Tim Chamberlain

I've seen the blog that this book spun off of, and finding it amusing, when I saw the book on sale for a couple of bucks the other day, I thought, hey, why not? Along the same lines of the Overheard Everywhere website, Our Valued Customers: Conversations from the Comic Book Store, collects and showcases the words of "wisdom," "measured" opinions, and "pointed" comments that the author has the fortune to observe at his comic shop. Taken together, though, I'm not really quite sure how to feel about it all. Can something be both funny, and depressing at the same time?

Tim Chamberlain's idiosyncratic caricatures of his customers, with their jagged teeth, claw like hands, mottled complexions and sneers, are really fun to look at, but the overheard sentiments are as often utterly cringe-worthy. You can only laugh at how horrible they are, and hope that you yourself never approach such a lack of insight and self-awareness. These fans are vapid, crude, self-obsessed mouth-breathers with little in the way of social graces. We can laugh at these obtuse man (and woman)-children, but their ignorance is also a bit worrying. I guess I'm thankful I don't work in a comic shop; to be honest, the library, even on bad days, does not feel quite as bad as this.… (altro)