Well, I guess Wally and Adeela compromised on yesterday’s to-be-or-not-to-be around people problem by accommodating neither one of them in any way, as in today’s strip they are neither in a crowd nor especially alone. They are also sitting at separate tables for… reasons, I guess.
Yeah, yeah, I know. They are uncomfortable with each other and neither will admit it. We established that LAST Wednesday and the strip has been illustrating it over and over and over building “tension” ever since. I’m much less curious about where this story arc is going (I think we all know where) than I am about when was the last time that TB observed college students studying in a library.
And thanks to BanTom’s storytelling ineptitude we don’t even know what the project IS yet. “Here’s something we can use”…use for what? Like I complained about the other day, this is storytelling at its most sub-childish level. “Wally and Adeela are uncomfortable. They sit at different tables. It is hard for Wally to hear Adeela”…two weeks in and FW readers have no idea what they’re even supposed to be doing together, other than “working” on a “college project”.
Based on how he hangs around his old high school to sketch students, I have a feeling Batiuk probably observes college students studying in a library far more than anyone would like.
Today’s “narrative” looks like something out of the new Nancy. Neither are well drawn or funny.
You’d think syndicated comic strip writers were trying to destroy their art form, wouldn’t you? There are so many awful syndicated comic strips.
Setting aside that no one has ever researched a school project by pulling loose paper out of their backpack, Adeela’s paper is completely blank.
It actually kind of makes sense. I’ll bet a lot of TB’s ideas come from blank pieces of paper.
I’d rather have him start to writhe on the floor gibbering about being back in Iwreck than this boring slop.
So having set up a situation in which Wally appears to be on the brink of a panic attack, TomBa bails on that plot line and jumps right to the completely unworkable seating arrangement.
It’s going to end like this! ALLAH U AKBAR!

“Here’s something that maybe we can use.”
“I’m sorry, what? I know you can barely speak English, but that was an INCREDIBLY clunky sentence, even by Batyuck standards!”
Yeah, that’s something they can use — A huge blank page. I predict there’s going to be a LOT of very generic tap dancing around what this “project” is actually about. We may not even find out what class this is. Batty deliberately skipped right over the episode where JuCo Les tells them what they’re supposed to do. Too late to backtrack now! Now BatHack needs to ratchet up the Forced and Contrived Factor as these two goofs discuss the details of their research in amazingly generic terms. So if you thought they’d discuss this project like regular Earth Humans, well, you were wrong about that.
Obligatory…
You’ll say we’ve got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we’re falling apart
You say the world has come between us
Our lives have come between us
Still I know you just don’t care
And I said, “What about Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”
She said, “I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it”
And I said, “Well, that’s the one thing we’ve got”
I see you, the only one who knew me
But now your eyes see through me
I guess I was wrong
So what now? It’s plain to see we’re over
And I hate when things are over
When so much is left undone
And I said, “What about Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”
She said, “I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it”
And I said, “Well, that’s the one thing we’ve got”
You say that we’ve got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we’re falling apart
You say the world has come between us
Our lives have come between us
Still I know you just don’t care
And I said, “What about Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”
She said, “I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it”
And I said, “Well, that’s the one thing we’ve got”
Ooh, and I said, “What about Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”
She said, “I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it”
And I said, “Well, that’s the one thing we’ve got”
And I said, “What about Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”
She said, “I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it”
And I said, “Well, that’s the one thing we’ve got”
“Are you hearing impaired from the army?”
“What?”
“ARE YOU DEAF FROM THE WAR?!!!”
“No, Buddy and I are metalheads. We’ve been in the front row for Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax…”
She’s sitting so far away because Buddy has gas. Wally can’t smell it as the odors of Montoni’s pizza over the years have seared his sense of smell.
Can these two please just screw already?
I find the panel 2 drawing of Wally particularly horrendous. What bugs the heck out of me is that BatHack is doing nothing but using one of his hackneyed high school situations, and just moved it to a college setting. They’ll probably wind up at the Malt Shop, sipping a milkshake from two straws (it’s not California, but A-Hi-A!). Happy Days indeed…
Ironically, it’s on “Unity Day,” and a few other strips (for example, Hagar the Horrible, Six Chix, and Zits) feature people joining together