Though they’ve been married now for six and a half years (!), we haven’t seen Cayla doing things with Les so much as she does things for him. We know that Les finds time to teach a class or two in between book signings, but Cayla’s employed by the Westview Schools too, or at least she was when we met her. Or did she, as Linda is preparing to do, retire in order to care for her helpless, hapless husband? If her dead-eyed look of contempt directed at Les is any indication, maybe she’s finally getting fed up with the jerk.
Tag: Cayla
My Moron Jacket
“No…Wait! It’s only Tuesday! We have to drag this out for an entire week!” I’m wondering if Mr. “Write What You Know” Batiuk was inspired to write this arc while strolling about the Medwick Marketplace Marshalls with Mrs. Batiuk. Like his avatar, TB spends an inexplicable, inordinate amount of time traveling about to hawk and sign his books. He blogs about it too, with pictures, and Dear Author himself seems to favor a more casual, jacket-free look.
The Whimperer’s New Clothes
To what do we owe the honor of seeing Cayla in back-to-back appearances? And Les is allowing her to be seen with him in public! Either today’s panel one is typical Monday exposition, or the two have randomly wandered into a men’s clothing store, reminding Cayla that Les is in need of some new duds.
Summer’s Finally Over
Summer is back in town, presumably “from college”, for the annual Falling Of The Leaves as is customary in Westview. Seeing good ol’ Summer there with her ever-so-twee hair and her trademark gritty hoodie brings back fond memories of how much I detested that character way back in the dark early days of Act III. She was around all the f*cking time with the basketball and the wry wisecracks and the Lisa gobbledygook, it was awful.
Summer was a major player there for a while but after she got the flu and won the Big Game he shipped her off to KSU and that was pretty much the last of her, she hasn’t had an arc to herself in years. Perhaps he just became enamored with his new up-and-coming crop of characters like Cliff and Chester and Phil Holt and post-Alzheimer’s Mort or maybe it was because he can’t write for a female character unless she’s feeding her husband straight lines, but whatever the reason Summer got kicked to the curb in what’s turned out to be one of (only) Act III’s more pleasant developments.
I’m deliberately ignoring the dialog, Les & Cayla’s already inexplicable and credulity-shattering courtship and marriage needs no further embellishment. God I hate that disembodied Les head so, so much. Seeing Les and Summer together like that really annoys me and brings back a lot of FW memories I’d rather keep buried. In fact this one could be my most hated strip of the year so far.
Eating Their Turds and Whey
Whoops! Late to the party on this one, but I got involved in a project of my own and neglected the time.
Not much to say about this one. The artwork continues to slide into the abyss, the dialogue is idiotic, and Rich Burchett shows us something in that last panel (almost wrote “penal”; these hosting stints, lemme tells ya…)
I mean, look at Cliff’s face in that last panel. “Oh? Think I’m not planning on getting my cheese dip on? Really, Vera? Wow, are you in for a surprise!”
Overall, again, it’s people sitting around discussing things that we have not seen and we’ve not been given a reason to care about. Eating food that looks, honestly…well, it looks largely like bowel movements. Which, given the overall bent of this strip, makes perfect sense. It also makes those vaguely flesh-colored cubes that show up now and then in Mary Worth look edible.
It’s kind of silently nauseating in its own unique way. And it’s another step away from what people want in comic strips. And it makes me feel that the 50th anniversary will be something to see, though I can easily imagine Batiuk presenting something ultra dull. After all, it’s the Funky Winkerbean way.
Son of Stuck Funky 
