Summertime means it’s time to see what’s new with Wally, whom (except for at Dinkle’s party) we’ve not seen since the carnival was in town last August. Though he still has that gaunt, hollow-cheeked look, Wally’s “doing pretty well” and is considering resuming his education (“community college”? Why not KSU?). A very admirable goal indeed: one would hope that Wally could avail himself of some tuition assistance under the G.I. Bill, get his sheepskin, escape his dishwasher job and hell, he and Rachel could get married. But a thoughtful response from Rachel doesn’t make for a good punchline, so Batiuk has her put on a Hanna-Barbera smirk and reveal her weird pedophilic “homework” fantasy.
31 thoughts on “Back to School”
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Son of Stuck Funky 
Sure, Wally will have homework, Rachel… but how often will PTSD (or sex with you) cause him to slack off and blame Buddy for eating said homework instead. Yes, I’m definitely calling a “My dog ate my homework” punchline somewhere in this storyline’s future (assuming it lasts past this week),
My first reaction regarding Rachel’s bizarre “punchline” was the same…yuck. An example of writing Rachel as a “young woman” instead of simply a “person”, with the end result being something no person would ever actually say. The way he drew her in full-on “swooning ditz” mode only adds to the creepiness of the dialog, too.
I’ll be sick and tired of him in a few days, of course, but honestly it’s kind of refreshing to finally see a character I don’t despise with every fiber of my being. It’s great to see Buddy again, isn’t it? I don’t really even have anything specific against the two jabbering human characters either, other then knowing that everything they’ll say or do over the course of the week will be pointless, stupid and boring as all hell. But that’s not really their fault, is it?
Community College is a bad idea, Wally. The lack of sufficient campus grounds will make it difficult for you to snipe off the student body effectively when you finally snap over that D- you get in Health, Safety & Nutrition.
Am I supposed to know who these people are?
Does Rachel have a backstory other than just waitressing at Montoni’s? She was there when friggin’ Lisa worked there for a while pre-law school, if I remember correctly. Otherwise, her only characteristic is red hair.
I guess Wally doesn’t eat the pizza, he’s the only person in Westview with cheekbones.
Doesn’t Rachel have a child? I thought I remembered something about a failed first marriage. Does the child live wherever Crazy Harry’s kids live?
Yeah, the last time we saw these two (other than a cameo) was at the county fair, which they ended by saying how depressing it all was. I don’t dislike these two as much as certain other characters, but they’re definitely trying to join that club.
Is it just me or did Wally’s hairline recede two inches between panels one and two?
Rachel is a self-professed Montoni’s (shudder) “lifer“. She ( I think) has a rarely-seen young son. Her hair is (usually) red. She dates Wally (and by extension, Buddy). This is all I know for sure about her and honestly, I’m grateful for that because quite frankly she isn’t very interesting.
I can’t even look at Rachel any more. Her comment about being “A lifer” at Montoni’s six years ago was one of the most depressing thoughts that ever entered the world. Sure she has a kid and no health insurance but it’s $7.50 an hour and all the free pizza you can eat? Why enroll in a 2-year nursing program and quadruple your salary when you can hang out with a bunch of greasy comic book nerds all day?
Huh, interesting. Another of my comments is getting “moderated”. For anyone curious, here’s the comment in question (which was in response to jnik’s comment):
“Well, to give credit where it’s due, at least it’s suggesting that a character will be working somewhere that isn’t involved with either Montoni’s or Lisa. Of course if he does I expect he’ll go the way of Cindy.”
What in hell is WRONG with Disqus and NJ.com when a comment actually suggesting low level support for Batiuk is the one they need to “moderate”? And anyone like to make a bet on whether the comment will be up in twelve hour’s time?
Wally: “I’ve been thinking, Rachel. I’ve been doing pretty well now that Buddy’s here. You, though? You’ve been no help at all.”
Rachel: “Pretty well, eh? Name one thing you’ve changed about your life in the three years you’ve owned him.”
Wally: “….”
Rachel: “I’m WAITING…”
Wally: “Now I can pop corners.”
Rachel: *face palm*
Wally: “I thought that maybe I’d enroll at community college this fall and get back to work on my degree.”
Rachel: “This fall?!? You do realize that August begins THIS WEEK, right?!? You need to march right down there and BEG for a spot NOW.”
Wally: “…why can’t you just mindlessly support me, like Cayla does Les?”
Rachel: “Because you refuse to indulge in my naughty school marm and spicy student fantasies!”
Wally: *sweat drop*
Ugh. This whole strip is so phony with Rachel giving forced responses the entire time.
Wally: Yep, Hee Hee. I’m doing great now that i have Buddy.
Rachel: Again with the damn dog. Look at me! You’re dating me!
Wally: I’m going to go to community college.
Rachel: Great! Homework, you’ll be just like my kid. I now have two kids.
Wally: Hey look at Buddy! Isn’t Buddy great? I’m so glad to have Buddy! Buddy, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy, Buddy. On second thought I may skip college and just hang out with Buddy all day. After all, he’s helped me come out of my shell SOOOO MUUUCCHH! Isn’t Buddy an amazing dog?
