Hilarious, even!!
But for a clown who only expresses himself non-verbally, (only screaming??) THE GREAT WILHELM is assuming not a welcoming stance, but rather a menacing one, not unlike the one made famous by Frankenstein’s Monster. No wonder kids think that clowns are creepy, if not downright scary!!
But one has to wonder where the parents of the frightened tots are… long gone are the days where mom and dad would say “OK” to having their gradeschool-aged kids hang around a cemetary bonfire, unchaperoned, hosted by some old dude…
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Does the artist have a set of stock drawings that he cuts and pastes into the frame? That would explain the out of place smile on Mark.
Okay. This ludicrous story, as you have nicely pointed out, has clowns still in makeup and costume, riding the circus train which has crashed and is aflame. The clowns stumble away from the burning train like zombies. But where do they stumble towards? First some odd-ball cemetery with an unusual number of obelisk memorial stones. They must be really, really shook up, because they keep right on stumbling towards…….another fire! Really!? Aren’t these clowns supposed to be escaping FROM a fire?
So I suppose we’ll have to watch Silent Wilhelm get blasted to smithereens by a protective Dad with his trusty 10 gauge running out his tent, where he was probably trying to get in a little knot-work with his wife while the kids played in the bonfire.
My theory–given how painfully slowly plots move in Trail World, we’re headed for an April Fool’s Day denouement (although that will require him to wrap things up in only four weeks).