Funky Winkerbean
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Funky Winkerbean is a comic strip created by high school teacher Tom Batiuk which debuted on March 26, 1972.
The strip is centered around Westview High School and initially focused on four students: Funky, Cindy, Les and Lisa. The students graduated and now Funky co-owns the local pizza parlor with Tony Montoni, Les teaches English at Westview and is married to Lisa, and Cindy Summers is a newscaster. The strip follows their stories as well as a new generation at Westview, including Wally, Becky, and Monroe. Characters who work at the school include Principal Fred Fairgood, band director Harry L. Dinkle, and Cliff the security guard.
In 1992, Batiuk changed the strip's format. It was established Funky, Les, Cindy, et al. had graduated from Westview in 1988; their college years were skipped, and the storyline moved to 1992. At the same time, the characters started to age with the reader. In fact, Funky married Cindy in 1998, but they are now divorced. Les and Lisa were married in a Halloween-themed 1996 story where they were dressed as Batman and Robin.
While the strip is humorous, Batiuk has used it to tackle issues such as teen pregnancy, suicide, dyslexia, gun violence, and breast cancer.
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 second to last strip. In Funky Winkerbean, Les Moore wrote a book on Darling's murder and solved the case in a 1997 storyline.
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.
External links
- Funky Winkerbean at King Features (http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/fwinker/about.htm)
- Toonopedia entry (http://www.toonopedia.com/funky.htm)