I’m going to start off with the most obvious question you all must have: “Does Jess sleep with his hat on?”  … Hmm … Okay, maybe that’s not the most obvious question. I’ll rub my big toe and look at a photo of Ringo Starr as I try again to perceive your primary concern:

“What in #(@! is that duck doing in panel 4!?”  Well, it ain’t flying! And it doesn’t fit the perspective of the scene in any way. So is it even floating!? The duck doesn’t even seem to recognize it’s raining. In short, I’ve got no good answer. Nothing from history, contemporary culture, or song lyrics comes to mind. Wait, there is something: I’m reminded of Colorforms, a toy first popular in the late 1950s and still around today. Vinyl shapes (e.g. people and objects) are placed and stick onto shiny surfaces with printed scenes. Most of you probably played with them. Some of you may still do that! But the point is, you can literally stick the characters onto the scenes with little or no regard to perspective, location, or common sense.

Well, that’s it. It’s the only thing that comes to mind. I don’t know what was in Rivera’s mind, though.

Next, who is Mark yelling at in panel 1? All the tents and people are behind him! Panic can make you do silly things. And what high ground is Mark referring to? Based on what Mark said earlier (December 19^th), they are already camping on high ground! The only higher ground we can see is the big mountain behind them in panel 4. Like the low-volume rain, we have to remember that this is supposed to be drama, not a documentary. So I am probably wrong for trying to make sense of things that are irrelevant.