It’s easy to be snarky with a comic strip that usually takes itself seriously, especially one that kept itself in a world of old-fashioned values, corny dialog, and formulaic stories. The prior version of Mark Trail was a moralistic and moralizing strip with clearly defined good and bad actors. It was like “Father Knows Best”, staged in a fantasy-land, where the rugged father was usually out saving the environment, while leaving his family to fend for themselves. And they were always waiting at the door for his return. With its repetitious poses, Mark’s unflappable hair, his strong sense of self-importance, and a supporting cast of one-dimensional characters, Mark Trail was an easy target for poking fun at, like the fat grandfather at Thanksgiving telling jokes that were last funny when he was a boy.

But Jules Rivera does not give us an easy target. In fact, her iteration of the strip is, itself, sometimes self-parody, sometimes satire, and sometimes self-destructive. So maybe some fans are pissed to see that Rivera is out-snarking the Snarkers? Her drawing style deliberately changes from the old standard to what many feel is either incompetence or disrespect. Yet, the characters are given more realistic personalities and depth. The strip is also no longer only about Mark, which is good! Yet, Mark is especially put through a variety of external and internal crises that cause him to act in ways that the prior Mark would never experience. That includes a reckless streak that has more than once crossed the line of legality. It happened in Florida and it seems to have repeated in California, where we have spent this week watching a theater of the absurd take place in Cricket Bro’s HQ, all to help Aparna purloin a company laptop that apparently contained the only copy of a program she wrote for Cricket Bro’s company. Who is the bad guy here? Who is the trouble-maker? The usual tropes rarely apply, as Mark Trail coexists alongside a real world where good and bad are more often seen as transactional behavior.

Sure, Rob Bettancourt is a jerk and a bully. Professor Bee Sharp and Diana Daggers are certainly dodgy characters. But are they an actual criminal gang? Other than taunt and humiliate Mark, what have they done that’s illegal? Cricket Bro’s project management style may be slimy, but he did pay the programmers before firing them. What they designed belongs to him, no matter how he chooses to use or not use their work. Aparna appears to have no legal right to that software. On the other hand, the plan to recover “Aparna’s” app through less than honest means is almost clearly a criminal action, aided and abetted by Mark.

But I take issue here, as nobody (with the possible exception of Rivera) wants to think that Mark would actually cross the line into illegal or criminal actions. Damaging private property, fleeing police, and assisting in the theft of private property are contrary to what we’ve come to expect from Mark’s character. At least, the original Mark. So I’m not sure what the motivation is:  Perhaps it is a finger in the eye of long-standing readers who complain about the change of style, character, and stories. You can make a character (or family of characters) more rebellious, adventurous, and even reckless, without crossing that line, unless you are also going to make that character accept responsibility for those actions. Shucks, I like Mark better when he is holding conversations with animals.

Perhaps using that roadrunner as a false clue this past Thursday, Rivera jumped over to another speedy animal. Interesting information in the panels today, though the closing statements seem repetitious: How do the young jackrabbits survive? Oh, I think Mark already spilled the beans in the earlier panels. Rivera gets better and better at drawing wildlife. One might quibble over whether that is dust coming from behind the bunny in the last panel or perhaps some internal gas. Likely, the former! As usual, we see that the title panel is composed of that dust kicked up by the escaping jackrabbit, as Rivera continues her habit of linking the appearance of the strip’s title to the main theme.

I hate to admit it, but this story is really going sideways. Maybe the art, as well. Perhaps Daggers (in panel 3) means she has all of the Herp Hacienda Gang’s transgressions captured on a security video that she can access from her phone and will turn over to the “proper authorities.” Or she put a tracker on the Prius.

Rivera has an aggressive drawing style that I like (though many Trailheads strongly disagree!) ; and it is well done most of the time. But here, it looks like a first-year student in “Cartooning 101” got involved, especially panel 1.

