vince
April 20, 2022 at 9:14 am
so who’s the other kid viewing comics? I’m assuming he’d be too lazy to draw someone unless it’s important…maybe it’s a girl? I dread thinking the Eliminator origin story is about to happen.
I guess it isn’t stealing if Harry’s figured out some way to pay for this comic without tipping everybody off that he’s from the future. Meanwhile, everyone here has long since figured out that that is indeed young “Don/nald,” finding inspiration for her Eliminator persona among the comics on that spinner rack. And speaking of a “rack” (sorry), what is going on with Donna’s budding bosom? In order to fit that recreation of the cover of EERIE #57, her giant grinning head, and the suggestion of boobs, the artist has given Donna a chest like Lillian’s.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Two possibilities here: One is that Donna chats with Harry, somehow isn’t revulsed by him, and secretly watches him retrieve the Eliminator helmet and vanish.into the future. Later, when she dresses up in her copy of the helmet and goes to the video arcade, she recognizes Young Harry as the future geek and decides to marry him, thus ensuring that in time she will have access to all his superscientific secrets and powers.
Or, two, we’re due for a month of Dinkle, aren’t we? Yeah, that’s the more likely outcome.
I have no access to future (!) strips, but my money is on more Dinkhole as well.
Ugh, how many f*cking times has he done a variation of this dumb trope? The wonder and majesty of comic books, spanning generations and re-defining time itself…’nuff said. So I assume that’s Donna in the background, perusing the spinner rack in wide-eyed wonder. Of course, because it’s BatYam, the characters won’t interact in any sort of meaningful or interesting way, as he already blew his creative wad on the premise, as usual. He’s kind of a premature storyteller, essentially finished before he gets anywhere. It’s a gross analogy, but an apt one.
It’s worse than that. This is barely even about comic books. Tom Batiuk is so obsessed with comic books that he’s made fetish objects out of the most banal things associated with them. How many times have these dumb spinner racks been featured and talked about in FW? Why did a time traveler spend three days marveling at the wonder of the comic book stores that would someday exist? Why was Young Harry so concerned his comic books would be lost? Why is the distinction between “comic book store” and “buying comic books at so important? Why is there yet another “comics books as investment” story?
And he gets every single one of these things wrong. Modern comic book collectors hate spinner racks, because they’re bad for condition – which Batiuk disregards the relevance of. (Komix Korner, a supposedly good comic book store, also has them.) A general store wouldn’t have 6- and 12-year-old unsold periodicals in its inventory. Especially not when another character (Chester)’s backstory is taking and hoarding unsold comic books from a store he worked in. A comic book store would have older editions to sell, but the story is insistent that this isn’t a comic book store. Amazing Stories #15 already had collector value at the time; if Harry could buy it for 12 cents, he could make 50,000% on his money without even time traveling! Finally, it’s the same comic book we’ve seen so many times before, when others would have fit the timeframe better (someone mentioned X-Men). To say nothing of Batiuk’s complete disdain for comic books (shared universes, big budget Hollywood movies, and online fandoms).
Tom Batiuk isn’t obsessed with comic books; he’s obsessed with himself. He thinks his narrow interpretation of his already-narrow childhood experience is so universal that everybody relates to it. And the sad thing is, I *should* relate to it. I adored sports cards when I was a kid. I remember the long-lost stores I went into to get them, the fun of opening them, the smell of the wrapper and gum, rooting through the spindles to see which cards were visible in the rack packs, putting them in my binder of protective sheets. The same kind of little details Batiuk loves about his comic book collecting. But I find this absolutely tedious. This kind of stuff is personal, not something to be shared with others. Or at least confined within the comic book collecting community.
That should say “complete disdain for modern comic books.”
The problem with TB’s incessant nostalgic references is that he NEVER has anything to say about them. He makes a reference and then just lets it sit there. No one acts or reacts, no expands on why any of these references are worth mentioning. There isn’t even the implication of “Remember this? It was weird/silly/stupid, eh?” that permeates Family Guy‘s ever-maligned cutaway gags that are often held up as examples of “references aren’t humor/a story/etc.”
