Some tag-team boxing event. Just when it gets started, Jules Rivera switches it up. This could have at least been a good opportunity to get in some sharp parody. Instead, it’s a short tease and suddenly everything will change.
Alas, brothers and sisters. There are times when I must agree with the position of reader Mark, the Contrarian Commenter concerning the current handling of this strip, and this is one of those times. It’s one thing to promote a completely different stylized look to this legacy strip, as Rivera has done; but quite another to just lazily draw outlandish anatomy, mismatched proportions, and sloppy lines. Say, is that really Honest Ernest, Plastic Man, or Paul Bunyan fighting Mark in panel 2? As for panel 3, I don’t see Ernest at all. It must be a cartoon stunt double! Have we come to a point where comic strip characters now have stand-ins? Sheesh!
But maybe Jules Rivera got encouraged by enforcers from her syndicate to push this story along a bit faster. Otherwise, what gives with Tad Crass’s sudden panic to change the contest rules?
Art Dept. There is one exception to the otherwise forgettable art today, and that is Mark’s pose in panel 3. It has a more self-assured pose and appearance that stands out from the rest of the strip. Even Mark’s face looks different, more like the pre-Rivera Mark Trail. I can almost believe that Rivera happened to see an earlier strip and borrowed the pose for today’s installment. I’m probably wrong, but if I’m right, I’d love to find the source. However, I don’t happen to have a Mark Trail comic strip library to draw on. Of course, it would be great if KFS published all of the old strips in book form, like we’ve seen for many other vintage strips. However, that is probably not practical or economic at this time.
The Daily Trail 
OK, so it’s “everybody in the ring,” three against two? Mark and Cliff should make short work of the Grungey Boys, leading to the already-telegraphed panel in which Mark sits with arms crossed while Tad Crass extends a hand of “friendship” (or at least offering some kind of sketchy deal) across the table. I don’t see winning the boxing match gives Mark and Cliff any leverage over Tad, particularly around his perfectly-legal attempt to build a sports stadium on land somebody else wants to use for a solar farm, but I suspect that won’t stop Jules.
I can speculate: maybe Tad bet heavily on the Grungey Boys to win the boxing match (this is Vegas, after all), needed to win the bet to finance his stadium and now has to back out because he can’t afford to buy the land? That would seem reasonably likely. Maybe (more interesting, but less likely in the Riveraverse) he bet money he doesn’t have and is now in need of somebody to protect him from the Mob (obviously his “MMA bodyguards” aren’t capable)?
Meanwhile, how’s Rusty’s “nature photo merit badge” quest going?
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I like the speculation! And I hadn’t considered the betting angle or even borrowing from the Mob. After all, it is a popular Las Vegas plot device. It makes sense, as Tad Crass isn’t described as a wealthy person, like Cricket Bro.
Still, the notion that Tad would want to hire Mark as protection makes me shudder. Maybe the offer will be made and that panel preview is Mark saying “No way!“
Nevertheless, there is an attempt at some kind of rapproachment or bribe that is going to take place. What will it be: Job as a bodyguard? Get a piece of the Action? Get part ownership in a Florida Timeshare?
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