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.