Thomas Martin Batiuk was born March 14, 1947 in Akron, Ohio. He graduated from Midview High School (Elyria, Ohio) in 1965 and Kent State University in 1969. After graduation, Batiuk went to New York where he was unable to get a job with Marvel Comics. He returned to Elyria and taught arts and crafts at Eastern Heights Junior High School for two and one half years. During his years teaching, Batiuk did a weekly strip for the teen page of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram called Rapping Around . This material served as the basis for Funky Winkerbean, which debuted on March 27, 1972 with North America Syndicate. The strip focuses on the lives of the students, teachers and community surrounding the fictional Westview High School. The characters remained the same ages until 1992 when Batiuk jumped the storyline and characters five years into the future. In 1979, Batiuk was approached by Field Enterprises about writing for Heads and Tails, a strip drawn by Tom Armstrong. He agreed to the project if he could use his own characters and make the story a talk show. Using several characters that had appeared in Funky Winkerbean, John Darling was launched in 1979. Following Armstrong's departure and persistent problems with his syndicate, Batiuk ended the strip in 1990 with the murder of its title character. Crankshaft is another spin-off of Funky Winkerbean . Ed Crankshaft became popular as the bus driver in Funky Winkerbean and, knowing he would soon be ending John Darling, Batiuk began developing a strip revolving around this character. Chuck Ayers was hired to draw the strip that debuted in 1987 with Universal Press Syndicate. Batiuk uses his comic strips to tackle challenging social issues such as teen pregnancy, dating abuse, homelessness, illiteracy, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease.
From the guide to the Tom Batiuk Collection, 1986-2000, 1986-1989, (The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum)
