Not only is John likely paying a mere pittance for Crazy Harry’s treasured comics; he’s standing idly by as Harry make multiple trips up and down the stairs, schlepping the heavy boxes that contain his collection. The former postie appears to be more than up to the task: he’s got enough wind left to bemoan his sorry fate at length.
31 thoughts on “Box of Strain”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
Meanwhile over at Kent….Summer and super K need fishstick Annie:
December 9, 2012
Kent, Ohio – Despite staging a huge 16 point comeback to end the first half, Kent State (1-8) couldn’t hold off Western Kentucky (7-2) at the M.A.C. Center Sunday afternoon.
“Well, gosh, that’s kind of a shame Harry, because all I can offer you is store credit…which means you’ll buy all this stuff back again, only you’ll barely be able to get a third of it. If I’m generous.”
DSH: “Well, Crazy Harry, I’m about to pull some Deus Ex Machina out of my ass and tell you that just ONE of your comics would bring six figures alone!
Wow, look at that hand-drawn “sign” on the door. A grown man operating a business with a hand-drawn paper sign taped to the door is just sad. Seriously, don’t they have printers in Westview yet? I mean if you were from out of town and you drove into Westview to sell your comic collection at the Korner, wouldn’t that sign just creep the hell out of you?
Nice of John to (apparently) give Harry pause to consider something…AFTER he’s hauled many boxes of comics up a flight of stairs. Before probably would have worked just as well, but that’s not how they roll in Westview.
So will DSH launch into a soliloquy about the importance of hoarding your comic books til death because they’re a link to an innocent time and yadda yadda yadda? Will he simply admit that he has nowhere near enough money to pay for the collection? Will he offer Harry a “job”? Will the comics actually be worth enough to allow Harry to retire for real? Or will something much, much more boring and stupid happen?
I’m with you Doomus. This is same DSH who had to have a bailout to keep his shop going 2 1/2 years ago. Most likely he doesn’t have enough money to pay Crazy what the comics are legitimately worth. Arrrrgh!
The only thing that makes this arc interesting is if Crazy’s dismembered wife and kids are in the boxes.
Honestly, every single shop owner I know who deals with donations/resales:
“What the fuck am I supposed to do with all this shit?”
Followed by small talk with the SO:
“Well, [Crazy Harry] had me save him a trip to the dump today, the shithead.”
Isn’t this the second Grateful Dead reference in a post title in recent months? I seem to remember Scarlet Begonias or something not too long ago.
As for the comic, are they talking about books or the love that dares not speak its name?
Pieces of his soul? Aw shaddup. What an aging drama queen. Christ, are there about 20 boxes of this shit? In that case, there might be a whole five dollars in it for Beardo.
Again, hate the flowery speech from Mailboy. Are we supposed to be impressed that someone so articulate, so poetic, is content to live the simple life of a mailman? Because, really, he comes off like a guy who has SOME sort of intelligence, but threw all his potential away by taking drug and generally being a lazy ass. Does not make for a likable character. So what IS Crazy Harry without his comics and his mail route? Maybe Pop Winkerbean’s next roommate.
@davidnorth: DSH will get six figures for the comic, Crazy will get one figure.
More like one digit…
And this collection doesn’t look too much smaller than the one DSH said he couldn’t buy from Creepy Pete.
I’m starting to sense something big here. This nonsense from Crusty has gone on way too long. The time may be hard upon us when Tombat takes on the biggest non-issue of FW’s 200 year history – Murder.
Pookster reminds us that again, Batiuk focuses on the most boring characters while Cory is in the Army, Summer and Keisha and possibly Maddie in college and who knows what all happening with the rest of that generation. After the discussion of the time-jumps yesterday i realize that the first time-jump was done specifically to avoid the college years for the initial cast, and ergo Batiuk has nothing to say about that time period again. It makes sense; he’s the guy who still “hangs out” at his old high school doing “research”, and makes a big week’s strips out of Les visiting Kent State.
I have no idea what John’s about to say or do, but I have a feeling it’s going to make the end of It’s a Wonderful Life look like a hard-hitting drama.
The “time jump” stuff is nonsense. Didn’t the banner at the senior prom say “2012” on it? Was the theme of the prom “Nostalgia” then? There have been no time jumps.
I think it’s the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who at work. They keep capturing the original cast and dragging them back ten years or so. They must have gotten Harry about three times, Funky and Bull twice, while Les and Comic Head John – easily TB’s favorite characters – only got it once.
All evidence has that DSH John is running on a shoestring budget and can’t afford to buy comic book collections. That, or John is too busy paying the police officers of Westview not to look in his basement when investigating the disappearance of teenagers.
