Mark discovers that inventors, innovators, and charlatans do, indeed, hold fundraising events under different guises.

We humans are often easily fooled by tricks, trinkets, and glitz, meant to define greatness: a piece of parchment on the wall, a hulk throwing a designated bad guy out of the wrestling rink, or somebody waving a hat and declaring themselves to be great. Or maybe it’s the concept and promise of greatness, itself, a vague aspirational statement that could be taken in different ways, but never clearly explained.

The cartoonish notion of self-aggrandizement is on full display here, not that it is anything new. Kelly Welly, Cricket Bro’s designated sycophant, provides the usual cover for his phony status the same way we’ve seen in other places, both real or fictional. It is odd, given that Kelly is supposed to be a professional reporter. I suppose money talks big when it has to.

It’s one thing for Jules Rivera to let Kelly lord it over Mark once in a while, especially as she almost always came up short in the pre-Rivera incarnation of the strip. Yet it’s another thing to portray Kelly as some kind true believer, stifling any opposition to Cricket Bro with empty accolades.

Art Dept. If you have been looking closely, have you noticed strange distortions of scale between figures in the panels? Or even next to each other? For example, Kelly’s figure in panel 1 looks positively childlike in size compared to Mark. The mannequins in panel 3, between Mark and Cricket Bro, also seem out of proportion to the rest of the people in the scene.

Anybody want to hazard a guess who the old gent in panel 1 resembles? May not be the same person, but a brother or close cousin. The first fifty correct responders will be accorded the status of “Great in your own mind!”