Tom Batiuk showcases his roots as the Funkyverse expands
In this latest volume, Tom Batiuk continues to explore the roots of comic books and newspaper comic strips and provides unique insight into the evolution of his own creative process. Beginning five years after the strip’s most recent time-jump, the Funky gang are now in their late forties and raising teenagers of their own. Batiuk continues the Starbuck Jones storyline from the previous volume, as Holly searches for the final five issues of the comic book to send to Cory in Afghanistan. Elsewhere, there is a memorable class reunion, the character of Mason Jarr is introduced, and the cast decamps to Hollywood as Lisa’s Story is about to be adapted into a movie.
Tom Batiuk is a graduate of Kent State University. His celebrated Funky Winkerbean comic strip concluded its 50-year run on December 31, 2022. Its spinoff, Crankshaft, is still carried in almost 500 newspapers throughout the United States. Batiuk was a finalist in the cartooning category of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize awards for the series of daily comic strips that chronicled the death of longtime character Lisa Moore, which were collected in the Lisa's Legacy Trilogy. His Funky Winkerbean series and Roses in December were finalists for the 2016 Eisner Awards.
