/7/11&name=Pearls_Before_Swine 404 Error, No such article | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle ] ] .

pinoffs

Two minor characters have been spun off into their own strips: the bus driver "Crankshaft" in 1987 and the talk show host "John Darling" in 1979. The latter caused a sensation in 1991 when Batiuk had Darling murdered in the penultimate strip. In "Funky Winkerbean", Les Moore wrote a book on Darling's murder and solved the case in a 1997 storyline.

Comic connections

Batiuk's neighbor, comic book writer Tony Isabella, occasionally appears in the strip as himself. Another comic book creator, super-hero artist John Byrne, drew ten weeks of the strip while Batiuk was recovering from foot surgery, and has appeared in the strip himself as a character.

The character Harry L. Dinkle, the self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Band Director," is based on the director of The Ohio State University Marching Band. Professor Dinkle is based on a composite of past and current directors Dr. Paul Droste and Dr. Jon Woods. In addition, a 2006 article from the Cleveland Free Times that is published on the FunkyWinkerbean.com website asserts that Harry L. Dinkle is based on Harry Pfingsten, a retired band director from Avon Lake, Ohio, who was the band director of the junior high school that Tom Batiuk attended.

Musical

Batiuk assisted in the writing of a musical based on the strip, called "Funky Winkerbean's Homecoming" and set in the era while Funky was still a student at Westview High. This musical is still popular among high school drama groups.Fact|date=August 2007 The musical was co-written by Andy Clark, who appeared as himself in the comic strip in December, 2006. Clark is also a publisher of the C. L. Barnhouse Company, and has published several "Funky Winkerbean" collections dedicated to the character of Harry L. Dinkle. Fact|date=August 2007

References

External links

* [http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/ Official Funky Winkerbean Website]
* [http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/fwinker/about.htm Funky Winkerbean at King Features]
* [http://kingfeatures.com/features/comics/crank/bioMaina.htm Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers]
* [http://upress.kent.edu/books/Batiuk_T.htm Lisa's Story: The Other Shoe by Tom Batiuk]
* [http://www.dinkles.com/meet_batiuk.asp Batiuk and the "Dinkle's" band-accessory store]
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/funky.htm Toonopedia entry]
* [http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/7/a-funkier-winkerbean Free Times profile on Batiuk and upcoming changes in Funky Winkerbean]