PTSD – Page 4 – Son of Stuck Funky

Ruh-roh!

Again: in the interest of full disclosure, I never served in the military, and have nothing but the utmost respect for those who have. That said…we know that in the considerable amount of time spent by Wally “in the shit”, he was nearly blown up by a landmine, survived a chopper crash, and spent God knows how many years as a POW. But what incident seems to haunt him the most? The time that he nearly killed a young civilian. Fortunately, Buddy’s PTSD-sense begins to tingle, causing his ears to fly up; he joins his Master on the bunk and Wally can resume catching some “Zzzz’s”.

Lassie Sass

Wally gets slapped down a second time by the sarcastic bitch of a dog trainer. Anyway, I wonder if someone experiencing a panic attack, or “freezing up”, whatever the hell that means, would have the presence of mind to issue any command to their dog.

Puppies Without Punchlines

Epic run-on sentence in panel one. Apparently it’s impossible to describe Puppies Behind Bars without using a run-on sentence. How anyone would conflate PBB with Doctors Without Borders, though, is beyond me.

Ritual de lo Habitual

Not even going to try and work out the math that equals “six long years” of Wally’s service. But the melodrama meter remains off the charts with his litany of rituals. Wally can’t be blamed for clinging to his survival habits, since nobody in his life bothered to give him a proper “welcome home”. No wonder he’s still at war in his mind.

PBB FTW

Maybe he fell short of a Pulitzer, but today Tom Batiuk wins the award for MAIADB: Most Acronyms in a Dialogue Balloon. Can one of our esteemed vets hip me to what O.E.D. stands for in this context? My normally awesome Google skills failed me. “T.B.I.”, of course, stands for Tom Batiuk’s Incoherence, an issue that affects not just Wally, but everyone who reads TB’s “writing”.

Update: O.E.D. or E.O.D.?

More confusing-acronym hell: It looks like panel one was amended since it appeared months ago in the Puppies Behind Bars newsletter. Since the site where I get my comics was down (it’s since come back online, thank goodness) I used the black and white panels from the preview. So, as John commented below, I guess the acronym is E.O.D. (explosives ordinance disposal), which opens up yet another can of worms: the only time I can recall seeing Sgt. Wally dealing with explosive ordinance was when he stepped on a Bouncing Betty during his Afghan honeymoon and had to be rescued by Khan. The retcons (ret-Khans?) are coming fast and furious now, kids. Maybe the Grand Finale draws nigh after all?