Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for April 23, 2024

Tom Batiuk was born in 1947. The first issue of Spider Man came out in 1963. Tom was living on his own at the age of 16? Hm….

Where’s Crankshaft?

Look at all the word zeppelins! There are as many gasbags in the air as on the ground!

Love the joke! That would send comic people crazy.

And this “Hey, you left something valuable behind when you moved! Just kidding!” is meant to be a joke, close to a joke, joke-adjacent…how?

Also, I will confess to not being a regular reader of this strip during most of its run, but I would like anyone to offer documentation that the story Jfff is relating was ever depicted or even related in passing as being a real occurrence. Batton Thomas, Creator of the Once-Syndicated Comic Strip “Three O’Clock High,” was a semi-regular character in “Funky Winkerbean,” not “Crankshaft,” and I don’t think was even mentioned here prior to the 2023 merger.

… but did leave a room full of 4-inch cockroaches.

With great powers comes great websponsibility.

Panel 1: What?

Jeff been around Ed too much!, and you are no comic!

John: Buy something or get out.

Jfffff, “There’s nothing here worth buying!”

He never should’ve said “just kidding”

Yep…..who wouldn’t!!!!!

Just kidding, people!

Taped on then wall. Whoduhthunkit? Some things never change.

I wonder if Tom switched to GoComics because CK wouldn’t let him his more successful strip into his less successful one.

If Tom had actually found either the issue of Amazing Fantasy, where Spider-Man first appeared, or, Amazing Spider-Man #1, he could have paid for a lot of repairs to his house. (Needed because of a certain bus driver who lives with him.)

i will see a robot wear a helmet before i get a laugh out of this arc

TOMORROW—-We discuss the greatness of “Ally Babble And The Fourteen Peeves”

Today’s strip is a master class in how to blow a perfectly good joke premise. The premise would have worked as an actual joke if Jff had delivered his “and you left your valuable comic book behind” line in the first panel, and the second panel had just been everybody else with their eyes bulging and mouths hanging open in shock. It could have worked, not quite as well, if it had been done in three panels, with the “just kidding” line in the third. As it is, by putting the “just kidding” in the same panel as the “you left your valuable comic” and the shocked expressions, Batty muddles everything up. There’s no pause. You read the “just kidding” before you notice the shocked expressions. It’s like a hologram of a joke, with setup and punchline existing simultaneously everywhere.

I got nothing. Crankshaft is getting very “late stage Apartment 3G,” only with clip-art.

That big X is coming!

“Your” landlady, not “our” landlady?

“I never did get back my security deposit, you cretin!”

There must be a commemorative plaque- “Famed Cartoonist Batton Thomas lived here!”

So Batton never even owned that comic, yet he thought he left it behind?

The description of Crankshaft: "You never know which Ed Crankshaft you’re going to get — the irritable one, the angry one, theupset one, or the plain old garden-variety grumpy one. " Lately it’s the “MISSING” Ed Crankshaft.

By the way, what do you suppose Harry is saying to John there in Panel 1?

“So you see, this part here? This is the cover. The rest of the book might be trash, for all you know, but you have to get this cover right, bud. You just have to. The cover. It’s what makes you want to look, see. Now it’s in your hands and you just need to know. Because of the cover.”

Batton: “I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing fixitaves!”

I had trouble understanding the first panel too. It took me three readings to figure out that “strips” referred to comic strips. I’m guessing that Batton used fixatives to prevent his comic strips from smearing before mailing them to the syndicate.

Why did he tape the strips to the wall before spraying them with the fixative? Wouldn’t it be more sensible to spread out some newspaper or a drop cloth on a table or floor instead?

Batton Thomas: I need to spray paint my chair. The living room carpet looks like a great place.

That one actually got a chuckle from me!