Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for September 13, 2023

Not gonna lie—Davis’ art is amazing in this!

Mailbox door looks like a face drawed on it.

She must like getting wet to stand there in the rain and discuss the child’s way to school.

I could be mistaken, but it actually looks like Cranky is feeling sorry for the poor Grandmother. And yes, the artwork showing Cranky’s reflection in the puddle is great. It’s better than the story itself…

So Crank’s reflection is in the pool at their feet, even though he’s sitting way inside the bus?

“Oh, look, a mailbox! Hold that pose, while I back over it!”

“Puddle, puddle, on the ground… Who’s the grumpiest one around?”

Little girl: “Hey! Can we can the chatter so I can get on the stinking bus already? I’m freezing and soaked!”

let her on the bus already

This was pretty darn good. Not just the art, but the social comment on how irrationally dependent parents have become on grandparents.

We use to take kids to neighbors and wait on bus……just a mile away……the bus came by the house way too early!

“And my pink fuzzy slippers are completely soaked!”

Am I the only one here that thinks the girls shoes are backwards, ie on the wrong feet – left shoe on right foot and right shoe on left foot?

Could Grandma continue to have this conversation after the kids board the bus? Or, maybe while she takes a ride with Ed, as he takes then to school?

Jeez, the school day will be over before this kid ever gets on the bus.

Sheesh, let the poor kid onto the bus and let the old lady back into her house. So far the story is perfectly normal. The parents have to go to work. Gramma loves the kid. So what?

Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense…..

So he’s just going to sit here and harangue a student that wants to board his bus? It’s literally his JOB to drive kids to school.

Perhaps the parents leave for work too early to bring her to school, and the grandmother doesn’t drive. Either way, it’s none of your business.

is there a contest between crankshaft and mary worth who could milk something longer

Why is Ed asking her that? Considering this is NOT the first day of school, and the kid is taking the bus, he’s already picked her up multiple times and yeah, the fact that she’s riding the bus means her parents don’t drop her off. How many times did Ed get beaned in the head in his baseball playing days?

Isn’t this common? The parents’ job(s) involve either an extremely early or long commute and this allows the kid to spend time with grandma. Batuik is making something potentially nice into something , yeah….I forgot who I’m talking about.

Kids have to be assigned to a bus route, and the kids have to go to a stop to be picked up and dropped off. The bus doesn’t just stop at each kid’s house. If the stop for this route is coincidentally right in front of grandma’s house, I can understand why the parents might have registered her for that route.

Poor woman has been standing in the rain for 3 days :-)

This might wrap by Saturday, perhaps.

must be 3pm by now

Love the art in the puddle

They’re not getting on until Friday folks — relax — only five minutes in real time

OK…maybe I’m the only one that this occurred to, but perhaps the child doesn’t actually LIVE in the school district she’s attending?

DH and I have no children, but we live in the one of the more highly ranked school districts in our state, much less our area, and we live below the local elementary school. It’s not at all unusual around here to see a car pull up and drop a kid off near the pathway leading to the school instead of taking them to the actual building. Basically, it’s always been assumed that some of the kids in said school don’t actually live in the district, but mom and dad registered the kid as living with a family member who does live here to get the child in a better school. Yep, lying and frankly illegal, but people still do it.

As much time as they’re wasting shooting the sh-t, that little girl will be high school age & old enough to drive herself by the time they get going!