SO, (heh heh,) CBH is tagging in, and we’re back in Crankshaft, back in the McKenzie’s attic, and back in the glorious year of 2007, (for now.)
Eric ‘Mooch’ Myers is gushing about some 60-year-old comic books with more passion and devotion than we could ever expect him to show a lover.
And, for whatever reason, yes we are STILL in the attic.
So, (lol) Lucy collected every Timely book. A little playing around with a spreadsheet and the Wikipedia page for Timely Comics tells me that means Lucy would have somewhere between 1500 and 1600 comics, all collected prior to 1950. More than that, these are some highly prized and valuable issues.
For example the comic in Mooch’s hand, The Red Raven. This is a one-issue title, printed in 1940, containing some of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s early team up work. Not sure exactly how much it was worth in 2007 dollars, but nowadays even a low grade copy is worth just under two grand.
And I guess these are some low grade copies. See the art in the strip is from this…
And it isn’t the cover. It’s the first page. The cover looks like this.
So that book either lacks a cover, or Mooch is FOLDING THE COVER BACK! A crime in Westview punishable by a whipping and two hours pilloried at the central park gazebo.
We’ve seen Mooch in Komix Korner a few times, but this is the first indication that he’s got any kind of closer friendship to DCH John or loyalty to his store. It seems weird that Mooch is doing all this without any real promise of financial gain on his part. But then again, he’s someone who set his school on fire in an elaborate scheme for attention. But attention can’t be his only goal, because he wants John Howard to be the only bid on this collection.
So Cranky tells his other next-door-neighbor. Chase Lambert. Morgan and Chase Lambert moved into the neighborhood in 2003. They were initially interested in Lillian’s house, until the old biddy decided annoying Crankshaft for the rest of her life was more important than downsizing.
For the first week they’re introduced the Lamberts are kind of assholes, a blantant ripoff of Todd and Margo Chester from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
But once they move into the neighborhood, they mellow out into mostly well-meaning, childless yuppies. Lots of jokes at their expense, but they’re not presented as bad people. Their main flaw is materialism rather than a lack of kindness.
So it’s strange, but not completely out of left field to put them in a mildly antagonistic role here. After all, they don’t know DCH John, and it’s not like they were going to steal Lillian’s comics. We don’t even know if they’re planning to try to lowball the little old lady. Just that they see an interesting investment opportunity.
And finally DCH John appears in person. And that stupid smug little face on Mooch when he tells him that DCH John will be the only bidder. I guess if Mooch was a complete garbage person he could have just asked Lillian to give him all those comics by pretending they were mostly worthless. After all, she was going to throw them out. But this is still a far cry from Lillian getting a fair price.
Even Batiuk realises that The Lamberts aren’t enough of an opposing force on their own. So he brings another, extra sleazy character into the mix.
And hey! It’s everyone’s favorite long-running Funkyverse character! Skip Townes!
You all remember Skip Townes, don’t you?
Okay, here’s a question. Did anyone here remember Skip Townes? Because he goes waaaaaaaaaaay back.
All the way back to at least 1984. Where he was apparently a big enough deal to organize a Michael Jackson concert.
Was that his first introduction? I don’t know. Some of this is in the cone of uncertainty where I don’t have good records. I do know Skip Townes shows up again in 1985 for a two week arc about putting on a rock concert in Westview.
And, of course, his company accidently hires the Westview Marching Band as the opening act.
Skip comes across pretty sympathetically in this arc. The villainous sleaze hasn’t seeped in yet.
So the concert all went well, and Skip even asks about becoming the Westview Band manager. It’s a punchline, but it’s not a joke. Because 10 years later in early Act II, Skip Townes is the band’s agent/manager.
It seems false imprisonment and money laundering isn’t enough to get Skip in prison, or even fired from position as band manager. Because a few months later he’d be back.
So Skip Townes had been around the Funkyverse for more than 20 years by the time he shows up in 2007. AND CAN YOU SEE WHY I’M OBSESSED WITH THIS WEIRD DUMB BAD WORLD?!?!?!?
