Looks like Crazy Harry’s “dream job” is permanent after all, as he and Tête Moufette Morte John man a booth at Westview Comicon. Their customer is an Imperial Stormtrooper (and apparently the only one attending this event in costume).
Epicus Doomus
December 23, 2012 at 12:10 am
I remember the “deadpan stare” at the reader after the punchline, something that might make Act III a lot funnier than it is now. There’s certainly nothing to lose by trying it.
If TB is reverting to the “gag-a-day” format, that “deadpan stare” would be most preferable to John’s knowing, sidelong smirk in panel 3. The guy is just made of creepy.
Son of Stuck Funky 
What with this strip and TB blog it looks like we’ll be in for a full year of the adventures of John loves Harry loves Comic Books..Now we know that comics are the only love Harry has, What about you Tommy…is there anything serious going on in your life?
I know this makes me a loser, but this one made me smile. Last year my friends and I went to a convention in full cosplay for the first time, and we ended up dragging a costume-less friend to carry our stuff. Plus I just like the visual of those two creepy old farts conversing with a storm trooper.
I think my standards are so low I just like anything without Les and Caucayla.
later tonight will be the Furry meeting
If TB had ever actually worked a table at any type of convention, show, swap meet or flea market, he would know that “I’ll come back for it later” is code for “I am not buying this item.”
Well, this new all-comic-book-all-the-time format is a step up from cheesy melodrama, high school basketball and cancer books, I suppose. There’s been an obvious lightening of the tone with FW over the last year or so, I wonder if it’s a deliberate thing or just boredom. Or maybe BatTom just found that “How To Write Jokes” manual he misplaced all those decades ago. Sure, the old stuff was easier to snark on but I prefer this new, cancer-free direction, even if it’s just temporary.
I would have proposed that this gag involve a woman in Leia’s “gold bikini” costume from Return of the Jedi, but that wouldn’t have worked as Tom Batiuk is a) incapable of drawing an attractive female and b) apparently unaware that female geeks exist.
The part of today’s Panel 3 Dead Skunk Head will be played by a 15-year old boy.
More comic books? More Crazy Harry? Christ, wake me in 3 or 4 weeks when this storyline is over.
So is this flea market for selling comic books, or an opportunity for Dead Skunk Head to eyeball up-and-coming adolescent “talent?” Kind of like a scouting combine for Kid Touchers.
No offense, but this comic book crap is even more boring than band turkey sales.
So, Stormtrooper Guy just realized that he doesn’t have a wallet? What? He obviously came to this convention with the intention of buying stuff, but he…what? What?
Seriously, I think Batshit has just plain stopped caring.
Also, the New Year’s banner is freaking hilarious!
is this the big comic-con arck batty blogged about ?
My comment will have nothing to do with today’s strip. I just remember Act II Lisa and Les on some sort of hiking trip she wanted to go on – after she had the bad cancer and was bald and dying and stuff. They keep running into people on the hike and Les can’t stand to be reminded that he is a teacher and has to go back to that. His wife is dying and she is trying to experience life… and she is married to this incredible self centered asshole. Un fucking believable. TB wonders WHY his avatar is so reviled? Apparently he has never had to function with real people in the real world.
Yep, just what the average, non-ironic daily comic strip reader really cares about- hijinks at a comic book convention.
Ye gods, another smirk. It’s like someone dumped Smirkex in Westview’s water supply.
Hey stormtrooper, these aren’t the maladroits you’re looking for.
To paraphrase Popeye, that P3 smirk is disgustapatin’. The knowing glance… indicating that both he and Harry share some wicked, forbidden knowledge of where wallets can go when there’s nowhere else. They’ve seen it in such backroom-at-the-Korner films as “To Each His Own” and “Put It Where It Doesn’t Belong”. Trooper, do these comic books smell funny to you?
John: “So, Harry. Now that we’re here at the Comic Convention, selling your comics, what do you, a former postal employee who now works for me, John the comic book store owner?”
Harry: “I…uh….*….what was the question?”
John: “Mmm. I’m so glad your wife and children didn’t mind you dropping everything and coming to this convention with me. I know my wife and ageless stepson didn’t! Why, we didn’t even have to register you with the convention or get you a badge! We didn’t even have to pay to set up this booth! We just wandered in, unfolded the ol’ card table, and spontaneously began attracting the myriad cosplayers who shop while in full costume!”
Harry: “…I have a wife?”
John: “Oh, what a grand comical book convention this will be.” *superior smirk*
Harry: “…Tarzan?”
Lesson One: No matter what you’re wearing, ALWAYS have a place to carry your wallet, ESPECIALLY if you’re going to a con of some sort. I wasn’t wearing an especially elaborate costume to Ren Faire, but I did carry a wallet. The ATMs had a ridiculously high withdrawal charge, so I ended up spending all of my money on food and booze.
In terms of this comic, I think it’s just a bluff as an excuse not to buy it (see Jason’s comment)
Diva, Slutty Susan as Princess Leia would be an interesting plot line
Is there any chance in hell this could spur Disney to sue Tom Batiuk? Or maybe possibly buy out Tom Batiuk so we can actually get a decent Funky Winkerbean strip?
Hell, the stormtrooper could’ve been a woman if TB had any imagination, although I wonder how he’d reveal that without using absurd exposition. Maybe she could carry a purse!
“Here’s a twenty. Since this outfit doesn’t have any pockets, I jammed my billfold into my buttcrack,” says the stormtrooper.
John replies, “You have no idea what I can roll with, amateur.”
This is the sort of stuff Bat Hack writes when he’s completely out of ideas. Now that
Cathy has married IrvingGoatee Boy has married Crayola, what more can you write about them? I mean other than showing her beating the crap out of him.And now that the two “daughters” are at K*nt State, what can you write about THEM? Everyone knows their team stinks, so forget the pseudo-dramatic basketball arcs. And BatChicken doesn’t have the balls to write about either or both coming out of the closet.
So now he’s got nothing. Welp, time to stick with comic books for a while!
I can’t speak to the Westview comic con, but Dragoncon here in Atlanta brings out some of the freakiest people you’ll ever find.
@Señor Tortilla: Good and probably obvious advice.
I tried. I actually tried to like this strip. I tried taking it in isolation: the stormtrooper wallet joke is mildly amusing, after all. I tried to like the background characters, like Chinstrap Beard Guy in Captain America T Shirt (panel 2, right).
I failed.
I failed at the former because it’s impossible to forget Harry’s inexplicable employment history. It’s beyond my mental capacity to ignore the unintentional creepiness of totes Stinktier Kopf John. That leer, that lascivious smirk!
Speaking of smirks, I failed at the latter attempt to like the strip because then I noticed that Chinstrap Beard Guy in Captain America T Shirt was smirking. All the characters have that Batominc, palsied smirk, a smirk no human being with an intact neuromuscular system has ever produced.
So, just when I thought I could unironically enjoy a solitary FW strip, Batominc pulls me back in to the snarking!