Anatomy is almost completely warped out of proportion, and details, such as Cricket Bro’s hands, are painful to look at. The composition is flat. The “Smack!” effect (including the lettering) is crude and not well-balanced. It kind of reminds me of the low quality work you could see in the old Charlton comic books of the 1960s. Some of you may know what I mean.

Anyway, the drawing gets a little better in panels 2 and 3 (even Diane’s hand looks pretty decent), but the overall effect of the strip is disappointing. Rivera normally does a lot better, though we’ve seen some inconsistencies lately. It makes me wonder whether she is working under deadline pressure or perhaps has an assistant doing some of the work. We know that cartoonists (including Dodd and Elrod) sometimes use assistants for things like lettering, backgrounds, or inking. At an extreme level, the Garfield comic strip is completely drawn and inked by Jim Davis’s assistants (or “ghosts” as they are called in the cartooning industry), though he creates initial sketch ideas and approves the final strips.

So, which is it? I know that Rivera works in an electronic format (as does Dilbert’s Scott Adams), so that could easily allow for cooperative work. But this is just idle guesswork. Most likely, this is all her work and I’m just making shit up.

On a positive note, I applaud Professor Bee Sharp for his ability to so rapidly change back into street clothes, like some actor playing multiple roles in live theater. Granted, all he did was pull off his boxing attire and jump into a workout suit, but that’s still fast work. Now wouldn’t it be nice if Mark ever changed his clothes! I wonder: If you opened Mark Trail’s closet back in Lost Forest, would you see 20 red and black plaid shirts on hangers?

Er…uh, okay. I reckon. Did I see this on “Saved by the bell”? I mean, it’s like watching snarky teenagers as they try to pull off another dumb stunt before getting caught by the Principal as they walk around the corner on their way out.

Yet, we see all three of the transgressors (just where the hell was Reptilionnaire during this hallway scuffle, anyway?) in panel four heading to their car for the getaway. So where are the other Cricket Bro companions? Are they still hanging around the boxing ring waiting for Mark to “come back from the bathroom” or whatever lame excuse he must have used to leave the room without being followed? I wonder if that roadrunner is supposed to be a symbol, such as “We better get outta here before the cops show up!”

I wonder how “the world” is going to enjoy Aparna’s app, since it is just the source code. Source code needs to be compiled into an application before it can be run by somebody; so maybe Aparna really means “the world of programmers”. Okay, enough of taking Rivera to task for her fast-and-loose awareness of computers, as if any other show on TV or Movie Land did it better.

Anyway, I’m left wondering:  What the heck was Mark thinking!? How did this episode resolve his conflicts? How did it reveal any possible wrong-doings at Cricket Bro’s company? And doesn’t he want to go back and knock Killer Bee’s block off his shoulders?

Well, maybe there will be another car chase after they peel out in their Prius!

In action films it seems that the villain is always destined to waste time describing his/her/their true motives for taking over the world, the country, or the local pizzeria; meanwhile giving the captured hero time to break loose, destroy the villain, and try to save the movie. So it’s not enough for Aparna to steal (back) the laptop (which she doesn’t own) with the program (that she was paid to write for Cricket Bro). She has to take time to wipe Cricket Bro’s face with her own justification. This waste of time should give Bro’s cohorts plenty of time to figure things out and come to the rescue. Odd isn’t it: Who are the “bad guys” here? In spite of Cricket Bro taking away Aparna’s righteous indignation in panel 2 by revealing that his so-called insult was just his way of firing people, Aparna didn’t take the hint. She just continues with her vengeance panel 3.

Getting a bit nerdy here for a minute: What the hell is Aparna doing using the antiquated, unsecured File Transfer Protocol to upload her program to “the Internet”? For one thing, what server is she trying to send to? The transfer can’t simply go to “the Internet”; that’s not how FTP works. If it was going up to any server, it would normally be the Cricket Bro’s server. I suppose we can assume the entire building is a wired hotspot. So when did she have time to log on? Wouldn’t her account have been disabled when she was fired?!

