Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for October 07, 2024

Smug Boi says “I will assign Book!” ARSON! which does nothing More the ARSONS!!! that do nothing. RIOT! That also does nothing. Old lady talk! (Smug Boi, unseen; hides under blankets a town over. A small whimper is heard) RIOT! But NEW & GOOD, BAT-KID PERSON RIOT, all are from the Funkybean. …GOOD THING WE’RE SEEING AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT DEALT WITH SERIOUSLY Tomorrow: The Flash saves them ALL

So, Mopey Pete has Ed’s fellow school bus drivers, the Grady Twins, and Dinkleberg on “speed dial”? Yeah, sure, makes perfect sense. The only ones I could see getting his Bat-Signal are Crazy Harry and DSH John. Where are his old collaborator Darwin, Chester Hagglemore, the Late Phil Holt, or Batton Thomas (Creator of the Now-Retired Comic Strip “Three O’Clock High”)? And whose hand with the bracelet was that in Saturday’s nail-biting installment?

Such talented people! They all found posterboards, sticks, nails and ink, or maybe crayon, right away! And they made signs, and all arrived at the scene of the slow-motion wannabe-riot in moments! By the way, aren’t picket signs on sticks actually banned, as they make dangerous weapons when tempers get out of control? (Seriously, has anyone seen a classic picket sign on a stick lately?)

Deep.

And how, pray, is Fahrenheit 451’s future our present? Yes, some books are challenged or banned at various local, city, and state governmental levels, but there is no global destruction of all forms of printed material. And, thanks to computers and the Internet, access to literature has never been easier. We don’t have to send folks out into the forest to spend their days memorizing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Bluest Eye, or Heather Has Two Mommies, anyone of which would have been a more provocative and interesting case study than 451. Batiuk’s down-home denouement here is shaping up to be second rate Capra-corn…emphasis on the “corn.”

Way to go Lillian!

Jeepers, I sure hope we spend another day of people tearing apart someone’s silly writing style, without addressing the fact that they are de facto demanding the banning of his speech! Even explicitly saying that they WANT our speech banned! That was so self-aware of them! Some of you can’t accept an opposite opinion on a comics comments page.

I never read Funky Winkerbean or whatever it’s name was. Can someone at least tell me who the characters were and what they were known for, so I can understand these posts? Thanks…

Soooo…the self-centered narcissist who has nothing to do with all this (Harry Dinkle) is prominent but the author self-insert, the self-absorbed and self-righteous Les Moore, is nowhere to be found?

Here comes the posse to beat up the protestors.

Can we move on to a humorous story now? This non-issue story arc is really boring. Books are not being burned. Buildings are not being burned because they sell certain books. Books are not banned. I am ready for Crankshaft to run over a mailbox and be outrun by a mom getting her kid on the bus.

Les caused this mess and is no where to be seen

Now what the… Just when ya theenks this can not gets any more preposteridiculudicrous.

So they all travelled in the middle of the night from another town called Westview to here so quickly?

They was prepare all that placard and all within that short period of time they hads to immediately starts and gets to here?

And so far nobody was calls the cops who was much much closer than these clowns from another town?

What on earth is the meanings of all thees? It’s called what the…?

Now me is 100% sure this has gots to be a heelaareeous ooover the top parody.

Kid- “Mommy! when aw de bat kids going to get hewe?” Mom- “Now they have to get their batman tricycle.”

“It’s a Bat-Emergency! Everyone stop to make stupid signs!”

Say is there going to be free Monotony’s pizzas too for protestors?

Where’s the Skip at to be covering this story for his no reader paper?

The calvary has arrived!!!!

This is getting old!

The politician stood in the shadows, grinning to himself. He had done it. Stirred the pot, unleashed the anger, and watched as the crowd outside Lillian’s bookstore raged, just as he’d wanted. They were puppets, all of them. He pulled their strings, and they danced, a blind fury sparked by lies and half-truths. The book, Fahrenheit 451, was just a scapegoat—an easy target to channel their fear and ignorance.

But what the politician hadn’t counted on was resistance. Another group was rising—one that wouldn’t fight with violence but with something stronger: their minds, their voices, their resolve. These weren’t people led by fear, but by the deep-rooted belief in freedom, in liberty, in the fragile gift of democracy. They weren’t afraid to stand, even if it meant standing alone. And if the time came for violence, they would be ready to lay down their lives to protect the freedom they cherished. This was the resilience the politician never saw coming.

The politician had built his power on lies, and they had worked for a time. He believed his own lies, believed he could rule with them. But his lies were as hollow as the crowd’s chants, and he didn’t realize that a society led by fear and chaos cannot last. He thought he could own this town, then the community, and eventually the world. But the world does not bend to tyrants forever. It bends to those who fight for truth.

Lillian spoke to the crowd, her voice steady. “If we are to survive, we must embrace civility. We must cherish love, not fear. Chaos is not law. We live by the laws of compassion, of freedom, of the soul.”

She hoped her words would sink in, even if only a little. That would be enough.