More genuine news from the Funkyverse this week. On Monday, Arcamax ran this Crankshaft comic:
But GoComics ran this:
Both are dated 8-21. Both have 2023 copyrights. Neither is explicitly a rerun. So what happened here?
On Tuesday, these separate arcs continued. Ed fielded a call from the EPA in Arcamax, while GoComics continued a week of disconnected punnery with Ed talking to 10-year-old Mitch.
As of Tuesday night, it still wasn’t clear what was going on. Comics Curmudgeon, Daily Cartoonist, news searches, and the GoComics/Arcamax forums themselves had no confirmed explanation, despite our own J.J. O’Malley asking around about it.
Fortunately, Tom Batiuk made a new blog post Tuesday afternoon:
I’ve always enjoyed puns, so it comes as no surprise that it was always fun to come up with the names for the various guests that visited John Darling’s show.
https://tombatiuk.com/komix-thoughts/john-darling-take-382/
Yeah, thanks for that, Tom. It’s like the man is allergic to telling what you actually want to know.
Theories have abounded, here and elsewhere in the newspaper comics world (which is pretty much just here and the above few websites). Let’s start with the obvious: the wildfire arc is in very poor taste, in light of recent events. But… it name-drops Canada, the site of recent massive wildfires. Was Batiuk trying to build a joke on the real-life event, or was it a bit of fiction that became oddly prescient? If it’s the latter, it’s not even the worst comic strip I know of:
An anonymous poster at joshreads.com asked this:
Is this GoComics censoring a storyline they deem particularly tasteless, knowing that since they manage the most easily accessible archive of strips they can deny it ever happened, or is it a case of Arcamax not getting the memo that a storyline has been pulled and they have to run the replacement strips?
https://joshreads.com/2023/08/how-many-ways-times-do-we-have-to-say-pluggers-are-dying-before-they-actually-die/#comment-2742138
The problem is that neither of these explanations really makes sense. If the strip was censored, where did the replacement come from? It requires Batiuk’s involvement, to make a new strip, unless the rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than any of us thought. It’s hard to believe only one publisher would find it problematic. And if Arcamax didn’t get the memo, they should have gotten it in the last two days, or noticed the problem themselves. What’s running in local papers?
Watch this space for more updates. If you know anything, put it in the comments.
(UPDATE 1: The divergence continues on Wednesday. And, it doubles down on the joke being at Canada’s expense. Crankhole says “you’d think that with all the smoke from the Canadian wildfires that folks would be used to a little smoke by now!” Yeah, they’re really used to it, a week after a provincial territorial capital had to be evacuated. Dude, not funny.
Which brings up another thing: Batiuk, and characters within Crankshaft, have declared their allegiance to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a Canadian Football League team. This is a really dark joke to make about a country you have a mini-cultural exchange program going with. The Funkyverse has almost zero non-USA readership. If he gained any Canadian fans, he’s probably lost them.)
(UPDATE 2: The separate arcs continue on Thursday, and no explanation has been uncovered. The wildfire arc adds a badly-constructed “masks” joke. The news reporter mentions “the authorities warning folks to wear masks”, implying COVID-style face masks. Pam and Jeff are seen wearing gas masks instead. It’s the kind of misunderstanding the other party would immediately notice and correct, so it doesn’t work as wordplay.)
(UPDATE 3: Tom Batiuk has a new blog post series in which he promises to “provide some inside baseball factoids explaining the work’s creation and background and basically anything else pertinent to the work.” He finally explained… that the space girl in the last week of Funky Winkerbean was the great-granddaughter of Lisa. And that her space scooter was designed by Skyler, and inspired by the melted-down gun toy. All of which TFHackett pieced together the day the strip ran. I’d swear Batiuk’s trolling us, if I thought he was in any way capable of that.)
(UPDATE 4: The divergence continued until Sunday, when both Arcamax and GoComics ran the same strip, about book burning. Which had more potential to offend than the wildfire bit, because it takes a genuine stance on a contentious political issue. It deserves a discussion of its own, so I won’t do that here. What does belong here is the comic book cover the whole situation inspired:)
The reality-nudging Timemop, the alternate universe-hopping nature of Rick and Morty, and the two publishers running two different versions of Crankshaft without explanation all struck me as being pretty similar.
