Get a life comic9/1/2023 ![]() ![]() “I wanted to end their story the right way.” “I wanted a proper ending for my characters,” he said. “I grew up with Harry Dinkle,” Young said, of the band director character in “Funky Winkerbean.” Young said he was in his high school marching band and knew the Dinkle character from the comic strip and from real-life experience.īatiuk assured Young that Dinkle was not gone for good, and told him to look for him to reappear in “Crankshaft” from time to time.Īt 75, Batiuk said he made the decision to end “Funky Winkerbean” because there was no succession plan in place for it. His fans found him, though, including Jeff Young, a philanthropic advisor for Kent State’s Center for Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement. He will continue to produce “Crankshaft,” with artist Dan Davis, which follows the life of a former minor league baseball player-turned school bus driver, a strip that was a spinoff of Winkerbean.īatiuk who earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Kent State in 1969, said he wasn’t quite sure whether his books would resonate with today’s college students when he arrived for the signing. Sharpie in hand, Batiuk quickly sketched the face of his famous character on the inside of Brondfield’s book as the pair chatted about art teachers who were mutual acquaintances.Įarlier this year, Batiuk announced that “Funky Winkerbean,” which he began on March 27, 1972, would end on Dec. The cancer journey and eventual death of Winkerbean character Lisa Crawford Moore was a finalist for a 2008 Pulitzer Prize. “Art teacher is a great job,” replied Batiuk, who worked as a junior high art teacher in Elyria, Ohio, before his career as a cartoonist took off.īrondfield, a junior from Mayfield, Ohio, majoring in computer information systems, was the first in line to get an autograph from Batiuk, who was at the University Bookstore on the Kent Campus Wednesday signing copies of his many books, including his most recent compilation of the “Funky Winkerbean” strip, “The Complete Funky Winkerbean Volume 12: 2005-2007,” published this year by Kent State University Press.įor 50 years, Batiuk has penned the adventures of the students and staff of the fictional Westview High School, following them through the decades as they aged and along the way dealing with serious subject matter such as teen pregnancy, suicide and alcoholism. “My mom’s an art teacher,” is how Kent State University student David Brondfield introduced himself to cartoonist Tom Batiuk, a Kent State alum and creator of the “Funky Winkerbean” and “Crankshaft” comic strips. ![]()
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