Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for August 30, 2024

Because someone will ask (and because it’s the exact same image as used on 08/27/2023):

From upper left, Row 1: Catcher in the Rye, Slaughterhouse-Five, Maus, 1984, Fahrenheit 451

Row 2: The Alchemist, Things Fall Apart, To Kill A Mockingbird, Beloved. Not sure on what the last one is.

The EPA has officially banned the burning of all books by Louse Moore. The smoke contributes to climate damage, causes middle-aged teens to go on solo car dates and spreads a demoralizing belief that Crankshaft may some day return to his strip.

Tell us more, Lizard Lil. I want to know how you club people with “Lisa’s Story.”

Banned books, buy them and burn them yourself.

Well, that’s two authors and the owner. Are we ever going to see customers?

Love people who help in the battle against banning book!

Adults can read what they want, but kids need our protection.

Sometimes I read as much as a book per week

I’ve never had time for a club and I like to chose my own books

If I was going to join a book club, a banned book club would appeal to me

If you’re going to ban book you also need to ban cell phones and internet access. When it comes to tech kids are more savvy than their parents and they’ll find the banned books if they want to.

Weird selection. This looks more like a collection of the depressing and/or boring books they force you to read in school. The customer’s statement being a case in point. Many, umm, spicier books have been banned then and now, and then there are the books suppressed for political and religious reasons.

Smirk city panel 2

A club dedicated to banning books?

When I was in school folks were in a tizzy over a book titled “Man Child in the Promised Land”, I think.

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Well, in my later years, I realized that, after having been assigned books to read for school, I wound up not liking those books that much, even if I did like the writer’s other work later (Orwell’s “1984” comes to mind—-I like everything I’ve read of his except that.)

Such heroes. You know, they should give the person these two are stand-ins for a Pulitzer or something!

Great Cartoon message. GREAT CARTOONING

Aaaaand, the Funkification of the Crank rolls on..

It’s called banning!

Nobody’s banning books. There are some people that think it’s not a good idea for third graders to read porn.

Those moldy walls are a health hazard! Are they asbestos?

Can’t even put them on display……WHAT….!!!!!!….one more day till Sunday!!!!!

My high school Literature teacher suggested that I compare and contrast “Huckleberry Finn” and “Catcher in the Rye” for my term paper. Of course it was 1980 and I lived in a free state. How times have changed.

So, wooley thinks (s)he can decide what to protect my children from?

The Republicans will ban any book that does not justify their twisted ideology.

Will we see a red-hatted mob carrying torches and pitchforks in the next strip?

Trivia: does anyone know the meaning of the title: “Fahrenheit 451”?

No one is banning famous books just the porn the commie libs want to shove down our kids throats

Ha! A great way to get anyone to read a book is to tell them that it’s been banned for salacious content.

Since this is a used book store, and those books are all old, technically they survived being burned!

Why isn’t “The Complete Funky Winkerbean” in that display?

Ban this cartoon until Crankshaft is featured!!!

better watch out… the gazpacho might get ya!

No such thing as an idea that shouldn’t be discussed — or read about — or written about

Soon to come:

Harry Dinkle shows up, sees the display, and has the inspiration for his next book — “Bookstores Are For Banned Practice”!

Yeah, pretty sure I’ve read all those in school. Not banned as far as I know. What I want is “age appropriate” books…not allowed to be read til you’re 18, just like smoking, drinking, driving, etc…give the kids a chance to grow up a little…then if they wanna read those kind of books, go to the local library/book store and read them.

“Banned In Boston” used to be a popular phrase.

Turns out a lot of local priests should have been banned In Boston

I don’t believe in banned books – - -this story is the pits.

Lillian’s banned book table appears to block some of her shelved inventory. With floor space at such a premium, it makes me wonder what happened to the Atomik Komix spinner rack. We haven’t seen it in the Village Booksmith since the presumptuous Mopey Pete and Darin foisted it upon her (2023/03/04).

I like to think that the spinner rack was promptly placed out on the curb shortly afterward with a handwritten sign, poorly taped (of course), that read, “Help yourself before the trashmen come.”

If I may show my age and quote the great Tom Lehrer and his song “(S)m*t”:

“All books can be indecent booksThough recent books are bolderFor filth (I’m glad to say) is inThe mind of the beholderWhen correctly viewedEverything is lewd(I could tell you things about Peter PanAnd the Wizard of Oz, there’s a dirty old man!)”

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” – Ray Bradbury.

A recent poll showed just over half of adults in the USA did not read a single book to completion in the previous year, with about 10% reporting not having read a book in the previous ten years. Social media, video games, and other distractions have done more to hinder reading books than any book ban.

Look at all the comments! I’ll never be able to read them all during my lunch break. Nothing like a TB prestige arc to stir up the pot. I’ll have to catch up later. I hope I’m not duplicating someone’s comment.

Looking over those titles (that @wherescrankshaft so graciously supplied) I’m compelled to ask. Has Batty read a book in the past thirty years? Those are all old titles. The most recent title is 35-years old. I read most of those books in high school. Only old titles are getting banned?

If Lillian had to ruin someone’s life, why couldn’t it have been (Best Actress Award Winner) Les Moore’s?

Or Dinkle’s?

Can we please put Dinkle, and (Best Actress Award Winner) Les Moore on the Crankshaft banned character list?

Lil is showing some great marketing skills here, the banned book club. But hasn’t the nation’s mega bookstore chain done something similar to the banned books table?

Our little town of 5k in a deep red area has a display in the library of all of the banned books you can check out. A breath of fresh air. Small towns in TX are also against school vouchers. They take money away from rural districts.

I once wrote a novel, shopped it around, got it picked up by a publisher, spent a year on editing and rewrites before it was released to overwhelming indifference in the marketplace. What I wouldn’t give for somebody to try to ban it… a ban would probably sell more copies in the first day than the book sold in the ten years it was in print!

Aaand Les Moore returns!

When a book hit the banned book list I bought them for niblings’ birthdays. They loved them!

MeTV just happened to have a “Waltons” episode today, centered on book banning/burning.

Do you have A Clockwork Orange?