I had to wake up before 5 AM yesterday for my flight back home. Don’t laugh; I’m retired! The automatic gangway to the plane at the airport wasn’t available, so we had to trundle across the tarmac and walk up an old-fashioned external gangway at 6:30 AM for the flight home. It would have been more fun without the windy cold and having to wait 5 minutes on the gangway while the flight crew did something mysterious inside the plane. I think they were hiding bags of ice for the drinks. Anyway, you get two posts for today. I hope you haven’t lost the plot. And if you happen to remember it, remind me!

Something Fishy

Mark is still fishing for anything that will give some justification for his snooping around. Mark’s behavior certainly seems disrespectful and flippant, given that his trip and lodging have been paid for by the Woodman Olympic hosts. Mark and Cliff are here to compete in events, but don’t mind skipping them. Did they forget about the big cash award for the most event wins!?

As for Cliff, his snarky comment in panel 4 is especially odd, given that his job is running a fishing lodge and being a fishing guide. The fish-cleaning event should be a Sure Thing for him. I reckon Mark is either jealous of Cliff or just doesn’t care enough. Why does Jules Rivera make Mark so egocentric?

Art Dept. Panel 2 is another example of how Rivera handles lookbacks; that is, when a character in the foreground observes something in the background. For once, Mark is already closely facing the rear window. His head is in profile because he is talking to Cliff. Cliff, on the other hand, is also more or less facing the rear window, but his head is turned strongly towards his left shoulder facing us, while his eyes are pulled to his right, looking out of the rear window. “Why not just show Cliff’s head turned to face the window?” you ask. Dunno! It’s the way Rivera likes to do it. There is some precedent for this weird anatomical twist. It shows up as a facial close-up in movies and TV, where a person has been surprised by a sound or voice, and jerks their eyes to one side without rotating the head. Of course, I could not quickly find an example to show you. Maybe you’ll have better luck.

Introductions are made

Okay, this is not even satire, much less parody. What legal dispute could Mark have? He has no standing in this situation at all. Isn’t that cute, the sign on the office is “Solar Project”, as if this is a diagram for a school science project.

I’m afraid that I have only negative comments today, which is boring and unhelpful. I said this was not even parody. Perhaps I should have written “not good parody”, given panel 3, where Mark describes his status like he’s delivering a joke. We might ascribe this to being self-deferential, but it comes across as unprofessional, supported by Mark’s and Cliff’s casual appearance and lack of any credentials. Any Internet Yahoo can claim to be a “journalist”, and no doubt, many do. Is Rivera trying to show this so-far anonymous employee is out of touch with contemporary society by his comment about “tabloids”, or does she think her readers still live in the 1970s?

Art Dept. Why are the three dudes standing “to the right of the front door”, rather than in front, as if they had to walk towards the side of the building before making introductions? Obviously, it is an artistic decision to show the name of the building. But it looks silly. Jules Rivera could have made a better composition by showing Mark from the backside meeting the office dude standing inside the open door.

Haven’t we seen Mark shake with his left hand more than once? Unless there is a physical impairment, left-handed shaking has been a longstanding trope of weakness and disrespect, at least within the male segment of society. Hanging your bag over the right shoulder does not count as an impediment, either. And the way it is drawn looks clumsy. The left hand should be crossing over Mark’s torso, except that Rivera has drawn Mark standing perpendicular to the Solar Project guy, not facing him. It’s another sign of disrespect. Perhaps Rivera is not aware of these symbols or she is deliberately manipulating them. And then, there is Cliff, who has this need to crowd Mark….see? I told you I have nothing positive