You heard it here, second, for sure: Jules Rivera just posted a panel from a not-yet-published daily on her BlueSky channel, showing Mark sitting in an office. He’s in conference with Tad Crass, while the two MMA fighters/security guards stand by, looking on in defeat. But Mark’s confrontational repose, refusing to shake Tad’s hand, is one of his best depictions. I’m anxious to see it in published form.
Now, let’s move on to today’s unfortunate installment:
For Pete’s sake! We already know this so-called Woodsman Olympics competition is bonkers, and there’s no credit to me for predicting the obvious lineup for this “tag-team” boxing event. It seems that tag-team boxing is a real thing, though it is presented more as entertainment (“a fun sideshow”) than as professional, serious boxing. So it fits right in!
By the way, which Grungey Boy in panel 4 is Honest Ernest? I’m thinking it is the dude beside the door, behind Connor, though I really can’t tell. I don’t know whether Jules Rivera’s hijacking the nickname of traditional Mark Trail readers to use as Mark and Cliff’s “team name” is an homage or just part of this parody. What do you think?
Art Dept. More despair and frustration comes from Jules Rivera letting that same 12-year old kid who scribbled panel 1 in yesterday’s submission do the entire set of panels today. Do I need to go into detail? I think panel 4 is the worst, where a vague higher viewpoint has all of the guys almost stacked on top of each other, as if they were posing for some ancient Egyptian tomb painting. Never mind the disregard for relative proportions between the players. Never mind the sketchy drawing, overall. Never mind the clumsy composition.
The Daily Trail 
I didn’t know box fighting is a woodsman’s skill. It must be difficult to wield an axe with boxing gloves on. Why is Crass holdings the mic up to his eye? So he can see what he’s saying?
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Hmmm, it might be that taking these poses too literally is the wrong approach. Perhaps it was drawn that way for the more prosaic purpose of composition. Still, Rivera could have drawn that microphone more horizontally, facing his mouth, while keeping the overall composition intact. Or maybe Rivera is not that acquainted with the intricasies of microphones.
I was surprised that she gave Tad a hard-wired microphone. Like somebody using a landline plugged into a phone jack!
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Well, George, thanks again for writing something every day on this strip. Read you every day. Honestly, I can’t bear to read the strip. As I’ve said ad nauseam it is so lame both in content and artwork that I’d rather start my hair on fire. To reclaim my youth, I would give anything if another cartoonist would take over. Alas, I was wrong. Seems like it will not happen. I stopped the Minnesota Star Tribune as it is too expensive. So I now have the Pioneer Press on-line. My dog misses picking up the paper in the driveway and looks for it every morning! For the life of me, I can’t fathom how you come up with commentary every day. My hat is off to you.
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Well, if it isn’t Mark the Contrarian Commenter! Glad to hear from you once again. And thanks a lot for the compliment; it’s also a testament to your own endurance! How do I keep coming up with something to say? I often ask myself that question. I’ve been doing this for almost 5 years and I’ve probably written enough to fill a small novel. Not that it would make a novel, but just fill the pages. Sometimes I think I’m having a contest with Rivera to see which of us lasts the longest.
I agree with you about the Strib pricing, by the way. We subscribe, but my wife grew up with it and is just not ready to give it the heave-ho. I noticed that the online version of the Press doesn’t seem to have a dedicated comics page, but links to the ComicsKingdom site, instead. That’s a shame, as it leaves out the strips from other syndicates that show up in the print version.
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