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#crankshaft
Savvy newspaper comics readers know that Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft inhabit the same universe (and same Ohio town). Funky, however, likes to skip forward dramatically in time ever so often, aging its characters a decade or so. Crankshaft, not so much, which is a good idea if only because its titular character is really really old. A ten year skip into the future likely means Crankshaft-the-guy wouldn’t be around anymore. This leaves newspaper comic strip nerds like me wondering how the two strips still relate, chronologically.
Well, today cartoonist Tom Batiuk took a short break from depressing everyone by giving us a pretty big clue. In Crankshaft, Pam and Jeff (Crankshaft’s daughter and son-in-law) are in the audience of a Battle of the Bands. In Funky Winkerbean, retired Harry Dinkle is writing his memoirs, and flashes back to when he was still the band director, specifically on a day where he attends that very same Battle of the Bands. Same yellow foldup chairs, same stage, same band! Oh, and of course, Pam and Jeff are sitting right there.
So Crankshaft is now set in the past of Funky Winkerbean.
Man, I bet this means Crankshaft is dead in “current” Funky time. (There were some really odd non sequitur strips a while back showing a very aged Crankshaft on his deathbed…)
See? Sometimes Batiuk gives us fun things to piece together, rather than teaching us about how we’re all going to die and everything is worthless and doomed.
Crankshaft died ten or so years ago.
camachri-deactivated20150802 asked:
By then, Crankshaft will BE Randy Milholland.
FUNKYWATCH LIVES.
Today on the ISB, I’ve rounded up April’s most depressing Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft strips. Death, cancer, deadbeat dads… and also Crankshaft.
yes
FunkyWatch: March’s Most Depressing ‘Funky Winkerbean’ And ‘Crankshaft’ Strips
By Chris Sims
I SMELL CROSSOVER
r.i.p. pam
Jesus Christ, Tom Batiuk.
FUNKYWATCH: OCTOBER’S MOST DEPRESSING ‘FUNKY WINKERBEAN’ AND ‘CRANKSHAFT’ STRIPS
By Chris Sims
Over the past 40 years, Tom Batiuk’s Funky Winkerbean has transitioned from a gag-a-day comic strip about a high school to an ongoing chronicle of pure, abject misery. Thanks to the commentary on Josh Fruhlinger’s Comics Curmudgeon, I am now completely obsessed with it, which is why I spend a little time every month rounding up its finest examples of crushing despair.
A few days ago, I wrote a little about how there aren’t a lot of characters that I hate as though they were actual people, but let me tell you: After October’s Funky Winkerbean strips, There is not an amount of money in my possession that I would not give for a chance to punch Les Moore right in his stupid, smirking face. I’ve been doing this column long enough that even the most harrowing depths of the Funkyverse don’t really depress me, but last month, I learned that his self-satisfied smirk can still provoke a white-hot rage. Join me, won’t you?
get in the robot, shaggy
toyboxcomix