Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for September 27, 2024

“That’s a lovely sentiment, Ed, but those books are for the students in Les Moore’s English class. Here’s The Poky Little Puppy instead.”

So he’s going to learn that cultures which burn books are bad, bland and self-destructive. I think we’re all on that page by now.

Ed is expecting to read tips on grilling at high heat in that book.

Well said, Ed.

And who’s telling adults what they can/cannot read?

The same people telling them old Disney movies are not adequate for children

Need a camera!

How do you feel about being told what music you can or cannot listen to?

Someone mentioned that Batiuk is in the pantheon (like Wood and Wiseau) of “lofty ambition and clueless execution.” This is a great example. Ed makes the “profound” observation that he, an adult, should not be told what to read. But he isn’t, it’s school kids. And no one discusses why this is good or bad, only react. And usually in the most aggressive (or passive/aggressive, like Les) way possible.

How was Ed able to drive a bus when he couldn’t read the street signs?

I have never had anyone tell me anything I could or could not read as an adult. I have yet to find someone burning a book store because they were offering a book that may have been controversial. I have been to book stores that have hidden or did not carry certain books by certain authors. I recall stories about books by Rush Limbaugh that some book stores kept hidden even though they were best sellers. This also happens with other conservative authors. I do not know whether any liberal authors get the same treatment.

Lil’s house must be made out of fire resistant material

Panel 1: “Hmmm… Maybe I can kill him when his back is turned, before he kills me with vapid boredom..”

This “prestige” arc couldn’t be more ham handed if the three little pigs wrote it.

Good choice, Ed!

I second the motion!!!!

The book Ed’s holding in panel two sent me down a rabbit hole for a couple reasons. First, it’s waay thicker than the copy of F451 I read in high school, so I looked up the book’s length. It is typically about 160 pages. But there is an anniversary edition that runs a whopping 250 pages. I don’t know if this is big type/wide margins (the way I padded my term papers in college), or loaded with “learned” commentary for those of us considered too unsophisticated to get Bradbury’s point.

The cover depicted in the comic did not match any of the covers I found online, though it shares elements with most of them. I encourage you to google “Fahrenheit 451 cover” and look at all the images, because they are fascinating. They range from the brutally simple (white with the title in black type and the “1” replaced by a match) to the symbolic (a book that is also a matchbox) to the literal (Guy in a fireproof suit holding a flamethrower) to the “appeal to teenage girls” edition (hunky shirtless dude thrusting a book into the air for no particular reason) to the “WTF” (a 1972 British edition showing an eight-legged alien insect atop a pile of books and skulls). Definitely more fun than today’s strip!

The 176-page hardcover that pops up in an Amazon search has ad copy worthy of Batty: “In a world where books are banned, one man is determined to set them free.” Umm… yeah, looks like Batty’s not the only one who didn’t actually read the book.

THE REPUBLICANS.

So he’s going to take one of the students’ free books…

Right on, Crankshaft! I wish a majority thought like this about reading so the stupid fad of “banning books” could be done away with.

just because a leftist says a thing it is a lie!

lilian hasnt said a word all week maybe she turned her hearing aid off

wheres gent ?

Attaboy Cranky…..tell those woke-ists…………

Exactly! Especially, our government!

How Ayn Rand ever became famous,I’ll never know……

… as for road signs, Cranky selectively ignores them.

(Stop/Yield/Minimum Speed/Slow Traffic Right Lane Only … .)

Because I’m a conversational tutor for non-English-speaking adults, I’m very aware of literacy rates in the U.S. About 43 million adults, or 21%, have low literacy rates. About 54% lack proficiency in literacy and reading below the 6th-grade level. It means they’re easy prey for unscrupulous individuals and businesses.

Protect our children.

What book can’t Batiuk or Davis get? Where are these burnings they are trying to represent. I remember CDs being burned in Chicago back in ’79, but that was Disco so was it all right?

Locally a few years back we had a fundamentalist “Christian” minister burning books to get attention. To the surprise of zero intelligent people, he turned out to be a child molester and was sentenced to prison.

As much as it is unwarranted from the content that has been given to us in this storyline, perhaps we should have an actual discussion about “banned books”.

ala dot org has a “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023” article. Here are the top five:

“Génder Quéer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe”, Maia Kobabe

“All Boys Aren’t Blue”, George M. Johnson

“This Book Is Gåy”, Juno Dawson

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, Stephen Chbosky

“Flamér”, Mike Curato

Does Ed Crankshaft think that these specific books should be available in schools? Does Tom Batiuk?

Do you? Yes, you, reading this comment – do you think that all of these books should be freely available to anyone in any library of a school?

For my part, I’d have to actually read the content to know for certain, but on the surface of it I’d say that “yes”, the books should be available – because they’re merely books.

What about you?

Ed Crankshaft’s reading habits have evolved from reading Beans End catalogs and doing the Jumble on the crapper to a lover of science fiction overnight. That’s new. Probably for this week only. We’ll never read about Ed’s love of science fiction again.

Nobody tells Ed where he can or can’t read either.

Ed: “I finished the Jumble while I was on the can. Who wants the paper?”

Pm: “Umm, you keep it, dad. I’m good.”

“Take that, you racist MAGA terrorists!”

Batty rides off in the sunset, secure in the knowledge that he struck a blow for truth, justice, and the American way. Such a brave and courageous soul…

“As an adult”. But we have to watch out for what our kids read. I grew up on “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Tom Sawyer”, “Animal Farm”, “1984”, all in Jr. high and High school. Started reading Louis La’More westerns and SciFi even earlier. But, no porn, no “how to” books on sex. That is what most of us want to be banned from school libraries. Back in the day, the local libraries had and “Adult Section”, no kids allowed. Even the stores had the Playboys and such hidden away from kids. I have no problem what you want to read once you become and adult.

Ed Crankshaft. Posterboy for the ALA’s anti bookbanning campaign?

Just imagine, while all this is happening, Best Actress Award Winner Les Moore is snug in his bed, sound asleep, completely unaware of the consequences of his smug defiance of the school administration.

For now, I suggest we let sleeping dogs lie. I fear what will happen when Best Actress Award Winner Les Moore wakes up. His smug pontificating will cause hundreds and thousands of fists to be thrown into screens.

Sweet dreams. You ba​stard.

Couldn’t have said it better … Thanks so much, Dan Davis.

No one’s trying to tell grown adults what they can or can not read. Parents are trying to take back the education of their kids.

Sell him a copy of Chaucer, Lillian!

Don’t let ‘em, Cranky. Don’t let ’em.