Beanie Wanker
December 6, 2012 at 7:22 am
…With Crazy Harry and his “library,” [Batiuk] aims for “quirky,” but hits “mentally ill.” Only a mere quarter inch away, in the Land of Reality, a guy who starts talking like Harry here would be brought in for psychiatric evaluation. I expect him to start carrying on conversations with these books, and maybe having sex with a couple of them.
And with that in mind, just be glad that today’s comic is only one panel…
The thing that most cheeses me off about this storyline is that if Batiuk had wanted to write a story about someone being unemployed, he could’ve written it about Susan last night after she’d quit her teaching job at Westview High. Susan is a more interesting character than Harry. Susan would not have received any unemployment benefits, and she’d probably have a tough time finding anything in her profession.
Instead, we get the saga of Harry, the Bitter Old Hippie, who probably should have realized his job was in jeopardy.
And I fear, to quote William Dozier (narrator and producer of the 1960’s Batman TV series), “The worst is yet to come!”
I’m guessing Harry’s off his meds since the voices in his head told him he’d gain super powers if he did.
The only way this could be funny is if the books started flapping their dustcovers and flying around the room, biting Crazy Harry to death, like with Ash in Evil Dead II or the Harry Potter “dangerous creatures” book. Instead, the books just huddle together like sausages awaiting their inevitable remaindering. Too bad, really–
Cos if reality was like Tom Batiuk thought it should be, well, then Les could make some horrible pun about…oh, who cares, it’d be about “ill-literacy” or the “death of books, from the other perspective” or how technological progress and the inability of today’s youth to appreciate artistes like Tom Batiuk leads to the death of all cultures and a near eternal darkness of several centuries. Hey, guess what, Tom Batiuk? That approaching darkness? I thought I saw you blowing out a bunch of those candles.
Yeah, it is sad, Harry…
Maybe if there were some government tax-subsided place where books could be kept for all the public at no fee..then maybe these books could have a good home.
But no…Harry knows that libraries are a Muslim terrorist plot by Kenyian born-Dictator B. Hussein Obama to turn America into a French speaking, cross dressing, atheist abortionists…………or
–so like any good patriotic CEO…he will downsize his books….. off to the furnace!!!!
“Still have valuable information”? “Some new company will hire you”? To use that hoary internet meme, Crazy Harry is Crazy.
What exactly is the point of this arc? If it’s about the burgeoning trend of people being laid off from long-held jobs, it fails miserably. Real people just don’t react this way. Not at all. If it’s simply about Harry finally diving off the Mental (as opposed to Fiscal) Cliff, then…whatever. Regardless, it’s neither funny nor insightful.
I’ve been re-reading Les Miserables lately. There’s a touching chapter in which a poor old man finds himself forced to gradually sell off his beloved collection of books in order to stave off starvation.
This arc is like what would happen if you ground up that chapter, fed it to a cow, took the manure, and dressed it up in Non Sequitur’s brand of heavy-handed social commentary.
Westview Oncologist: FWIW, most if not all the books donated to the libraries I’ve worked in wound up on the secondhand sale shelf. The donors mean well (and the used book room does provide some nice supplementary income for the library, so it’s still a nice gesture) but the demand for twenty-year-old craft books and a 10th copy of the Left Behind series just isn’t great enough to justify putting donation books in the collection–apart from logistical issues of condition, cataloging, etc.
I have to heartily disagree with ol’ Crazy here. What does Harry have to offer anyone? He spent his entire adult life delivering mail to the very same places he used to haunt during his misspent youth. He probably hasn’t even ever gone “two towns over” in his entire life. He can’t even sell his comic book collection correctly (the most valuable ones FIRST), in a town littered with comic book freaks no less. Plus he’s possibly brain damaged, too.
In fact, I’d argue that his crappy old books have MORE value than he does. They have entertainment value, they don’t jabber mindlessly to themselves and you can burn them for heat in a pinch, unlike a FW strip that goes up in like three seconds. I still don’t understand the point of him dumping his old crappy books no one wants if the goal was to raise money, but I often have no idea what FW is aiming for on any particular day so there you go.
Harry loves comic books. Harry loses his job and has to sell some of his collection. He has a sad. Two-plus weeks to tell THAT story…and only that story because unless this goes another week that’s where it apparently ends. Comic strip author = biggest racket going.
I don’t know about other areas, but here most secondhand bookstores DO NOT PAY MONEY FOR USED BOOKS. They merely accept donations, except for those cases where they have a special order from a trusted customer.
So what is Harry gaining from this? Other than a fleeting sense of power over inanimate objects?
Which is indeed creepy as heck, Tom.
