Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for December 09, 2023

FFS, can’t multimillionaire Pete afford his own home? And if Flunky owns the apartment, hasn’t he been renting it out? Is he going to evict whoever already lives there, or has he just been losing money on an empty apartment?

Yes, Mindy, if the book is a text on abnormal psychology.

What…is this? TB moving to a happy ending for every komix-loving nerd? For you Crankers, yes, that was literally the plot of FW’s last months. OK, it’s been it’s plot for a decade. Now, everyone will get cancer. FW was a WEIRD strip.

1st panel to Mindy, aren’t you glad there is only 23 days left of this year! (includes today) last panel, smells like something, sure not a nose or a rose.

So, Mopey’s buying the restaurant but Funky still owns the building, including the apartment and the Komix Korner store? The Funkster is smarter than I gave him credit for. Also, I think you mean “next year,” Min-dull.

“The crime-scene cleaning service got most of the blood out of the carpets!”

The bags under Mopey Pete’s eyes are legendary.

Wait- so he bought the business, but not the building? Cranky sure did offer much help.

SO! Fat Flunky will collect TWO rents from Mopey Peat! What a low life slumlord. He’ll likely get a cut of the pizza profits (?) as well, claiming he owns the naming copywrite.

I had to read that three times to get it. I kept seeing “rose”. My brain refused to accept it.

Is that an intentional malaprop from Ed?

I think Crank might always need the last “word”!!!

no one even smirked at Cranky’s nose joke

The angle at which Crankshaft—his future grandfather-in-law—pushed Pete by Crank’s sudden appearance appears to match that of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Coincidence? Coinkidynk? Foreshadowing? And why is that more interesting to me than the dialogue?

pete wonders if he can put jello on the menu too

“Oh! We forgot you were here.”

Getting married – to a woman who doesn’t want to marry him.

Starting a business – when he knows absolutely nothing about running a restaurant.

Yeah, should be a banner year all right…

Ed nose, but not enough!!!

Weren’t Wally and Rachel living in the upstairs apartment? Or is there more than one apartment up there? And how exactly does that upstairs work, with the apartment(s) AND the Komix Korner? Has anyone ever figured out the blueprints for this building? (And by “anyone”, I’m including Tom Batiuk?)

The only explanation for Ed’s clunker was that he had his head stuck in the oven with the gas on way too long.

So this sale will conclude and they are getting married before the end of the year? Are they eloping?

Funky’s gift isn’t really that generous. He’s probably gouging Mopey on the pizzeria price, and since he owns the building he’ll be collecting rent on the pizzeria plus the apartment. And the Comic Book Shop, unless that’s been blinked out of existence by the Timemop (no relation) Janitor. So he’s raking in way more than the piddly $100 or so he’s lowering Mopey’s rent.

Crank: Oh, you mean he lives above the pizzeria? I thought his odor was because he was rolling in the other type dough.

I just re-read Funky’s words and realized I missed something. Mopey and Mindy are already living in that cheap, cheesy apartment? I don’t know what’s more mind-boggling—that Cheapy Pete never spent any of his massive comic-book pay on a better home, or that that those two having been living together and Batiuk never mentioned it until now. Golly gee whiz, does the apartment have two separate bedrooms? Or does Mindy sleep on the couch while Mopey uses the bed? They can’t be living in sin, those two sweet kids, can they?

Haha! (＾▽＾)