Summary: We spent the week in bed with Rusty. Sort of. Rusty continued his online research after bedtime, only to come up with more reasons to suggest Mark’s idea of a lost camper might hold more weight than online reports of a crashed alien spacecraft. But Rusty still wasn’t satisfied and thought that a midnight on-site investigation, assisted only by Andy, might reveal more evidence, one way or the other. But as Rusty tried to quietly get out of the house, he was spotted from the kitchen by Mark, who happened to be up getting a glass of water. We ended the week with a sputtering Mark putting on shoes and coat, trying to catch up.

Analysis: Even though this was a week mostly spent in Rusty’s bedroom, the storyline did not seem to drag like the week before.  In fact, it was an interesting week watching Rusty try to reason through the evidence, matching it against his own bias and that of his father. Readers have commented on Rivera’s often redundant and pointless narration boxes. In her earlier days, Rivera was more creative with narrations and didn’t always feel the need to explain the obvious. What changed? I agree that they are not needed most of the time. The narration box in panel 1 of Saturday’s strip in an exception as it provides an explanation for Mark’s appearance. However, why have a narration box in panel 4 for Saturday stating Mark was chasing after Rusty when the panel shows Mark chasing after Rusty!?

I’ll give Rivera props for coming up with an actually interesting Hallowe’en-themed Sunday nature topic. The title panel is also intriguing. Is the armadillo crossing over a split log, whose wood grain spells out “Mark Trail”? That’s my take, anyway.