Over the last 15 years, I’ve engaged in a one-sided love-hate relationship with Tom Batiuk’s comic strip, “Funky Winkerbean.” If you search this site, you’ll find occasions where I expressed my frustration/ disappointment and even sometimes disgust with the way Mr. Batiuk handled/ tortured or abused 
his characters. But at the end of the day, I always acknowledged that they were indeed his characters to do with as he pleased.
On 18 November 2022, the website, Cleveland.com announced that Tom Batiuk would be ending his Funky Winkerbean strip on December 31. 2022 after more than 50 years. Despite my feelings about how Mr. Batiuk handled his characters, I’ll be sorry to see the strip end.
Over the last couple of decades, Funky Winkerbean has engaged in storylines that often just crashed to ground like an acorn dropped from an oak tree. It would be great if Mr. Batiuk managed to close any of these storylines loopholes. Need an example? Here’s a couple:
– Les Moore (Batiuk’s avatar) gets a phone call at the airport from his dead wife, Lisa, telling him not get a plane that is doomed to crash. How did that happen?
– During August 2015, Les Moore promised his 2nd wife, Cayla, that he’d take her to Paris, after first promising to take her to Hong Kong. He never takes his second wife to either spot confirming that she is second best in his heart. Did Les and Cayla ever take any of these trips?
– Adeela was a Afghan immigrant who was saved from deportation by former President Clinton (yeah, I know it defies belief). She was working as a manager in the town’s only pizza shop owned by the titular character, Funky Winkerbean. What happened to her and her family? Speaking of Afghanistan, is Khan still alive?
– What happened to Zanzibar, the Scotch-drinking, cigar-smoking, talking pet chimp who killed starlet Valarie Pond at silent movie star, Butter Brinkel’s house?
– How did Ed Crankshaft, who was infirmed, in a nursing home and wheelchair in 2017 miraculously recover to the point he’s able to convince Cindy and Mason to tour and buy a theater to be run by Crankshaft’s grandson. What happened?
Now I seriously doubt Mr. Batiuk will resolve these or any other stones he turned over, but man, I wish he would.
Batiuk will continue to work on his other strip, Crankshaft and has promised (or threatened, depending on your point of view) to occasionally revisit his Funky Winkerbean characters. Like I said, I never liked the way he treated his characters. He abused, maimed, and killed them off seemingly on a whim. They were conveniently stupid or super smart depending on the story. However, they ARE his to do with as he pleases and I wish him well with future endeavors. May his characters finally get the peace they deserve.
Interesting assessment. I wonder what led him to leave so many storylines dangling
I honestly don’t know. The story is complete in his mind, but the readers remain lost trying to follow incomplete threads. Again, thanks for reading.