History ComicStrip / Crankshaft

* ICouldaBeenAContender: Crankshaft was an aspiring baseball player who played for the Toledo Mud Hens and he was about to play for the Detroit Tigers until he was drafted during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

''Crankshaft'' is a SpinOff of Tom Batiuk's ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean'', launched in 1987, that focuses on the day-to-day life of its title character, curmurdgeonly eighty-five-year-old bus driver Ed Crankshaft.

''Crankshaft'' is a SpinOff of Tom Batiuk's ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean'' that focuses on the day-to-day life of title character, curmurdgeonly eighty-five year old bus driver, Ed Crankshaft.

''Crankshaft'' is a SpinOff of Tom Batiuk's ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean'' that focuses on the day-to-day life of title character, curmurdgeonly eighty-five year old bus driver, Ed Crankshaft. Much like its parent, the strip combines character-based humor (radically different from it parent comic, then again this was made at the time before CerebusSyndrome had kicked in) with story lines about issues that affect average Americans. It should also be noted that, since the title character and many others are over eighty years of age, much use is made of the same flashback device the parent strip does.

* BadFuture: One story arc has Crankshaft delivering poinsettias to a nursing home on Christmas, he enters one room and sees his older self all alone on the holidays, wheelchair bound, and practically a vegetable. He goes to the main office and questions about it only to find out the room was unoccupied all along. When raving at the front desk that he saw someone, a background character states "Maybe Ed just saw the Christmas spirit" which seems to be Batiuk hinting that some sort of [[AChristmasCarol "Ghost of Christmas Future"]] was involved.

* ICouldaBeenAContender: Crankshaft was an aspiring baseball player who played for the Toledo Mud Hens and he was about to play for the Detroit Tigers until he was drafted during WorldWarII.

* FlashbackEffects: the same shading effects as used in ''FunkyWinkerbean''.

''Crankshaft'' is a SpinOff of Tom Batiuk's ''{{Funky Winkerbean}}'' that focuses on the day-to-day life of title character, curmurdgeonly eighty-five year old bus driver, Ed Crankshaft. Much like its parent, the strip combines character-based humor (radically different from it parent comic, then again this was made at the time before CerebusSyndrome had kicked in) with story lines about issues that affect average Americans. It should also be noted that, since the title character and many others are over eighty years of age, much use is made of the same flashback device the parent strip does.

!! This strip contains examples of:

* CharacterTitle

* MoralEventHorizon: The latest (September 2013) plot arc has Crankshaft get even surlier than usual because a new co-worker is challenging his reign of smug, curmudgeonly idiot incompetence; his response is try to 'scare' her into leaving him be the festering asshole using his hard life as an excuse to be the antisocial clod he was born to be....by trying to run her over with his school bus.

* {{Crossover}}: With it's parent comic on occasion, sometime with the characters passing each other unknowingly.

* BadFuture: One story arc has Crankshaft delivering poinsettias to a nursing home on Christmas, he enters one room and sees his older self all alone on the holidays, wheelchair bound, and practically a vegetable. He goes to the main office and questions about it only to find out the room was unoccupied all along.

* GhostOfChristmasFuture: Seems to be implied in one story arc (See BadFuture above) as when Crankshaft tells the front desk what he saw, one person states "Maybe Ed just saw the Christmas spirit"

* BadFuture: One story arc has Crankshaft delivering poinsettias to hospital rooms on Christmas, he enters one room and sees his older self all alone on the holidays, and barely alive. He goes to the main office and questions about it only to find out the room was unoccupied all along.

* ICouldaBeenAContender: Crankshaft was an aspiring baseball player who played for the Toledo Mud Hens until he was drafted during WorldWarII.

''Crankshaft'' is a SpinOff of Tom Batiuk's ''{{Funky Winkerbean}}'' that focuses on the day-to-day life of title character, curmurdgeonly eighty-five year old bus driver, Ed Crankshaft. Much like its parent, the strip combines character-based humor (radically different from it parent comic, then again this was made at the time before CeberusSyndrome had kicked in) with story lines about issues that affect average Americans. It should also be noted that, since the title character and many others are over eighty years of age, much use is made of the same flashback device the parent strip does.

''Crankshaft'' is a SpinOff of Tom Batiuk's ''{{Funky Winkerbean}}'' that focuses on the day-to-day life of title character, curmurdgeonly eighty-five year old bus driver, Ed Crankshaft. Much like its parent, the strip combines character-based humor with story lines about issues that affect average Americans. It should also be noted that, since the title character and many others are over eighty years of age, much use is made of the same flashback device the parent strip does.

* FridgeLogic: That a ball player as good as Crankshaft was supposed to be would only get one shot at impressing big league scouts.

* {{Narm}}: The end of the storyline listed below, Bushka Sr is bragging - fifty years later - about how he screwed Crankshaft out his shot at the big leagues. Readers were supposed to see him as a villain, but he came across as a sad old man who's personal CrowningMomentOfAwesome was a petty act of ForTheEvulz.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Recent strips have had Crankshaft's malapropisms creep into normal speech ("dimensions" instead of "size", "gas store" instead of "gas station"). In real life, this word-salad is a sign of mental illness like dementia or Alzheimer's.

* {{Malaproper}}: Most of the punchlines are based on Crankshaft's mangling of proverbs and commonplace sayings. An entire week of Crankshaft in the hospital was even devoted his daughter and her husband mocking his habit.