Another week has passed and we have survived the wildfire! If you have to ask “What wildfire?”, then you best keep reading. Mark and Diana Daggers decided to execute a nighttime (and illegal) clandestine visit to the grounds of Plainsight, Inc. (the company owned by Tad Crass) to find something illicit or illegal that Diana believed was hidden there. What they found was an AI data center, which is what Diana had suspected. As were leaving after getting photographs, they stumbled on Artemis, the wild horse befriended Mark at Happy Hooves Ranch. About then, a  helicopter appeared and displayed a large video screen. The video screen displayed a real-time image of Tad Crass, taunting and threatening Mark and Diana for their trespass. Really over-the-top stuff!

Through pilot error, the video screen touched an external power supply outside of the AI data center, causing an explosion and fire that quickly spread across the dry grass. Artemis showed Mark and Diana a safe exit from the property and the three quickly beat it to Happy Hooves. They met up with Clayton, the horse caretaker who told them that the wildfire was already on the news.

There are questions:  What does any of this have to do with wild horses? Why did Diana apparently mislead Bill Ellis and Mark about the purpose of this assignment? Why is Diana risking their arrest to get photos of the AI data center, which is not illegal? Diana may have been motivated by phony AI scams run by Cricket Bro and Professor Bee Sharp, resulting in her losing money. But what happens next?

Credit, as usual, to Jules Rivera for her ongoing efforts to link the Sunday page to the current Mark Trail storyline. On the other hand, the drawing today seems different; rushed, perhaps. Not simply sketchy and flat, but there are signs of cut-and-paste, as seen in the last panel with the big Mark Trail head on top of the smaller body holding the perennials. Maybe it’s the attempt at foreshortening. Rivera normally pulls that trick off well; but that final image of Mark just doesn’t look right.