Son of Stuck Funky 
Re: the first strip you posted, how many times has he done variations on that “clueless girl has no clue” trope with the comic books? It had to have been many dozens, at a minimum.
“Whoa! It’s the Irish crown jewels!”
“Tee-hee, giggle. Is that good?”
“GOOD? It’s like finding a non-autographed copy of “Lisa’s Story” on Ebay!”
“Skip Townes”…hoo boy. That had to have been during one of my FW hiatuses. You’re absolutely right about Act II. The sudden tonal shifts were just unbelievable. One week, you have the army chasing trombones around, the next you have a lovelorn student trying to kill herself over LES MOORE. And, remarkably, it was still all kind of the same. You’d think it wouldn’t work…and it didn’t…but it CONSISTENTLY didn’t work, and sort of became its own thing based solely on that. Honestly, it was oftentimes just plain exhausting.
I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets. I Shall Start by Giving Tom Batiuk and John Byrne the Most Swollen Heads Imaginable. Oh, and Then [redacted] Unimaginable Ennui! I Promise This.
DO. NOT. GIVE. ME. TIMEMOP. COVER. IDEAS.
You are in a position to demand nothing. I, on the other hand, am in a position to grant…nothing.
Beckoning…Are you Fletcher Hanksing at us?
YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN CREATION! Why should I share all this wealth with these mugs?
I first came across Hanks’ oeuvre in the art comics magazine RAW 40 years ago. I have volume 1 issues 3 to 8. Most of those had a smaller comic stapled into it, maybe you’ve heard of it? Spiegelman’s first edition of Maus.
I’ve no interest in checking, but I’m sure Tom’s NM copy of Fat Flash is worth more than Maus, especially as to its influence on comics and importance to history.
In his head.
I say, would that Creation be a good Creation, or some other kind?
The underlying ontological syllogisms that form the precepts of Good and Evil are beyond the ken of a mere mortal Splut such as myself. I leave that to a Higher Power, such as a Space Wizard or Skull-Faced Jungle Blonde.
Crankshaft: “It’s so far beyond my ken, that it’s also beyond my Barbie!” (GC commenters die laughing)
I’m not a GC commenter, but I thought that was pretty funny.
Skip Townes… the guy’s name is every Westview resident’s goal.
I think he was based on a local radio personality in Cleveland…probably from WMMS.
To the library!
I wonder what his reaction would be to being asked “You take a lot of kidding about your name?”
In real life, it’s likely that he’d say yes, he did. In the Batiukverse, he’d be baffled and angered that people point out that he’s got a pun for a name. His name is not to be joked about.
IDLE: Smoke Too Much! That’s my name, Mr Smoke Too Much!
PALIN: You’d better cut down a little then!
IDLE: I’m sorry?
PALIN: You should cut down a little then!
IDLE: Ohhh…My name is smoke too much!
PALIN: I’ll bet you get people making jokes about your name all the time!
IDLE, baffled: No, I never noticed it before.
(goes into endless rant about bleedin’ Watney’s Red Barrel)
Here we go again. bwoeh is posting yet another photo of an old stored-away item she hasn’t looked at in years.
Bought this shirt in a gift shop across the street from British Parliament back in 1978.
In those days a local PBS station aired episodes of ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’. I bought the shirt mainly because of the Gumby character.
Gumby: My brain hurts!
I wonder what his reaction would be to being asked “You take a lot of kidding about your name?”
“My real name is Gary Goldfarb.”
Because it’s probably a stage name. People in the rock biz tend to give themselves corny, punny names like “Rocky Rhodes.” Who I know is a Funkyverse character too, but I’ve also met multiple radio DJs called that.
It’s not clear whether this guy’s name is supposed to be realistic, or if it’s just another aimless pun. Batiuk is never clear about what the jokes are and what we’re supposed to take seriously.