Regarding FTP, there are several modern alternatives she should be using, but we need not get into those. After all, this is not a computer science blog. Suffice to say, it is a curious trope Rivera uses; and one that most readers will likely not even recognize. As this is a family comic strip for general readers, Rivera could have simply used a more recognizable abbreviation, such as XFER to keep nerds like me quiet. But then again, we know that Rivera likes to send up her readers.

Back to the story:  I suspect that there will be a full-court showdown by Saturday between the two groups, before jumping back to Cherry and her brother’s swine. That should make for an interesting week to come!

Finishing on a visual note, we are back (I believe) to a well-constructed set of panels, very nicely drawn and composed. Notice how Cricket Bro’s face is darkened in panel 3. Is this symbolic of his “dark nature” or simply a means of making a contrast to the background? Instead of using old-fashioned Ben Day dots or even simple hatching, Rivera uses a pattern of mixed line types, which adds more texture, though it makes no attempt to suggest facial contours. In this particular case, it would probably come across as too busy.

“They thought he was just an Outdoor Nature Cornball. They found out he is a Man with a Certain Set of Skills, which don’t include fixing fences, installing light switches, or imitating bird calls!”

So, is this “Mark Trail: Nature Vigilante” now? We’ve come a long way from Mark’s former boy scout approach to righting wrongs, haven’t we? It’s one thing to twist an arm to get cooperation, but I think Mark is taking that to a new level. And I’m not sure I like the direction it is going.

First of all, Mark seems already sold on an application that seems to be a standard practice in many occupations, including animal welfare. And we never learned the practical, operational qualities of this app, which is to say, what’s special about it and how would it be used in a realistic setting? Furthermore, if it is designed for wildlife, what are you going to do if the air is not prime for the animals? Somebody going to go round up about 3,000 water buffalo and take them into a climate-controlled habitat for a bit? Mark never bothered questioning the practicality of this program. Frankly, I’m siding with Cricket Bro at this point, based on his responses and Mark’s actions.

Did Aparna or Reptilionnaire or Mark even think to simply ask Cricket Bro to buy back the application? I mean, if it isn’t a money-maker, why wouldn’t he let it go for a relatively small charge and the possibility of some royalties if the product ever hits the market down the road and makes a profit? They could have started with something like that, before starting instead with grand theft and battery. If all of this is caught on security cameras, I don’t think even Father Trail will be able to keep Mark out of jail and a bad date in court.

From the artistic side, I’m thinking…another day of quickly-drawn images, not like yesterday’s panels. In short, with last week in mind, perhaps some inconsistency in the work. As far as I know, Rivera does not have an assistant. Of course, as I noted before, it could be a case of employing style to represent the mood or temperament of the situation. But that is sounding like a stretch at this point.

Well, it’s nice to see that the boys shared a moment together.

Thoughts, anyone?

Time and space compression is at work once again as we see Cricket Bro and Mark magically transport into the alleged “complex” web of hallways where the Laptop Duo is attempting to make a getaway. Never mind that the company’s so-called Security (the person known as “Dare”?) has apparently disappeared. In any event, Mark adds to his expected growing list of possible criminal charges of accessory to theft and fraud by assaulting Cricket Bro, who suddenly speaks like a 1940s film noir character.

So where are Killer Bee, Diana, and Dare in all of this action? Did none of them think to come running when the alarms went off, or are they off to their appointed “battle stations”, ready to intervene if needed?

Today’s strip is a great improvement in artistic quality, with regard to style, staging, and overall effect. The off-kilter point-of-view in panel 1 underscores the urgency and anxiety of the current crisis. Cricket Bro in panel 2 is well-delineated in a three-quarter, foreshortened pose. Though Mark’s corralling of Cricket Bro in panel 3 gives the impression that the Herp Hacienda team now have a free pass to escape, it may be an illusion. Or delusion.

After all, Mark has to also escape. And there are still three formidable forces for Mark to deal with, excluding Cricket Bro. What will they do now?