Son of Stuck Funky 
The “gang at the diner” ones are clearly generic placeholders for when…someone, clearly not Tonedeaf Buymybooks…thinks that a story might be perceived negatively. Those strips would not cause offense, except that they aren’t funny or clever or anything. But no one could accuse the cartoonist of being insensitve.
It would not surprise me to learn that the syndicate has thousands of such placeholders.
I love the Duck’s response:
[shaking fish] TIIIIIMMMMME-MOPPPP!
I need her permission to continue using this. It is priceless!
Failing to get the Duck of Death’s OK, I am resolved to use this, without any context at all:
😮🤔😂 (The Three Faces of Eve Hill). I think this is brilliant.
I need to thank Anonymous Sparrow, I am finishing Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson. I absolutely recommend, The Bus. I never saw that ending coming.
Yes, you may use that as often as you like. I recommend a pike or brook trout, but you can also use whatever fish is handy.
You are as gracious as you are charming!
Don’t know about the print edition, but the on-line edition of the Seattle Times is running the same strips as GoComics.
Which means that on the 23rd, you get to see a reminder that Pam would be baffled when the scwewy wabbit called Elmer Fudd a maroon.
My local paper is running the non-wildfire story strips in the print edition, so I expect that is the “official” set of strips that the syndicate wants to run. What’s going on at Arcamax, I have no idea, but the images might be worth saving before they get scrubbed like original Lenny did.
These “replacement” strips may be future strips re-dated as the wildfire week of strips was censored/dropped, perhaps?
Good Lord, that’s one hell of a ham-fisted, tasteless strip. Then again, this is a man who had the actress playing Lisa get breast cancer too, presumably as part of some deranged “method acting” scheme, I guess. And just last year, he had Boy Lisa melt down a murder weapon and turn it into a toy for his son, whose grandfather was murdered with that very same gun. Which was pretty warped when you think about it.
Does anyone still read a newspaper with Crankshaft in it? Kind of curious to know which strips are in print.
Are newspapers running different Crankshaft strips too?
Wait a minute…newspapers run Crankshaft strips?
How does Batiuk pay the papers for this, buying bulk advertising space or with some sort of promotional deal?
Dadgummit! I just noticed @Billythe Skink reporting his local newspaper has the Dale Evans stuff.
I forwarded a question I asked late yesterday before reading the comments. *sigh* Where’s the delete button?
Oh, well.
I sure would like to know what’s going on between Arcamax and The Comics Kingdom/Kings Features. Is there some kind of redistribution fees dispute?
My local paper is ran the Crankshaft at the barbeque strip.
Crankshaft is one of only four strips it runs, along with Pearls Before Swine, Pickles, and Garfield.
CBH,
That makes this all the more mysterious. I could understand a substitution due to content, but this seems to give the option of which set of strips to run to the local papers.
My local paper is ran the Crankshaft at the barbeque strip.
Wow – the offensive strips actually made their way into some newspapers.
I’ll see if I can find a copy, if my parents haven’t thrown it away yet. But yeah, I read it yesterday morning in their paper. I actually chuckled at the joke, before I remembered the Hawaiian tragedy unfolding…
It’s 9-11 Funkybuns all over again!
Does anyone still read a newspaper
No.
Ok, I’m old enough to still prefer a print newspaper. It’s actually more convenient to read than fumbling, scrolling, expanding a screen on my iPhone or iPad. Unfortunately our local paper only offers a pdf on Saturday and News and sports less than 2 days old are also in pdf. I read the comic page in the paper and then go online for strips (including CS) it doesn’t carry
I stopped reading the newspaper when my house stopped paying for it in mid-2022
The divergence continues. On GoComics, more of Crankshaft baffling the snot out of Mitch. On ArcaMax, Ed is passing the buck north of the border.
Scratch that. It’s Pmmmmmmm not understanding that her dad is a bargain bucket Bugs Bunny without the humanity, tact and warmth again. Ed slips a clutch and she wonders what the obvious substitution is because she’s a dumb gorl, Episode END!! END!!!!!
No, no, it’s funny! Pmm said “yoga” and Ed thought she said “yogurt”! Get it? The two words sound very similar!
Seriously, I always assumed the root cause of Ed’s “muddled aphorisms” was that he was illiterate for most of his life. Is the problem simply that he’s hard of hearing and is too cheap to buy a decent pair of hearing aids?