Given that they have a bus driver named after a car part, a dead coach whose name is second cousin to being an athletic supporter and other weirder people, their reaction to being told that would probably be “Gary Goldfarb? What kind of name is THAT?!”
I remarked on the naming thing during a Ruby Lith arc, the issue of whether a name is meant to be a joke only to the reader and normal in-universe, or a joke also in-universe. (Similar to the ‘Doyleian’ / ‘Watsonian’ question of author vs narrator in the Sherlock Holmes stories.)
Generally the character names seem to be jokes aimed at the reader and invisible to the characters. Which worked a lot better with gag-a-day strips.
My first name is Bill. You know how many decades I’ve heard “OH NO MR BILL!”? And every time, for 45 fucking years, the person saying it is convinced that they are the first person ever to make that joke.
I have a niece who teaches elementary school. Her name is Alexa. Let’s leave it at that.
Ah, but there’s poetry in that, courtesy of Eugene Field:
“Father calls me William, sister calls me Will, mother calls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill!”
I first learned that poem via a comic-book: DC’s Starman before Jack Knight was Will Payton, and his father did call him William, while his sister called him Will and his mother called him Willie.
No one called him Bill before the events of *Eclipso: The Darkness Within*; that may have changed since his resurrection.
Too bad it was 1985 and not 1989. Jethro Tull would have made this legit funny.
Removing Bobby Vinton would have helped too, because he’s even less heavy metal than Joan Jett. Or was that the joke? Joan Jett is so not heavy metal she gets called out even when an early 1960s teen crooner is an option?
This makes the joke confusing, and seems like a diss of someone with far greater talent – and Cleveland credentials – than Tom Batiuk.
Stepping up to defend Bats here. Hey, Byrne! Take note! We’ll defend the guy when he deserves defending! Put that in your message board and post it!
Anyway, the joke here is the subverted expectation between P2 and P3. You expect him to say Bobby Vinton is the one that doesn’t fit, but he calls out Joan Jett.
It’s a time-honored joke structure and, IMO, it works. It’s similar in concept to the “Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking” trope, which I won’t link to because spämbot, but it’s on TVTropes.
Actually, I’m surprised how well most of this Act II story works. If this had run in my local paper, I would have read it and followed it. It’s workmanlike and moves along at a good pace, and is somewhat amusing. No long, muddled sentences. No starting with time-wasting questions or excessive use of “So.” A general lighthearted feel and sense of fun.
What the ever-loving f#ck happened to this strip?
I will say this. It bothers me when Batiuk doesn’t credit his artist. He’s breaking comic tradition and depriving a fellow creator of credit. I would understand it if he had an apprentice who slavishly imitated his own style. But he had two artists with extremely disparate styles that resembled his own not at all, and for years he didn’t credit them.
So the joke *was* “Joan Jett is so not heavy metal she gets called out even when an early 1960s teen crooner is an option.” Okay, but why Joan Jett? I don’t she even claimed to be heavy metal. In 1985 she was closer to punk rock. This joke would have worked better later, when heavy metal had sub-genres, and you could have called out Bon Jovi and Skid Row for not being heavy metal.
I chuckled at the Bobby Vinton joke, mainly because my Mom adored him & I know enough of his tunes to know he was obviously the odd one out.
My parents, my brother and I saw Bobby Vinton a couple of times in concert-once at the Indiana State Fair in the late 70s and once at a small dinner theater in the early 80s. It was at the smaller venue where Bobby went around to every table during one song, & allowed the ladies to give him a kiss if they wanted. That was his shtick then (different times obviously)-and the gals ate it up because they loved their Polish Prince! He gets to our table, and my mom leaps up and plants one on his cheek and says “I’ve loved you since I was 14!”. To this day, I can still see that smile on her face. It was an absolutely glorious moment.
Sorry for the digression-any mention Mr. Vinton evokes thoughts of my mom, who still possesses most of his LPs somewhere in the house. Bobby could croon a ballad just as easily as he could lead a polka-and though retired he’s also still with us at age 88.
