Insolent Children Punch Ghosts Real Hard: Paranatural

I appreciate her dedication to monologuing all these details to her minion, because man, just looking at the panel does not convey some of that info

 

So, wait. DJ Mothman is secretly a sketchy-diet-supplement mogul getting divorced from someone who is named Lavish Price but nonetheless married him for his money? And now that he's on the rebound he's trying to get together with his coworker Professor Bigfoot from what now seems to be his financially unnecessary second job in talk radio? By coming on to him on the air as he, the Professor, delivers an empassioned and thoughtful manifesto in defense of believing in conspiracy theories as a response to a single piece of random mediocre hate mail?

Am I correctly understanding the B-plot of this side story chapter?

 

I believe you are.

 

I really do love this comic.

 

And I like how that utterly zany summary still didn’t include anything at all about the minor character running the quest and how seriously weird he is OR the financially motivated dog-thieving plot he finds himself destined to foil because he got suspended for being an odious person.

Yeah I don’t really care how or even if this links up to the main plot but knowing Zack it absolutely will.

 

I know I didn't say it, but I knew she looked kinda like Ritz.

 

Wait. In the last panel, Lavish mentions a "minion tithe" and says that the seven cents her minion cost her will be added to it. If he was reimbursing her out of some kind of pay, it would be subtracted.

The only consistent interpretation is that Daveyhead is paying Lavish for the privilege of being her minion.

 

Unless she's paying him, but then also tithes him, perhaps as some way to actually pay him less than minimum wage? Either way, it's extra evil. Nicely spotted!

 

You and everyone else on this page, man.

 

Those are some enthusiastic thralls

I can't get over the part where
(1) the costume shielded him from the sun enough to go out harmlessly
(2) he takes off the police outfit (with its visible neck) to reveal his gray suit under it - with a fully buttoned shirt collar. Almost as magical a transformation sequence as getting that mask must gave been

 

Or having his hook in the hand and being able to use said hand for things, even though his hand was in the fake hook of the costume.

Also, I like that Stephen's mom is in the know about at least one supernatural thing, and yet Stephen is Stephen. Or maybe that's part of why Stephen is so Stephen? Who can say?

 

Spoiler: Happy Halloween!

I appreciate that skull masks are the friendly faces, behind which evil schemes and unnatural disasters lurk

 

Spoiler

also, that one of them seems to be a gorilla skull...

 

update time

the manifesto has reached an important turning point, and there's some VERY good framing

 

How can you tell? I keep waiting for the dramatic conclusion of this speech, but it's been at least 50% dramatic conclusions by volume.

 

assumption, admittedly, though i hedged by saying "an important turning point" rather than "the climax" or anything decisive

but my reasoning is... this dramatic contemplation turns on the conspiracy theorists, instead of oscillating between whether they're performing an important social service or just entertaining themselves. it's bringing down the whole mood of the thing, and in a way that i'm not sure he has another big direction to take it in.

 

You forgot to mention the fact that

Spoiler

HIJACK IS STILL ALIVE!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!

 

hey, quick question: what the fuck?

 

Spoiler

Penny Spender stealing Zarei's lamp, white aura, and Isabel's dad.

What else is there to explain? :P

 

Spoiler

Still can't believe Zach held out for that much of a long con on the fact that there are two presumably-siblings named Rich(ard) Spender and Penny Spender.