Oh, about that software:  Why would Cricket Bro leave it on a docked laptop, if it was so important? In any realistic situation, the software would have already been uploaded to a server or other secure storage devices and the laptop drive wiped clean. In fact, it would have been proper that all of the laptops were connected to a server while being used.

Now, should we assume Jules is just not cognizant of such things? Hard to believe in this day and age. So, is there another angle here? Is the software issue merely a blind? A ruse? If so, for whom?

In adventure strips of the ‘30s and ‘40s, it was common for the big Sunday panels to more or less summarize the previous week’s dailies, since many newspaper subscribers only took Sunday. We don’t have that in Mark Trail, since Sundays are reserved for nature talks. In fact, we don’t normally have recap strips at all. However, today looks mostly like an “In case you missed a day” strip, with a recap of Mark’s silly boxing match with “Killer” Bee Sharp, while the Herp Hacienda kids have (already) set off a security alarm. All old news! In short, today’s strip gives us nothing new with regard to the story.

It’s not specifically story padding, as what we have here is more review than pointless filler. But why bother? The storyline is already getting long; it’s time to move it forward.

I’m also wondering if Rivera is deliberately playing around with continuity. That is, deliberately altering space and time for some unspecified reason. I already pointed out the example of the changing clocks, which have since been absent. Today we see the presto-change-o position of Cricket Bro, originally observing from the floor; but suddenly up on the outside edge of the ring.

The composition of panel 1, lowered point of view, well done. The overall drawing of the panels is tighter, though still looking off from Rivera’s usual work. Mark’s face in panel 1 with its punch-drunk expression will likely tick off long-time readers as either incompetent drawing or just a disrespectful representation, though I think it is deliberately humorous, like the way villains and tough guys looked in the old Popeye comic strips after they got walloped.

A possible interpretation of Mark’s face in panel 1 is that he is visually suggesting to Killer Bee that this is what his face looks like, as Mark also orally taunts him in the first two panels.

Final observation:  I think the dialog in panel 2 is a reference to the rhyming jokes in The Princess Bride. What do you think?

As we recall, this past week was the continuation of “Mark’s Trail of Woah!”, as we bounced back to his impromptu fight, in progress, with Killer Bee Sharp, after cutting away for a week to watch Cherry cozy up to another one of her oddball siblings.

So, we watched this supposed “pretend fight” start and stop and start and stop again, allowing Killer Bee to get in more actual punches than our “Champion for Nature” was allowed to do. Still, when he did connect, he left messages.

While Mark was more concerned with how to make this travesty of a meeting last for about 30 minutes, the Herp Hacienda kids bungled their attempt to sneak Aparna’s laptop out of Cricket Bro’s hands. Oh, it’s been a herky-jerky week for Mark and Company, both in story and in drawing. If this was the first week of viewing Mark Trail for a reader, I would understand that person complaining of headaches and confusion. Even many of us veteran observers are likely scratching our noggins trying to understand current events. As before, I think these story segments demand two straight weeks at a time in order to help improve overall continuity. And let’s get Dirty Dyer back!

Even though the Butterfly Bush has been mentioned, along with its problems several times in the past few weeks, it has still found its way into a Sunday nature talk. Once again we see a nice cooperative Sunday chat featuring both Mark and Cherry. Still, I wonder why it couldn’t be just Cherry this time, as it falls in her bailiwick. Perhaps there is some long-standing rule Mark Trail has in his contract where he has to be in every Sunday strip.

Well, at least Rivera gives us a set of recommended butterfly plants that help the butterflies. Good show! I will go on to add that the common milkweed (Asclepias) is another good choice, especially beneficial to Monarch butterflies.

Otherwise, this is a nicely drawn page. Perhaps Rivera draws several Sunday strips at one time, after several weeks of dailies are drawn. This would help keep the drawing consistent from one Sunday to the next, especially as the Sunday strips are generally drawn cleanly, evenly, and sympathetically; whereas the style in her dailies is more confrontational and sometimes jagged, perhaps to support the current drama. Anyway, some good continuity with Mark showing garden shears in the middle panel and again with the same shears in the final panel!

