Editing Funky Winkerbean (section)

==Comic book connections==
Batiuk's neighbor, comic book writer [[Tony Isabella]], occasionally appears in the strip as himself. Another comic book creator, superhero artist [[John Byrne (comics)|John Byrne]], drew ten weeks of the strip while Batiuk was recovering from foot surgery and has appeared in the strip himself as a character.

Batiuk also occasionally parodies covers of classic Silver Age comics to comment on storyline elements in the strip itself. This is usually done in the Sunday comic and features a cover and a current storyline being highlighted. An example is the October 27, 2013 strip, which featured the cover of Superboy Volume 1, #57. This cover showed the title character playing many positions in baseball, highlighting the then-current storyline where Bull Bushka is Westview High School's Athletic Director, Girls Basketball Coach, and was named the school's head football coach.

[[File:Bandbox.png|thumbnail|right|210px|The band box at Luigi's (Akron, Ohio), the restaurant that Montoni's is based upon.]]
Montoni's Pizza is modeled after Luigi's, an Italian restaurant and pizzeria in downtown [[Akron, Ohio]]. There is a framed and signed ''Funky Winkerbean'' strip hung in the restaurant. The band box frequently shown in the interior of the shop above the entrance is an actual fixture in the restaurant.<ref name="lr110725"/><ref name="fw110629"/>

After the second time skip, Batiuk designed the comic book store around the shop he frequents, Ground Zero Comics and Cards in [[Strongsville, Ohio]].  [[Captain America's shield]] that is frequently shown in the background is on the mantel in the shop.

The character Harry L. Dinkle, the self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Band Director," is based on the director of [[The Ohio State University Marching Band]]. Professor Dinkle is based on a composite of past directors Dr. Paul Droste and Dr. Jon Woods. In addition, a 2006 article from the ''Cleveland Free Times'' asserts that Harry L. Dinkle is based on Harry Pfingsten, a retired band director from [[Avon Lake, Ohio]], who was the band director of the junior high school that Tom Batiuk attended. In 1989, Harry L. Dinkle was the first comic strip character ever to "march" the [[Tournament of Roses]]
[[parade]]. [[Dinkles]], a brand of shoe designed for marching bands, is named after the character and claims to have been endorsed by Dinkle since 1986.<ref name="dinkles"/>