Sometimes I get the feeling that Rivera is parodying the saccharin “bon voyages” that Mark and Cherry exhibited in the pre-Rivera era, such as in this James Allen contribution:

But I’m not here today to compare the artistic approaches, though I’ll agree that Jules Rivera’s version of a kiss is certainly more of a cartoony smooch like you’d see in an episode of The Flintstones. Okay, maybe it’s not limited to just the kiss, either. The contrast is startling.

But cartoonist James Allen and his predecessors didn’t think it was necessary to spend/waste so much time on the usual Mark Trail’s Departure Scene as Rivera does. On the other hand, Cherry was certainly more of an old school, wifely worrywort before Rivera invigorated her.