Back to the strip: That Act I arc is fun. Roadies? You mean band moms! That’s a decent line! The story is lighthearted, has a defined start and finish, and Dinkle is still just a wacky band director as opposed to overbearing Lord of all things music. I missed a lot of Act II the first time around, but I appreciate the revisits that show just how weird and dark it all got.
Aww, that’s such a sweet digression – thank you for the story and the insight into Mr. Vinton’s career.
Yeah, I read it as expecting him to complain about Bobby Vinton, so the joke is that he’s such a purist he calls out Joan Jett for not being metal enough – maybe we’re supposed to understand that he doesn’t even know who Bobby Vinton is?
(To be honest, I have very little idea who Vinton is/was, but presumably the target audience would?)
I did wonder if TB was poking at the attitude that ‘girls can’t rock’ by having the guy stumble at Joan Jett – but that might be too subtle/woke for him.
Batty loves ripping on those materialistic yuppies. Meanwhile Batty’s house is filled with comic book related crap. But see, Batty has a soul, unlike those evil yuppies.
Materialistic yuppies who haven’t done anything to deserve contempt. They only wanted to buy comic books when they didn’t have Tom Batiuk’s personal approval to do so.
Skip Townes and the yuppies were absolutely the good guys here. Their bid was twice what DSH John offered. Maybe it was still a lowball, but if so then DSH’s bid was a far far worse lowball.
He basically defrauded a little old lady. Now, fine, she allowed herself to be defrauded by not soliciting other bids and by turning the bidding process into theater, but how are Skip & the Yups bad guys here?
And what’s with the name “Skip” in the funkyverse?
It is a rather confusing message, isn’t it? The collection is potentially worth a fortune, but only true comic book readers should allowed to purchase it and then at a price considerably less than a fortune.
We missed a real opportunity to have Batiuk’s version of the Legion of Doom. Skip Townes, Frankie, Roberta… so much wasted potential.
The marching band in the heavy metal concert can’t help but remind me of Opus’ audition for Deathtongue with his tuba. “Heavy metal?” “Weighty brass. Gimme a break.” (I probably shouldn’t remind myself of longtime favorites when reading this comic, though.)
But then Skunky goes and sells off the collection (piece by piece, rather than as a whole), and presumably at what the issues would be valued at. Which means he must have made an absolute KILLING on them, given how cheap he got them for in the first place.
But he’s the good guy, because… um… Skip and the Yuppies (worst band name ever) only wanted the collection to make a profit, I guess? Even though that’s what Skunky does anyway in the end? Yeah, I got no idea how we’re supposed to determine who are the good guys and the bad guys here.
I picture Tom being outraged when Nic Cage bought a Superman #1. “He won’t appreciate it! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MINE! I’VE GOT THE MONEY RIGHT HERE!!” (shakes jar of loose change)
Not a sock of pennies? Or is that reserved for stiffing hard-working and patient wait-staff?
That’s the thing: they’re HAPPY about reading comics. They don’t feel like spat-upon and unfairly persecuted outcasts desperately clinging to something the flaming much bullies and harridan mothers who don’t act like real loving mothers hate unfairly. Batiuk wallows in misery and likes it because it makes him feel special. IF the things he likes are universally respected and loved, he’s not special or better than anyone else.
The comic arcs always made me think of the truth of the Simpsons’ “Comic Book Guy” trope. I loved comics as a kid in the 60s and early 70s, not the superhero stuff but mostly the Disney Duck comics like Uncle Scrooge, Old Mads that I got from my Uncle, the Harvey stuff like Dot and Little Lotta, and my friend up the street had a big box of old Archie comics. We’d drink Pepsi and read them for hours. When I went to my first Comic Con in the 70s (This was pre Cosplay – just comic vendors) I saw booth after booth of grown men who hated children and had commodified my childhood. Oh well! Thanks to all for keeping this site alive; still fun to check-in and great work being done by all.