Also, why is Pmm sitting on the floor with half her body in front of a door? What if someone walks in?
It could be a little of both things. He blew off school during the Depression because his family needed the money and the German guns going BOOM did a number on his hearing.
I have no idea why Batiuk has her blank out on what doorways are and why blocking them is a bad idea. He was too invested in his weak pun, I guess.
Given Pmm’s posture, it’s more accurate to say she’s planning to meditate.
Get thee ‘Shaft’s to his inevitable punnery: “I thought you said we were going to !@$#@#bate.”
Good thing Ed’s not a “Star Wars” fan, or the joke would revolve around “I thought you said you were going to do Yoda.”
Is it possible that Batiuk, inspired by coverage of the recent Canadian wildfires and resultant haze, came up with a Crankshaft gag that he felt was so good he wanted to run it immediately, while the story was still relevant? Would he see coverage of this rather distressing event and think to himself, “you know, it might be very funny if Crankshaft…”? Is he capable of operating on that level?
I believe he is, but I don’t think he would. Then again, anything is possible. He has been involved in a few badly-timed coincidences in the past, but those seemed more accidental and less specific than this one does.
So perhaps he decided to quickly bang out a week’s worth of hilarious smoke gags to capitalize on that story, but was unable, for one reason or another, to get certain outlets to insert them into the run. Those outlets ran the strips that were originally scheduled to run. I suppose it’s kind of plausible. On the other hand, it seems like a LOT of work by BatHam standards, so much so that it gives me pause re: my stupid theory. As does the fact that he’s never done (as far as I know) such a thing before, thus why start now? It sure is odd, though.
To be fair to Batiuk, he published 2 or more daily comic strips from 1979 to 2022. So having two versions of one strip for a week is within his capability. On the other hand, he just said he was too busy because he was writing a book foreword.
With every Batiuk-related theory, there’s ALWAYS a “however”, “but” and/or “on the other hand”. It’s all so nebulous.
Wednesday on Arcamax and the divergence continues. It definitely appears that they have a week’s worth of the “Canadian wildfire” strips dated to run this week. I definitely believe that Andrews McMeel pulled those from their distribution system because of their inappropriateness under the current circumstances, but am at a loss to understand how Arcamax is able to run the originally intended arc.
And I’m still curious how TomBa’s strange August 18 blog post claiming he was busy writing an introduction for a volume of the Prince Valiant collection fits in to all of this.
I can’t shake the impression that Batiuk is being put out to pasture (maybe due to cognitive issues?) and Davis is taking control.
Whatever is happening, at least we may be spared a return of Les Moore.
Don’t forget the Crankshaft Disappears strips. Nothing on GC looked like it updated that night, but only Crank flat out dropped off the page. And stayed that way when the others updated.
Something’s going on.
I was just thinking sarcastically, “too bad the cartoonist doesn’t have a blog or something where he could address his fans’ questions and concerns about the divergence between websites.”
FansReaders have questions, yet Batiuk is blithely blogging about other things. The whole situation has the cliché atmosphere of “Nero fiddles while Rome burns.”I, too, have started to wonder about Batiuk’s possible cognitive issues. What the heck, Batiuk? Does he even care? Is he still capable of caring? I mean, Batiuk never really seems concerned about what his readers think, but his failure to address the situation only emphasizes a disconnect with his readers.
Kudos to Davis if he is the one responsible for keeping the Crankshaft ship afloat.
Reminds me of a quote from the movie musical 1776 where George Washington writes to the continental congress begging for needed supplies, “Are you there? Do you care?”
Are you there, Tom Batiuk? Do you care?
The weird thing is that nobody else seems to care either. Even within the very small world of Internet discussions about newspaper comics. If the wildfire strips got pulled, that’s a common occurrence and it should have come out by Day 4 of the divergence.
No mention at all on the Daily Cartoonist. The only people who said anything were the readers.
Crankshaft Reader: Two different Crankshaft comic strips, on the same day, and they both suck. YaY!
What’s more surprising is no one said anything about Kings Features titles getting stuck in the torso chute for four days (August 19 – 22) on ArcaMax. They finally reappeared yesterday. I’d like to know what that was all about. Was there a dispute between the two, or did somebody at ArcaMax forget to pay the bill? Was it another poorly tested Comics Kingdom “upgrade”?
