Free Comic Book Day Decade continues in today’s strip. That Mason Jarre appearance that was teased… *checks watch* 16 days ago finally happens. Yay!
What is DSH on about with this “hopelessly optimistic” business? I guess Crazy told him nothing about Cindy and Mason being in town and her goading him in to showing up. Mason is in Westview, which is 98% of getting him to show up at Komix Korner, because every previous time he has ever been to Ohio he has been involved with either comic books or comic book movies.
Now what’s hopelessly optimistic is Free Comic Book Day ending before September.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Where are these free comic books Mason seeks anyways? All we’ve seen so far are empty meet-and-greet tables and an excessive number of badly hung signs that read “Free Comic Book Day”.
They are giving away copies of Lisa’s Story. That will bring people in for sure.
Smells Funky to me.
That stormtrooper helmet in the background looks like we’re all feeling.
And of course, we have the dumb people aping the dumb guy writing this mess who forgets that Hollywood actors are just guys really despite his being established as being a Westviewian by natural inclination.
I’m not a comic book person by any stretch of the imagination, but I was thinking of taking one of my kids when I heard about the promotion.
If it’s going to be like it’s described in FW, no thanks!
Nothing is ever as it’s described in FW, so go ahead and take your kid.
Batiuk should probably decide exactly how famous Mason is and go with that consistently, because if one of the biggest comic book actors in the world was going to show up to one of these things, it would be a big deal, not a “oh, I forgot to tell you…” thing.
Someone should probably tell him how much famous actors can get from appearance fees. That tends to prevent them from doing this half-ass, “I guess I can show up maybe” thing that comprises Mason’s entire life.
Their contract probably explicitly forbids showing up at events like this without compensation.
Considering all the trouble they had getting Holtron in there, you’d think they’d have a sign or something indicating who he is.
As always, the sloppily-rendered background characters offer more in the way of amusement than the dismal inhabitants of the foreground could ever hope to do. Polly Pigtails pauses, pop-eyed and paralyzed with pleasure, at the unexpected sight of Mason Jarre in the flesh…but the bald, chinless deviant is startled and embarrassed, seeing as how he was about to touch Holtron, possibly in an inappropriate way.
Though…looking at the strip again, Crazy’s expression in panel two is also more than a bit unwholesome. That’s somebody who is altogether *too* happy that his celebrity pal swung by Komix Korner, like “soon we’ll be together forever after the murder/suicide” happy. Mason might want to start giving Crazy a slightly wider berth, socially speaking. Turning down his invitations to Free Comic Book Day events would be a good start.
I wonder if this is how Komix Korner ordinarily does business. “Oh, by the way, I failed to mention that the fire inspector was here and declared this place a potential death trap”. Judging by the shocked looks on the background characters’ faces it would seem that they didn’t even bother to advertise Mason’s appearance, which seems pretty strange. Then again, they didn’t know how or why Battom (sigh) Thomas was there, which is even stranger.
Strangest of all, however, is how there are only a handful of people at Free Comic Book Day in Westview. I would assume that FCBD would generate throngs of screaming frantic Westviewians, lined up around the block with riot cops on standby. Where are the hand-lettered poorly-taped signs? Where are Owen and Cody?
Maybe those two are the lucky ones who escaped Westview, only to be forever branded as pariahs by the town elders.
I hope somebody told these people that the “free comic books” they give away on FCBD have fewer pages than normal and are usually just reprints of stories from earlier comics.