Funky Winkerbean is not a comic strip I would ever associate with controversy, but nevertheless, it appears controversy has glommed on to it all the same. The Daily Cartoonist is reporting that a recent strip involving what looked like a U.S. soldier being blown up by an IED, only to have it turn out to be a video game the next day, has led to some rather angry readers. Both the Columbus Ledger Inquirer in Georgia and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska received irate phone calls over the strip, feeling it was insensitive to servicemen currently in Iraq. Cartoonist Tom Batiuk has since issued an apology, which you can read by clicking on any of the above links.
via Tom
February 28th, 2007 at 9:52 am
what the hell is wrong with people when they cant understand the meaning behind the strip? 1) these are kids out there, kids
2) do you not understand the poignancy of the last panel?
3) all the complainers need to learn how to use their heads
February 28th, 2007 at 10:09 am
I was more upset at the notion that Wally was about to die. What he and his fellow soldiers were doing is exactly what real soldiers are doing to blow off steam in Iraq.
February 28th, 2007 at 10:15 am
The soldiers in Iraq play video games. There have been drives that collected games and systems to send them. And the games the soldiers request most are military first person shooters.
The comic that people are getting so upset about is a scene that happens every day in real life.
February 28th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Batiuk should also apologize for shamelessly baiting what remains of his audience by killing/not killing Wally like that.
FUCK YOU, Batiuk.
February 28th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Yes, because that one panel of tension before you found out what really happened is such a gigantic lie. How dare he lead you on for such an incredibly long time, upwards of two seconds, before revealing what was actually happening.
I say we get some torches and head to his house.
February 28th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Thats Fairbanks, Alaska…not Arkansas
February 28th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Duly noted and corrected Mycroft, thanks.