In fairness, I always liked the act 1 silliness. As I was a drummer in high school marching band, I got a laugh from the “ they have 9 drummers” strip.
This is so much better than the act 2 misery arcs.
I bought the “Complete FW” books 1-3, which go to 1980. I’m in the middle of book 2 and I think the gag-a-day strips and the characters are funny. The strip really should have been retired in ’92 instead of the reboot and Crankshaft could have remained on its own.
Or at least retired in 2006.
If batiuk didn’t want to deal with the aftermath of Lisa’s death, and had no real interest in the next generation, he should have just retired the strip.
A lot of the Act 1 strips that get posted here give me a legit chuckle. Like I said, he was good at gag-a-day, and that’s very difficult to sustain for as long as he did!
i dont think i’ve seen the strip where Coach Stropp tried to hang himself yet
1. Batiuk’s jokes, you either get at the very first, or you forget them. Never, ever investigate them or disassemble them.
2. I see JJ O’Malley has been canceled on GC already. Early, but no record.
I caught JJs post early this morning. Someone called out how the comments section will be nuked due to the complaints from one person.
But this week I’m more interested in Mary Worth. For some reason Saul thinks his dog ran away because she thought he didn’t love her enough.
I hadn’t seen today’s strip. I thought anything without Jeff, Estelle, and Wilbur would be an improvement, but 3 days of Saul makes me yearn for the good old days. I am sure the dog will hear Saul and start barking.
You got that right. Was hoping for a story with Dawn.
😎
Anything is better than Mary’s “don’t judge couples who sit at a restaurant and look at their phones instead of each other. They might really be happy.” That was a painfully preachy week.
Mela, it is always enjoyable to read your comments. MW shot through the atmosphere when drunk Wilbur fell overboard. Then MW crashed into the underworld, when Wilbur plodded onto bachelor island. I don’t find Mary objectionable. My Mom had certain of her characteristics. I just wish Karen Moy would let someone push back sometime. That could be an enjoyable arc.
At least the Mary Worth cast pushes back a little. When Wilbur thought it would be cute to show up at Mary’s house like he rose from the dead instead of calling first, the women all told him to get bent. Including his own daughter.
Looks like the dognapper took MW’s message to heart: “Dogs are great.”
I was that someone. Here’s my awful comment:
“Please, macgyver [OP], explain why saying “pigeon” was funny. “Old man says wrong word”? That’s your bar? That’s not a pun or non sequitur. Those can be funny. That’s mocking early onset dementia. Explain how THAT’S funny. Actually, save your time. The whole comments thread will be nuked from space over one complaint, like it always has been here.”
I don’t think I’ll be wasting my time posting there. Although I have learned why they think CS is funny: They have no senses of humor.
Man! You crack me up, Splut!
(Nearly a poetic rhyme!)
“I don’t think I’ll be wasting my time posting there. Although I have learned why they think CS is funny: They have no senses of humor.”
I am with you. It definitely helps to enjoy FW & CS if you have no sense of humor.
I do not think ours is too highly developed. I agree with the Duck that Joan Jett was a good joke for TB. And as others have noted, Act 1 was pretty high level for Tom. It now seems like it set too high a bar for TB.
If at first you don’t succeed…post it again. I did, in modified form.
The original’s doing fine on Arcamax, by the by. But, as a treat for the guys and gals here:
“Just to recap this week’s ‘Shaft developments: Ed, who for years has purchased from Bean’s End online and paid with a credit card, was waiting for an order he placed “a half-hour ago” that was supposed to be delivered in 15 minutes (even though previously he received items instantaneously via drone or teleporter). Then he revealed that he paid for this “premium purple prime” instant order with a check which was sent through the mail, a check on which he put the wrong amount twice (numerical and written out), and was upset that he overspent by $1,000. Now BE says Ed’s overpayment can be used for future purchases, and he has already spent the $1,000 he was so worried about not getting back. Oh, and he mistook the word “pigeon” for “smidgen.” Is that it? Did I leave anything out…other than logic, interest, or humor, which were all omitted by Batiuk?”
