Thomas Martin Batiuk (born March 14, 1947) is an American
comic strip creator
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...
, best known for his long-running newspaper strip ''
Funky Winkerbean''.
Career
Born in
Akron, Ohio
Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...
, Batiuk attended
Kent State University
Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in ...
, from which he graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, majoring in painting. He went on to teach art in junior high school. He put his experiences to use in his gag-a-day ''Funky Winkerbean'', which first appeared in print on March 27, 1972. With the success of the strip, he abandoned his teaching career, occasionally returning to the classroom to refresh his sources. He authored two spinoff strips, ''
John Darling,'' which ran from 1979 through 1990, ending with the death of the title character, and ''
Crankshaft'', which began syndication in 1987. These strips sometimes experience
crossovers.
Over the years, Batiuk's strips have taken on an increasing narrative continuity.
[Cavna, Michael (August 22, 2022).]
How 'Funky Winkerbean' became the darkest strip on the comics pages
. ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''. Starting in 1986, ''Funky'', and to a lesser extent ''Crankshaft'', sometimes abandoned humor to explore serious, even tragic subject matter.
[ ''Funky Winkerbean'' has been time-jumped twice, first aging the characters to their late 20s early 30s and a second jump pushed them into late middle age. Crankshaft was never jumped, but he is shown in crossovers to suffer a rather painful retirement.
His stories often involve strong drama elements combined with generally rosy outcomes or ending with a pun. They also show a strong belief in ]God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
, as well as sympathies for the American military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
. On the other hand, ''Funky Winkerbean'' dealt very critically with Intelligent Design
Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for its bold attempt to ...
,
Funky Winkerbean takes on ID
'. Richard B. Hoppe. 2004
'' 2004[Batiuk, Tom (September 1, 2004). ''Funky Winkerbean''.] ''Funky Winkerbean'' has dealt with teen suicide and breast cancer, the latter of which mirrored Batiuk's own wife's diagnosis and treatment.[ Batiuk was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for the comic strips involving breast cancer.][
]
Personal life
Batiuk lives in Medina, Ohio
Medina ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Medina County, Ohio, United States. The population was 26,094 at the 2020 Census. It lies about 33 miles (53 km) south of Cleveland and 23 miles (37 km) west of Akron within the Clevelan ...
.[
]
References
Further reading
* Strickler, Dave. ''Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index.'' Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. .
External links
Tom Batiuk Collection at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Art Database
American comic strip cartoonists
1947 births
Artists from Akron, Ohio
Inkpot Award winners
Living people
American people of Ukrainian descent
Kent State University alumni
People from Medina, Ohio
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