#funky winkerbean

[thenhc]

[itswalky]

sometimes i think about this

[muttonchopsalley]

Vintage references to the then-recent Star Wars in newspaper comics from 1978.

[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.

[saleintothe90s]

462. Daily Press, July 1, 1992

I'm trying to remember, I think this became a Proffit's department store by the next Summer.

Back when Wal*Mart was simpler times.

Wait. Hold up. WalMart would close at 9:30 back in 1992?! AND AT SIX PM ON SUNDAYS. I thought by the time we got this Walmart in the early 90s in Hampton, Walmart was running 24/7.

Phar-Mor was trying so hard to be lil Kmart or lil WalMart back then. They had so much drama with the way the place was ran I need to get into it soon. Here's just a quick summary from Tedium. Our store was near the mall, so mom never ventured over there, citing that area as "too busy".

I remember OW! I mean, we never went in there because I was 9, but I remember driving by it. The sign always made me uncomfortable because it was just a giant O and a giant W. Like the word "ow!" OW did not last long. It was a spinoff of the HQ hardware stores which I've mentioned before.

I found their logo! From an April 16, 1990 newspaper .

Four days later, there was this advertisment about the remaning stores becoming Office Max:

Here was our cell phone technology in 1992.

I didn't know we got the cardinal and mountain plates so early! I thought they were more from 1995.

Wait, is the "expandable free jug" the burp jug?!

Back in the Summer of 2008, I was about five seconds to a complete nervous breakdown. Well, this was around the time that my mom would watch American Justice every morning, I think they're the ones that Bill Kurtis would do the voiceovers for. So you know, that was absolutely GREAT for my messed up brain. The episode about the kidnapping of Exxon executive Sidney Reso really messed me up. After being shot and kidnapped from his driveway in April of 1992, he was locked in a small box in a storage unit. He died five days later and his body was dumped in a park. Irene received a 20 year sentence while her husband Arthur received a 90 year sentence. Hearing their disguised voices will send shivers down your spine.

Of all the cars to seal in Hampton, why an Isuzu I-Mark. For reference, this is an I-Mark, my mom drove it's copycat, the Chevrolet Spectrum at this time:

wikimedia commons

three.hundred.dollar.rollerblades, I mean Bauers.

I'm with S.M, I'd be mad as hell if I didn't have my Cathy. I've actually begun re-reading the strip again recently.

via GIPHY

OH MY GOD IT'S HAPPENING. The fist time jump in Funky Winkerbean history.

So, finally in the early Summer of 1992, the kids at Westview High finally graduate, and the strip jumps four years later to see them as straight out of college adults -- thus making them graduate in 1988 instead of 1992. Got that?

Too Legit to Quit? Really? How do you do, fellow kids?

This was part of some strange celebrity news insert I guess Daily Press did back then. This was here too:

welp, here's a kid playing with cockroaches with Ross Perot's face on it.

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[poisonbat]

i cant get over the name funky winkerbean

[dr-archeville]

Yes, this kind of attitude towards one of the most iconic and beloved characters in comics history is definitely healthy and good and doesn’t indicate any sort of deep-seated pathologies, at all!  Clearly this is the sort of person you want as [checks notes] the artistic director of your comic book company. 

Funky Winkerbean 2018/09/21. Commentary by The Comics Curmudgeon [source]

Also:

The thing with Funky Winkerbean is that I honestly have a hard time figuring out its narrative point of view sometimes.  You’d think that, when you have a plot where a group of comic book dudes get extremely pumped after coming up with a character called “Atomic Ape” who’s going to be a “Lone Ranger in space” (a real thing that happened in this strip), but then one of those dudes gets very upset when a lady suggests that “Atomic Ape” have a sidekick named “Charger Chip,” the point is that the dude is being dumb for getting upset about it!  But, like, also, the standard Funky Winkerbean party line is that Superhero Comic Books Are Good, and the world of superhero comics today is actually full of adult dudes who take their obviously goofy superheroes extremely seriously, and resist any attempts to make them not dark and gritty, especially when those attempts are seen as coming from or catering to women, so who knows!  Maybe we’re supposed to be rooting for Mopey Pete here!  How dare some woman try to water down the masculine majesty of Atomic Ape, the Lone Ranger of space?

Funky Winkerbean 2018/09/19. Commentary by The Comics Curmudgeon [source]

[dirtyriver]

Kids these days...