St. Boniface Vikings (Part 1)

Three Men and a Comic Book

Kevin attends a comic book convention and finds the first issue of Superman for $100.

He doesn't have enough money in his own allowance and his parents refuse to give Kevin extra money. So, Kevin turns to a next door neighbor which was a woman, whose older brother Asa was killed in WWI in 1914, who has some rather unsavory chores around the house that he can do. She talks about her oldest sister Beulah who died before Asa was killed. But she only gives him 50 cents for his hard work. Kevin returns to the comic book store, only with a few cents extra, and runs into Danny and Steve. He talks them into pooling their money and buying the first Superman Comic. None of them want to let the comic book out of their sights and plan to spend the night together in Kevin's treehouse. As a storm approaches, Danny devises a plan so that the three boys have equal access to the comic. As he attempts to leave with the comic, Kevin stops him. Kevin gets progressively more paranoid and becomes convinced that the other two are conspiring against him.

Eventually, each boy is at each other's throat. When Danny gets up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, Kevin thinks he is planning on stealing the comic book and subsequently ties him to his chair. When Danny tries to complain, Kevin tells him they will stick an apple in his mouth if he doesn't keep quiet.

Meanwhile, the storm is raging more, and Steve falls out of the treehouse as a gust of wind takes hold of the comic so that it flies towards the entrance. Kevin reaches out to grab Steve by the hand. He is forced to choose between Steve and the comic. Danny reminds Kevin that if he hadn't had tied him up, he could have saved the comic. After mulling over his options, Kevin chooses Steve and pulls him up into the treehouse. The comic flies out the door before Kevin can grab it, and to the boys' collective horror, is shredded by Santa's Little Helper and zapped by lightning. Marva Lynn comes outside to get the boys back in the house and offers them hot chocolate and imitation marshmallows. Although Paul, Grady, Ed, Fran, Bill, Mick and Roy were all upset to the boys.