Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for October 06, 2024

“Well, thank you for the compliment, prune lady…now burn her garage/non-ADA accessible bookstore DOWN!”

Okay, so when do Mopey Pete and his Teen Brigade show up?

Remember, kids! If you’re ever confronted by a raging mob of arsonists who want to kill you for [REASONS], just call them “grunting”! It’ll be over quick! They’ll all get ashamed and shuffle away to read Flash #123, or kill you! (PS Tom: That’s not how you spell “pathetic”)

This has got to be the most patient mob of enraged rioters in hysteria. I mean history.

Poetic justice? “Of her pompous act we do now tire,And to some levity we shall aspire!So put an end to this arc so dire,and set the harridan afire!”

The mob starts to attack—then Crankshaft speaks up: “Hold it! I’ve got a school bus and I’m not afraid to use it! I know where your mailboxes live!”

LILLIAN

: “Lights, please.”

[SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON LILLIAN]

“I’m one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no one would listen to the ‘guilty’.But I did not speak and thus became guilty myself.And when finally they set the structure to burn the books, using the firemen, I grunt a few times and subsided.For there were no others grunting and yelling with me. By then, now, its too late"

[LILLIAN TURNS AND QUIETLY EXITS]

“That’s what censorship is all about, Eddie Crankshaft.”

So the Scooby Doo Squad is going to record Lil’s inchorent ramble, then post it on this thing Tom has heard of (“It’s called—MyFaceWho-knewtube!”) and the whole world is going to TokTik it on Xitter, and everything will simply END. No one will ever speak of the felonies committed. Indeed, Nobel Prize committee—where IS his Pulitzer?

ED " You want to see a fire? I’ll show you a fire that will melt your socks off"

You tell them Lillian! Burning a bookstore is sacrilege. Grumpy old farts.

“Oh, and by the way, this is also my home, so if any of you show up here again; Castle Doctrine, b****es!”

The real irony is that tha book ain’t banned, and they not wants to bsn it too. They just not want it in one little school’s syllabus that is all, and that ain’t banning. Going by what they was shouting clearly seen in strip some days ago was BAN THE BOOKSTORE and not ban the book. Two is completely different theengs see.

More irony is ol Lilly here falsely claiming someone set fire to yours bookstore. It was clearly seen that only a couple of bottom stairs was targeted with intention of keeping yours bookstore safe and sound.

And not to mentions irony of placards holding protest in the middle of the night. What the point in placards when everyone’s sleeping? Not to mentions getting arrested for causing nuisance in middle of night.

Speaking of getting attested ain’t nobody calling the police because why calls the cops when you has the batty komix squad. Hey why call cops nearby in your own town when ya can calls the Krazy komix squad from another town.

And not to mentions so many other points already mentioned in commentary since this ironic idiocy started. There so muc irony here me won’t has to worries bout iron deficiency in me haemoglobin for a thousands years. This whole theeng is just a big sham scam charade. It’s called irony. Maybe they shoulda called Irony Man instead of Batty Man. Ping ping ping ping ping!

I keep hoping somebody chucks and rock at her and knock her unconscious.

In Batty’s world the mob will say ‘you are right Lil’ and go home peacefully

Mob responds; “What book? It’s you we despise.”

Kid- “Hey mommy! when aw de bat kids going to get here?” Mom- “After they get their plastic bat boomerangs.”

Lillian’s speech really Blue them away.

Looks like it’s working! I think they’re calming down!

Sixth panel, omitted for lack of space: as one, the mob replies, “SO WHAT?” The passage Lillian read is utterly irrelevant to their protest (at least as far as I can tell based on Batty’s far-from-coherent plot thusfar).

Yes and they all said Hunters laptop was Russian disinformation. Now it might be too late.

Right. All these nut jobs sat quietly and listened. Now they’re hearts are growing ten sizes. Tomorrow the mob will be sanding and painting her garage.

The crowd didn’t care about Lillian’s words. They weren’t listening. They had already made up their minds, or rather, someone had made it up for them. Liberty, freedom, democracy—none of it mattered. They weren’t fighting for principles; they were fighting a monster. A monster they couldn’t see or understand, but one that had been created for them. Their politician, their strongman, had pointed his finger, called it evil, and that was enough. They followed blindly, lashing out, one violent act after another.

The politician didn’t need to raise a hand; the people were his weapon. He had stirred them up, convinced them they were righteous, like Don Quixote charging at windmills, believing they were fighting dragons. But the real monster wasn’t in the book they wanted to burn. The real monster was the one they couldn’t see—themselves.

They didn’t realize it, but they were attacking the very principles they thought they cherished. The freedom to think, the liberty to speak. These were the things they claimed to hold dear, but now, under the sway of a man who craved power above all, they were tearing it all apart. They couldn’t see it because their minds were closed, their vision clouded by fear, by hate.

