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

Oh deary me, not one competent musician in the whole ensemble! Or is this just proof that Dinkle’s hearing is shot to perdition?

And the joke here is…an elderly man wants to keep teens locked up in school overnight?

Whatever today’s non-joke is, the question I’d like to ask Batiuk is “Why is the December Dinkle Arc Taking Place in Centerville High Instead of Westview?” Wouldn’t it have been another quarter-inch closer to reality to have a story where Becky and her hubby DSH John are spending Christmas in Disney World, Hawaii, or some other exotic vacation locale, and she asks her old mentor to fill in for the two weeks or so leading up to the Holiday Concert? Harry would be back at his old stomping grounds. We could see the Grady twins and maybe some of long-forgotten FW folk (like, say, Cayla at the front desk instead of Nameless Centerville Secretary). And the school’s willingness to let him take over would have made a bit of sense, instead of Dinkle just walking into a situation and, entitled smugface that he is, getting exactly what he wants. Oh, well, at least one more week of this nonsense to go.

A 80-vehicle collision in dense fog along a mountainous pass sounds better than these folks.

Maybe he needs to make sure they are all on the same page, too.

In other words, this band is to music what this strip is to humor.

Pro Tip: the band might sound better if Harry hadn’t replaced the music they’ve been practicing for the last two months with Claude Barlow’s Christmas Concert.

Maybe there was a good reason to ditch Funky Winkerbean. Give us Crankshaft and the gang at the Roy Rogers Cafe, please.

Where’s Crankshaft?

Meanwhile down at the Dale Evans Ed says:

“We’re having trouble coming up with excuses to keep Lena off the bowling team. Hey! Do you guys like brownies?”

As Crankshaft might say……sheesh…….

Comic strips are a good medium to spread Christmas spirit. It would be a great time of year to bring Crankshaft back and give this misery a rest.

It’s what you live fir and you love it …..

The way the band is playing is probably why the regular director took sick.

Dinkle decides to play hardball and changes the concert venue. He believes these students need discipline—his unique brand of discipline. The concert will now be a marching band performance, taking place on the football field, which is currently covered in several feet of snow and experiencing arctic conditions.

Dinkle: Alright, that’s enough! Outside! With instruments in five minutes.

Harry Dinkle mysteriously disappears. His corpse is finally discovered on the football in March after an early Spring thaw. (evil grin)

Dream on ….buddy!!!!!!

What we need is a strong alpenhorn section