This raises an existential question: is it possible that we’re the only people who care about this? Even within the Internet community of people who are already interested in newspaper comics? That really takes the wind out of my sails. It’s no fun hating on something nobody else hates. Thank God for you guys.
I recognize a few commenters from the Comics Kingdom days on both GoComics and ArcaMax. Some of the names have changed, but I recognize their style of their commenting.
People seem to be losing interest about snarking on the “new” Winkerbeanized Crankshaft.
Of over 200 comments today on The Comics Curmudgeon, only two are on Crankshaft. Neither comment is about the ArcaMax barbecue version.
Even the GoComics moderator seems to be losing interest. Has there been a culling of comments from the Crankshaft discussion lately?
Some of the names have changed, but I recognize
theirthe style of their commenting.I do have an education. My kingdom for an edit function!
I added a Wednesday morning update.
Thanks for the update! Beady-eyed nitpicker alert: a territorial capital, not a provincial capital.
Doh! I’ll fix it.
Maybe Batiuk saw how much coverage was given to Scott Adams, so decided to quickly throw together some controversial strips in the hopes of garnering the same coverage. (But he also had the original strips that he prepared a year ago already at the syndicate, so whoever runs the comic would have the choice of which one to run.)
I mean, obviously, if that’s the case, it didn’t work, but that’s pretty on-brand for Batiuk.
On a broader note: do we really need censorship of comic strips? Obviously, on the larger scale, the answer is yes. No graphic images. No blatant sexual content. (What Curt Swan did with Superman for Penthouse, could never appear in DC Comics.) Nothing stronger than PG wording. I believe CBH covered this with her deep dive on the trial of DSH John.
But topical censorship like Canadian wildfires? In Crankshaft???? No. Nada. Never. What a waste of time. If it is true that ArcaMax published the original strips and ignored the replacements, then they should be commended. Due to current events, are the strip somewhat tasteless? Sure. Yet they accurately describe TB. Is he to become our moral compass? What a sad world that would be!
When the 3 TV Media controlled the airwaves, they exercised that telecast control. In 1966, a Senator’s daughter was murdered, they cancelled a viewing of Hitchcock’s Psycho. During the elections, they showed the national conventions 24 hours a day, 5 days that week. Every natural disaster, like the earthquake in 1989, got total coverage. I swear that if Satan had universal TV during the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, we would be sick of hearing and watching that after 3 days.
Those TV giants and their censorship have no such power anymore. Too much competition. To much money to lose in advertisements.
My point to the syndicates: let Crankshaft be Crankshaft. If it offends you, maybe newspaper comic editing is too much for your delicate system. Spend a couple of months looking at DeviantArt or go follow 9CL and its sister Pibgorn. Then come back to the controversial world of Crankshaft. Take a deep breath. The planet can handle Ed’s grill.
I would say the larger problem is not offensive material, as there’s nothing that exists that someone, somewhere won’t find offensive. The larger problem is that people are no longer capable of encountering something they find offensive and simply shrugging it off. No, nowadays, the source of the offense has to be shrieked into destruction. In the words of Rich Evans, people need to “Grow a pair.” But they won’t.
I agree 100%. Yet I must be the exception. I try not to get into arguments, but people feel free to vomit their worst political opinions on me. All of these people know my actual opinions, but they hold nothing back. Any mild contradiction to their opinion releases the full amount of their rage.
The following is a true story. I am on LinkedIn, and after the 2020 election, one of my connections, who I had many prior pleasant conversations, posted that now the country could unite and enjoy some peace. I wrote back that I agreed with her and that the door was open for a Trump voter like me, and a Biden supporter like her, could overcome our differences and be in oneness. She disagreed. She insulted me. Then dropped our connection, and blocked me.
To quote you, BC: I grew a pair and try to live in a diverse world, and I try to avoid drinking the Koolaid.
This isn’t about censorship at all. Hell, we can’t even prove the existence of separate Crankshaft arcs this week was an intentional decision. And it if was, it certainly wasn’t made by a government agency.
If the wildfire arc was dropped for content reasons, this kind of thing happens all the time. Not because it’s “too much for my delicate system”, but because real events can change the tone of a fictional story. When some generic victim in a lame CSI episode is eerily similar to a real person you’ve recently learned about – and perhaps seen what it did them – the story hits a lot differently. The suffering goes from abstract to real.
