Recent Comments

1. about 12 hours ago on Crankshaft

   Q: What’s black and white and black and beige and black and tan and black and brown and black and umber and black and black?

   A: A nun on a spit.

2. about 12 hours ago on Crankshaft

   “So smile, Les, and move on.”

3. about 14 hours ago on Crankshaft

   The Westview school board had decided that Fahrenheit 451 would not be taught in the high school English classes. We were never told why they reached that decision (Was it in fact the “vulgar language and content” that is why the book is challenged in some schools, or something else?), but in any case it was the board’s decision to make, and they made it. Les Moore nevertheless chose to violate that decision by exploiting a very feeble loophole in the language of the written policy. Should parents who agree with the school board’s decision be free to protest against violating it? They should, so Batiuk chose to turn this story into something else entirely, with an unidentified group of protesters (Parents, or citizens in general? From Westview or Centerville?) who wanted Lillian not to distribute the book to Les’s students. Note that they never did say just why they objected to the book, and it was never made clear just what their demands actually were. Apparently they wanted some sort of nebulous “ban” on the book, but did that mean just enforcing the school board’s decision not to teach it (including Lillian’s giving the book to the students whom Les was apparently afraid to give it to, himself), or did they want Lillian to remove the book from sale altogether (even though she had probably been carrying it in stock for years), or did they want all book sellers (including online giants like Amazon) to stop selling it (yeah, sure), or did they want the sheriff to hunt out all copies in libraries, schools, and homes and confiscate them (which is what an actual “ban” would entail)? We shall never know. By making the protesters’ motivations and indeed their demands just as vague as he possibly could, Batiuk felt free to tear apart the straw man that he had constructed, thereby making his cast of loathsome characters (and of course himself) appear noble, enlightened, and courageous. Now bring on that Pulitzer!

4. about 15 hours ago on Crankshaft

   In “real life”, people would at least try to get the arson case solved. In this strip, no cop or fire marshal ever showed up, and there is no indication that she even reported the arson to any investigative authority. So just what was done with the video from this surveillance camera to which Lillian so proudly pointed? Insofar as we can tell, absolutely nothing.

5. about 18 hours ago on Rip Haywire

   “I’m a vampire.”

6. about 18 hours ago on Crankshaft

   Yep, Ed, there’s an annual pattern here. The leaves change color, the geese fly south, the days grow short, the children carve pumpkins, and Tom Batiuk dusts off the space on his bookshelf where he expects to put the Pulitzer Prize for the recently concluded story arc.

7. about 18 hours ago on Crankshaft

   You mean the two scorched steps? Even they weren’t really damaged, since Lillian and Ed had no trouble using the stairs.

8. 1 day ago on Crankshaft

   No, and there is no indication that they will use the surveillance camera’s records to look for him, either. For that matter, there is no indication that anyone even reported the arson to the police! That would turn this story arc into a crime investigation, and Batiuk doesn’t want to distract from us from his pontificating about the evils of book banning (which of course isn’t what the story started out to be about either, which was Les Moore’s unilaterally deciding to teach a book that wasn’t on the school board’s approved list).

9. 1 day ago on Crankshaft

   Of course we’re expecting to find important, philosophical debate in this comic strip. How else can its WRITER win the Pulitzer Prize that he feels it deserves?

10. 1 day ago on Crankshaft

    One person set fire to the bottom two steps, before the group of protesters (I refuse to call them a “mob”) arrived.