Denyin' Ryan

$$$Westville Oncologist$$$$$
April 24, 2012 at 3:15 pm
Raise your hand if you think this new hunky guy will actually be the first half of Tom Batiuk’s “unambigously gay duo”?

From time to time, consensuses seem to arise within this community regarding the plot direction of this strip. For example, during the Wally Gets a Therapy Dog arc, some of you suggested that Batiuk would cruelly kill off Buddy the Dog, sending Wally around the bend for good. I never subscribed to that theory.

More recently, some have suggested that another Time Jump was in the offing. That one sounds more plausible, if for no other reason than TB’s made such a hash of the current cast of characters that he’s got nowhere to go from here. Given his complete disregard for continuity, Batiuk’s got nothing to lose by shaking the Etch-a-Sketch for a third time.

But where are some of y’all getting the vibe that Ryan is one half of the Coming Gay Prom Date? Is it because he likes Summer? That would make Cody ‘n’ Owen gay too. Is it because the way he’s clumsily pawing Summer in yesterday’s strip implies he doesn’t like touching girls? Because he talks with his hands a lot?  Is it because Summer says asking her to a movie is “sweet”? I’m curious, that’s all. The only preview we’ve had of the Gay Prom arc (starts next week!) is the panel shown here. Sure, that could be Ryan on the right, but it could be any anon-o-teen. It would be weird, even by Batiuk’s storytelling standards, to introduce this guy hitting on Summer, and then buying prom tix with Cody another guy just a few days later.