Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for February 10, 2024

“No, you little evolutionary backslider, we already have the mother lode of misery!”

Coincidentally, “The Well of Despair” is what the rest of Westview calls the Komix Korner.

Hey, Skunky, did you ever considered putting tape or a slotted piece of woodwork along the gap to cover it?

On the plus side, Mitch finally got a line of dialogue in what I fervently hope and pray is the final chapter of this “story.”

Well, well, well!

Where’s Cranky?

Two things: I’d like to thank everyone who replied to my post the other day, it was both really apprciated and it’s nice to know i’m not the only one. Today’s strip thankfully ends this arc and without Bautik having no idea what he was doing.

And just to get it over with since I just caught up yesterdays.. was even MORE frustrating. See Tom DID have a legit point for a change: The Death of the Justice League was a massively predictable publiclity stunt. While Dark Crisis was decent coming out of that, it was very clear no one was going to stay dead long and they didn’t. The problem isn’t the target, which is a valid one for a change… happened 20 months ago. All but one of the “dead” leaguers have come back, the titans have taken the leagues place, this is long in the dustbin of history and we’re int he middle of another event comic. I get that with comic strip lead time, you can’t comment on a comic this week for a newspaper comic.. but he could’ve picked something that didn’t happen nearly 2 years ago. Talk about how none of the mutants killed at the hellfire gala will likely stay dead or moon knight will stay dead.

Well, what homunculus would not want to buy a Well of Despair? I was one once, and wanted nothing more than a Well of Despair! Also Transformers, but wow, all my friends were also freakish aberrations, so much peer pressure! And I wanted…a SOUL. To be human…to be ALIVE—but mainly a Well!!

“CAN WE BUY ONE, man who lured me into a windowless van?!”

I’m gonna be honest, here: I’d really rather not know how Skunkhead retrieves things out of his crack.

Strange how little business this place gets. Your credit card falls into a strangely convenient hole, and the owner refuses to try to get it back. The next morning, your card has been charged $1500 to something called “Harvey Comics p0rn.”

What is that theeng the kid is wanting to buys? The well of despairs?

I wonder just how many of Dead Skunkhead’s brain cells have fallen into that crack over the years?

Once again, nothing interesting has happened, let alone anything remotely dramatic.

Tomorrow will be a recycled comic courtesy of Batty

The entire town of Westview is the Well of Despair.

Nothing like a “quick” sale!!!!!

Where’s Lena?

Ha ha. It’s funny, because he knows it’s a problem, but can’t be bothered to seal it or put down a mat or anything.

Crazy holds his breath…. anxiously awaiting Jeff’s answer… “NOBODY can buy just ONE!” he thinks to himself!

Let’s see… Jff drops his card into the gap between the counters. DSH, for reasons known only to Batty, can’t simply push the two counters apart to retrieve it. Jff gets out his phone and calls the customer service department at his bank. The card number is deactivated and a new number which can be used immediately is sent to the (PineApple® or GrandpaGoogle™) payment apps in his phone. In a couple days a physical card with the new number will arrive by FedEx. Life goes on.

Mighty low threshold for “despair” in Worstview… especially given the general state of misery that seems to exist there.

Of course, odds are Batty doesn’t know how banks now deal with lost or stolen cards. Please file in the appropriate volume of “Things Batiuk Knows Nothing About.”

A well of despair? Why not?

Where’s Becky?

Fire these guys!!

the people who like this must wear kneepads because its so kneeslapping funny

Despair, thy name is Batty.

Why is there a seam between counters? What is DSH John using? Homemade counters made from shipping crates? Something he found in a dump? Just what kind of floundering enterprise is this?

A corrupt, cheatin’ granny business of the highest degree.

“The Well of Despair?” Is that where all the wall-posters went? So that’s why we don’t see anything crudely taped to the walls.

It is the crack of Doom!

After all these years, wouldn’t the Well of Despair be filled to the top with junk, crud and bits of Montoni’s pizza??

So the joke was………? I assume that was supposed to be amusing, but it looks more like just random blather with no point. “Yeah, people lose stuff in there sometimes. Don’t care.”