Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for September 08, 2024

“I don’t want to conflate the two, even though I just did ten seconds ago (in yesterday’s strip).”

OK.

So, rather than have the character this strip is frackin’ named for and supposed to be about make even a token Sunday appearance, Batiuk felt it was more important to show Skip Bittman and Lillian the Lizard smirking at one another while spewing lame wordplay. Good to know.

It was Ed Crankshaft, attempting to placate the protesters by staging a barbecue. Nice try, Ed!

Explain again how this is Tom “exploring a serious topic.” For all we know, people—probably high school kids—may have BURNED TO DEATH. YESTERDAY. And…“Village Booksmith” is a PUN?! On what planet? #GiveTomPultitzerNOW #justToShutHimup

SKIP: “Now they’ve burned down a CHURCH!” LILLIAN: “HOLY SMOKE!” SKIP: “Oh, how you booksmellers love puns about arson!”

So… you don’t know if there’s any connection between the two events. You really don’t know anything about the Booksmellers fire at all, apparently. Why, exactly, are you here interviewing Loathsome Lillian about all this, then? Unless she was involved in the arson, there’s absolutely nothing to be gained by talking to her, especially since she didn’t even KNOW about the fire until YOU TOLD HER. (Not that there’s ever anything to be gained by talking to Lillian.) “This MIGHT have been arson, which MIGHT have been done because they were selling a particular book, but it also MIGHT be completely unrelated to that. What are your thoughts?”

Aha. So it not really the protesters who done it eh. But of course it was the one armed man who done it. Or maybe it was Crankshaft. Mystery is zero down to only two suspects now.

Given how rare book-burning incidents are and the putative connection with book banning, a high-interest subject in the culture wars, I’d imagine Westview is heaving with press and cameramen. Skip’s strategy of interviewing a nearby bookseller who has recently been promoting banned books isn’t that off-the-wall. A minor story, but a scoop.

No, newspaper writers don’t love their puns, because they’re corny and stupid.

So does Lizard Lil have an alibi as to where she was last night? Look at that face in the penultimate panel; she’s not too broken up over this.

The Village BookSmite eh. Not a very reassuring name you is gots.

Somehow ""Fahrenheit 451" come to mind.

you can argue about skippy and lilian all day im just gonna sit on this park bench i might sit here all day

as was said before the irony, banning and burning a book that was about banning and burning books.

I thought this thing was beyond disappointing me—but we plummeted to new levels.

The village booksmith wins against the village idiot!

The Village Booksmith isn’t a pun.

So the point of today was…what? Just to fill out the Sunday obligation? With a lame “fan the flames” pun which I’m not even sure qualifies as one.

Several readers every day ask, “Where’s Crankshaft?” Others state how they’re looking forward to Sunday so they can see Ed’s weekly cameo appearance.

So, does the character the strip is named after make a cameo appearance today? Nope, Batty flips the readers looking for Ed Crankshaft the double-bird. Instead of an Ed one-off, Batty features Lillian and Skip-to-My-Lou making goo-goo eyes at one another. Seriously?

Today’s Sunday strip really does nothing to move “The Burnings” story along. If Batty is going to do a strip about wordplay, why not use the character who’s famous for it, Ed Crankshaft. Unlike Ed’s wordplay, Lillian and Skip’s wordplay is not even humorous.

Strips featuring certain Crankshaft characters since 8/4.

Skip Rawlings: 17

Lillian McKenzie: 10

The Eponymous Ed Crankshaft: 2 (Yes, only twice in five weeks).

Batty mentioned in the puff pieces that Lillian will be the hero of the tale. We’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the upcoming weeks. Why not make the readers who want to see Ed Crankshaft happy?

OOOOO! I feel a love story brewing!

Will have to check in again next Sunday. Another depressing week in store.

Don’t take your eyes off this bum.

Ready to toss this OUT!

I’m done. This whole no Ed thing blows chunks. See you all over at Wallace the Brave.

Budding Romance?

Many cartoonists use the Sunday strip to recap the preceding week of the strip.

Unfortunately, in this case, not even Batyuk knows what is going on.

Was there a strip about Crank …..and I missed it???

I’m going to peace out for a while. This “Burnings” story is pure trash and it looks like it’s going to run all the way up to the cancellation of Crankshaft at the end of the year. Its a shame – I always enjoyed Crankshaft as part of my daily comics read and Batty’s decision to turn it into the inferior (and less successful) Funky Winkerbean is disappointing. It’s a shame he couldn’t be proud of his actual talent as a gag-a-day guy and decided he had to be Super Serious Cartoon Guy, which he absolutely is not good at.

I’ll miss Cranky. Maybe someone else could take over? That happened with ‘Nancy’, but the new writer wasn’t so great. So, maybe not a solution…

Wow,I’ve read a lot of “Funky” and “Crankshaft” so I know how cringy they can get, but … this was really EXTRA cringy.

Stop the presses! These two might be in love!

Johnny Cash will now sing “Ring Of Fire”