Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for September 26, 2023

“Yes, but it’s just the right time for an ‘Exorcist’ homage! Hold up your mug for some of my pea soup! Wait, never mind the mug!”

… for you Cranky, we’re at least a decade late.

“WOOOooooOO! I’m the Ghost of This Time A Year Ago Exactly, when TIMEMOP came to wish away the FUNKY—winking it away FOREVER!” Crank: “Why should I care?!” Casper: “WOOooO! Because the syndicate has DOOoooOOMed this strip too! Err, I mean, TOOooOO!!” Crank: “Yeah, SURE.” Casper checks watch: “The SYNDICATE says that Christmas has come early this year! And 12/31 even earlier!” Crank: “Oh, wait. I ate all my grandson’s weird gummy bears, and…You’re just a bit of undigested beef!” Casper: “Dude, dude—it’s called ‘foreshadowing’. This strip couldn’t be more TOAST unless—YOUR GRANDSON SPREAD AVOCADO ON IT!”

More like “Bleak House.”

Office pool on how many times “Pop Clutch’s Ghost” introduces himself as “Pop Clutch’s Ghost” every time he appears in this arc?

Whatever! It’s Christmas in the stores already.

This ought to be interesting. The meeting of two great minds. Mr. Clutch is already a bore. How many weeks will this take?

HIS Eagle Will Soon Soar Again! One Nation Under GOD! GOD Bless America!

Hey, Crankshaft! If you see a bright light, move toward it as fast as you can.

From a time when even the school bus drivers wore a tie. I don’t remember them wearing trucker’s/baseball caps in the same era.

I would go with the Christmas Carol this time. Don’t mess with success.

The reformation of Crank? In the words of Old Scrooge, “I’ll retire to bedlam.”

Ed meets his mentor!

Can’t wait to see Crank’s childhood!!!!!

You will be visited by three spirits, the ghost of bus drivers from the past, the ghost of the bus drivers of the present and the ghost of the bus drivers of the future.

Of course this is an American phenomenon, since other countries the children take public transportation to school instead of dedicated school busses.

Ed has a point.

Well, this was inevitable, I guess?

I can’t believe Crank could pronounce ‘homage’ without mangling it.

Two old geezers talking about how they were really bad at their job!

pop clutch maybe wants some bbq

So Pop Clutch is going to show Ed the error of his ways, and convert him into a decent bus driver and human being. BAH HA HA HA! Of course not, he’s going to teach Ed to be an even worse bus driver than he already is.

You shamed him letting that Grandma catch your bus…..

If Batiuk stays true to form, in another year it will be revealed that Pop Clutch is still alive and goes to work for Atomix Komix over in Worstview.

Did he really pop the clutch!!!!!

Haha! (＾▽＾)