Kili-Krankshaft Krossover

Has Coach Bull already abandoned the “project” of whipping Les’ sorry ass into shape? He’s nowhere to be seen today. No matter: here comes motivation in the form of none other than Ed Crankshaft! Yes, it can be no one else; just peep this Crankshaft comic from July 2009:

The above strip is from that weird flash-forward arc where Crankshaft becomes unstuck in time, leaping Billy Pilgrim-like between scenes of his present-day, younger and older selves. This appearance lends support to the theory that Crankshaft, while also set in Ohio, takes place ten years in the past.*

Note to Cayla: if the prospect of being left to plan your wedding on your own, while your fiance goes off with his daughter to climb Kilimanjaro, doesn’t convince you that you’re making a huge mistake, well, you’re on your own.

*…while the Crankshaft strip from September 11, 2011 disproves this theory.

A "Pun"-ishing Workout

No pun intended? More like “no pun detected“. What’s Les talking about? Even Bull is confused…but that’s nothing new. “Top” shape as in “top” of the mountain, I guess. That’s not a pun, Mr. “Language Arts” Moore. And what’s with Les’ samurai headband? Is he getting ready to climb Mt. Fuji?

Opposites Detract

Raise your hand if, like me, you’re roughly the same age as Les, Funky, and Crazy Harry. I know that’s more than a few of you. Now get up, go across the room, and grab your high school yearbook. What’s that? You don’t have it right at hand? It’s been packed away up in the attic for 20, 30 years? Yeah, mine too. Come to think of it: what’s Cayla’s yearbook doing on the shelf in Les’ house? Have she and Keisha moved in already? What has become of Darin and Jess?

The Hat Locker

Your friend Crazy Harry“, I guess so as not to confuse him with any other Crazy Harrys, or with the relatively sane Harry Dinkle. More stiff dialogue from Batiuk, and more needlessly effusive gesticulating from Les. At least he seems to be warming to being interrogated about his school days. Tune in tomorrow to hear Cayla ask “Did you really piss your pants in the janitor’s closet?”

Don't Be a Dickinson

If I were a cartoonist, and if I had gone to great lengths to create an author avatar? I would never allow my author avatar to be Such. A. Douche. There’s a difference between “self-effacing” and “self-immolating”. Les’ pose in panel 1 deserves a kick in the nuts. Summer, who has been looking weird all week, at least has an excuse in today’s panel 3: she’s about to explode in laughter at Emily’s–I mean Les’ utter douchiness.