As an aside, around this time, I also took a shot at trying to syndicate a new strip called Dick and Jane with Gerry Shamray, once again on board as the artist. It’s revelatory because it’s a full-blown example of the kind of more adult writing I wanted to do if I could do it without any of the prior constraints or expectations that Funky carried. It soon joined the other nice tries in the aforementioned drawer, but it was an obvious indication of where my interests lay. It also made apparent the fact that any change would have to take place within the Funkyverse itself. I’d already started down that path and was constructing the armature from which I could hang these new stories. The next step would be to tackle stories of substance.
From The Complete Funky Winkerbean Volume Four
