I suppose that if I was taking this seriously, I’d chastise Mark for putting himself in this position through his bombastic and pointless machismo. I reckon he decided that trying to reason with these stooges was not worth it. Well, how did that strategy work out, Mark? And where the heck did Ranger Shaw run away to, anyway?

Let’s face it, Mark has no authority in Lost Forest to stop anything or anyone. Yet once again, Mark takes the law into his own hands. That is, Jules Rivera once again paints Mark as an impulsive eco-vigilante, more ready to duke it out than help educate and reform.

The least Mark can do is hand out copies of his Sunday nature talks before using his fists.

Art Dept. However, I am taking it seriously, up to a point. Looking more closely, it’s easy to see how the art has deteriorated just over the past several days. Panel 2 and Panel 3 are hard to view for any length of time. Mark’s face still looks like he’s recovering from the metaphorical drubbing I used to describe him yesterday. And panel 3 is just bad, the kind of scribbling that one would see in public school.

The question that keeps haunting me is whether Rivera is drawing like this deliberately to parody the strip. I forget which reader it was who commented on the pointless narration boxes Rivera likes to use (Mark? Downpuppy? Daniel?), but it’s hard to find a more pointless example; as pointless as that “GRIP!” sound effect. Let’s hope they beat the crap out of Trail. Maybe he will learn a lesson or two.