Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for April 18, 2024

Where’s Crankshaft?

Imagine getting the Westview High band to make a special appearance. You’ve really got to hand it to the band director…oops. Sorry, Becky.

To get help promote his hallucination book, and he told the band that he will take back 1 Band Turkey per band member for every 4 hours each member spends helping “drum up” sales.

“Hey, it’s not like the kids have anything else to do with their time! The school year will be over in a couple of months anyway, so why not drag them away from their classes?”

Sure seems like this ‘writer’ is annoying the heck out of the rest of the writers…

Aaaaand, the Funkyfication of this comic continues apace..

Lill checking out that guy’s tuba size

Special lucky draw for book buyers. Winner is gets free band turkey dinner with author.

So why aren’t they at HIS table? Looks like they’re in the space of the other writers. I can’t see this lasting long at a real book show.

Oh, my goodness, so many haters making comments. if you hate this strip so much, please stop following it and making your divisive comments. I am a Funky Winkerbean lover from way back. I appreciate the story being continued in Crankshaft.

It’s called hate-reading.

If Batiuk had wanted to keep writing FUNKY WINKERBEAN, he should’ve ended CRANKSHAFT instead. FW may have been garbage, but it was CALVIN AND HOBBES compared to CS.

(And who says I don’t write anything nice?)

“I called in a few favors!”

Somebody should call in the cops.

Who wants this shite indoors? The ZEBRA WERE QUIETER!

Our marching band was all bagpipes and drums

One of the best things about Comics Kingdom is that comments are undisplayed by default.

maybe someone is stealing lillians books while shes talking to this windbag

i guess the people who hate when you say something bad about crankshaft never read a music or movie review

Other authors don’t look pleased.

Goofball Dingleberry’s gimmicks won’t matter…his book is still a freakin’ joke

Harry gave some local band directors ideas on to fundraise? I imagine that in light of school budget issues most everywhere, that would be something that would be appreciated greatly.

What favors could he call in? His students all hated what he put them through.

Let the drums roll outLet the trumpet callWhile the people shout “Strike up the band”Hear the cymbals ringCalling’ one and allTo the martial swing, strike up the bandThere is work to be done, to be doneLet’s have fun, fun, funYou son of a gun of a gun, take your standForm a line, oh, ohCome on, let’s goHey, leader, strike up the band!There is work to be done, to be doneLet’s have fun, fun, funCome on, son of a gun of a gun, take your standForm a line, oh, ohCome on, let’s goHey, Mr. Dinkle, Please strike up the band!

In tomorrows episode Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney will make a guest appearance to support Harry and his book.

Since before the school computer did Star Trek conventions and John Darling. If you don’t like it, why waste time reading it?

One upmanship! If that is a word. The old lady has none?

They don’t appear to be at HIS table!

Wonder how Dinkle got around the specific Ohioana Book Festival rule (Dan Davis’d from the Festival website) that Authors will have ½ of an eight-foot-long table to display books. Did Harry make two applications? Did the poor sap who was assigned the other half of Harry’s table wake up to find a horse head in his bed this morning? Is he still on his way to the festival, stuck in traffic behind a school bus? The American People deserve to know!

Given Batty’s penchant for shamelessly inserting his own output into these strips (for example, the copy of Dead St. Lisa’s Story that graced the final panel of Funky Winkerbean ), I naturally assumed Drums Along the Sidelines would be the title of the latest Harry Dinkle comic strip collection (now for sale on Tom’s website). But a quick look at the site doesn’t show such a title. Though Harry graces the covers of several FW collections, the only book specifically described as “the best [sic] of Harry L. Dinkle” is titled Gone With the Woodwinds .

However, this being Batiuk & Davis, I note that the cover art for Drums Along the Sidelines was directly lifted from the collection The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side Of The Football Field .

I somehow find that reassuring.

he had a sign up that said limit of 3 books per buyer but people were laughing so much at the thought he took it down

Dinkle: I called in a few favors.

I wish the other attendees whose tables are blocked would call security and have this inconsiderate jerk removed. Does anybody like this version of Harry Dinkle? If so, can you please explain why?

As a band kid back in the ’70s (and still a musician today), we all LOVED the band strips in Funky! Loving the crossover with Crankshaft.

…..maybe more than a few!!!!!!

Dingle’s book is probably so lame, that he doesn’t have to worry about any 5-finger discounts.

I, too, was a marching band member in school (trumpet, bass drum) in the late 1970’s. Our band director could be a rigorous drillmaster at times. One day, I remember how he focused on my four-person squad at band practice. Any time one of us made a misstep or misplayed a note, he’d make the entire marching band start over from the beginning. He’d shout into his megaphone, “Take it back!” It was one heck of a long band practice. He could be strict, but all the students liked him. There was even talk of inviting him to one of the high school reunions.

People in my high school marching band found Harry Dinkle amusing because he was an overdramatized version of our band director. In that role, Harry Dinkle was hilarious. However, he is no longer a band director and is now bossing around elderly ladies in the choir with excessively long choir practices. He was also second-guessing and interfering with the authority of the current high school band director. Harry Dinkle is now seen bullying attendees of a writers’ festival. No one can withstand the will of Harry Dinkle. Not even his hearing loss could resist the will of Dinkle.

The passage of time has not treated this character well. Harry Dinkle is out of place and belongs to another era. He is is a wretched, egotistical, condescending, smug, obnoxious, bullying, contemptible jerk. I no longer find him funny at all.

Combining the two strips into one keeps both alive.