Tag: Dead Skunk Head

The Grim Gay Ghost

No sooner does the much-hyped Coming Gay Prom story get underway than we take a detour into “Sundays with Crazy Harry”-land. No wonder the United States Postal Service is on the brink of bankruptcy, with goldbricks like carrier Klinghorn on the payroll. I’ll overlook John’s improper grammar in panel 4, to focus on what I hope is the real gag today (because the punchline sucks, as usual): in the penultimate panel, John is expressing optimism about the state of his business; meanwhile he’s holding a comic book titled The Grim Ghost. Irony?

It gets better (hah!): Maybe TB is a little more clever than we give him credit for! A little more “komix” research turned up this factoid courtesy of Wikipedia:

An earlier and somewhat similar character called the Gay Ghost has since been named the Grim Ghost due to the modern connotations of the word “gay”.

Is Batiuk going meta on us? Naw…probably just a coinky-dink.

SoSF 2nd Anniversary Giveaway Announcement
Coming Tomorrow!

Quarant'anni di Montoni's

Finally, a special occasion that actually deserves to be celebrated at Montoni’s. The joint hasn’t been this packed since Darin discovered breakfast pizza. Everybody’s here…of course, Becky and Wally have to slave away back in the kitchen, and Khan’s been a persona non grata since opening up his own eatery nearly a year ago. Holly and Donna are in the same shot, proving they are not the same person; ditto Summer and Pete (wasn’t he leaving town?). Dead Skunk Head John and Bull are either gazing lovingly at one another or have just finished sharing a joint.

La Donna Della Mia Vita

Wow. In a comic strip legendary for its epic sadness, I don’t think it’s ever been sadder that it is today. Bad enough that Harry’s devotion to Tarzan “comical books” would lead him to consider cashing in his daughter’s college fund. But when Donna, the only woman in the world who finds him desireable, dares to (only-half-) jokingly expresses her longing for him, everyone in the room is immediately and visibly repulsed. I suppose Maddie can be forgiven her reaction to hearing her parents allude to “gettin’ busy”. As for John, he’s probably skeeved at the thought of caressing anything besides pubescent boys.

A while back, someone stated on Twitter that the Komix Korner was based on Ground Zero Comics in Strongsville, Ohio (15 miles from TB’s home in Medina). I couldn’t find GZ Comics’ website, but some pics found on patch.com seem to support this. The store’s nestled in a strip mall, not above a pizza joint, but like the Korner, it’s decorated with nerd tchotchkes. They also have a Space Invaders machine just like Tony’s.

I'm an Ape Man, I'm an Ape Ape Man, Oh I'm an Ape Man

After an almost solid month of girls’ hoops “action”, it’s something of a relief to get back to “Krazy’s Kwest for Komix”. It’s also a relief to note that Harry is not his postal uniform, which means he’s loitering on his own time for a change. It only took him four months of “nosing around“, but John’s finally located the rare volume that Harry needs to complete his Tarzan collection (I thought that Harry had already found it on his own). It took me five minutes to find it on Amazon.

Harry New Year!

I’m not a huge believer in New Year’s resolutions, but I’ll make one here: in 2012 (well, after today) I will cease to snark about Becky’s Pinned-Up Sleeve. Back in November, snarker Charlene made this comment:

Charlene
November 29, 2011 at 4:24 am
…The lack of a prosthetic arm is one of the few realistic features of this entire strip. Her amputation is too high up for a prosthetic to be of any use.

Take it from me: not every amputation can magically be replaced with a prosthetic. You need a certain amount of bone and muscle left, and her stump is just too short.

So we will allow that Becky (and some real-life amputees) are not unwilling but rather unable to use a prosthesis.

But HOO BOY, does TB beat us over the head with that empty sleeve today! Do you suppose, when Becky puts on her winter coat, that the rolled up sweater sleeve tucks neatly inside the rolled-up coat sleeve?