Speaking of books and pizza, another interesting Funky book was published around this time. The publisher of a pizza industry trade magazine called Pizza Today got in touch, wanting to put together a collection of all of the Montoni’s pizza strips that I had done, and shortly thereafter a book titled A Pizza Pilgrim’s Progress was born. Montoni’s and its owner Tony Montoni had been a fixture in Funky from the very early days. I don’t know precisely what sparked me to add a pizzeria initially other than it made a good place for my high school characters to hang out, much like the already dated Pop Tate’s Chock’lit Shoppe in Archie. I suppose updating things was a valid enough reason, but Montoni’s soon grew beyond that simple premise, taking on a life of its own on its way to becoming a major support beam in the strip.
From The Complete Funky Winkerbean Volume 8