Hapless is as hapless does. I reckon that Aparna never realized there were security alarms for the docking stations. Apparently, Reptilionnaire set off the alarm when he removed the laptop. As Aparna is shown in panel 1 half-way removing a laptop without an alarm going off, it is clear that only total removal matters. As if that mattered, anyway. Have to admit that Cricket Bro is no dummy. Meanwhile, poor Mark is once again denied his revenge, just when he is again getting into form. Fisticuff Blue Balls, to coin a bad metaphor.

Artistically, we see Mark’s oddly-foreshortened face certainly looking like it took a lickin’, while Killer Bee’s countenance merely looks like Rivera’s ink pen slipped. Hate to note it, but the overall drawing again looks rushed and untidy, especially panel 3. The panels also lack the kind of detail we normally find in Rivera’s work. Not sure why. One thing for sure:  Cricket Bro needs better pest control for his offices!

Perhaps, when these two kids are captured, Mark will finally get to—if not have to—use his Fists of Justice to save the day.

Okay, I’ll admit to being confused here. More than usual, that is. Based on the remarks of Diana and Professor Bee, I’m thinking they are not quite the bosom buddies of Cricket Bro. Or am I misreading the room? It’s just that their comments have the tint of criticism against Cricket Bro. But is the phrase “It’s the only influence he has in the ring” meant to refer to Mark? Surely not; that makes no sense. But neither does this entire phase of the adventure.

So what happened to Dare and his role in this so-called video commercial scam? Did we miss a day of panels?! Or did Jules drop a daily without fixing the continuity? And exactly how is Cricket Bro provoking this fight? Certainly, his lame insults at Mark are not “encouraging”, unless they are meant to get Mark mad enough to lose focus? Sounds like Cricket Bro is self-projecting! In fact, as I recall, no provocation was needed for Killer Bee to start this so-called fight by throwing a sucker punch at Mark. Dare temporarily stopped it when Mark was getting his licks in. And suddenly, the fight has somehow resumed.

On the cartooning side, this is not one of Rivera’s shining examples. In fact, the entire set of panels looks rushed and sketchy, as if she submitted a draft, rather than a finished product. Or maybe this set of panels was ghosted by somebody filling in for Rivera. She usually does better, in spite of how anybody feels about her drawing style. And as for that last panel, it’s a nice overhead composition. But Mark’s right jab is more of a probe of Bee’s weak defenses rather than one of those famous “fists of justice” he has thrown in the past.

Well, Aparna had no problem with the door code, whose “dit-dat-dit” sound calls to mind the letter “R” in Morse Code. Maybe that’s an “Easter Egg” planted by Jules Rivera. So, how many laptops are in that room? I can’t tell where they are, or are those two structures on either side of the room supposed to be the stored laptops!? Black Widow spiders wanna know!

Also, there seems to be an inexplicable continuation of the fight which Dare had just stopped! Supposedly. Well, if we see this entire series of panels as concurrent with the panels of the prior days, then panel 4 may just be a recap of the impromptu fight that Dare goes on to stop, although Killer Bee originally walloped Mark with a right jab, not an uppercut.

But this is all quite vague and contradictory. In fact, the timing…er, time, seems out of whack. The clock on the wall in panel 4 looks like it is around 7:20. However, the strip yesterday clearly showed the clock at 6:00.

So, what gives here? I’ve got no answer. Do you? Oops, I’m out of time.

Dare has a vision!? Looks more like he has Excedrin Headache #22. Poor Dare. If only he had bothered to share his vision with everybody before the current kerfuffle! But even by panel 4, we have no idea what that vision is. Does it involve Killer Bee, dressed in boxing attire, attacking Mark, sans gloves? Or maybe the two of them meeting in the middle of the ring, knocking fists against each other, and deciding to work together to solve the world’s problems? Or maybe Dare has a deal with ESPN.

