Recent Comments

1. about 7 hours ago on Crankshaft

   That’s the cat that hangs out in the Village Booksmith, as all used bookstores are required to have at least one.

2. about 8 hours ago on Crankshaft

   You know, Tom, there’s a very easy way to find out if people would come up to you and offer fawning praise while telling you how much they miss your comic strip work.

3. about 23 hours ago on Crankshaft

   Uriah Heep would be embarrassed by the lavish “humbleness” on display in this arc.

4. about 23 hours ago on Crankshaft

   How dare you even suggest a topless Lillian!?

5. 1 day ago on Crankshaft

   Oh, my, yes! The heck with those fancy-schmancy collected hardback volumes with their acid-free paper and creator’s notes and slick dust jackets! Rapidly yellowing wood pulp that turns brittle and flakes off in your hands in a decade is the only way to go! Why did you even agree to have your strips published in book form if you feel that way, Batiuk…er, Batton?

   Also, wanna bet the comic strip syndicate made newspapers take a package deal? “If you want to run ‘Blondie’ and ‘Little Orphan Annie,’ you’ve also got to carry ‘Three O’Clock High!’”

6. 2 days ago on Crankshaft

   Oh, and Lillian was “gifted” a spinner rack of Atomik Komix magazines after Mopey Pete helped her write the copy for her website (something that she, as a published author, should have been able to do for herself).

7. 2 days ago on Crankshaft

   He made a Free Comic Book Day appearance at the Komix Korner back in April of 2019, sitting by himself at a card table with a collection of his strips, while the “customers” either ignored him or listened incredulously to his tale of the origin of comic books.

8. 2 days ago on Crankshaft

   Sure, there have been FW books since the mid-‘70s (I own one of those paperbacks). I’m talking about collections of Batton’s “Three O’Clock High” within the Funkyverse. To the best of my memory, Mr. Thomas was shown once in a April 2019 Komix Korner appearance sitting at a card table with what looked like a scrapbook of his strips pasted in it.

9. 2 days ago on Crankshaft

   I read it under the assumption that Batton Thomas (Creator of the Once-Syndicated Comic Strip “Three O’Clock High”) was enraptured by the name “The Village Booksmith,” filled as it is with small-town folksiness and ready-made nostalgia a la Colonial Williamsburg. The better question is, since when did BT have his strips collected in book form?

10. 2 days ago on Crankshaft

    My, but Batiuk just can’t get enough of authors going out into the world and soaking up the effusive praise of their adoring readers, can he? Did someone say “wish fulfillment”?

    Still, if this event is as successful as the Les Moore book signing at Lillian’s store a few years ago was…that still means no one will show up.