Now, the proper response from Ms. Lavender would be, “Actually, I’m afraid I’m going to have to smash your f***ing face in, you self-inflated old sack of garbage!” Of course, she’s dim enough to want the book, and Harry’s dim enough to assume he knows how to spell her name, so this encounter is obviously meant to be. There really aren’t a lot of ways to spell “Jim,” or “Mary,” or “Dave” but when there are variants, it’s a good idea to, you know, ask “How do you spell that?”
It is possible, with a certain amount of charity that I’m not prepared to give, to assume that Harry is joking in panel three. His expression sure doesn’t offer any clues. His face looks like someone who is monumentally pissed off that his infallibility was questioned. Leading me to assume that his book is filled with nothing but events where Harry Dinkle was disappointed by those around him, and let them know in no uncertain terms that his fury over their incompetence is barely contained.
That is probably my main issue with Harry Dinkle–he lacks any sense of humor, especially about himself. Oh, sure, he makes stupid puns, but that’s like saying he wears pants: everyone in Westview makes puns. He just seems mean-spirited, grouchy, cheap, one-note, and easily offended and when he appears, he sucks any possible fun out of the strip. (Yeah, I know, I know…)
Just think how easy it would be for Harry to make a real joke about his mistake. “To Kathy, with a C! Stay C#, Cathy!” See, it’s even musical, something with which Dinkle is supposed to have some familiarity. It would actually make Dinkle come across as somewhat charming, instead of the “insufferable” Tom Batiuk decided was more his style. Just as his style also meant that Becky would have to loom somewhere in the background, contributing nothing. Seriously, why was she drawn in today’s episode? Did Tom Batiuk not want to waste the bit of ink still on his brush?
And people actually wonder why we make fun of this strip.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Har har har. I wonder if TB realizes how this just makes Dinkle seem like a real jerk as opposed to a beloved old curmudgeonly character? It kind of worked back when he was Old Dinkle, as being a dick was pretty much the entire character. But now, sadly, he’s just more wasted comedic potential, another wry annoying hatchet-faced dick in a whole town of them, blandly cackling away for no reason.
IMO Dinkle should be a weird, scary and feared recluse, living in a small shadowy house adjacent to the band practice field, only emerging to scream insults at Becky and the band through a large megaphone. Maybe he could do strange backyard rain-bringing rituals too, I don’t know. It’d definitely be funnier than this though. He killed Dinkle when he cruelly snatched away his hearing that time, he just couldn’t leave well enough alone. That was when TB had an almost pathological urge to give EVERY character a pathos-laden back story of some kind. Blech.
Congratulations,
KCathy! You’ve just paid good money to be treated with contempt by someone you idolize for some bizarre reason! Most people have to travel to a convention for that kind of experience.Epicus: We are talking about the guy who also writes Crankshaft. I think it’s safe to say “lovable curmudgeon” is not his strong suit.
And Becky just stands there like your average one-armed lump not doing anything.
Nice hatchet face on Dinkle in the first panel. God, I can’t wait for Batom® to render Dick Tracy that way.
If you can assume something is meant to be a joke in this strip, it’s best not to. And this is one of those strips that makes me think Batiuk is just writing how he deals with fans at one of his many, many book signings. Also, why does this woman look like she’s an Okie on her way to pick grapes in California?
The misspelling won’t really make a difference when K-K-Cathy donates the book to the Westview Public Library a month from now.
@Epicus–Tom Batiuk, so far as I know, doesn’t have a blind character, does he? I can’t imagine why. Just think, he could say things like “Hey, just because I’m blind…” (panel ellipsis) “…doesn’t mean I’m blind!”
–oh crap, what have I done? Oh no!
beckoningchasm–god help us if Batiuk realizes he could make a character blind, then do panels from their point-of-view, ie completely black. What more could a lazy cartoonist ask for?
At first I felt the usual annoyance, but then I laughed when I imagined the aftermath: Harry Dinkle just standing there with his head and face flattened, smashed in by the book, lightly sizzling, as K-Cathy exits the scene, fuming, while Becky just stares.
