Naturally, anything called “Merchant’s Day” would have to feature the only two functioning businesses in Westview. What I don’t get is how cavalierly John runs his comic book shop. Here are a couple of potential customers who, yeah, might not read comics themselves, but might know people who do and thus might buy gifts, and John can’t even be bothered to look up. Isn’t he perpetually behind in his rent payments? Isn’t the entire town continually strapped for cash? Does he not want to even try to make money? Look at the expression on his face: it just screams “Get out of my shop. Get out of my shop. If I don’t look up maybe they’ll just go away.”
Besides, given the fact that John frequently proselytises everyone about the art and value of comic books, you would think in his world there wouldn’t be anyone who wasn’t a potential fan, just waiting to have him open up a whole new world for them. Yet here he doesn’t even try.
Yes, I do know that the words “try” and “attempt” and “strive” and so forth are considered curse words in Westview, but the continual avoidance of those activities is just so. Damned. Wearying.
…come to think of it, this particular episode seems to sum up Funky Winkerbean in a nutshell. “Look…here’s something.” Lady, if you only knew how wrong you are. “Never mind…this isn’t a store.” You know what else it isn’t? A joke. The joke is right here, and it’s on us.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Even for natives of Westview, these women are idiots on so many levels I’m not even going to list them.
Is “Merchants Day” a thing? Anywhere? I’ve heard of arts fairs and food festivals and nearly any excuse a city can come up with to put up a bunch of pavilions in the middle of town, but that one is new to me.
@TFH – Wow, I thought that was a game that Owen and Alex were playing. So they’re just staring at a big poster and pointing game controllers at it?
Hey it’s Hat Boy sitting with chubby Goth Girl. Someday they will 40 years old living in that apartment together.
Um…what exactly did these two women think they were going to see going to a place called Komix Korner? Did they think this was some fancy new stand up comic club? More, importantly, considering at least one of these women has been to this godforsaken town before..you would think they already know what DSH’s John’s shop has to offer. Idiotic. Truly Idiotic. The logic in this strip sometimes….
Me from NJ
We’ve been mentioning here recently that the only two stores we ever see are Montoni’s and the comic shop. So naturally on a day named Merchant’s Day those are the only two stores we see people go into. Mr. Batiuk, this was a perfect chance to show us that this is a town people actually live in.
And I get the feeling we’re about to see another week of how important and literary comics are. It wasn’t delivered well years ago during the ridiculous arc when a brain dead prosecutor ruined their career trying to close the store and it isn’t going to be delivered well now.
I’m surprised Tom “Wall ‘O Text” Batiuk didn’t go with the punchline: “Never mind, this isn’t a store worth climbing man-eating stairs for.”
The Anon-O-Ladies are right though, aren’t they? It ISN’T a “store”, not really. Yes, business does take place there on occasion but mostly it’s an elaborate tree fort for DSH to lazily leaf through his funny books and fraternize with local high school losers while he hides from his wife, who’s out working during the day…for now, that is. Typical Westviewian, doing his (chosen) job blithely and poorly, just like they all do.
“Merchant’s Day”…so what are visitors supposed to do with the other 23 hours and 55 minutes of the day? Once you see Montoni’s, the Korner, Khan’s and the travel agency what else is there? I actually feel bad for the Anon-O-Ladies, they had to be pretty freaking desperate for something to do to climb those stairs and enter THAT place.
@Epicus – well, there’s also a Sprawl-Mart nearby, apparently; there’s also some party-supply store that doesn’t have any decorations anyone actually wants, and there’s “Jitters” which is some coffee place.
That’s probably another twenty minutes right there. Maybe even fifty, if Sprawl-Mart and its greeters convince people there are things worth looking at, and possibly buying. Yes, that’s a long shot, but at Sprawl-Mart, “hope never dies, it just coughs a lot before it collapses!”
Don’t forget that Sprawl*Mart has a Barstucks in it with way better coffee than Jitters.
After reading, FW, I always read a few pages of a Russian novel to cheer up.
It’s not a store, it’s a grooming place for potential victims of a pedophile.
Good Eye TFH on the Citizen Kahns window.
DSH pays FW rent becasue FW owns the building that DSh/KK is in.
‘ZEN ‘N’s is in the same building at DSH
FW owns the space where Kahn is.
Hey TB… ever take a logic class at KSU.
………typical TB…zero thought
I will take the road not chosen here, and allow TB some props for mocking his own tiny universe. However, it really is curious that Khan set up shop next door to Montoni’s and promptly fell into a black hole. He must sit behind the counter every day, wondering when Westviewites will develop enough bravery to try falafel, or other scary Middle Eastern fare.
The stupidest part of this strip is that the merchants seem to be having this “Merchant’s Day” during Labor Day weekend, when many folks are out of town. My brain hurts!
Rusty, he’s not mocking his universe. He’s showing us how EVIL and WRONG those women are so we can learn about the holiness that is comic books.
“Is ‘Merchants Day’ a thing? Anywhere?”
My little village near a big city in Silicon Valley, Calif. holds a “sidewalk sale” on a Saturday morning every summer. The “business district” is 2 blocks long & the stores set up tables out front full of discounted items, free samples of food & drink & flowers, brochures with coupons, etc. I went once but it was too hot & crowded. People do seem to enjoy it & it’s been running for years. Of course, our 2 blocks have a lot more to offer than FW’s moribund little burg does.
I assume that Sprawl-Mart is located on the very outskirts of Westview, probably somewhere in the vicinity of that motel Frankie was staying at. Every other business in town is located on Main St. aka “The Montoni’s District” aka “the boulevard of shattered dreams” aka “Ennui Avenue”.
I always pictured Khan’s as being across the street from Montoni’s for some reason. Pretty strange how’s it’s actually RIGHT NEXT DOOR to Montoni’s like that, no? Likewise strange that despite being right there, we almost never see Khan, except in rare background scene appearances.
So Boy Lisa’s apartment is located above TWO restaurants and next to a comic book store, eh? You know what they say re: real estate: the top three factors are location, location and location. I guess they just learn to get used to the stink coming from their malodorous neighbors, you know? And those two restaurants probably contribute to the smell too.
You know….I think Sesame Street had more active business locals than Westview.
Even before that short-lived “Around the Corner” charade, Onc.