We go from snowbirds to lovebirds…after a day of slacking in Montoni’s kitchen, Wally trades his olive drab tee shirt and schmatte for a dentist’s smock, and Rachel dons a puke-green maternity frock, and they wait until they are about to get in the car before making plans for the evening.
Thanks to the hours Wally has spent with the shrink down at the VA, he’s now able to categorically list everything that’s wrong with him. Fortunately, hyper-vigilance is apparently catnip to Rachel.
The “marriage deal” “didn’t take”? She “wishes she knew” why she got married? What strange, strange dialogue. And the “punchline”, meant to sound profound, means what exactly? And you just know that this is all the backstory we will get about Rachel, a third-string character whom The Creator Batiuk has plucked from the background and put into play. We probably won’t even get to meet her “little boy”.
Rest assured that when one finds oneself appreciating a Funky strip, the next day’s installment is sure to send one crashing back to Planet Snark. The two lovebirds-to-be are still a-courtin’, making small talk to fill in the awkward silences. Nothing wrong with Wally’s question, but Rachel has to go and smirkingly respond in typical, resigned, weary Westvuvian fashion.
If. If this comic did not frustrate me daily with its negativity, its stilted, tin-eared dialogue, its unappealing characters, its complete lack of real humor…if this comic did not suck so bad so frequently…I might allow that today’s strip is kind of cute. Of course, no real-life human being would make a Freudian slip like substituting “lonely” for “hungry”. However, something about the staging…the way the two characters are obviously attracted to each other and trying not to show it…Rachel’s dainty posture in panel one, and the unusual perspective in panel 2…yeah. Today’s strip is…O.K. Sigh.
Son of Stuck Funky 