Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for October 27, 2024

Trying to paint over the woeful wet firecracker that was the Pulitzer-bait “The Burnings”TM arc won’t stop readers from remembering sitting through it, Batiuk.

So, the Grady Twins are high school age again this time. Let’s see how long that lasts.

He literally couldn’t write a single story for the Mary Shelley-inspired Halloween arc he trumpeted for a WEEK? It’s just Lady Tom again? From the TOM that has already compared himself to HEMINGWAY, and now thinks he’s WHITMAN? Oh, Tommy: There’s a difference between “I contain multitudes” and “The voices in my head NEVER SHUT UP!” How long is the failed F451 arc going to go on? Tom, I’m kinda sure the Pulitzers don’t add points for stalking.

The Grating Cover-up, by Batiuk + Nixon.

If you don’t sand the burned wood first, the soot will mess up the paint. And how did Lizard Lil remove the red-black paint from the sign?

Make the LOSERS who did that pay for time and materials!

Why can’t you be more like Sylvia Plath?

(eyeroll)

If the “damage” just goes away from just painting over it then sure is a very convenient damage.

In other words, the creative team realized not fixing the damage would render their clip art unusable

Lillian’s optimism was like a fresh coat of paint, smooth and thick, hiding the scars of yesterday with every brushstroke. She moved her hand steadily, covering the charred wood of the bookstore’s sign, as if by covering the marks, she could erase the memory of the mob, of the flames, of the night when words had ignited minds more fiercely than any fire could. She had thought, at first, of leaving the scars exposed—to let the wounds breathe, to remind everyone of the bitterness and fury that had tried to burn down her sanctuary.

But as she worked, she thought of the words she’d read in countless books. Words that spoke of forgiveness, of turning over new soil, planting new seeds. Like Whitman, she held multitudes; she could contain both the memory of the past and the promise of the future. She realized that to dwell in the pain, to leave it exposed like a raw nerve, was to let it fester. The world didn’t need more wounds left open; it needed fresh starts, new coats of paint to cover the damage and breathe life into what had once seemed dead.

What Lillian didn’t see, couldn’t see, was that the evil politician had no room for new beginnings in his heart. His soul was like an old wound that refused to heal, scabbed over with resentment and hate. For him, the world had no place for tomorrow. The past was his playground—a place where he could relive his fury, inflicting his suffering on others because he believed that if he hurt, so should they.

While Lillian painted over the damage, the politician plotted. He didn’t believe in covering scars; he believed in picking at them, tearing them open, ensuring that everyone felt the rawness he felt. As Lillian layered on her hope and kindness, he stewed in his bitterness, waiting for the moment to tear it all down again, to make the world bleed as he bled. For her, paint was hope; for him, destruction was power. And so, while she built, he waited, a shadow on the edge, clutching the past like a weapon.

Zzzzzzzz….

in the time it takes rex morgans weird son to find a halloween costume they can have everything painted

Ya gotta feel sorry for all these wannabe’s.Somebody ‘must’ be holding a gun on these people forcing them to read a comic they don’t like and making failed-troll comments trying to ruin the comic for other people.Why don’t they just go back to X and insult people there?

And yes, I know, I’m going to get a lot of insults by leaving that comment. Probably even going to be called ‘fake’, ‘troll’, ‘fake account’, and even worse…

….that the spirit!!!!

Where is Crankshaft………..

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it true that you can’t just paint over burned paint? The old paint has to be scraped off and the wood needs to be painted first with primer. Otherwise the new paint will just peel off.

Some object to the snark and critical banter that arises with each new frame of Crankshaft (insert Dan Davis joke here). Why do you read something if you hate it so? they ask.

I am no wannabe. Quicker wits than mine have put out beautiful and kind – or at least patient –responses to the occasional objections to critical comments. I’ve chuckled at any and all takes on CS and FW, short of wishing evil on the artists involved, because it’s funny.

The snark keeps things fresh with the many eyes for fine detail and irony; for a willingness not to suspend disbelief, but to have it over for tea and a good chin wag. We wouldn’t comment or come here long to read if Crankshaft didn’t matter in some way.

I’ve commented before on Tom Batiuk’s use of slanted or off-kilter narrative, where he leaves so much for a reader to fill in. Hitchcock used this trick, but he was much better at the payoff. For Tom it has become a near-compulsive approach to telling a story, a shopworn go-to in his kit bag. I also guess that at the end of his career Batiuk is looking through older material and feeling nostalgia for past events.

Where I find the snark particularly valuable is keeping score on how these things appear. Repeated jokes, reused panels, canonical inconsistencies; this is thought-provoking critical deconstruction at its funniest.

I started reading Funky when I was a contemporary of the characters in Act I itself. Where Batiuk did have success was going from high school gag-a-day to a more constructed world, with locations and plots and closeups and yes bricks: characters moving forward with their lives. He liked this for Funky and has imposed it on Crankshaft, as is his right.

Rather than hate I see the best snark underlaid with humorous appreciation for even a failed effort, and a willingness to speak when the jokes land or there is something in the work that a reader likes. (comment moved from 10/26 strip)

Did you say BRICKS?

Where is Cranky? Must have his head in a book- – I did’n’t know he could read.

What is this lame revisiting of THE BURNING? This is supposed to be my time to shine with the scary stories. I better be back tomorrow!

Only YOU can prevent bookstore fires.

As a tweet from the past put it, “can’t tell if i contain multitudes or if i’m just full of sh!t”

She purposely doesn’t put up a WET PAINT sign, hoping Cranky will lean on it.