The politician stood back, watching, laughing. He had them in the palm of his hand. Once he had their anger, their loyalty, he had control of the country. And with that, he had control of all of us. This wasn’t just about burning books; it was about burning minds. Burning the very heart of what makes a nation free.

Lillian knew this, but the crowd didn’t. They couldn’t see they had become the monster. They were too far gone, puppets in a game they didn’t even know they were playing.

“The pantheon of lofty ideas and clueless execution”.

You’re absolutely right, Lillian!

maybe the ghost of pop clutch will appear and scare the mob away

The mob wants to burn a book that features book burning. Is that “poetic” irony or is it just a forced coincidence?

At least today’s strip has returned from the campy silliness of yesterday’s strip. After the introduction of the Bat Friends into the story, I was concerned that Batyuk had lost it. It made me wonder if he gave those puff-piece interviews shortly after his superhero cape came out of the dryer. Did he pretend to fly out of the room after he hung up the phone?

As many comic strip readers are aware, the Sunday strips are often not created simultaneously with the dailies. Let’s see if the campy silliness of the Bat Friends returns on Monday. After all. How bad can it get?

Batyuk: “Hold my cocoa.”

Crankshaft said, quick, if that’s the best passage you have, try another book!

Well done Lillian, ignorance and stupidity should be battled at every turn.

I’ve heard of books being removed from the syllabus, and I’ve heard of books that some feel are inappropriate for school libraries, but I haven’t heard of any books that are actually being banned. Can someone please tell me what books are being banned and where?

I feel so much more learned, now that Lillian has enlightened me. Keep it going, Lillian. When the sun comes up you can lead the crowd in a rousing rendition of Kumbyah.

T and B read the many complaints “where is Crankshaft”, they put him in this arc…..buthave muted him….

I wish they would ban most of the commenters here.

Don’t worry, 20 guys dressed in capes and leotards will be here soon to save the day. Since Commissioner Gordon apparently disbanded the police force when he retired.

The room was blazing hot, he was al fire, he was all coldness; they sat in the middle of an empty desert with three chairs and him standing, swaying, and him waiting for Mrs. Phelps to stop straightening her dress hem and Mrs. Bowles to take her fingers away from her hair. Then he began to read in a low, stumbling voice that grew firmer as he progressed from line to line, and his voice went out across the desert, into the whiteness, and around the three sitting women there in the great hot emptiness.

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

The chairs creaked under the three women.

Montag finished it out:

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Mrs. Phelps was crying.

The others in the middle of the desert watched her crying grow very loud as her face squeezed itself out of shape. They sat, not touching her, bewildered with her display. She sobbed uncontrollably. Montag himself was stunned and shaken.

Not even Will Rogers could like a mob…..

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, almost everyone has admitted that somebody wanting to burn Fahrenheit 451 would be ironic. If a person wanted to burn a copy of this specific book, it would be ironic because they would be participating in the very act the book condemns. Highlighting the contradictions in trying to silence a message about the value of books and critical thinking.

But is that the reason the mob wants to burn the book/Lillian’s bookstore? That’s not what we were shown. Lillian is trying to reason with a mob who’s against the book simply because it was not on an approved reading/teaching list. That was “all they needed to know.” They didn’t want their kids to get a book that was “banned”.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the mob will show the ability to comprehend the value of books and critical thinking? What a miraculous transformation! Wow, Lillian is one hell of a teacher. Perhaps Westview High should fire smug troublemaker Les Moore and hire Lillian.

I’m willing to accept Lillian being the hero of this tale if it means Best Actress Award Winner Les Moore can’t hog any of the glory. He started this mess. Why should he be rewarded? Who wants to see Best Actress Award Winner Les Moore anywhere near this story?

Hey! If we think really hard, maybe we can stop Les Moore! NO LES! NO LES! NO LES! NO LES! NO LES!

…and she just PROVED how Stupid society is! Nuff said.

They are asleep by now!!!!

You can tell that Batty has never been around a REAL mob. Like the crazed loons screaming threats to the press at Trump rallies.

The real-world MAGA terrorists are calling bomb threats in Ohio. These guys look like they’re at a prayer meeting.

Crowd: Can we still burn Crankshaft?

Lillian: Help yourselves.

Spoken like a true MAGA!

It’s not banned STATEWIDE where I live—one of the most conservative states in the country: Utah. But there have been bannings in smaller towns and cities in the state. The folks here aren’t the most broad-minded in the world (but you can’t beat Utah for some of the most beautiful vistas on Earth).

Good lord, as a decrepit, self satisfied old guy, Batiuk needs to join Batiuk in turning off comments let them enjoy their drooling dotage without the responses.

Will anybody in the crowd reveal t he name of the arsonist?

I almost felt empathy. She’s a witch! Burn her!