And that’s the more optimistic outcome. It assumes massive wildfires aren’t a long-term problem, as some people fear. If they’re right, then one of Crankshaft‘s defining elements loses its fun. It becomes a permanently Discredited Trope, not just Distanced From Current Events.
Crap Damn! BJr6000,
1. The one opportunity Crankshaft had to make me ponder the deeper meaning of life, and wonder if CBH dry rubs BBQ into her steaks and chops, and you yank it out from under me. Something, somewhere in comics always touches on real events. But are there really people who question if this Crankshaft arc is too hard hitting for the general population? Crap Damn! Is there a general population for Crankshaft? Look at “Dick Tracy”. His content touches on events that hit hard in the real world, but I have never heard of his creators holding back strips.
It would be a blessing if Crankshaft could change its tone. But I do not believe that TB’s defining elements can lose its fun. But these Canadian wildfire strips can (big if!) prove to be interesting. But I know where the smart money is betting: it was just a screwup on TB’s part.
As always, you are a good writer that makes me think. That is your gift.
2. Unrelated note: Patrick McDonnell from Mutts is releasing his own tribute to Marvel Comics, drawn in his own hand.
Patrick McDonnell writes:
“The Super Hero’s Journey is a fantastical dream-memory of my childhood infatuation with comic books, and a tale of the spiritual inner journey of reconnecting to the “super being” in us all. The book is a love letter celebrating the artistry and wonder of the original Marvel Universe as created by Lee, Kirby, and Ditko. It’s a mashup between my art and the original panels from those classic 1960 Marvel Comics.”
(I saw no mention of milk, cookies, or omnibuses)
But are there really people who question if this Crankshaft arc is too hard hitting for the general population? Crap Damn!
Dude, I explained pretty clearly what the actual issue is, and it’s not that.
It would be a blessing if Crankshaft could change its tone.
The tone doesn’t need to change, it needs to start existing. The entire Funkyverse hasn’t had any concept of tone since Act I. Lisa’s cancer is simultaneously funny, the greatest tragedy in human history, something to be passively accepted, something to be angry about, and a reason to dress up like comic book characters. How we’re supposed to perceive events changes constantly, with no explanation for the change. On top of the events themselves changing, because Retcon Tom loves ramping up the misery.
Leaving the inappropriateness of the material behind, what fascinates me about the ArcaMax strips is the incredibly clunky dialog. “You’d think with all of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires that folks would be used to a little smoke by now” said nobody, never. Shame the smoke didn’t obscure the word zeppelins.
Subsided? I couldn’t work in my yard last weekend due to smoke and haze from Canada. Fuck you Batiuk.
I wonder how this would’ve played out on CK.
They have something nobody else has, a political cartoon that’s delivered on a normal comic strip schedule: done and submitted 3 weeks before runtime. This strip has so much bad luck with its timing. It’s either something that everyone’s already forgotten, like 3 days about Obama’s tan suit. That’s amusing! But if it runs a strip saying “There is no prejudice in America, and the police are your friends!” it’ll be run 2 days after George Floyd.
CK never pulled a strip from publication, and it’s run stuff far more cringe than “Ha ha Wildfires!”
I wonder if GC is having some buyer’s remorse over getting Crank.
The weirdness continues this Thursday morning. On GoComics, a strip about how Crankshaft is too lazy to take a walk. On Arcamax, the gang remains engulfed in a grey cloud. Jff and Pmm wear goggles and huge masks. A reporter asks Cranky how he feels about authorities recommending that Centerville residents mask whenever he’s grilling. Cranky says it’s ok with him and his family “has always been pretty hardcore about masking anyway.” whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
Are we making jokes about Covid and wildfires in the same strip now? Comedy gold.
Of course, it goes without saying that we’ve never seen anyone in CS’s family in a mask, not even once, to my recollection. Anyone remember different?
FWIW, a few months ago, I went to the OMEA web page looking for pictures of Puff Batty’s booth. I posted here noting that, of hundreds of people who appeared in the photos, often in large crowds, TB sitting in his booth was the only person in any of the photographs to be wearing a mask. From that I deduce that he himself is “a hardcore masker.” Today’s Cranky isn’t the best ad for masking, but hey, first thought best thought.
If we’re lucky, tomorrow he can work in a knee-slapper comparing the smoking grill to the fires after an air raid on Ukraine. Tom’s topical that way.
