Skyler Graduates!

Skyler, the perpetual put-down Sparrow child of Shoe has been a Grade School student for so long that it's hardly even worth making a running gag out of it.  But there was a brief period in 1990 when he and a bunch of unnamed classmates were in a Graduation Ceremony.

Normally, this transition would be cause for celebration, and the potential for future storylines, but as you've already figured out, pretty much nothing changed.  Skyler remained at his regular school desk, with nothing to show for his accomplishments.  Static comic strips like this exist in a a Zeno's Paradox, where characters are constantly striving towards a goal, without ever actually reaching it, even when that moment finally comes, it's quickly wiped from the public consciousness as if it never happened.

Shoe daily comics are typically episodic, so the fact that there was a week-long arc devoted to Skyler just sitting around making pithy observations is notable in itself.

He also indulges in pining over a certain Mary Beth, who I've written about before.



I said earlier that the Graduation strips ran for a week.  Well technically, they ran for eight days.


Then the remainder of the week was spent with Skyler creating evasive answers with his Uncle over how to best make use of his valued vacation time doing absolutely nothing.



Then after a few more perfunctory dailies, Skyler went on a Vacation to Miami to avoid getting caught up in the Army, but given his track record, we all know how that ended up.

In all likelihood, Skyler would be ill equipped to face the outside world beyond his secluded world.

Actually, there was an ulterior motive in publishing these comics.  An acquaintance of mine just recently completed his last semester recently, and is currently soaking up the rays in his family's home country, despite his adamant protestations to avoid going at all costs.  Congrats, Pal!