Because today’s strip is about comical books, Mr. Oddnoc has enlisted perennial sophomores Owen and Cody to do the daily commentary. They will provide the puerile perspective and gravitas that Batominc bloviating about comic books warrants.
Cody: That guy’s bald.
Owen: He has a cool goatee.
Cody: I wonder if John knows that guy. You know, if we ever get out of high school, do you think we—
Owen: —could be professional komix kollektors‽
Cody: No, yell at dumb women who know nothing of comics!
Batominc Lawyer (off stage): Cease! I say cease, son! Listen to me when I’m talking to you! Desist!
Oddnoc (off stage): Don’t forget to mention the giant mo‘ai profile in panel 2!
Son of Stuck Funky 
One of only three known copies, the world’s greatest collector and he’s handling the comic like a take out menu from a local restaurant. Seriously TB you prattle on about collectors and comics, but you look like you know nothing more about them than what you learned on “The Big Bang Theory”. Oops my mistake, that show does a much better job of portraying collectors than you and it’s also funny. That comic if it is a rare and valuable as you’re trying to get us to believe it would have been slabbed and graded. At the very least it would be in a mylar bag with an archival grade cardboard backing board.
“You’re holding only one of three known copies of Chickencoop Charlie and Porkchop Chuck’, number twelve. Hurry and destroy it, either with the scissors you brought or just by fingering the pages with your greasy hands.”
“Why would you want to destroy it? It seems like a nice comic.”
“SEEMS like a NICE comic? It’s garbage, and it belongs in the garbage! Jesus Christ, woman, how can comic books be taken seriously as an artform with names like ‘Porkchop Chuck’?”
Wow, Chester Hagglemore is certainly anal and condescending when it comes to comic books! Which makes him different from Skunkhead John and Crazy Harry because…um…he’s bald?
I wonder what that collection is insured for outside of the known universe, AKA the real world. Is $20 too high a guess? Nice collection you have there, I’d hate to see it go up in flames because Holly rubbed her feet too hard on the carpet.
Every once in a while he does a panel or two that’s just perfect for parodying, where the faces are applicable for any number of jokes. This is one of those.
Supreme Collection of Comics in the Known Universe, huh? Someone should make a movie about this guy!
And why the hell isn’t he wearing an ascot and a watch chain? You only had to get one thing right, Batiuk…
This guy must be an heir to the vast Hagglemore fortune. NFW he made this much money trading comics, unless he’s CEO of Marvel. Anyway, Holly’s looking at four more days of this abuse before she walks away with the prize.
I can’t give TB too much grief over Chickencoop Charlie and Porkchop Chuck, a title that would actually have been tame during the 1980s boom of small-time black-and-white parody (of a parody) comics that tried to ride the coattails of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ success. In this case, it appears the authors shunned the trend of parodying winning property TMNT in favor of a send up of Barnyard Commandos.
I can, however, give him grief over this issue “number twelve” nonsense. None of those stupid 80s boom comics made it anywhere close to publishing 12 issues.
This guy screams “trust fund baby”. Trust fund baby or lottery winner. Has to be. No way that I believe anyone with this little class and business acumen could have made the fortune required to have a house like this.
I might expect that these arcs would take the “comic book collectors are childish because of their hobby” tack and try to turn that cliche around, since Tom Batiuk has high regard for collectors. Instead, what I’ve been seeing is a bit of projection on the author’s part, in that comic book collectors are shown as remarkably thin-skinned.