Here we go, Crankshaft! Here we go!
Sometime during the next year, Jeff Murdoch, a character in a comic strip that runs each day in the Free Press will head to Winnipeg to attend a Blue Bombers game.
Tom Batiuk, who created Crankshaft, which revolves around the life of namesake school bus driver Ed Crankshaft, is a big fan of the Blue and Gold.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Ohio-based Crankshaft comic illustrator Tom Batiuk will finally see his beloved Blue Bombers in person Friday night.
That, in itself, wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy if not for the fact that Batiuk lives near Cleveland and discovered his favourite Canadian Football League team — and Canadian football — quite by accident more than a decade ago.
Starved for some gridiron action when the National Football League locked out its players in a bitter 2011 labour dispute, he was flipping channels and found the Bombers.
He’s been hooked ever since.
“I just started looking around, I caught the Canadian Football League and I started checking in on games… I thought, ‘Buck Pierce, what a great name,’” Batiuk said with a laugh, referring to the former starting quarterback who played four seasons and is now the team’s offensive co-ordinator.
“I started following them on a regular basis and I just kind of fell in love with (the team).”
As a result, the Bombers logo — the signature “W,” along with a previous iteration featuring a lightning bolt blasting out of a football that he prefers — has appeared from time to time on the clothing worn by characters in the strip.
Which brings the story back to Jeff Murdoch — Ed Crankshaft’s son-in-law in the strip — whose storyline will take him to Princess Auto Stadium, where he’ll see the Big Blue in CFL action.
But it’s Batiuk, who works a year in advance on the comic strip, who has spent the last few days in the city and is taking in his first Bombers game in the flesh Friday.
A Crankshaft cartoon featuring Winnipeg Blue Bomber logo. on Jeff Murdoch.
“I’ve been a fan for a long, long time,” he said a few hours before kickoff against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
After several references in strip storylines, the Bombers sent him a jersey with a “Crankshaft” name bar on the back so he could represent in the Buckeye State.
And in 2019, the team offered him and his wife a pair of tickets they decided they could finally accept and travel here after the upheaval of the pandemic.
The Bombers are making sure it’s a memorable event for the Ohioan. Batiuk will join the players and run through the tunnel onto the field before the game.
“We’re doing everything to make sure he has the best experience,” team spokeswoman Carol Barrott said, adding the team has fans — former Winnipeggers and others — all over the place.
“(Children’s entertainer) Fred Penner still has season tickets with us, although he lives on (Vancouver Island) full time,” Barrott said.
“Doesn’t matter whether you live in St. Vital or Churchill, people are Bombers fans through and through and each season-ticket holder has a story.”
In his short visit, Batiuk and his wife have visited various tourist destinations, including Louis Riel’s gravesite and looked in on Blizzard the white bison at Assiniboine Park Zoo.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Batiuk will join the players running through the tunnel onto the field before the game Friday night.
He is also pleased to be here in the heat of summer, rather than later in the season when it can be frosty.
“(Winnipeg) is a fascinating place,” he said. “I wish I’d done it sooner.”
Batiuk, who also created the comic strip Funky Winkerbean, began Crankshaft in 1987. It is now published in more than 300 newspapers around the world.
nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca
Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer
Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom in 2023. Read more about Nicole.
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