Akron Life October 2022

YEARS 20

PAGES

R A D A R

by Avery Savage

AKRON LIFE CELEBRATES 20 YEARS!

THEN & NOW: FUNKY WINKERBEAN 2003: Several Northeast Ohioans fill the funny pages of newspapers, and Akron Life paid tribute to many

seen + heard

including Funky Winkerbean and then- Crankshaft collabo rators Chuck Ayers and Tom Batiuk. In 1972, Batiuk, a longtime Medina resident, launched Funky Winkerbean , and in the mid-’80s, he took it from daily gags to explorations of deeper issues such as teen pregnancy. In a rare turn for a comic strip, Batiuk aged his characters in a time jump in the early ’90s, taking them out of high school and into young adult life. “I started writing more about human beings,” he says. “I wanted to challenge my characters. Probably the most prominent was Lisa’s story.” She endured a breast cancer diagnosis, with strips depicting harrowing chemo therapy sessions and a mas tectomy while still finding reasons to laugh. Today: Funky Winkerbean

provided by Tom Batiuk

RUSH HERE One of the four Black players to break the race barrier in the NFL in 1946 finally got his due in Canton. This August, a bronze statue went up at Stadium Park memorializing Marion Motley, who started at McKinley High School in Canton and played as a linebacker and fullback for the Cleveland Browns in the ’40s under coach Paul Brown. The statue honors the Hall of Famer with a design by Canton artist Spyro Spondyl that features Motley running over derogatory signs such as “Cursed is the man who integrates.” Motley set records for rushing yards and was a part of five championship teams. With this statue, he will be remembered for generations to come.

SCARE TACTICS The Woman in Black terrifying people on Medina square, a witch in Liverpool Township, a teenage boy’s ghost haunt ing Plum Creek Park — ghost stories abound in Medina County. Northeast Ohio parapsychologist Brandon Massullo, who has researched ghostly encounters, penned a book, “Haunted Medina County, Ohio” (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99, released in August), examining the paranormal tales of the area. The book features the Spitzer House Bed and Breakfast, where guests have heard spirited voices, footsteps and unexplained music, and have given reports of poltergeist activity and full body apparitions. It gets you into the Halloween spirit with tales about several other allegedly haunted locales includ ing Cool Beans Cafe and Corkscrew Saloon. arcadiapublishing.com

celebrates 50 years, and Ayers and Batiuk are still collaborating. Lisa died in a shocking move for a comic, and Batiuk was a Pulitzer Prize final ist for her story in 2008. The strip underwent another time jump, cover ing challenging issues like chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and now the characters are older adults like Batiuk, who is 75. New syndicated strips continue to run today, showing characters navigating an uncomfort able high school reunion and the woes of aging on the pages of 300 newspa pers. Fans can find volumes of Funky Winkerbean in books sold through Kent State University Press. As pas sionate as always, Batiuk doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon or easing up on challenging storylines. “Having my characters grow up,” he says, “allowed me to find a different style of humor.” funkywinkerbean.com

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