Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for June 14, 2023

Salesman hears: Sssssssss (nominal commission)

CRIMENY THE SUSPENSE!!!

“That’s me in the corner. That’s me in the spotlight, losing my enthusiasm for selling furniture. Trying to keep up with this old biddy, and I don’t know if I can do it. Oh, no, I’ve said too much.”

Depression-era glassware?

Just a simple little writing desk. sigh

You mean the plywood on sawhorses?

Maybe an old-fashioned secretary desk?

It’s got to be an antique.

A dusty old roll top desk that no one wanted…

“You mean Old Sparky? It’s yours for the asking!”

It will be something that in no way should even be there. An old school desk? Something no better than what she already has.

The elephant? We don’t talk about the elephant.

Oh. That’s just the missing panel to this strip.

……wait for it……..?

“Him? That’s the Gimp. Wanna meet him?”

I just bet it’s just a small table with standard chair. Lillian seems like the sort that would just like the basics for her “writing space” or book store.

Uh “the corner”.

“Oh, that? It’s an old desk that used to be part of the set of the John Darling Who Was Murdered Show. From before John Darling Who Was Murdered was murdered, of course. To be honest, we’ve never actually looked in the drawers, but I’m sure there’s nothing interesting in there…”

I wonder if anyone here is fond of Lillian. She doesn’t seem to have the qualities of a protagonist and lacks charm. The stories tend to become dull when she’s the focus. Looking forward to Saturday!

Yes, dear readers, what is that over there in the corner? Is it the simple, Shaker-made drawer-less desk and straight-back chair of our heroine Lillian’s dreams? Is it a rare rococo antique writing desk smuggled out of Versailles during the French Revolution? Is it the mummified remains of Eudora Welty, slumped over her favorite 1930s Remington typewriter atop a humble kitchen table? In you’re on tenterhooks just waiting for the exciting reveal, be sure to tune in tomorrow, same Batty time, same Batty channel!

Uh pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!