Sepia Superman

Independence Day went as well for me as can be expected. I woke up July 5th with the same number of fingers and toes I had on July 3rd, and even managed to keep both eyebrows! With the flags and the food and the explosions and the travelling across state lines to avoid taxes, I was patriotic to the max.

Batiuk’s done his share of flag waving over the years, with his cast carrying a healthy dose of veterans and military. Whether this springs from a genuine respect for US Armed Forces personnel, or is pandering is a debate for another day.

In May 2008, Batty uses Memorial Day as an excuse to remind his readers that YES he still hasn’t explained Wally’s abscence, and YES Wally is not here. But the bumper sticker dangles the bait that he is MIA rather than absolutely confirmed KIA. Dumb, pointless, bait.

Crooked, but I guess it was hard to put on a bumper sticker with one hand…

Becky has appeared on and off just about every month of Act III so far, but the last few months her appearances were all about the band. No kids, and no John.

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Go Fourth, Into The Past.

I’m busy with family right now, literally burning money in the most beautiful and sparkly way ever. And I hope all of you also have fun things planned for Independence Day.

Due to the two weeks of recycled Lisa’s Story regurgitation we were subjected to the last week, I wanted to remind myself why I sometimes found Crankshaft good. I decided to pull up a quick vertical slice of 20 years of Crankshaft’s 4th of July strips. Some are festive, some are fun, some are nonsensical, and some are just dumb. But seen as a whole, the downward trajectory is clear. Let me know which of these, if any you find funny/infuriating.

Love you all!

(Sundays for the first several years weren’t available, so that’s why some years are skipped. )

Continue reading “Go Fourth, Into The Past.”