The perfect illustration of this is last year’s “Batton Thomas visits Komix Korner” week. Batton visits Komix Korner and buys a reprint of the famous The Flash #123 and talks… and talks… and talks… and talks… about how that issue made a huge impact on him as a kid. Actually, no, he doesn’t talk about HOW the issue made an impact on him, he just states and restates that it did for four straight strips. Did it make him want to become a cartoonist? Perform magic for orphans at a community center? Start collecting comic books? We don’t know… the author won’t tell us.
Tom Batiuk never has anything to say about anything. All of his favorite tropes – The Ohio Music Educators Association, the pizza box monster, Kent State, Claude Barlow, why Lisa’s life is so important, why Donna felt the need to conceal her gender, Funky’s alcoholism, Les’ marriage to Cayla, and all the comic book stuff – exist just to exist. They’re not used for humor, not used for drama, not used for nostalgia value, and they sure as hell aren’t used for narrative.
And don’t get me started on John never asking Batton Thomas to sign anything, either…
“Thank you”? Awful polite of Captain EZ himself considering that Crazy just spent all of 12 cents.
I have no comment on the person handling SPACEBALLS: The Comic Book.
Merchandising!
Gotta give Batty credit: “Eerie” #57 was out in April.
Of course, it was April 1974 but who’s keeping track here anyway?
And EERIE was a magazine, and wouldn’t fit in a comic book spinner rack.
So the story comes full circle. I guess. Not sure.
Anyway, I assume this whole thing will wind up being another pointless cul de sac. Unless Kwazy emerges from his time travel/psychotic fugue as a millionaire. Unearned rewards are hardly unheard of in Westview.
OK sorry it has been said before but this needs to be repeated loudly and often. A very well-known valuable “first appearance” comic from ’62 is not in a store in ’80. And his 12 cents would have been laughed at. 1980 cents were made of heavy copper not zinc and didn’t have that union shield on the back. How much change does he carry? Didn’t he already give 4 quarters to his younger self? I know this will be a dream or a bump on the noggin but it still annoys.
Thank you for bringing up the Overstreet citation yesterday. I tried to see if I could find something online and was stymied.
Today’s non-comic-book-related anachronism goes to the cash register. I don’t think there were any that had the digital displays like that one does at 1980 – at least, not one that would be used in some corner grocery store in the middle of nowhere.
They still make the ka-ching noise when the drawer opens, right? Ka-ching! Another paycheck from King Features cleared! Ka-ching!
You also won’t find a non-very-well-known non-first appearance from ’74 in a non-comic book store.
Old Harry has his comic book and is about to leave, go back to the future and be rich. But then he sees young Donna, who will later become his wife, and Harry realizes that the one thing that would mean more to him than *his* being rich is having all that money be available to Donna at a younger age So she can have all that he could never give her. Donna deserves this even if it means she ends up married to some rich guy in the future and not him.
Old Harry approaches young Donna and shocks her by somehow knowing that today is her fifteenth birthday As a present, Harry gives her Amazing Fantasy #15 and tells her to save it and sell it in 20-25 years, or whenever she really needs the money ‘This will one day be worth a fortune! It will make all your dreams come true!’
Old Harry leaves young Donna holding Amazing Fantasy #15, finds the helmet and zaps back to the present He wakes up on the couch wearing the helmet Harry tells old Donna about his strange dream. ‘It ends with me seeing you at the newstand when you had just turned 15, and giving you a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 as a birthday present!’
Donna’s eyes go wide “Wait right here!!!’ She leaves and returns with a metal locked box. Donna opens it and inside is the copy of Amazing Fantasy #15!! ‘Some old guy gave this to me on my 15th birthday. He said one day it would make all my dreams come true!’
Harry is stunned ‘But why didn’t you ever sell it?!’ ‘Because I never needed to sell it. All my dreams already had come true! Thanks to you! Our life together has been my dream’ Harry tears up ‘Should we sell it now?’ Donna asks ‘No’ Harry says, ‘we’ll put it on display at the Comics shop. One day our kids can sell it to have a few dreams of their own’
Ummm…
I don’t know if Eerie Magazine should be on the HEY!!! Kids! rack…
I mean, the very first page is a lynching.
And you know…um some of these ladies don’t look quite…decent.