Now, how could anyone take offense at that?
G, we will C who will take offense.
They never explain why they get offended. Their comments always start at 10 level of upset. (and this over Crankshaft of all things.) They are shocked that the strip can be criticized instead of savored. Rank amateurs.
In case you missed it (their comment has also been deleted, at least), one poster made a call to just flag ALL your comments. You, personally. (The comment was something like “we should all flag everything JJ posts”, so it’s not like it was in code or anything.) Seems like you’re the favorite target for the Batiuk Brigade.
I’ve thought about posting on GC a couple of times, but I won’t because some of the people there are just too mean. A couple of weeks ago someone called JJ a “jerk” after one of his posts, which I thought was completely unnecessary. It’s one thing to disapprove of detailed snark, but resorting to name calling is over the line for me. Stick with us, JJ, we appreciate you!
Then–WHY HAVE COMMENTS?! The people who scream about “FREE SPEECH!” like a certain idiot billionaire, only mean “You’re free to agree with everything I say.” The first thing Melonhead did was cancel everyone who said even one negative thing about him.
Hecking amazing, *another* talking computer character! Wonder if it meant to be connected to the old one/Holtron, or if it’s just a legacy of living objects that WHS used to attract in the old days.
This whole diversion about Skip Townes certainly says something about how expansive the Funky Winkerbean Illustrated Universe used to be back in Act 1, going weeks just focusing on odd characters and easily forgetting about the main cast, no doubt the impetus for Crankshaft and Darling getting their spinoffs to begin with (or how we saw, for example, Roberta’s father outlasting his daughter-to-be in appearances). All of that expansive focus got basically tunnelvisioned as the years went on, with the focus narrowing just to a few familiar character groups and their continuing senior-aged antics.
Also, a project for anyone looking to do an Act 1 “binge” from renting/”procuring” all the relevant strips/books; can we count just how many strips from that era actually talked about comic books or superheroes? Has to be a metric of just how warranted their obsession took over the strip from Act 2 onwards.
I’ve mentioned this before but the “funny names” really don’t work. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason, much like the company names that are sometimes the real name, sometimes a thigh-slapper like “MoneyForNothing,” sometimes a nickname with no attempt at humor, like “McArnolds,”and sometimes the real name with a weird addition, like “Grandpa Google.”
Is there a pattern that I’m not detecting? In classic “Bringing Up Father,” all characters that aren’t working class have ridiculous names. CK reruns recently had Jiggs dealing with “Bill Yunaire,” a comically rich swell. The pattern is obvious and some of the names are really quite clever.
The pattern you’re looking for is “First thought = best thought.” Whatever name Batiuk comes up with in the first 2.5 seconds he’s thinking about a new character (or new place, or new business) is the name he goes with.
Every award, however, is given its full and proper name. Marianne didn’t win an “Olivier” or an “Oshkosh” for example.
Just curious: If Tommy had won that Pulitzer, as Marianne did her Oscar, who would he have immediately given it to?
It’s not that you have to give away your Major Award, it’s that it has to go to whoever was most deserving of it, and most responsible for the success that won it. So Marianne had to give it to Les, because if Les hadn’t written the Lisa’s Story book, Mariane couldn’t have played Lisa, and thus never could have won the Oscar. So clearly it was all thanks to Les, no one else had anything to do with it.
Had Tom won his Pulitzer, though, it would have been all through his own hard work and ability, and thus he would have been entitled to keep it for himself, naturally. (I mean, technically, Batiuk wrote Les writing Lisa’s Story, so truly he was ultimately responsible for Marianne winning the Oscar (not because he wrote it that way, you understand, that was just the natural consequence of the universe), so it’s really Batiuk’s Oscar. He just hasn’t been able to convince the Academy to give him a statue yet, because they’re being a bunch of beady-eyed nitpickers who think “it wasn’t even a real movie that anyone’s actually made” is a valid excuse for denying him what’s rightfully his.)
