Action? Drama? Suspense? Got me. As usual, we haven’t seen any. It’s been a quiet week in Lost Forest (to riff on Garrison Keillor): Mark is home, the hot water is running, and everybody wants to go swimming at the lake. The only problem is that it’s fenced off because of water contamination.

Bad luck for the swimmers, but better luck for Mark (and maybe we readers), because it looks like another home-grown (i.e. non-paying) investigation is in order, as Mark returns to his roots to deal with a local environmental problem. The question, though, is Why?

Why, indeed? The fact that there is a fence and a sign means the authorities know about. What’s Mark going to do? He’s a reporter, not a bacteriologist. In the real world, he’d make a couple of phone calls, write up his findings, and that would be that. Perhaps if there was an actual newspaper in the area, Mark would publish there. But this is Mark’s World. Clearly, there will be something nefarious afoot.

No awards (again) from the Norman Rockwell School of Illustration this week. And we must bide our time until Monday, with today’s nature lesson. Get your notebooks out!

The following Sunday falls on July 6^th, so Rivera got her “July 4^th”strip out today. We have a fairly orderly, if sometimes corny, set of panels. The customized title panel reminds me of one of those late-night infomercials where you can buy the “Collector’s Edition American Bald Eagle” statue for only two easy payments of $39.99, plus s/h.

The eagle drawings are, indeed, well done. As I’ve mentioned several times before, Rivera uses stock images, such as this photo. Close comparison shows that she free-handed much of it, rather than just performing simple copy-and-pastes. Speaking of using visual rfeferences, when John James Audobon made his detailed bird drawings, he had to shoot the birds in order to have the time and opportunity to pose and draw them. This was a common practice back then.

The main complaint I have—and one that you’ve seen me make before—is Rivera’s insistence on sticking Mark in as many Sunday panels as possible and over-indulging in poor jokes and puns. Not sure why she thinks this is good, nor who she is aiming this at. It surely isn’t younger people. Maybe it’s directed at the kind of people who buy American Bald Eagle statues for two easy payments.