Hi snarkers! Oddnoc here. I wish I could could say we’re in for a thrilling treat this week, but we’re reading Funky Winkerbean. That makes us the worst reading club in America.
Today’s strip features a—wait for it!—pun! Oh my gosh! A pun in Funky Winkerbean—I can hardly restrain my glee.
You don’t see the pun, you say? Er, it’s in panel 3. No, not in Harry’s speech balloon. It’s in DSH’s. “Nick the Geek.” Still no?
Maybe that’s because the pun is based on the name of guy who died on Christmas Day 1966, 47 years ago, Nick “the Greek” Dandolos. The guy was born in the 19th Century, so this fits right in with Funky Winkerbean’s focus on “contemporary issues affecting young adults.”
Son of Stuck Funky 
For someone who enjoys comic books so much, Batiuk sure enjoys portraying the microcosm built around them as a seedy, frightening place inhabited by miserable losers.
It’s pretty funny how Holly thus far seems to have learned nothing whatsoever about “SJ” or the world of comic books in general. You’d figure she’d search online for “SJ” info and prices and local shops and such but nope, she’s going the “old fashioned” route and cluelessly wandering into comic book stores totally unprepared instead. Great plan there, Holly, as everyone knows that being a befuddled moron and dealing with nefarious scumbags is half the fun of collecting things.
Comic books (old ones) are an incredible escape into a world of fantasy and blah blah but the people who sell them are either useless losers or cutthroat scumbags. Got it. So they’re kind of like hallucinogenic drugs in a way. Anyhow, it seems that DSH isn’t much of a comic book guy at all, nor much of a pal either, as he’s sending Holly off to deal with some weirdo intent on robbing her blind. I would have tried Ebay first, but whatever. I guess that wouldn’t have the same (guffaw) impact as “real life” comic book stores do.
And we get to see the problem with the entire thing. It’s trying to create drama out of something that has no drama.
I like to think that isn’t Holly, but one of those life-size cardboard cut-outs you see in video stores and things. And DSH has been talking to it, non-stop, since before Christmas. His breath is so fetid that it sometimes warps the cardboard, which is why “Holly” seems to shift position every now and then.
“And we get to see the problem with the entire thing. It’s trying to create drama out of something that has no drama.”
And a business with no business plan.
It seems that DSH could have a customer if he told her that he would have the book for her in a few days and make the process look mysterious.
I guess Montoni’s must use the same business plan, When customers come in to order food, send them to another place or call and have it delivered.
But then, this is the parallel universe of the Westview ghetto.
“Anyhow, it seems that DSH isn’t much of a comic book guy at all, nor much of a pal either, as he’s sending Holly off to deal with some weirdo intent on robbing her blind.”
When somebody says “Trust me” or tells me how bad everybody else is, I reach for my wallet and check my watch.
How can a comic book store be “rough”? Is it outside in a tree fort? Does the proprietor walk around in ass-less chaps?
C’mon. Can Nick the Geek really be any more creepy and revolting than DSH John or Crazy Harry are? The mere fact that Nick lives outside of Westview qualifies him as being more normal than most of the characters in this strip.
BTW if Nick the Geek happens to be Greek, I’m filing a defamation suit against Batiuk.
“And by ‘geek’ I mean that literally. Nick bites the heads off of live chickens in front of his customers and was once attacked by Freddie Blassie. Maybe instead Cory would like a copy of the reprinted 12-issue Woody Allen Adventures collection that Crazy is stocking.”
‘You don’t mean…”
“Yes – Nick the Geek”
Holly go on line – use e-bay.
Looking forward to the Canton Chamber of Commerce sending TomBat a cease and desist letter, or maybe even suing him for defamation.
“Looking forward to the Canton Chamber of Commerce sending TomBat a cease and desist letter, or maybe even suing him for defamation.”
I’m not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure a criterion for defamation requires the statement to have an audience.
Didn’t Cory tell her that he preferred finding the comics himself instead of having her do it for him?
–I’m not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure a criterion for defamation requires the statement to have an audience.–
We’re an audience. People booing and throwing fruit at the end of a show still count as an audience. Not a happy audience, but an audience non the less.
Holly: “Well, obviously the thing to do is to email this ‘Nick’ person about his inventory-”
John: “EVIL TECHNOLOGY!”
Holly: “….*….um, obviously the thing to do is call him on the phone and see if h-”
John: “A -woman- calling a -man-? Hmmph! Also, EVIL TECHNOLOGY!”
Holly: “….obviously the only thing to do is to go there in person, with no advance contact or preparation, gambling on the chance that this person you fear and distrust might possibly have what I wa-”
John: “My wife and I no longer have a sex life.”
Holly: “AAAAAAUGH! Cory can just download the rest of the damn back issues like everyone else his age does. YEESH!”
**SLAM**
John: “….”
Harry: “….”
John: “…..”
Harry: “…you ever wonder why we don’t get repeat customers?”
John: “Hmmm? That wasn’t a customer, it was a GIRL!”