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

Oh no, did Crankshaft die yesterday?

This strip is but a shadow of its former self.

Cranky only appears now on Sundays in his own strip…

Only problem is Skip’s shadow resembles a well-water pitcher pump.

Are we to assume, then. that the town of Westview has no newspaper of its own, and the only place that the (thankfully still unseen) Lester Moore could send Grady Twin #1 was to Centerville’s one-man, one-room rag? All right, then. Get ready for a week’s worth of “dying print media” forced nostalgia a la Batiuk.

Whaaat? Why Goldilocks shadowing a old geezer like him? She want to stealing all his porridge or sometheeng?

C’mon, kid. Tabloids are much more interesting.

It’s good she showed up, Mr Rawlings could use a hand

Yup, the U.S. is missing the fourth estate, the press. Without it, there is no one watching over the government.

That’s a huge safety pin holding up that sleeve.

Surprise, surprise! A Generic Blonde!

Skip headline: “Raccoon Plunders Pritchett Family Trash Cans”

Pay close attention. You’re writing history about writing history. And the business behind doing so.

Don’t you think she’d get more mileage shadowing Crankshaft? After all he is the star of this show. At least that’s what I was led to believe….

In real life she would have taken one step inside and said oops wrong address, sorry. Followed by quitting school if necessary.

Nice save, Skippy. Obviously you forgot about the whole thing when you learned Emily wasn’t going to be buying you any pizza.

Speaking of which, how long till we get Skippy “interviewing” Batton Thomas while a pasted-in Emily watches?

another week of nonsense coming up baron von ha ha is not amused

Such a sweet, pleasant start to a Monday — can’t wait for the Crankshaft Crabs to find a reason to snark on it

No surprise, the Sentinel is located in the Historical Society building.

I would have preferred……… a school bus driver with a red hat!!!!!

We leave the jocularity of recent Crankshaft strips to once again feature one of Batty’s favorite causes du jour, print newspapers. Let the stories featuring important issues (to the cartoonist) in a dull, ham-fisted manner commence.

Emily Reynolds? Isn’t this one of the Mathews twins? I’d like to know what this name change is all about, TB. Did Mopey Pete Reynolds finally get tired of waiting for Mindy to accept his proposal, he asked the underage Emily for her hand in marriage instead? They’re all undistinguishable blondes anyway so what’s the difference? Right?

Most likely, much like Mopey Pete Reynolds/Roberts or Flash Freeman/Fairchild, TB has a hard time remembering his characters’ names. Is that the case Todd… I mean Tom?

Mr. Rawlings was taken aback when Emily Reynolds walked through the door of the Centerville Sentinel with a notebook in hand and determination in her eyes. She wasn’t there to chase likes or clicks; she wanted to shadow him, to learn the craft of journalism from a man who still believed in its soul. It surprised him—this day and age of blaring headlines and instant outrage wasn’t built for reporters like him, relics of a slower, more deliberate time.

He thought back to his life after the war, to the day he left his arm behind in Europe. He’d learned something on that battlefield: truth was often buried deep, hidden beneath rubble, blood, and fear. That lesson carried him through the decades as a war correspondent, from the war-torn streets of Korea to the jungles of Vietnam, and now, here in Centerville, through a world that seemed to spin faster than ever. The horrors of war had shaped him, but they hadn’t broken him. Instead, they forged a man who understood that freedom wasn’t a gift—it was a fight. And the front line of that fight was the truth.

As Emily stood before him, Rawlings couldn’t help but think of the world she was inheriting. Nations teetered on the brink of conflict, democracy itself seemed under siege, and the clamor of biased media drowned out voices of reason. He wondered if she realized the weight of what she was asking to learn—not just the art of reporting, but the responsibility of it.

“Yes,” he said finally, his voice gravelly but steady. “I’ll teach you. But there’s one thing you need to understand: Integrity isn’t given, and it can’t be bought. You earn it with every word you write.”

Emily nodded, her young face serious. He saw in her the glimmer of hope, the kind that refuses to die even in the darkest times. And as he welcomed her into the newsroom, he knew this was his last great story to write—not on paper, but in the heart and mind of the next generation.

Oh good. A week of this stupid character, plus how Batty thinks newspapers are “supposed to work.”

“My assignment is to document people in obsolete careers!”

No one is surprised how these girls aged 10 years?

Mailbox attacks school bus in revenge plot

Best document the history now, before Dear Leader Trump repeals the 1st Amendment.

It will later be discovered that Emily is not here to shadow the newspaper editor (,publisher, floor-mopper, delivery boy…) for her English class. She is researching fossils for her science class and heard that the oldest one in the county is on display at the Historical Society.

if they go to the pizza parlor maybe pizza box monster will trip her

Where’s Amelia? I thought the double-mint twins had to do everything together.

I hope this doesn’t turn into another arc with a old geezer letching after a young woman. Skip, talk to Ralph before making any moves.

Stop the presses!

Looks like another week of reading the old strips.

I thought on Sunday that if today had Ed, it might finally turn back into CS. If it involves comics or author inserts, the Funkvasion will continue. Think she’s going to shadow Skip the Dip to part 3 of the Battom Thomas interview?

Isn’t that what journalism students do?