Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for August 19, 2023

The art says “monitor from 2023”. The last panel says “punchline from a B&W sitcom 1961 (LAUGH TRACK! and ad for the Corvair, America’s SAFEST Car!)”

Odd, I don’t know why Jeff is missing in all of the family photos.

That sounds almost like something Crank would say.

As a sergeant in the Army would say, “end of discussion”!

Noodley Jffff lost his wedding band in P. 2,but got re-married seconds later. But, why?

…..or anything else.

My mother was infamous for beheading people in photos.

Pretty sure that “O” was supposed to be an “A,” if you catch my drift…

if batiuk tried to be a standup comedian with these jokes he wouldn’t last two minutes

“Hey! Why are you cropping ME out of the photos?!”

Where’s your sense of humor, Pam?

Another lame Dad joke falters.

If you think about it, “sharecropper” doesn’t even make sense. Then again, why am I spending time thinking about it?

Any time someone mentions about “fixing dinner,” I always wonder who broke it in the first place…!

When you live with Ed Crankshaft, I guess his “wit” is contagious.

Today’s strip is an example of an actual well-made comic strip within Crankshaft. There is three panels – setup, response, retort. The setup is brief, the response is a discernible and not overwrought pun, and the retort is sharp. The facial expressions match the words being said. The written statements match those which actual humans make (unlike “climate damage”, for example).

The snarking and criticism comes when a comic strip is not well made. Pay attention here: No, I didn’t say “not funny” – I said “not well made”.

When the characters in your comic strip advance and regress in physical age at will, your comic strip is “not well made”.

When the personality of your characters in your comic strip change at will, your comic strip is “not well made”.

When your comic strip makes specific references to real-life events that could not possibly happen at the time when you say that they occurred, your comic strip is “not well made”.

When the majority of the characters in your comic strip all have the same hobbies and interests as you may personally have, your comic strip is “not well made”.

When the human characters in your comic strip respond in actions and words that no human would ever do or say to the events being presented, your comic strip is “not well made”.

When unlikable tertiary characters in your comic strip appear more often than the lead characters and divert the central concept of your strip away from its originally designed core purpose, your comic strip is “not well made”.

If your strip is “not well made”, it will invite criticism.

If you present the story of your strip as its strength and you make no effort to keep the story of your strip consistent, it will invite criticism.

If media articles and interviews present the story of your strip as its strength and you make no effort to keep the story of your strip consistent, it will invite even more criticism.

If you make a strip like today, it won’t invite criticism, because it is “well made”.

WORD!

Why do you say “fix dinner”? I there something wrong with it?

Haha! XD