** spoiler alert ** 
 At a glance, this is a quick, wordless comic about a dog and his robot friend, and how the robot got rusty at the beach. But the kick in the gut is that after the robot gets rusty, Dog doesn't know what to do. So he leaves. And tries to make new friends, all of whom abandon him in some way or another (the duck family that flies south, the snowman who melts, the anteaters whose epicurean tastes don't agree with Dog's stomach). All the while, Robot lies on the beach, dreaming of salvation so he can go find his friend again. 
 What I particularly liked (in addition to the art) is that we manage to have a happy ending--Robot's salvation and both making new friends--without the expected ending. No, Dog doesn't rescue Robot, though he at least tries. For a book so cute, I'm left wanting to cry over the bittersweet ending, the fragility of relationships, the impermanence of friendship, the reality of loss despite the best intentions.