Once again, continuity becomes an unwilling victim to Jules Rivera’s storyline. It was only yesterday when these two groups ran into each other, with Mark making an immediate identification of The Grungey Boys to a glum-faced Cliff. Today, it is confident Cliff taking the lead, as if he didn’t hear a thing Mark said. This seems like the repeated retelling-in-more-detail sequence of a few weeks ago, when Cliff first called Mark to tell him about the Woodsman Olympics event.

The story follows the usual movie plot of rival figures meeting up and trash-talking before the action begins. The silent standoff cliff-hanger for the day leaves openings for several ways this can continue. But, it’s early in the story, so I’m guessing we’ll see an interruption or just a parting of the ways for now.

Art Dept. I give Rivera extra credit for Mark’s smooth talking guy in panel 2. It’s nicely composed with a degree of movement suggested by Mark’s diagonal pose, reinforced by the cool blue background. It deliberately contrasts with the confrontational Grungey Boys in panel 3, where Connor’s anger is again reinforced by the same hot red background we saw yesterday. But the distorted anatomy and shifting proportions of the three figures detracts from its intended impact. Connor has nowhere near the visual impact he had in yesterday’s strip.