Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for September 07, 2024

“They wanted to burn Les Moore in effigy, but they couldn’t find that town on their GPS mappers!”

Would that be the same “Internet” you said you keep forgetting about back on Aug. 27th, Lil?

Boy, those protests and the resulting conflagration sound like they were pretty dramatic and exciting moments. Too bad the creators couldn’t be bothered to depict them because we needed shots of smirking Skip Bittman, smirking Batton Thomas (Creator of the…), smirking Lizard Lil, smirking Lester Moore, and smirking Dinkleberg over the last couple of weeks instead. I swear, if Batiuk had directed “Star Wars” he would have gone from the rebels planning to attack the Death Star to a smirking Luke and Han talking about how they blew the thing up, without showing the actual battle.

Both Tuesday’s and today’s strips specifically make the ultimate point of how futile and inconsequential a book “ban” from a single school is today, and yet here we are where the same “ban” has caused one arson incident off-camera.

“We don’t want our high school kids reading a 70 year old book (for reasons unstated and unknown) that they can find on the Internet with their phones for free in 0.01 seconds, so we’re going to burn this one single store to the ground.” I don’t buy it, and for all the words this strip has posted in this arc, it hasn’t made the case. The longer this story goes, the less realistic and logical it gets.

Once again, Skippity-Do-Dah is recording somebody without their permission and shoving his phone in their face.

I repeat, the burning of the building of a book wholesaler in Westview has what to do with a spinster in Centerville, who happens to have a side gig at a used bookstore?

Why isn’t Skip interviewing witnesses of the fire? No interviews of people who live in the same neighborhood as the Bookseller? No interviews of students in (Best Actress Award Winner) Les Moore’s class? No interviews of concerned parents or school board officials?

Mr. Rawlings, after very careful consideration, sir, I’ve come to the conclusion that as a reporter, you suck.

With each installment, the storyline becomes more heavy-handed. Sorry, Skippy

What ever happened to Ed Crankshaft? Did he retire from the bus driver gig? This is prime time for his school bus antics and all we get is this totally unrelated minutiae. Bring back the focus of this strip and the reason I originally followed it.

“We must burn the book about burning books!”

If school board is already banning a book then how can students using that very same book for that very same school literature? Who is sets the exams and questions papers? The school board or Less Mooreon? How can students passes them exams if they is reads sometheeng outta syllabus? It’s called educationing?

The real mystery is what happened to Skip’s other arm?

This appear like a deliberate attempt to demonise poor parents and show them in a very bad light because me has not heard of any parents actually burning down book stores in any civilised society. The statement by the Skippy character saying “the protesters felt there were things that they didn’t want their kids to see” is explicitly means it was parents who was did that arson.

The odd thing is, I’m willing to bet most of the parents who supposedly got riled up about Creepy Les assigning F451 had it as assigned reading when they were in high school. So what’s the real reason they burned the BookSmeller? I’m betting the abomination is not the book itself, but who assigned it.

Ugh… Why does it feel like people are whining over nothing more often these days?

Expose the Trumpanzees and reactionaries. Good job, Tom and Dan

What happened to the book on Crankshaft??

Skip Thisstory is a pretty miserable excuse for a reporter. He’s already mis-stating his facts. The Worstview school district never outright banned the book. To quote Princip’l Nate in Monday’s strip: “it’s on the school board’s ‘not approved’ reading list… so it can’t be ordered by the school.” This is not a ban; it’s just an administrative procedure which Les (as much as it pains me to admit this) is perfectly within his rights to go around. The fact that “not approved to order” is a euphemism for “not approved to teach” (as Nate goes on to say) is meaningless; euphemisms aren’t enforceable contracts. In fact, if Worstview High has an even remotely competent union, odds are any attempt to discipline Les for ordering the books independently would be met with a grievance and overturned (and you have no idea how much it pains me to say that).

Like Zach Weinersmith’s book of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Skipppy’s version of the story is abridged beyond the point of usefulness. I’m beginning to think Mordor Capital was right in shutting down the Sentinel.

It is ironical, isn’t it?

Literally burning Fahrenheit 451 is a nice touch.

Meanwhile over at the Valentine Casablanca is showing. Ed picks up Mary to see it. As they go in Ed nudges Mary and whispers “Here’s looking at you kid.”

Notice that Skippy never explicitly says the store was burned because of Fahrenheit 451, just “a book for their school literature course.” The real issue is Mr. Koko’s class reading Fanny Hill, in particular page 47.

This is really good.

I like to think it’s just a fad about book banning. Sooner or later the fanatics that want this banning will just forget the reasons why these books are being banned and, maybe, read these books themselves. When 2030 rolls around, this might all be history and the books will be accepted into SOME of society.

I heard from someone fairly reliable that all the books that are banned in schools come out of some mom’s book club somewhere of about three women.

“What I tell kids is, Don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know.” ―Stephen King

This is some milquetoast garbage. “The protesters felt there were things in the books kids shouldn’t see?” Batty got a write up in 2 newspapers for this “brave” storyline?

They were protesting the store selling Fahrenheit 451 so they burned the place.

Mr. B has succeeded in one way: I avoid the comments here because they are overly annoying and inane. But here I am today. Sigh.

P 3 (Skippy): “… and they have hung Les Moore in effigy…”

I love Crankshaft,but front-facing Skip hurts my soul. And I’m guessing he either lost his arm (same arm as Becky’s,too!) at birth or in an accident.

I’m beginning to think that maybe the “reporter” is the arsonist.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s cameo appearance

Tomorrow we find out the fire started when Ed Crankshaft held a barbecue for the crowd of fifteen reporters and two demonstrators outside the store.

wheres les moore ?

Burning down bookstores is barbaric!

Imagine finding more facts in a comic strip than in any MAGA-GOP campaign ad or platform.

Well said my dear; well said indeed…..

“I don’t want my kid to read that book.” “Me either! Let’s burn down the bookstore where it’s being distributed!” “Good idea, it’s the only place that carries it!”

Lil, have you checked the shop’s insurance coverage, lately? Considering what happened to the shop in Westview because (presumably) a teacher overthere did what Les there in Centerville…

You hit the nail on the head Lillian!

Why is Skip using the front-facing camera on his phone? Why not use the bigger, better camera on the back? Watch your finger, Skip. It’s almost over the camera lens.

If it weren’t for the huge “RECORD” on Skip’s phone display in the first panel, I’d doubt he remembered to hit record at all.

So Batyuk is telling us it’s dangerous to shop at small stores downtown? This completely contradicts the story arc he presented just a few months ago, You know, the story arc where Centerville Hardware was closing because nobody shopped here.

I think I got the message, Batyuk. It’s safer to shop for books online and avoid the rioting violent protesters downtown. Amazon and many other online bookstores thank you for your public service message.

ed says now i know how judge parker feels i never have to work but i get top billing

Right on, Lillian!

For those who claim this is some Very Important Arc—If Tom had written F451, it would be 2 pages of things happening, and all the rest just having that described. Why didn’t Tom do 1984? “It was bright cold day in April, and all the clocks LOVED BIG BROTHER!” His Avengers movies would be 5 minutes of Captain Rogers saying “—And then, Tony DID something CRAZY! You should’da been there.” He’s not addressing this subject, he’s DISMISSING it. Mainly because Davis only uses clipart now. He’s still waiting for that Pulitzer he’s never going to get. This arc isn’t about book banning, it’s just how Tom is a begging for prizes.

Westview somehow makes the Soviet Union look like a utopia when it comes to book-banning

When the writer of this alleged comic decides to allow us to see Cranky again, I may return, but the hatred so many posters here have for women turns my stomach…