Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for January 09, 2024

Please tell me this means he fell on a giant cheese grater. Move him back and forth, kids!

(blank look) He’s…98 at least? (blank look again) But it’s…FUNNY because… (shakes head) So, uh, whaddya think the name of the strip will be, now that Eddie’s Dead? Croakshaft?

Tomorrow, an EMS technician asks Ed “What’s your name? Do you know where you are? What day is it?” and he thinks “Great, I’m dealing with someone who doesn’t know who I am, where we are or even what day it is!”

Turn your cap over, Ed! You can’t collect any coins with it down like that!

It’s called grating!

“Are you OK, mister?” LINCOLN: “Bullet…” TROTSKY: “Icepick…” HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE DUDE: " Defenestrated…" TOM: “Cancelled in 11 months…”

Grate seizure’s ghost!!

Close your eyes, Ed, and if you see a bright light, move toward it as fast as you can.

It’s almost like Crank is in a casket.

Time for Bedsore Manor.

The grate gives way and Crank falls for what seems like forever. He falls not just through space but through time. He finds himself a young man on the bench at a Brooklyn Dodgers game in 1947. Manager Burt Shotton points at him and says; “Grab a bat. You’re up next.”

He looks near death!

Oh, no, the kids are back in school post holiday break, who’s doing Ed’s bus route???

Hey mister, no loitering on the sidewalk.

And while Ed is F.O.B. recuperating, we will switch back to Lill’s book club, then to Montonis reopening for 8 more weeks.

Where Lois, been. Ed and her have a falling out.

……….here’s your sign!!!!!!!

Someone should dial 911, just in case he needs an ambulance.

This “joke” means nothing to the kids. They can’t tell you said a homonym. And for those of us who can read it and grasp it, it’s still not funny.

hey mister dr rex morgan is down the street attending to guy who got hit by car by the way you have any spare change ?

This is some of the most clever wordplay I’ve ever seen!

How many old folk have you known who fell, spent a week or so in hospital, then you heard of the funeral? Wrapping up the comic?

Grate…great…either way, not!

In yesterday’s strip, we can see that Cranky didn’t hit his head.

This is tricky.If you can get up by yourself you think you’re okay,But 18 to 24 hours later t he pain sets in.

I bet his keys fell through the grate.

this can only be humorous in the comics…if you’ve ever slipped on ice, you know what I mean!…(fortunately we know that eventually Crankshaft will be a-ok!)

English can be a terrible language.

Grate/Great —see1 Word play - funny—- and it includes Crankshaft with just a whiff of Montonis

Ed, come on, you’re a veteran of WW II! You’re supposed to respond with the classic line “It only hurts when I laugh, you moth-eaten Fokker pilot!”

Young Person: Say, isn’t that the mean school bus driver who used to laugh at us as we unsuccessfully tried to catch the bus in elementary school? Let’s linger for a few minutes before we call for help. I wonder if he’ll think that’s funny?

If Batiuk wanted to surprise end this strip (or at least get rid of Ed to change this totally into Funky Winkerbean 2.0 like he’s trying), having Keesterman “accidentally” back over Ed on Saturday wouldn’t be a bad way to do it.

Haha! (＾▽＾)