I have what some people might call an unnatural love for milk. Maybe it’s dairy in general, because I also love cheese, ice cream, and chocolate malts; the latter being a combination of milk, ice cream, and heaps of malt powder well-blended into a concoction so enticingly satisfying that I believe it should be classified as a new food group. If you are going to get all huffy about that idea, we can always pump in a few nutrients, as long as they don’t affect the taste. And it’s not as if I’m downing malts and cones every week, either. But what does any of this have to do with Mark Trail, you ask? Not much, but it keeps me from asking impertinent questions about it, such as:

• Does Doc eat lunch if Cherry does not show up?
• Why does Cherry have such poor posture, as in panel 1?
• Why is Cherry wearing a “Crazy Cherry” mask in panel 4? I mean, that can’t be her actual face, of course.  See how that jaw line runs up the whole side of the face and past the ear, rather than stopping just under the ear? And the expression frankly looks homicidal. Not a cheery Cherry face!

At least, Cherry seems to be getting to Honest Ernest’s home brewed poison! Let’s hope Doc has the wherewithal and lab equipment to test this stuff. Perhaps Cherry laced Doc’s lunch with that stuff to see if he breaks out.