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Mark challenges Smalls to dismiss protecting children

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I forgot to bring up Mark’s comment in yesterday’s strip, where he said “What you’re doing is wrong and un-American!” Well, what Senator Smalls was doing was giving a speech, which is decidedly not un-American! Mark should have said “What you are saying is wrong and un-American!” Closer to what he probably meant, but still not accurate. Wanting to dismantle a government agency might be stupid, thoughtless, or even just political theater, but it ain’t un-American. However, declaring you support arresting or executing the people who run a government agency for your own political gain has a much higher chance of being declared un-American, depending on which people you poll. For all his faults, I don’t think Smalls will go that far.

As for today, how is it that Senator Smalls does not recognize the very person who violently interrupted his press conference in Ohio, exposed his corruption, and finally got him arrested? I mean, Mark is even wearing the same clothes!

Mark puts the senator on the spot, once again!

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The crowed for Senator Smalls seems to keep shrinking. Maybe those that left felt a change in the air and decided to get out of the way, quick.

Anyway, Mark’s heart is in the right place. But Mark should have realized he would be setting an example for the students. He should have at least gone through the motion of first raising his hand to ask his questions before going full-on Mr. Activist. But that’s old news at this point.

Art Dept. Speaking of old news, I noticed that Rivera decided to not only revive the scenario of Mark confronting Senator Smalls, but to use a similar composition  (panel 1). Did it look familiar to you, too? Let’s take a look:  

Here is the panel from July 22, 2023, when Mark and his father first confronted the senator. The general composition and Mark’s image in today’s strip is close to the July panel. But whereas prior Mark Trail artists would have simply “cut-and-paste” the same figure for convenience, it is clear that Rivera free-handed today’s version for a different reason. And that’s fine; “reuse” is  something artists have done for thousands of years when faced with the need to duplicate the same subject. I believe it is a deliberate decision by Rivera to compositionally link the two confrontations across time.