Rachel: No, Wally he really isn’t. He left a wonderful stain on the carpet yesterday and a present in my shoe today. And you haven’t come out of your shell either.
beckoningchasm, Epicus Doomus, and Jeffcoat Wayne, looks like you folks have a fan club.
Is it just me, or is Buddy another Lenny?
Buddy seems to have changed colors, too.
@ DOlz – I noticed that as well (and that list includes “The Diva”). I suspect that the fan club is one person attempting to “punish” our most frequent commentators. I think those of us who have followed Stuck Funky since its days on blogger (and its Son now) understand that comments aren’t made to see who gets the most “thumbs up,” but rather because TB leaves so much fodder on the table nowadays.
Anyway, it’s about sharing a passion for this comic and I think that’s something the “thumbs down” fan club won’t ever understand.
According to the Funky cast page, Rachel is thirty-nine years old.
Gyre, with all due respect your daily struggles with Disqus are slightly less interesting than you seem to think.
I “hate” what TB has done to Wally.
No respect for a 10 year POW…. he still looks like an extra from Schindler’s List….and he’s washing dishes for 3 years
Bad Wolf, usually you kinda assume that if you post something it actually gets posted.
Today’s Punchless Line is a direct rip off from Woody Allen’s Manhattan, wherein he laments that he’s dating a girl who has homework – recall he’s a forty-ish nebbish who’s dating Mariel Hemmingway, a 17 year old high school student. The line makes a modicum of sense when delivered by Allen’s character.
I hope these “fans” are just bored trolls…because the thought that these are actually die hard Funky Winkerbean fans is simply too pathetic to contemplate.
Sure, Rachel’s excited now, but what happens after she realizes that Wally is no Otis Rush?
@bad wolf—the cast page, drawn for the second time jump shows Rachel as 36–so real time, she is now 42. Jessica is 35.
DOLz: “beckoningchasm, Epicus Doomus, and Jeffcoat Wayne, looks like you folks have a fan club.”
Bill A: “I noticed that as well (and that list includes “The Diva”). I suspect that the fan club is one person attempting to “punish” our most frequent commentators.”
I’ll second John at the end of yesterday’s thread when he mentioned that the positive votes he clicked were turning into negative votes. I was Thumbs-Upping some of your comments last night as well, which would suddenly revert back to the number that was already there and added the difference to the Thumbs Down side. So I suspect it’s 50-50 between that glitch and the “fan club”. Certainly couldn’t ask for better company to keep, though! Does this make us “lifers” right back?
Tom Batiuk: “More like GET-A-lifers! Sheesh, some children!”
A HREF–i was still doing the age+3 still based on the (original) high-schoolers, eg. Summer and Rana (Keisha looks… a little older? Maybe held back a year?), but that was last year–after a year in college they’re age+4 already.
I think i see the problem with Batiuk’s “real time” idea–his pacing is so slow he was physically unable to move storylines about this generation through before they all graduated.
I know that the Buddy the dog bit is supposed to be heartwarming and that pets are used in some cases with victims of PTSD but the way Batuik handles it there is an undertone of creepy that leads the mind to dark places: “I’m doing ever so well now that I have Buddy. Buddy tells me what to do don’t you boy? Yes Buddy, I will do as you say, I will kill the red haired one and feed you the choice pieces.”
Eh, computer glitch or disgruntled fans, the down votes don’t bother me. I would really, really love to see a genuine Funky fan stop by here and give us a good, thoughtful summation of why he feels the strip is a good one. The limits of my imagination keep me from seeing such a summation myself, and I’m willing to listen.
More annoying by far is WP’s latest tendency to say “Sorry, this comment could not be posted” making me copy and paste.
Re: “thumbs down”, that’s life on the ol’ internets, whaddya gonna do? Haters gonna hate, you know? IMO the CK comments page has attracted a “bad crowd”, let’s say…a total lack of standards. Most of the comments I see there are complaints about other commenters and quite frankly it’s a real bore.
Re: Rachel…THIRTY-NINE YEARS OLD???? You have to be KIDDING me! I would have guessed late twenties, tops. Knowing that just makes that “homework” line even creepier if you ask me.
Beckoning: I’ve been waiting for years to see a pro-FW comment from a “real” FW fan, but it never happens. I’m assuming that they’re both either too busy or blissfully unaware of our existence.
Of course, a true FW fan would never use such an evil technology as the internet….
Remember Epicus, Wally must be somewhere in his thirties.
IMO the CK comments page has attracted a “bad crowd”, let’s say…a total lack of standards.
I sometimes feel a little envious of the volume of traffic over at the Comics Kingdumb page, but yeah, a lot of that volume consists of petty back ‘n’ forth. One day about half the comments were about the Zimmerman verdict (this happens at other blogs too).
I suspect that WordPress.com’s comment ratings “thumbs” system is a little buggy, unfortunately it’s not customizable like the plugin I used when I was hosting the blog.
Beckoning, looks like you’ve encountered some issues with posting comments…if this persists for you or anyone else, feel free to drop me an email at tfh@sonofstuckfunky.com and I will see if I can troubleshoot. No Snarkers Left Behind!
I’m getting excited here. Something REALLY bad’s about to happen. Bats has been really positive, in his own way, of late and he can’t take anymore! Hurricane warnings go up. Prepare for an imminent catastrophe.