If “it’s called writing“, how come Batiuk gives us whole strips where nobody says anything? That’s called “padding”.
Below: I edited the last two weeks’ strips to demonstrate that this story could have been told in one week, and still leave Sunday to show Funky being a dickhead at the car dealer.
Rachel’s not even safely to her issue-laden car, and Wally’s already secured the deadbolt, lockset, door chain and Slomin’s Shield® Home Security System. Alone at last! But he hears a voice…calling to him…from the computer. It’s Happy Scrappy Hero Pup…”How long you gonna let Red push you around like that, you jackwagon?” Wally, startled at first, listens to the dog as he proceeds to instruct Wally about how to settle a few scores…
Having finished “hounding” Wally (get it?), Rachel prepares to head home to little T. Rex Boy.
I always make it a point to give props to Batiuk anytime he hits a rare, true note, so here goes: the kiss in panel 3 is sweet, and nicely drawn. But: “Your problems are my problems now”? Oh boy!
A little late in the story arc but I thought I’d share this; from the Puppies Behind Bars site:
Dog Tags: Service Dogs for Those Who’ve Served Us was initiated by Puppies Behind Bars in 2006 to provide prison-trained service dogs, free of charge, to veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The dogs learn special skills to mitigate the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
“Rache” is trying to help, but nobody can help Wally, not nobody, not no how. She allows him to plead his case, even managing to keep a straight face at the mention of Wally “keeping it together”, even barely. But in panel three…there’s that crazed, earnest expression, those beady eyes and that tilt of the head. Last time Rachel got that look, she nearly drove him to a public freakout at the county fair…
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.
Son of Stuck Funky 