Silly me. I thought the running joke of this arc was that they are trying to sell something NOBODY WOULD BUY. Ferchrissake, it’s the autobiography of somebody nobody knows or cares about — and it’s volume 3! The only way to get a three volume autobiography is to write about what you had for breakfast every morning of your life. Batderp is all but telling us this book is a tedious piece of crap.
Then somebody buys one? And wants it signed? I can only conclude Batso wants to show what a total dick Dingleberry is. Mission accomplished. Another detestable character.
“I’m afraid you are going to have to buy another book.”
“Ha ha ha! That’s… oh, wait. You’re serious.”
I’m surprised he didn’t ask her to “put out” for the autograph.
I don’t really remember the specifics of the “Dinkle goes deaf” arc, although I do recall it happening during those few decades when TB just couldn’t punish his characters enough. Man, the eye-rolling that went on back then, yeesh. Did he ever “resolve” that arc, or is that just a stupid question?
I don’t think he’s ever used a blind character, although if you told me that Funky suffered through a bout of blindness somewhere along the line I wouldn’t exactly be surprised. Cory is still in Afghanistan so he could still manage to be blinded, although I see him as being more of an anger-management or drug issues sort of character. That whole tie-in with the comic book collection and him losing his sight would be juicy Pulitzer bait, though. But still, that’s a little more Act II than TB goes these days.
Really to me this is more boring than anything else.
And it’s funny because he’s still the same perfectionist who is also totally God-damned clueless about how the real world works. It wasn’t enough that he was a pompous ass that inflated his tiny bit of authority into a monster that consumed his life without his also being completely blind to how little he really mattered.
” it’s a good idea to, you know, ask “How do you spell that?””
Oh, just spread a little gutter butter on the first letter and it can look like a C or a K, whatever you like…………..
Or maybe an F……………..
“he’s still the same perfectionist who is also totally God-damned clueless about how the real world works”
Just wait until he joins the anti-bullying cottage industry
@Epicus – It seems to me that the only reason that TB struck Dinkle with deafness was so he could promote his precious Becky to Band Director. There has really been no mention of his deafness since that incident, and he has pretty much carried on as though he had no hearing problems whatsoever.
@bobanero: Exactly right. It’s all about turning an unpleasant creepola into a mentor because reasons. It’ll be like what happens when Crankshaft does the Sweet Here-after thing and cripples himself killing all those kids in a bus crash.
Epicus Doomus said, “I don’t think he’s ever used a blind character, although if you told me that Funky suffered through a bout of blindness somewhere along the line I wouldn’t exactly be surprised.”
Right before Lisa croaked, she exclaimed, “I CAN’T SEE!!” One of the few moments of genuine comedy in FW. Does that count?
Cathy should take the book and hit him in the Harry Dinkle.
@Paul Jones: Are you describing Harry Dinkle or Tom Batiuk?
You know after a while it just begins to wear you down – other comic strips have had unlikeable characters but they would balance them out by either having a likeable character at the center of the strip – but here we have a bloody unlikeable jagov after unlikeable Jagov until the Strip looks like the Radio City Rockettes of unlikeable Jagovs all in a row. it rather beats down the spirit after while –
This is of course in addition to the Author’s many sins against narrative structure and pacing.
@Jim In WIsc: Both. Most of his characters can be described that way so I can understand your confusion.
bobanero: Thanks, I kind of thought that’s how it played out, just an excuse for cheap Batom pathos. I can’t believe Batom never did an arc where all of Pete’s fingers were severed, wonder how he avoided the Westview tragedy train?
Hadda Mae Kapupe: Not sure if it counts but I do remember that and yes, it was funny to me as well. I’ve always laughed when FW characters do that hysterical bold-font screaming, like when Les had to get Susan TO THE HOSPITAL or when LISA!!!!! was blown up at the post office. Maybe it makes me a bad person, I don’t know, but something about it always cracks me up.
^ It’s called Narm! 🙂
Mopey Pete got off scott free probably because, at the point such a punishment would be necessary, Baton® totally lost interest in doing anything that involves critical thinking.
As for Dinkle’s deafness, a competent writer would have established that he received cochlear implants that restored his ability to hear speech, but not music. But it’s Batom®, so we’ll never know.