Monday: Is Rivera hoping to be ironic or satirical? My local medical clinic is larger than this “hospital.” Connor must have taken up 50% of the beds when he was a patient. I reckon those other two cars mashed into the parking lot belong to the doctor (or P.A.) and receptionist/nurse.
But also interesting is pondering why, at this point, Connor is identified by Rivera as a camper—which is not the case—rather than by his name. If anything, Connor is a student. Mark should be miffed that Cliff wasn’t around when all of those bad things happened.

Tuesday: This hospital must be based on Dr. Who’s Tardis, because it sure looks bigger inside than out. Putting my blog off for a day ruined what would have been an otherwise obvious prediction of what appears in today’s strip:  The nexus of Cherry’s and Mark’s storylines as they converge in the hospital, both incidents based on self-induced accidents by two self-centered boneheads.

How Cherry, Violet, and Ernest managed to walk through the waiting room without seeing Mark is not only implausible, but poorly thought-out, as it gives away Cherry’s surprise in panel 3. It dilutes the suspense for us readers, too. We want to enjoy being surprised, even when we expect it. This is like wrapping a Christmas present, but leaving one side unwrapped so you can see what it is.

Art Dept. What’s all this, then? Looks like some preliminary rough drawing (e.g. Ernest in panel 1) made it through to the final strip. And poor Mark must really be suffering from the stress of his class, since he looks like an old man in panel 3. Perhaps it was a good day in California for surfing? However, the other figures in panel 1 look just fine. In fact, I very much like the contrast Rivera made between the stiffness of Mark and Cliff and the more casual postures of Violet and Cherry. There’s symbolism in that.