It’s not like the covers are even LYING about it.
A thousand cosmic WHAT?
Um… Can we dive deeper into this most intriguing topic of “Cosmic Orgasms?”
And yes, no matter her age Donna is a pint-sized freaknasty if this is what she’s into…
Hey, hitorque, I was very much into Eerie and Creepy when I was 12-14 yrs old. Today I am a respectable old lady who works in a library and bakes cookies for the campus chapel’s Pet Cafe (stressed students pet dogs and eat cookies once a week).
Still think Vampirella was pretty awesome. And the art in those b/w comics was mostly damn good.
I like how Harry doesn’t even recognize his future wife, even though he knew her when she was that age. But he had no trouble recognizing Lisa, who he wasn’t even friends with.
These kinds of things happen when Les is a part of your life. Cayla probably has an easier time recognizing Act I Lisa than she does her own daughter.
The Cult of St. Lisa leaves nobody in Westview untouched… The only thing left to do is turn her into a local ghost story and make money attracting all the paranormal nerds from Youtube and ghost hunters from reality TV…
Crankshaft comment: So yesterday was 4/20, and this week’s arc is about Ed secretly gardening in the attic with “grow lights.” Is this Tom Batiuk’s idea of a pot joke?
If it is, then I am amused.
Also gonna give Davis a little shoutout on the art in the all black panels from Monday and Tuesday. I thought they were pretty well done.
https://safr.kingfeatures.com/api/img.php?e=gif&s=c&file=Q3JhbmtzaGFmdC8yMDIyLzA0L0NyYW5rc2hhZnQuMjAyMjA0MTlfMTUzNi5naWY=
It’s funny because in real life Edmund Krankenschaaften would have incinerated/blown up/flooded/electrocuted/imploded/sinkholed his home and everyone in it many times over by now…
My only surprise at this point is the fact that anyone is willing to insure them
The first three points are carried over from yesterday since they’re still 100% valid:
1. I thought Donna was blonde??
2. I presume Donna is also cutting class? Not to do something interesting mind you, but to loiter in some corner convenience mart all day?? She and Harold fucking deserve each other.
3. Even at her age (EDIT: Donna is five years younger than Harold so if Young Harold is 17, YOUNG DONNA HAS TO BE TWELVE!! https://sonofstuckfunky.com/2022/04/02/thats-a-strange-way-to-tell-me-you-love-me/) She’s starting to show the definite indicators of “feminine development” shall we say, around the chest area?? Once again I have to ask how she was able to fool people for years… Did she throw her voice, or just gesticulate silently? What initials did she put into the top score screen on “Defender”? Because only a very few games back then let you put in more that three letters and “Eliminator” wouldn’t fit in any regard… I mean, FFS women even SMELL different no matter how they’re disguised and I’m supposed to believe NOBODY picked up on this…??
3a. Seriously… Look at that scrawny flat-chested Donna on the April 2 strip above and look at the one today… I got no words
4. I’m still trying to figure out what’s so “inspiring” about this helmet that she’d want to actually wear it in public… Unless looking like a SuperDork was part of her motif…
5. So we’re totally ignoring the fact that an original Spiderman from 18 years ago sat unnoticed on the rack all this time?? And that Harold has no way to get it back to the future?
To the last point, if Harry arrived with his clothes (unlike the Terminator) he could theoretically take the comic back by stuffing it into his shirt. But why bring consistency in at this late date?
It does make more sense that this is Harry’s dream – it’s totally a wish-fulfilment dream, where he hangs out with his kid self, plays video games, eats pizza, looks at the old school (without having to go to classes) finds a valuable comic book, checks out his future wife…
I think it’s a pretty safe bet that this arc/dream is about removing Young Don/nald’s agency. For no plausible reason, Old Harry is given ownership of the helmet (seeing it on him is no more useful than seeing it sitting on a cardboard box), enabling him to take it back in time where it will be him who shows it and/or gives it to Young Don/nald. All inspiration is to come from male characters – vide Marianne giving all credit and reward for her performance to Les. Female characters only carry out the vision of male characters.
I wouldn’t be surprised by a bonus round where it’s Harry who suggests the very idea of wearing a helmet to Young Don/nald.