Well, while we wait, seems that Mark has a busted lip (panel 3), leaking black blood, not red. Either that, or Rivera smeared the ink before it dried.

I think we have to assume that a good ten minutes has gone by since Dare first let Mark into the building, while the Herp Crew snuck into the off-limits wing. That means—if my college German is any good—that Mark only has to fool this crowed for 20 more minutes. But if Mark’s strategy is to coax Killer Bee into a premature rematch, I’m not sure this is a winning approach, as either the Bee goes down quickly, or Dare the Bear knocks them both down.

Maybe Mark can play Boxing Clown to Bee’s Rodeo Clown and waste a lot of time literally running around the ring, avoiding those yellow gloves. Or Mark can break the fourth wall and ask Jules Rivera to change the minute hand on the wall clock so we can get this story moving on.

Yes, as commentator Downpuppy pointed out, size isn’t everything, and whipcord-ripped Mark has no problem sparring with The Bee. In fact, it looks like Mark’s right cross carried a meaningful message of danger to the arrogant Bee-man. Frankly, Killer Bee looks more bully than boxer, and his technique frankly stinks. I would bet that, had this “fight” gone on, Bee would go down in the first round. But as Rivera, herself, pointed out, the fight got stopped by the local version of Andre the Giant, just as it got started.

And that brings up more questions, such as

a) What’s the point of the boxing match gimmick in the first place?

b) Why was it stopped:  Did Cricket Bro get disappointed that Mark can actually fight?

c) Where is Cricket Bro, anyway?

d) How are those two Herp Hacienda members getting on?

e) And where is this story going?

So far, we have Mark invited to fly to LA and participate in a still-unseen video with Reptilionnaire; also invited to stay at Herp Hacienda, a reptile retreat filled with assorted human oddballs; then invited to a party by the video’s “money man”, “Cricket Bro“, who happens to be Mark’s childhood nemesis, Rob Bettancourt. This turned out to be a party where Mark was systematically and deliberately insulted, ignored, and threatened. We learned of a revelation by Aparna, one of the Herp Hacienda staff, about Cricket Bro stealing her intellectual property. This subplot is added on by a plan hatched by Mark to infiltrate Cricket Bro’s offices to help steal it back; but the plan was weakened by an otherwise pointless interlude with Professor Bee and Diana Daggers stopping Mark and his “street posse” on the way to Cricket Bro’s office, ruining any chance of surprise. But then a discussion between Mark and the human mountain doorman enabled Rept and Aparna to somehow slink into the off-limits Developer’s Wing. And finally, we have this outrageous boxing match setup for another alleged video. This is truly some off-the-wall goofiness!

But, other than the so-called theft of an animal air sensor phone app, where is the Injustice against Nature that Mark normally works to resolve? It has to be more than the two videos or the simple thrill of humiliating Rob “Cricket Bro” Bettancourt. There has to be something more, something much bigger. Perhaps we’ll see it this week.

I think a second week of Cherry’s story would have been better, but we did leave Mark in mid-punch, getting hammered by Killer Bee. We return to the action and its follow-up, which amounts to Mark still standing after that right jab and vowing to unleash the much talked-about “Two Fists of Justice!” Of course, it might be wise for Mark to put on some boxing gloves in order to minimize the chance of breaking a knuckle. But will Cricket Bro foil Mark’s justice and stop the fight before Trail returns the compliment to Killer Bee?

Artistically, I know people will complain (as they already have) about the sometimes spindly anatomy of various figures, whether it be Dirk’s legs or Mark’s body in panel 2. But it seems to be a stylistic feature of the strip in general, and here, it is used to effectively differentiate Mark’s appearance from Killer Bee’s partially-visible strongman physique. By the way, this feature was not apparent in Professor Bee’s initial introduction, where he looked a lot slimmer, more like a dancer. But he was wearing a full-length coat or duster. I suppose ‘clothes make the man’? Anyway, this difference helps set up a dramatic question of whether a person of slight build can overcome a person with a more aggressive and strong appearance. In the old days of this adventure strip, the outcome of this fight would be obvious. With Rivera, the outcome seems less certain.

