I like the idea of showing the arrival of Mark in Cliff’s room as seen from the outside. Aside from the interesting composition, the external view seems to create an illusion that we are spying on them. But that idea is destroyed in the other two panels, where the context is totally forgotten. But Mark has some snooping of his own in mind, I think.

Are Mark and Cliff headed back to that chained property, or did Mark come up with another lead on this currently non-existent problem? It appears that this scene takes place on the same morning that Cherry and Rusty went on their nature hike.

Last week, we saw Cherry reading in bed, obviously alone, as she and Rusty planned the nature hike for the following day. This would be about the same time that Mark and Cliff were investigating Tad Crass’s locked-up property. And now, Mark is ready for another day. Apparently, Jules Rivera decided to cut some domestic bliss and hotel events from the story in favor of focusing on the ongoing action of both Mark and Cherry.

That’s an interesting omission, as in previous stories, Mark would call up Cherry in the middle of a story to check in and at least summarize what’s going on. This was done in Mark first adventure under Rivera and at least another time, during the phony Tiger Touch Center that introduced us to Tess Tigress. But for some reason, neither of them is bothering to check in with the other.

Okay, it’s the following day and we are going to follow Mark and Cliff this week, then possibly return to see what Cherry and Rusty have been doing at this time. And we still have not seen the return of the Grungey Boys. Maybe the are working with Tad Crass!?

Hoo boy! Maybe I just don’t have enough to do in my own life that I can sit around and synchronize the chronologies of separate comic strip characters!