I updated the OP again, and commented on the mask joke. I think the joke fails for a different reason: Crankshaft and the reporter are clearly talking about two different kinds of masks, yet somehow nobody notices this.
Has anyone emailed Batty to ask him what is going on?
Frankly I’m more outraged by the current Mary Worth arc. The story ended a month ago and they are still taking a victory lap and rehashing the story over and over again.
I emailed Andrews McMeel. No reply yet.
And you’re right, Mary Worth has gotten ridiculous with that idiotic dogfighting story. The dog wasn’t missing long. The villains never got around to harming it, despite having a motive that requires them to so promptly. Mary somehow out-sleuthed the police by watching a TV news story. And they’re still talking about all that nothing a week later. All for a creepy, unlikeable, fifth-tier character that makes me miss Wilbur Weston.
It’s also another failure of “if this is true what else is true.” If the dog was really abducted for use as a dogfighting punching bag, it wouldn’t have survived two days. They kept it in a cage and fed it for weeks, as if it were some kind of pet day care.
Also, I have had dachshunds as pets and they can be pretty vicious with other dogs and people ( save for their owners). I would have to warn people when they tried to pet them.
I would love more Wilbur at this point. At least he brings laughs.
I wish Estelle would try her hand at online dating again.
Signed,
the Arthur Zerro fan club
She deserves Arthur. That was a great arc.
Rusty:
My neighbor has a dachshund named Reggie. When we occasionally meet, Reggie loudly barks and tries to kill me. Then he realizes who I am, and jumps on me to lick my hands. He’s a sweet little doggie!
Yeah they are, but they were bred to kill badgers in their holes. You ever want to stick your hand in a freakin’ badger hole and punch it?
I love Reggie, while thinking “This weird wiener could kill me if he wanted to.”
At the very least we got the humorous image of that dognapper who looked like Lyle Lovett.
Batiuk is essentially a used car[toon] salesman. He’ll go on and on about features you don’t really care about, because he’s trying to distract you from the fact that the characters are shot and the punchlines don’t work.
Hmm… GoComics has done a week of indoor-set “Crankshaft” strips, while ArcaMax has done a week of “BBQ Smoke” strips. Only one explanation: TimeMop® (the Rather Elegant Solution™) somehow failed to blot up one of the time bubbles in the Centerville/Worstview Vortex, and we now have one Ed doing weak jokes in the house while another brings the Apocalypse to Ahia in the yard. Perhaps the twin arcs will conclude on Saturday with the two Eds confronting each other and bringing an end to the Battyverse as we know it (could this be the event that ultimately ushers in The Burnings and the ride of the Dead St. Lisa Perfect State?)…
Hmm… this actually sounds plausible. Well, no. But it does sound plausible that Batty would write it.
I’m sure the hijinks in Crankshaft are memorable but there’s an even better
book griftdevelopment over in the Luann corner of GoComics.Team Evans had fished for email addresses a couple months back promising a summer newsletter detailing the true adventures of G&B as they hit the road. I didn’t sign up at the time so now i wonder what i missed.
https://luannfan.com/
Karen and Greg have now thrown the faithful a curve with the last couple weeks of strips, in which Gunther and Bets return from their Summer adventures, but WAIT after a week of typical post-adventure talk was revealed to be nothing but Gunther’s dream, the mystery deepens of what happened on the road. To solve the mystery, they now offer a 50 page ‘illustrated novella’ which fills in the missing time and adventures. For $16 (+ $20 autographed edition). Limited time only!
I wonder if what TB has been missing is the family nepotism angle? Without drafting his son into the legacy comics tenure stream, he has run out of battery to an alarming degree. Couldn’t he get the kid (full grown adult) to shoot the breeze about upcoming storylines and put his name down as a placeholder? With only his own books to guarantee his future, it’s starting to look kinda grim!
Not a Luann fan in the least, and I wouldn’t bother reading it if you gave me The Complete Luann Omnibus, Vols I-XXVII, as published by Black Squirrel Press.
However, I wouldn’t call that a grift. It’s putting their money where their mouth is. If lots of people are starving for more Luann, they’ll win big. If the quality of their work doesn’t appeal to very many people…. well, they’ll learn that soon enough. At least they aren’t releasing Hardback Volumes with pretentious, incoherent introductions adoringly written by the authors, about the authors.