Perhaps that sense of uncertainty we have seen in Mark’s character is a deliberate ploy created by Rivera, so that when Mark does send Bee to the mat, it will be a greater surprise to the onlookers and a more pleasing dramatic turn of events. This reminds me of watching a Popeye cartoon, where the much bigger Bluto always pounds Popeye mercilessly until he can consume his magical spinach and gain the strength of ten men. Then Popeye wipes the floor with Bluto and wins the day. But we’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see what happens next.

Now, Rivera has a good sense of design, and panel 1 is a good example. First, there is a similarity in angle of the two figures, which aids in the aggressiveness and movement from left to right. The curved bee antenna is mirrored in the curvature of the “stars” of Mark’s face as he gets punched. Nice touch!  The funnel-shape above Mark’s head, which I suppose represents part of the effect of Mark’s head getting walloped, is mirrored by the triangular shape of Mark’s torso, as it falls to the right.

Anyway, in spite of my academic noodling above, I think we are all ready for some good old-fashioned Mark Trail Payback at this point. And it’s about time we see Mark return to his “man of action” roots! There’s been enough of Mark The Clueless Wimp.

Thanks, Dennis, for once again taking up the reigns while I drive through rain storms and sweltering heat from Virginia, back to Minnesota. Okay, I had the AC on the whole time, but still, three days of driving does wear on. And those thunderstorms dropped rain like it was a heavy fog. No fun when driving through mountainous terrain.

Well, well, well. Is Cherry calling in the bovine cavalry? Seems a bit of a stretch for her to set a sounder of wild hogs loose on some garden patches. So this week’s strips somewhat slowly unroll the character of one Dirk Davis, a hitherto unknown sibling of Cherry’s, whose appearance belies any family resemblance. And let’s face it:  Either Rivera does not have a lot of experience drawing beards, or there is something else going on here. As has been pointed out, this has got to be one of the phoniest looking beards on any cartoon character.

In any event, not much action, nor much in the way of explanation at this point. While we might complain about the slow pace here, I do think there is a valid explanation, and that is there must be something important about Dirk’s backstory and his particular set of skills that makes him vital to Cherry’s success. But there are concerns:

1. Why doesn’t Cherry tell Dirk the whole story? She is clearly shading the truth here.
2. How will getting hogs to run wild through flower beds resolve the larger issue here of the clearly arbitrary and negative rules of Sunny Soleil, much less its arrogant staff?
3. Why did Cherry think she had time on her hands when she took the day off to visit the rose garden that got turned into the butterfly bushes? I suppose that was to set up a reason for getting Dirk.
4. And what about the palmettos?
5. And how is any of this going to make the Home Owners Association change its rules?

This seems like the wrong time to switch back to hapless Mark. We need to see more of the story before it goes to the back burner.

So the subject of today did not appear in any of the panels this past week. The Title panel shows one of the ducks grabbing the “K” in the name formed of sea grass. It is another cleverly designed panel and makes sense when you view and read panel 4, explaining the Moscovy Duck’s feeding habits. Why can’t these invasive ducks be legally removed? Rivera does not say why, but they (at least the feral version) are classed as invasive in the US. Rivera lacks space for really detailed discussions, but I learned that this duck has been around for a very long time, especially in Central and South America. Its feathers were used by Aztec rulers for cloaks. According to Wikipedia, they are considered indigenous (not invasive) in a few Texas counties.

I’m wondering if Rivera draws up these Sunday panels in groups, as she assigns herself the time; then arbitrarily selects which ones get published in what order. Somehow, this reminds me of some of her earlier Mark Trail work, but that might just be my imagination at work.