This week's Funky Winkerbean appears set to become the most realistic portrayal of the publishing industry in the funny pages since that guy in For Better or For Worse published his debut novel last fall. Now I can't wait until next July, when thousands of aspiring writers converge upon the Javits Center two months too late to score a book deal at "the BookExpo America." (And don't you just love that casual reference to the Javits, like everybody outside the tri-state area knows exactly what it is?)

Oh, wait: I overlooked the current Judge Parker storyline, in which the titular character makes one of his increasingly rare appearances to announce that he's written a crime novel and needs his lawyer pal to get him a bigger advance .

(Funky Winkerbean and Judge Parker are both distributed by King Features Syndicate.)