Mystery Solved

[candidgamera]

Courtesy of Gary, proprietor of Morgantown's finest comic book shop, I have resolved a bit of a puzzle. Longtime readers will remember Pip, AKA Jim, the Comic Book Guy Who Will Not Shut Up. I was somewhat puzzled by the fact that Jim's given last name does not match his email address, which has 'jimgray' in it.

Making this all the more interesting, when I described Pip to sheliakbob who is an expert on Morgantown and its nerd culture, he said it sounded like a guy he knew named Jim Gray. But he and I were not certain it was the same guy.

Well, it's been confirmed. I mentioned the fellow to Gary, and Gary had some amusing and slightly horrifying stories to tell about Jim, who has used the false last names 'White' and 'Gray' at various times. Infamous, obnoxious, and legally dodgy. We have a winner!

Comments

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

Now I'm wanting to hear said tales of INFAMY.

[katyrnyn.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Give us the goods on geezer Grey.

[candidgamera.livejournal.com]

Oh, fair enough.. ;)

[candidgamera.livejournal.com]

The guy had been fired from every job he's ever held because of his obnoxious personality, and was banned from several comic stores because of his harassment of the other customers with his never-ending talking - and a tendency to invade the personal space of female patrons.

But the one that got me was his attempt to unload some Punisher books to the local comic store. Said books were 1.) Fairly common, thus the owner already had a couple sets and 2.) would've gone for about $200, the way the owner prices things. Pip wanted $400 dollars from the owner. Needless to say, no deal.

So Pip called back every day of the following week, to see if the owner had changed his mind.

And then shopped the books around to every other store within several hours drive. And found that they were telling him the same thing as the local owner.

So he calls the local owner. Disguising his voice. Pretending to be his own lawyer. Complaining about a lack of contact from the store, and indicating his 'client' was going to just 'destroy the damn books' since no one wanted them.

Just... wow.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

...I hope he told him to go right ahead. ;)

[candidgamera.livejournal.com]

He left it as a message on the store machine, after normal business hours. Gary kept it for ages until it was accidentally deleted. :)