Funky Winkerbean --- The Doobie Brothers of the funny pages?

[jon daly]

I see a thread about TV shows that changed during the runs. What about comic strips or bands?

Funky Winkerbean started in the early 70s as a gag a day strip, but it turned into a serio-comic soap opera. The main character became an alcoholic and his best friend lost his wife to cancer.

As for bands, I mentioned the Doobs because their sound changed when Michael MacDonald joined the band. But Fleetwood Mac may be a better example. They started out during the British blues craze of the late 60s, but went California with Bob Welch, then later Lindsey Buckingham.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Genesis ditched the 70s prog for 80s pop, because of personnel changes (Gabriel and Hackett departing), and Collins' solo smash success. Yes followed suit briefly with 90125, but tried without the same success to recapture the 70s sounds after that.

[jp the roadgeek]

The Beatles started out as a pop group, then went through an Eastern Transcendental phase after meeting Ravi Shankar, then a psychedelic hard rock phase later on before breaking up.

The Grateful Dead even went through a lot of different phases.  If you listen to their live recordings, you can kind of develop a sense of which year the recording is from. They started out as a psychedelic acid rock band (65-late 69), then went through a country/folk kind of phase with Workingman's Dead and American Beauty (late 69-70).  They then turned more straight rock (70-72) before going through a jazzy phase (73-74).  After a break in 75, 76 is a little more laid back and mellow, 77 is more smooth and polished with even a slight disco groove at times, while 78 tends to have a harder edge to it, along with middle eastern elements from their trip to Egypt that year.  A change in personnel in 79 brought them back to a more straightforward rock band, with a brief foray into the Top 40 mainstream in the late 80's (Touch of Grey). Plus it also has a lot to do with the keyboard player.  Pigpen was a bluesy hard-drinking type player, Keith Godchaux was more jazz/rock trained, Brent Mydland brought a Doobie Brothers type feel, and Vince Welnick was more of a new wave keyboardist, having played with The Tubes.     

[nexus73]

The Moody Blues' first hit was "Go Now".  It has nothing in common with the fusion of orchestra and rock band sounds that began with "Days Of Future Past".

Alice Cooper's first two albums (Pretties For You, Easy Action) showed him as a drag performer.  That in turn segued into the macabre style that he is still known for today.

Probably the most famous/infamous change in the rock era was Bob Dylan going from acoustic to electric.

Elvis was The King but he wore many musical crowns over the years. 

At least none of these artists were one hit wonders...LOL!

Rick

[PHLBOS]

Funky Winkerbean started in the early 70s as a gag a day strip, but it turned into a serio-comic soap opera. The main character became an alcoholic and his best friend lost his wife to cancer.

IIRC, the main characters of the strip were all high school age through the 1980s.  Then sometime during the 90s, it was almost as if somebody flicked a switch and all the characters aged at least 10 years in the next strip.

[jp the roadgeek]

The other interesting age progression in comic strips was For Better or For Worse.  It seemed to age the characters in real time, with all of the kids aging and going through high school, college, and then into young adulthood, with the parents also aging accordingly and dealing with the issues of aging.  All of a sudden, the strip reset and the kids were kids again. 

[jon daly]

The other interesting age progression in comic strips was For Better or For Worse.  It seemed to age the characters in real time, with all of the kids aging and going through high school, college, and then into young adulthood, with the parents also aging accordingly and dealing with the issues of aging.  All of a sudden, the strip reset and the kids were kids again. 

Yeah. I stopped following that once I stopped regularly reading the paper, but I remember The Comics Curmudgeon mention that.

Peanuts is sort of the reverse Funky Winkerbean. Some of the older strips were dark. Then came Woodstock.

[jon daly]

Things weren't really that simple, but I think that post'll do for an internet messageboard.

[PHLBOS]

The other interesting age progression in comic strips was For Better or For Worse.  It seemed to age the characters in real time, with all of the kids aging and going through high school, college, and then into young adulthood, with the parents also aging accordingly and dealing with the issues of aging.  All of a sudden, the strip reset and the kids were kids again.

One has to wonder if that reset was actually a recycling of older strips.  Similar to what's been done with Peanuts strips following Charles Schulz' retirement & death on Feb. 12, 2000.  His last original strip was published the day after his death.

[jeffandnicole]

Baby Blues has a similar progression and halt, although not as bumpy as the others mentioned.  It used to be the 2 kids, and over numerous years they've aged a few years at most.  Then the baby came along, and all the kids aged enough for the baby to crawl, but that's where they've stayed for a number of years now.

Many TV based cartoons have similar static timelines.   The Simpsons have occasionally offered subliminal or blatant references to their static ages over the 25+ years of the show's airing.

[PHLBOS]

Baby Blues has a similar progression and halt, although not as bumpy as the others mentioned.  It used to be the 2 kids, and over numerous years they've aged a few years at most.

Actually that comic started with just the one child, Zoe when she was a baby.

[Brandon]

The other interesting age progression in comic strips was For Better or For Worse.  It seemed to age the characters in real time, with all of the kids aging and going through high school, college, and then into young adulthood, with the parents also aging accordingly and dealing with the issues of aging.  All of a sudden, the strip reset and the kids were kids again. 

The author retired, and only does occasional strips; hence why the kids are young again.  These are reprints, much like Peanuts.

[jon daly]

Funky Winkerbean started in the early 70s as a gag a day strip, but it turned into a serio-comic soap opera. The main character became an alcoholic and his best friend lost his wife to cancer.

IIRC, the main characters of the strip were all high school age through the 1980s.  Then sometime during the 90s, it was almost as if somebody flicked a switch and all the characters aged at least 10 years in the next strip.

Yes. Then Let's wife Lisa died in 2007 and the strip flash forwarded again another 10 years.

[jon daly]

By the way, B.C. had a phase we're it had an Evangelical bent. I think that Johnny Hart was born again late in life. But the strip reverted back to its original tone when Hart's son took over.

[Mr. Matté]

Yet another real-life thing that I thought the Simpsons made up.

[jon daly]

I was just thinking about how Funky Winkerbean is tracing a similar arc that the TV version of M*A*S*H did. Both became more serio-comic as time passed.