First, I want to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed both of your strips, “Crankshaft” and “Funky Winkerbean,” over the years. I know that this letter will have no effect on the final outcome you have already created for your characters – and I do realize that they are YOUR characters. That said, effective today, I have stopped reading “Funky Winkerbean.”
It’s an open secret that both of these strips mirror much of your personal life, with FW almost being a bio for you. Whether by accident or design, you created characters that resonated with me, especially Lisa Moore. Lisa’s battle with breast cancer, teen pregnancy and subsequently giving up the child for adoption, getting her law degree and deciding to have a child with her husband, Les, while her cancer was in remission were acts that created a courageous character. She, not Funky, not Les, not Tony, is was the reason I read your strip.
We know you were diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in 2003 that gave you a life expectancy of ten years, so you bought Lisa’s cancer back to kill her. Your characters – your choice and I respect that. Your cancer went into remission. Lisa’s will not and I understand that. Then I read of your plan to age your characters by ten years after Lisa’s death next year so you can see “…how the characters in Funky Winkerbean carry on without Lisa, how their stories unfold in the future.” And this is where I have a problem.
We all know that death is the final outcome of life, but what you plan to do is no different than the infamous “Women in Refrigerators syndrome.” This is where you kill off or maim a main female character JUST so that the male character (Les) can “grow.”
Mister Batiuk, you’re better than that or at least I hoped you were. Lisa didn’t have to survive to the end of your strip, but you’ve made her death pointless now, no matter how poignant you make it, by invoking “WIR” again (previously Becky lost her arm, so Wally joined the army to serve in Afghanistan and Iraq).
You write great, serious stuff concerning characters I’ve come to care about. I’ll miss them, but right now they’re too toxic for me so I have to let them go. Thank you for the great strips I’ve enjoyed and I hope your health continues to improve so you, hopefully and finally, can give your characters the peace your personal life seems to be denying you.
Warmest regards,
Bill (still a fan of the exploding barbeque grill gag in “Crankshaft.”)
On July 22 ETA: Messers Steve Alaniz, Francesco Marciuliano & Craig MacIntosh get it. Why don’t you?
copyright King Features 2007