@ BC: There was no “year” reference on the reunion banner from November 2008. It just said “30 Year Reunion”…thus making them the Class of 1978.
This would be about right excpet that Wally was a POW for 10 years and they all look/act like they are in their 60’s
@Merry – I meant the recent senior prom arc. I think someone pointed out the prom banner said “2012” on it. Either that, or the graduation around the same time said “Class of 2012.”
In either case, Funky’s not flying around in a jetpack so the time-jumps still make no sense, especially since TB keeps referencing last year’s real-life events.
And once again we see that the only emotion that exists in Westville is maudlin self pity.
I can’t help shake the feeling that Crazy, and by extension Batuik is learning (or has learned) the wrong lesson from this. First of all these books are things. I’ll freely admit things are nice, you may even love your things but they can’t love you. They are just things. We have seen that Crazy is emotionally stunted unable to relate to his wife (who wishes he’d look at her like he does at his fking Tarzan books) – and there is no real relationship between him and his kids – or kid I’m not sure of the number which is a bad sign.
And there is evidence that, despite the odds, people do love and care about Crazy, Funky managed to drag himself away from his pizza joint to see how he was doing and even kept track of what was going on. And there is of course his long suffering wife. (Les of course is nowhere to be found – which speaks volumes as well).
So does Crazy go and seek their help? Their comfort? No His pisses and moans about losing his books. In the process pushing the very people that could help (as best they could we are talking about Funky here)
We are supposed to feel sorry for Crazy because he is so tore up about losing these books but that’s really just a symptom of his deeper problems.
Side note – Many years ago in the course of my life I’d lost my job and in a spiral from that lost my apartment, and pretty much everything I owned except for some clothes and few things that fit in a suitcase. In the course of that leaned a lot about what’s really important. With help, I was able to put my life back in order and I’m once again the pleased owner of a complete set of the Heckler comic book along with other things but in the end they are just things.
Les is just P.O’d that in Crusty’s myriad books, there is not one copy of “Lisa’s Story.”
Oh, what rotten luck! Crazy has to part with the possessions of his misspent youth and start acting like an adult. Why, at this rate, he may end up having to act like a husband toward his wife, and like a father to his child(ren?). What a nightmare!
John doesn’t know that Crazy’s going to give all that money he gave him for his collection to the Tea Party. The Tea Party is so conservative they wouldn’t want him to sell half of the materials Crazy gave him. Certainly not Crazy’s collection of old Playboys and softcore porn videos. Crazy needs to be honest with John 🙂
This comic New Year’s, see Harry make out with the ghost of his comics.
Yes @ BC: The banner for Summer’s graduation did say Class of 2012
Harry: “So, how much will you give me for my comics?”
John: “Eh. None of this is stuff from earlier than 14 months ago. All of it is stuff I already have in stock. Um. Well, I can allow you to leave it here?”
Harry: “WHAT?!?”
John: “But, if you’d like to make an offer on some of my furry porn, I can give you a discount!”
Who here remembers the big deal that was made of Slumber and Karneesha going off to K*nt State to be basketball phenomenon? Show of hands…? Tombat, your hand isn’t up. What? You don’t remember that? No, they are at K*nt State, NOT living at home with Jess and Boy Lisa. Why don’t we take a break while we help BatHack catch up with what he has “written” over the past year.
Should be “basketball PHENOMS.” Goddam autocorrect.
Cindy is still embedded
One almost gets the impression that over the course of the year the author just became bored with the whole thing and stopped trying to “advance” his usual Act III story lines. 2012 has been the “lightest” year in recent memory. Yes, he dragged Lisa’s corpse around a few times via those awful tapes, but all in all this year has been decidedly less grim than previous ones. Whether that’s intentional or not, who knows? Not that I’m complaining about the lack of morbidity or the numerous stupid story threads that were dropped, just pointing it out is all.
I kind of wish that Tom Batiuk would pull the “serious” card for our amusement. Just imagine the possibilities!
– John gets busted with child porn. A long courtroom battle continues, and after Skunkhead gets hauled off to the Ohio State Penitentiary, Crazy takes over Komix Korner and continues his love affair with Tarzan comic books.
– Crazy Harry goes “postal” and offs a few extra characters.
– Summer returns home pregnant. All the sordid details revealed over the next few weeks!
– Cayla and Nate have an affair.
– Les is revealed to be into necrophilia (as for the “necro”, take a guess)
Summer pregnant? How would THAT happen? Knowmsayin’?