Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for January 31, 2025

“But for some reason I was always met by nice young men in clean white coats who had giant butterfly nets!”

Too late, Batty—NEA Syndicate already distributes “The Born Loser”.

This buildup kinda reminds me of the global situation being laid out at the beginning of the 1984 movie “Red Dawn” (snerk!)

Just imagines if every cartoonist is begin doing theirs own autobiography right in theirs own komix like this. That would be the end of funny pages.

Or if taking movie example then you going to watching new James Bond movie titled as James Bond only to finding out that it only a boring documentary about Ian Fleming talking for two hours about himself with Bond himself making a small cameo somewhere.

“Batton, we’ve been here for five hours!! I’ve got a newspaper to run! Can we just pay the dang check and get out of here??”

…And then I met this cranky old school bus driver who gave me his diary on his deathbed.

“And then I began to read the phone book. I started with the A’s because that was at the front. Later in the day, to my surprise, I reached the B’s…”

I guess we will never know if they finished the pizza.

He’s in luck,they just cancelled HAROLD TEEN

skippy bails out to talk to someone just as boring but they serve chocalate muffins no charge

……and the saga drags on………..

OY VEY…………or Holy Crap!!

Crankshaft is a GREAT comic when he is involved. All the rest of your “efforts” are minimal at best. Stick with Ed.

I like reading this comic. And I do it each and every day.

Isn’t this kind of thing usually done in private? With the door locked…

“So I decided to cast my net a little wider… and I accidentally hauled in an endangered manatee… and that’s how I met Mark Trail and his Fists O’ Justice!”

Back to Wednesday… it’s been bugging me how familiar the “Rapping Around” panel looks, given that I’ve never seen it before. Finally figured it out: the couple in the center look just like a Soviet propaganda poster I picked up in the ’70s. The same pair, with the bell-bottom jeans and long straight hair (though also with matching striped turtlenecks), in what was identified as a government office recording marriages. The caption roughly translated (minus some non-translatable Russian puns and references to Soviet bureaucracy) as and so they were married and became husband and wife. But signs should be added, one saying “HE” and one saying “SHE”.

Ah, Communist humor…

While Skipping Stone visits the offices of the Newspaper Enterprise Association, a classroom of school kids wonders where their teacher is.

When Batton Thomas was first introduced in ‘Funky Winkerbean’ in 2019, he sat alone in a corner during a free comic book event at the Komix Korner. Nobody knew who he was.

That’s the cartoonist Batyuk is featuring now? He sure came a long way, didn’t he? Obscure part-time cartoonist to obscure full-time cartoonist. Well done, Batton. Well done.

“Newspaper Enterprise Association”

Another NEAr miss.

Honk Mimimi. Much like the lack of color in today’s strip, my interest in this story arc has faded.

Who else here would prefer reading the origin story of how Ed Crankshaft started driving school buses instead of this obviously autobiographical fluff piece? I know I would.

Join us on Crankshaft next week when Skip Rawlings interviews a homeless person* living behind the dumpster at Montoni’s about their uneaten pizza crust collection. After the Batton Thomas borefest, the readership of The Sentinel soars.

*Wally Winkerbean? Is that you?

Don’t care. Where’s Crankshaft?

Just curious. Is anyone amused by this comic strip? Not just this arc, but the strip in general? If so, what do you enjoy about it?