Rivera does at least try to create a sense of domesticity for Mark, something that we would see to an extent in pre-Rivera Mark Trail, as well. James Allen devoted at least three weeks of strips of Mark being at home and chatting with Cherry about online comics, reader comments, and his dangerous job, before jetting off to Katmandu to help look for the yeti (August-September 2019). With Rivera, Mark’s stays at home tend to be innocuous, self-conscious, and banal (like much of our own lives). Yet . . .

I don’t wish to flog a dead horse head, but do we take it literally that Rusty believes the mask he found is the actual 20-year-old mask from a TV show? I could not recall any “prank” show involving a horse-headed host that used to be on TV. But this sounds like a specific reference. Any ideas, people?

Finally, was Rusty’s alien invasion adventure designed solely to set up today’s pointless 3-panel “joke”? I sure hope not. As storylines go, this is pretty thin soup.