Was it just the two employees of Cricket Bro who were behind this conspiracy, or was Cricket Bro the leader of it? Mark certainly thought so earlier (1/27). But Mark is being rather vague or misleading about the reason for their actions in panel 3. I reckon he refers to their climate change denial.

Say, is that a tree swallow in panel 4? Or a Florida Scrub-Jay? It lacks the chestnut-colored breast of a bluebird. I’m no ornithologist, so I’m happy to be corrected. In any event, it looks as if the bird is studying Mark as if he was a worm about to become the afternoon snack.

Reader Daniel Pellissier commented yesterday whether we will ever see Mark actually write up one of his reports. Perhaps Bill Ellis records their conversations and transcribes them for publication? Mark, the so-called photojournalist, certainly did not appear to be taking photographs during this assignment.

Art Dept. Rivera normally handles the close-up panels well enough, considering her style. But as usual, Rivera also relies on sketching generalized “flora” in a minimalist fashion that defies identification. For a nature-based strip, Rivera could spend some time adding more substance and texture to the bushes and trees to at least create a more representational illusion of leaves and bushes. It is not beyond her skill.