Okay, this is moving from eerie to silly, but I reckon that fits the normal progress we see in Mark Trail stories. But where did Rusty’s “branch antenna” disappear to in panel 2 (only to return in panel 3)? Maybe an artistic oversight. There’s no reason to think Jules Rivera is riffing on “My Favorite Martian”,  a TV show she probably never saw.

But today looks like Rivera is just over-indulging in the eeriness she crafted, rather than moving the story along. At the very least, Rusty should have gotten to the point and had his say to his friends, rather than continuing on with his “gone feral” routine.

Is Rivera’s panel 4 teaser message meant to prepare us for Rusty actually getting bitten, which would then require a battery of painful shots? I doubt it. Well, there was the time Honest Ernest got bitten by bats and had to get anti-rabies shots; and Connor impaled himself with a fishhook. Both wound up in the hospital at the same time. So, I reckon there can be real consequences in this comic strip.

But still, I can’t see Rusty getting bit. What would be more likely to happen is something like Range Shaw and Cherry suddenly appearing and chasing away the raccoons. We’ll just have to see, won’t we!?