That’s right FW readers, on “his way” to work at the Korner, Harry routinely passes by yet another comic book shop, “The Black Hole” owned and operated by “Nick The Geek”. I am assuming that Crazy must be taking the long way to work or something. Anyhow, the two morons lament the state of the comic book business, make a stupid comic book reference and (zzzzzzzzz). You’ve seen it all before, over and over again. And something tells me it won’t be the last time either.
Son of Stuck Funky 
“So readers, go support your Local Comic Shop by buying all the Funky Winkerbean products they sell!”
This depresses me that I’ve read “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and thus know the reference.
Way to go, Tom Batiuk. Boil the earth away one layer at a time.
Well, this is certainly time, coming from The Author. I did a little Googling, and discovered that there is/was a real-life Black Hole Comix (note the “X” is the way it’s spelled), but it is/was located in Columbus, not Canton. And it didn’t go completely out of business, they just closed their storefront, and went strictly online. What makes it timely for Batty is that the storefront closed at the end of last year.
Just an observation, this move makes a lot of sense. I’m guessing that more and more of their sales were coming from online orders. If store traffic is falling off, why keep paying rent on a retail space, when you can run an online store out of a spare bedroom at your house?
Man, if a comics store can’t stay open in Westview, times must be really tough.
He couldn’t think of a better way to introduce this premise other than having Harry breathlessly run through the door and say he passed by Nick’s on the way to KK, even though that’s not even possible. It’s not just about the continuity, it’s just basic common sense he’s blithely ignoring now.
All he had to do was have Harry say “guess what I just heard!”. I mean they are in the comic (sigh) book business, obviously word about The Geek’s store closing would travel fast. But instead he worded it so it’d be geographically and logically impossible. I mean come on, it’s either deliberate or another example of how little he cares.
And he tops it off with a punchline that sounds exactly like something someone who’s trying way, way too hard to be a comic book nerd would say. Like the author of the official FW blog, for example.
So Nick the Geek found that he could not fulfill the American Dream and find success selling comic books in his adopted country.
He is returning to his homeland in Geekistan to become a Jihadist against the Great Satan.
He missed out on an opportunity to slag on-line sales? He must be slipping.
@Epicus Doomus – You’re right about the lack of effort (or maybe commitment) that this shows. It’s also curious that The Author would have wasted a week on the school ring arc when he could have just as easily used the time to tell this story. As you point out Crazy Harry could mention that he heard about the closing. DSH could even refer to Nick’s generosity to Holly during her quest to complete Cody”s collection in an expanded arc.
Batty sure loves to draw snow, and tape.
And bricks.
Totally unrelatedly, the magazine I work for just did a photo shoot at a local comic store we are profiling. Owner suggested that such stores were fairly healthy, trend wise, these days.
This is at least the third time I can recall him closing a business due to lack of sales/economy. The Chinese food place next to Montoni’s, Citizen Khan’s, and now this. Also the inexplicable Montoni’s in Manhattan.
As Fred says, business is actually pretty good at comic shops these days, at least in terms of revenue. The system looks to me like a bubble about to burst, but then again my crystal ball isn’t that great.
“2015 was an excellent year for Comix Experience – sales were up by 14.41% in the main store, and by 19.53% at Outpost; … and we’ve had our best year ever at both locations.” (Brian Hibbs, San Francisco store owner)
TB really has a thing for shops closing and people failing, school levees unfunded and teachers getting laid off, stuff like that. You know, the economy moves in cycles, and there had to be some good times for these shops to be there in the first place. Funny how things never boom or expand–Montoni’s only expanded during the last time jump, and immediately started failing again.
How many Comic Bookstores can one small town support anyway?
Seems to me that if another comic book store had closed, DSH would have been all over that, buying up the inventory at fire sale prices.
But anyway…
Westview is like that old Twilight Zone story of the guy riding on a train that turns out to be circling “Plasticville”.
@bad wolf
Good observation on Batty’s attitudes. I think it goes back to his “things were better in my day” way of thinking. He thinks nothing could ever be as good as it was when he was younger.
The Comic store in my town recently relocated to a larger, higher profile space, so I guess they’re doing well. (though I haven’t set foot in there since I moved in 24 years ago). I would think that if there’s another comic book store in town, even if it’s a competitor, that they talk to each other. From the looks of the signs on the outside of the Black Hole, they’ve already been through the whole cycle of “going out of business sale” to “everything must go” to “fixtures for sale” to “CLOSED”, and this is the first time DSH hears about it? He’s a really shitty businessman if that’s really true.
@bobanero
And certainly they would have called the comix korner to ask if they were interested in purchasing their remaining inventory.
This one hit kinda close to home, as the comic shop closest to me recently shut down completely; though it seemed more a symptom of mismanagement than anything else.
And I HAVE read Crisis on Infinite Earths too. It features a character called the Pariah, a hopelessly mopey, lavender haired scientist, who is forced to watch universe after universe being destroyed while he stands helpless while he waxes eloquent and melancholy.
In other words, he is TomBat’s Muse.
