Funky Winkerbean Creator Takes Death Head On

I've been along-time fan of Tom Batiuk's Funky Winkerbean, and I'll confess that even I wept a tear at Lisa's death from breast cancer week before last.

So I'm a little taken aback at the controversy surrounding the fictional events leading up to her death.

I guess people still don't want to face death, and would prefer that their "funny pages" remain funny -- never mind the fact that so many of them stopped being "funny" years ago, and never mind the fact that in the early days of the comic strip they contained long story lines in which people suffered -- and died -- with depressing regularity.

But what surprised me the most were the people who issued non-negotiable demands that their local newspaper drop the strip.

Jesus, people, if you don't like it, then don't read it. It's the same with censorship of books, movies, television, the Internets, etc. etc. Just because you don't want to read it, don't even think of telling me that I can't read it, either.