Atari Lynx, Where are You?

While browsing one of my favorite 80's nostalgia sites today, I found one heck on an interesting commercial. It's an advertisement for the Atari Lynx...... you know, their failed handheld that got its ass whipped by the Gameboy (and to a lesser degree, the Game Gear). In the ad, a kid is playing some game where he shoots stuff as a robot. For some reason he's playing this game in front of a brick wall. Maybe ghetto kids were the target market for this unbelievably expensive gaming machine. Who knows?

Anyhow, as he's playing this game, there's a comment made about how real and authentic the sound is with the Lynx. While that comment is made you're treated to a bunch of neat whirs and blips. Awesome! When the camera pans back to the kid after showing a screenshot, you see the kid against the brick wall again, but this time with a bunch of bullet holes through his chest. He looks around confusedly and, if I intuit correctly, also appears happy. He has bullet holes in his chest and is happy. This was an advertisement for the Lynx in the 80's. Un-frickin-believable. "Buy a Lynx now! It's like taking 4 slugs to the chest, without the fuss of actual blood loss and death!"

I have an update on the comic book situation that stemmed from my great grandmother's estate auction. The buyer who was allowed to buy the comic books before the auction has graciously decided to sell what comics he still has back to my family for the price he paid for them. My mother contacted him last week, told him about the situation, and let him think about it. Today he sold the 30 some remaining books he had back to my mom for $60, the amount he paid for them. This is a good thing, but there are also a few other details that give me pause about all of this.

Harlan told me that he only sold 33 comics to the outside buyer, who we'll call George. George told my mother that he had already sold a bunch before being alerted to the situation. These were no doubt the real money books--the superhero books Harlan said were worth nothing. So how could George still have over 30 books left when he was only sold 33 and sold a bunch already? Something doesn't add up. I'd put my money on Harlan lying yet again to me.

Compounding this situation is an interesting interaction my grandmother has become aware of. Last week Harlan and George were both the Legion in Hayfield and George slipped Harlan $100 for getting him such a good deal on the comics. This fact is pretty damning evidence that Harlan was simply out to fuck me over and make some money on the side.

It's interesting what comics are left that George sold back to our family. Most of the comics were no-name cartoon character funny books, but there were two that deserve note. One early issue of Action Comics was included (very beat up) as well as a very early Daredevil (which is actually in decent condition). The first proves there was Superman books sold to George, which Harlan claimed there wasn't.

Even more damning evidence that Harlan is trying to screw over the family estate in favor of making himself a buck is the fact that on the final assessment sheet that detailed the sale of all of my great grandma's possessions, none of the money collected for the comic books is listed. For all we know he could have just told me that sold them for such a pittance to George. More likely George sold the money books for Harlan on the side. Harlan and George then each get a cut. The $100 that was given to Harlan at the bar should have gone on the assessment sheet as well since it was in payment (this might be a stretch, but it seems logical) for the comics. It wasn't there.

So what do I do now? I guess I live with what I have and move on. I'm happy that at least I was able to get some of my great grandmother's comics back into the family, but the fact that Harlan so viciously attacked me personally by abusing his power as the executor of the estate still remains. If I could, I would pummel his scraggly, wrinkled, old body to near death and leave him to live as a crippled waste of life. That's more than what he deserves.