Not only that: Les actively hindered the movie every chance he got, wasn’t even there for most of production, and gloated when it failed financially. To say nothing of how he leveraged Lisa’s death into what he really wanted out of life.
The Act I stuff with Skip is genuinely competent and amusing, for the most part. Derivative, to be sure, of Doonesbury and Bloom County — and the “straight kids” gag is just stupid — but still, I’d read this strip non-ironically.
The Act II material is awkward, expository, and not particularly effective. Can’t imagine sticking with this day after day.
Am I correct in assuming Act III Skip is going to suuuuuuuuuuuuck?
I took the “how much for the straight kids” line to be a play on “fifteen dollars a head.” As in, “if tickets for stoners are $15, how much are you charging for those who aren’t high,” which is actually kinda subversive on Batty’s part.
Yeah, I have to defend BatYam here, as way back in the day, “straight” often meant “no drugs or alcohol”, and not sexual orientation. “Oh, those are the straight kids”…the kids who didn’t “party”.
Ohhhh, like straight-edge. Yeah, that makes a lot more sense.
Man! I do love seeing Jack Kirby art. I sometimes have trouble recognizing his art from the 40’s and 50’s, but if there is a cretin in the story, that is a tell. No one draws cretins like Kirby. Look at the Red Raven cover. The creep with the sword is pure Kirby. Jack had a second tell. His heroes will do a spread hand that reveals it is drawn by Kirby, just as he does on the RR cover. By the time the 60’s roll around, Jack Kirby is the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be. (Apologies to Bret “the Hitman” Hart!)
Before the GC Burnings begin anew, here’s my comment there about the Sunday CS, soon to be a smouldering nuked crater:
“6 panels? When it could be nothing but the bottom half of panel 5 and then panel 6? And it still has no joke? And Batiuk needs a YEAR to write these? And gives the artist 2 weeks notice to draw the strip? There’s less detail in the joke than in the bag-lined trash bin. Shafters, EXPLAIN WHY THIS IS FUNNY. I promise that I WILL make my own comic strip if you do!”
You think this strip was DRAWN? Bwahahahah. While I don’t have the time today for deep research I guarantee this strip was compiled by a barely interested intern using salvaged panels from previous strips.
Stop the Presses! Hold up the internet!
Someone on GC defends JJ O’Malley from the Crankshaft clowns. It is someone named Brian Perler, premium member, telling one of the troglodytes to not read JJ’s comments if they offend. I love it.
In fairness, that MAY be someone who also posts here, only they use their real name on GoComics instead of an alias. (You know, like, hypothetically or something. Not naming names or anything.)
I may not be exactly replying to your post, so bear with me. I used Mr. Perler’s name in an effort to praise him. It felt safe because he used his name in a public setting. I hope I would never post the name of one of the negative people from GC. I believe they have enough troubles and problems.
His response was so clear and right on the point. GC is designed for single comments. Why waste it insulting another commenter? Especially, why expel energy defending Crankshaft of all things? On its best day, the nicest thing about Crankshaft is when it is not focused on comic books.
By the way I sure do respect Brian Perler and also Green Luthor!
Just to be clear (since I can’t tell which one of us might have been too subtle), I was merely hinting that it was my own post on GoComics you were referencing. (Not that I have any problem with you mentioning me by name here; if I did, I wouldn’t use it there.) (And thanks for the complimentary words; I really do appreciate it.)
Green,
You are way ahead of me on subtlety. I was almost finished with my post when I stopped and read it again. Then I finished my comment and read yours again. I scratched my head and said, “I wonder?” And posted my second cryptic comment. As a certain someone else here can attest, sometimes I need to have a brick wall fall on me.
As I have said, you are always a good read on SOSF. Now I can look forward to reading you on GC.