TheDiva: Yes. And add to that the fact that these days, many city libraries have reduced inventory due to harsh budget cuts, as well as less staff and less hours to deal with any new additions.
Bat Hack pounded this ridiculous (and creepy) “CEO of the books” metaphor into the ground for what seemed like a month, just to lead up to what we all knew on Day One – Crazy was talking about his books but referring to himself. Duuuh.
Is it possible – at all – that BatBoy’s syndicate has pulled him aside and told HIM that his work has been consistently shitty long enough, and he might as well wrap things up because they’re pulling the plug? So whereas the books are a metaphor for Crazy, Crazy, in turn, is a metaphor for Tommy Tonedeaf himself? Why else would he spend a full two weeks on this tedious storyline? Just a thought.
Just as the US Army Express Courtesy Shuttle came to cart off Corky Wankerbean, the Rubber Truck will pull up and take Crazy away to the basement of Bedside Manor.
Oh shut up.
That’s quite a haul of books Harry has there. I sure hope the $25 he rakes in from it will keep his family out of dire straits for hours to come.
I think seeing Susan would be a better story, too. But beyond her strange lust for Les, we don’t know anything about her. In fact, I’m not sure we want to know much more about Susan, as she’s probably the type that might want to take up some sort of bizarre fetish.
You’ll love it at the “USPS retirement home,” Harry. You can smoke and watch TV in your bathrobe all you want. There’s also a whole library of books there you can give orders to.
I’ll bet Harry now regrets selling his two other children prematurely. At the very least, they could have helped load the books into the van, and they’d now be at the perfect age to fetch top dollar from DSH John. Two birds, am I right?
Sick jokes aside, where are your children, Harry? Can you stop insanely talking to those musty comic books long enough to think of your missing kids?
Can’t be bothered to care.
I’m not sure we want to know much more about Susan, as she’s probably the type that might want to take up some sort of bizarre fetish.
She’s living in someone’s basement dungeon as a leather baby.
Since you made me think of it, you’ll have to think of it too. You’re welcome.
John, I can understand a second-hand bookstore paying very little money for used books or giving store credit only… but taking donations? Who “donates” to a (theoretically) for-profit business?
Didn’t Mopey Pete have a moving sale of all his comic books a couple of months ago? I would think the Westview market is flooded. Maybe there is a triangular trade economy in Westview, between old comic books, high school paychecks, and Montoni’s pizza.
Here’s my predictions for next week’s strips.
Monday – Harry loads the boxes of books into his truck. Last panel: Harry looks sad in close-up.
Tuesday – Harry drives past the post office. Last panel: Harry looks sad and rueful.
Wednesday – Harry parks at the (inexplicably not closed) used bookstore. Last panel: Harry looks sad and tired.
Thursday – Single panel: Harry brings the boxes in to a sad-looking clerk.
Friday – Harry is offered 25 million dollars for his collection. Last panel: Harry looks happy.
Saturday – On the way out of the bookstore, clutching his bag of cash, Harry is struck and killed by a Hummer (driven by a Wall St banker). The bag of cash rolls into the sewer, where it washes away to the eternal, uncaring sea. Last panel: Close up of Harry’s hand, clutching the one Tarzan comic he decided to keep, as it unclenches in death.
Unseen panel has Donna and Maddie calling the Ohio State Mental Hospital.
S.P. Charles: People locally who have books they no longer want/have space for/are replacing with new or digital copies.
The local secondhand stores will accept such donations, as long as the books are at -least- in “fair” condition.
BeckoningChasm: I smell an Eisner.
If Crazy Harry is supposed to be the “Zonker” of Funky Winkerbean, he fails miserably. Zonker is funny.
You know, this arc could have worked, if TB had kept it at the “Crazy Harry’s Wife, aka Whoever, had objected SO MUCH to his accumulated stuff that he felt the need to dispose of it” level. Because in that context, I could KIND OF, SORT OF see it in the light of ComixPro’s opinion that this was just some guy giving up on a cherished dream to accommodate the “Trials of Marriage” scenario. That could work, you know, “I think it’s bad to keep all this ammunition around when there are now children around as well! Children who are stupid, ie. they were left behind!”
But then, I suspect he thought that the “govt workers firing govt workers” bit was too awesome to pass up…thanks Tom.
But again, John, who donates to a store? You donate your books to a library (if they want them), or a hospital or a school or a homeless shelter or a Salvation Army resale store, or give them away on Freecycle; but give them away to a commercial store? Doubtful.
I think we’re talking about different things.
How are you defining “commercial store”? Because I said “secondhand bookstores” and “secondhand stores” in both my posts, all of which in my area are strictly Mom & Pop deals. Are you talking about regional and national chain stores?