I’ve mentioned the brilliant and highly-acclaimed Achewood before. Chris Onstad published the entire original run for free on the web, and for a long time was very rigorous with his publishing schedule. He subsidized this by selling additional content, both physical and digital.
He took a long break, came back, and most of what he puts out now is only accessible to Patreon supporters. Far from a grift, I think that’s a very sensible and fair practice. He is offering a product; you choose whether or not to pay.
Why hasn’t TB moved to a model like this? I think we all know why.
1. Going to a comics store and paying for comics or Hardcover Omnibuses is wonderful, of course. Paying for digital content? The Work of the Devil. The internet is bad, full stop. Paper is great, screens are evil.
2. … and most importantly, who is gonna pay to see the continuing adventures of Dinkshaft and the Altekacker Gang? Nobody. You know some people are paying for that Luann content, but Crankshaft? Come on.
If the guy had any brains, he’d offer digital downloads of the Complete Funky Winkerbean at a steep discount. Say, ten bucks per volume or 50 bucks for the whole thing. Or maybe just have a website with access to the whole run, where you pay a flat fee to access it, or a buck a month or something.
I’ll bet that deep down inside he knows that the most eager subscribers would be the SoSF gang. How that must chafe his delicate ego.
Wow, I hadn’t thought about Achewood in a while. I still have my autographed books. The worst Achewood strip is leagues better than the best Crankshaft.
I wonder if Batiuk could have continued Funky Winkerbean on GoComics if he had followed the Doonesbury model? Reruns from the beginning Monday through Saturday, and new comics on Sunday.
Probably not. It’s just a thought.
That’s a pretty good idea for him! He looked like he put some real effort into those over the last few years, so successful or not, he could have ridden that out with a lot more dignity.
Another n0n-Batiuk related change at ArcaMax. They are now including comments on 9CL
Prediction: that won’t last.
I really just categorically don’t understand these creators who can’t endure criticism.
Look, everyone agrees that it is not okay to wish harm on a cartoonist, or author, or musician, or actor, or whatever. Everyone agrees that it’s not okay to dox them, or try to hurt them through false rumors or slander. Everyone agrees that families are off limits, etc.
But criticizing the work should never be off limits. I get that nobody likes having their work criticized, but name one creator in history that had no critics. You can’t, ’cause there ain’t none.
In short: Pull up your frilly panties, grow a pair, and deal with it.
I always, always appreciate constructive criticism. I never regret saying “Oh, you’re right, I should have done it that way. Thanks!” Most people understand that if you comment on a work, you find something of interest in it.
Some people just can’t abide the idea that their works are less than perfect. Perhaps they identify themselves with the work, ie, if their work is not perfect, maybe they themselves aren’t perfect (gasp, shock).
I’m with you, I can’t understand the mindset of those who get angry at legitimate criticism.
It’s the Franz Liebkind school of dealing with criticism.
You are the audience! I am the author! I outrank you!
(I wish I could include live links, but this is the best I can do… https://youtu%5B%5Bdot%5D%5Dbe/Bb4ackoZfdA?si=rqrbz799fDfmjHqd)
Ah well. That didn’t work either. I guess you all know The Producers by heart anyway….
Sorry, but every time I hear the name “Mopman” I think of one song. It’s pretty obscure. From Wall of Voodoo, an early 80s group that did “Mexican Radio.” For those of us who watched MTV back then, it’s the one where the singer sticks his head up through a pot of beans.
Here is “Call Box -1-2-3”. I recommend just listening while looking at the WORST music video ever. It’s like Westview teens would’ve done it, and then won the Grammy Awards, possibly Michael Jackson donating his to Les:
And then play again, and listen to the lyrics. Opening:
“I press the buttons now!
Voice keeps poppin’ on the call box out–
‘Mop-man, do you receive?’
Ten-four, I gotta pull out
I got an ETA, five-thirty on the dot!
A little bit later, it’ll thicken the plot!”
This is literally the Nudgings. That led to the Burnings. That led to–uh, rust belt Ohio towns, where humanity Somethinged?
MOPMAN: “It’s funny how these things always happen to me!”
Do you think after Mexican Radio, every time the singer sneezed a baked bean came out of his nose?
I posted a final update. The divergence stopped today, and it inspired me to do some Photoshop.