Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for October 11, 2024

Just get a room, you two.

I must admit I do like the Grady Twins staring at Min-dull in Panel One: “Mom!?”

No Atheists in foxholes hummmm ?

Hey, look! Ed can talk! He wasn’t a cardboard cutout after all!

So it wasn’t The Burning, it was The Banning? Good thing nobody had a couple of beers or it would have been The Burping.

We weren’t shown the knee-knocking because that was too much action for this story.

Knees was what? WHAT? You coulda just called the cops ya knows. Actually you shouda done that soon after the bottom stairs arson incident. But noooo. Even Cranky’s granddaughter is no calls cops but is calls her mopey boy friend and he is calls his na na na na na na na batty gang. Because it’s called calling.

And waitsaminute. You is has CCTV surveillance camera all the while. And you ain’t even bothers to sees footage to see if you can see who it be. Let alone calls them cops and gives this footage evidence to em to investigates. Just what illegal business is you and yours batty gang pals is up to in yours “bookstore” of yours that you all is so scared to calling the cops to ghsi place, Lillyan? Why hide it that it is arson attempt from the authorities otherwise? It’s called hiding?

“I thought it was your rickets acting up”.

Ed’s gf is not going to be happy

Panel three the cardboard stuntman is replaced by the real Ed. Action!

Now take your security footage to the cops and have them arrest the person who defaced your sign.

Great arc.

Cranks hearing is better than I thought!!!!

Synchronized knee knocking?

Ed wants her.

I do not wish to think about Lillian’s knees

Your knees make that sound all the time.

“Evil isn’t the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it’s a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference.” ― Jim Butcher

hey lilian you hungry im gonna gather up some land shrimp probably plenty under the garbage can

At their age their knees make funny noises regardless

“Those were yours?”

Not going to lie, that actually made me smile a little.

This is a COMIC strip found in “Go COMICS”, so to make up for the lack of COMEDY (i.e. humor) I offer this scenario: The police show up after receiving an anonymous phone call, and mistake these people for the protestors, round them up and put them all in jail. Imagine Crankshaft, his extended family, Lillian, and most of the other characters who have dominated the strip for the last two weeks all crammed into a jail cell. And the punch line, they can’t be released until the judge returns from his vacation on (oh this is hilarious) Fire Island, New York.

I downloaded Fahrenheit 451 this morning. When I learned what it’s about I laughed at the irony. So…. they’re banning a book about banning books. How funny is that?

Anybody else remember when one of the best features of this title was the adversarial relationship between Ed and Lillian? How Lillian was often the unintended victim of Ed’s shenanigans? How they occasionally had a rivalry like who would be the president of the garden club, or who could attract the most birds to their birdfeeder? How Lillian played the role of Mr. Wilson to Ed’s Dennis Mitchell? That was one of the things that made this title fun. Now they’re making goo-goo eyes at one another. Now they’re BFF. This title is officially FUBAR.

Welcome to the new Crankshaft. It’s all comic books, book signings, Batton Thomas, Montoni’s pizza, and the cartoonist waxing poetic about things only he knows or cares about. If nothing, this story arc has proven there’s very little pain or strife in the new Batiukverse. Outcomes are predetermined. There are no stakes. The humor is on hiatus. In other words, dull, boring snark fodder.

I think Ed is contractually required to speak at least once every two weeks. Thus him finally saying something today after standing around bored for the last oh so many strips.

We have seen how much Dinkle likes the joke about banned books/band books. Let’s not mention hanging (paper or cloth) book banners inside the Village Booksmith anywhere around him. There would be dead bodies of people who want to ban books hanging everywhere inside the store. Am I the only one who thought that when Lillian said “book banners”?

Only 51 comments? Did something get moderated, or is there a general lack of enthusiasm for the Crankshaft-McKenzie Mutual Appreciation Society?

Oh, Cranky. XD