>>150913699
>especially after Les marries Cayla and Batiuk seemingly stops caring.
I think part of the issue is that the Class of students after became less tied to the regular cast. Think about it this way
The first Class is Funky, Les, Cindy, Crazy, Bull, Lisa, Holly, and so on. They were the primary focus up to the early 90s.
The second Class is Wally Winkerbean, Becky, and others. Their lives still intersected with Funky and the rest, and in general some of them still show up in Act 3.
The third Class is Darrin Fairgood, Pete, Jessica, and others. Only some of them showed up in Act 3. Pete who has no real relation to the original cast mostly shows up because he's a comic book writer.
Fourth Class is Summer, Cory, and others. They had more direct ties to the main cast as they were their children.
Fifth class was... I think it was like if it was Funky and Les were kids in the 2010s, I forget their names. About the only interaction I remembered they had with the main class was being in Les' class or being at the comic shop.
I forget about what happened with the last class before the strip ended. I think like the twins from Crankshaft were in there or something. I'll admit my reading of the comic dropped off a bit in the final years, but it felt like that final Class' stories really intersected much with the main cast or the other later Class characters
Somewhere in the 2010s it was pretty clear Batiuk was more interested in coming up with an in-universe comic company so the comic seemed to be more about that.
