“You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of images and text, but of uncertainties. A journey into a changing land whose boundaries are the stuff dreams are made of. That’s the signpost up ahead—your next stop, the Trailverse!” (The spirits of Rod Serling and Raymond Chandler will get me for this mashup.)

Okay, speaking of craziness, I’ll award a gold star to anybody who can explain how “everyone else made it to safety” if everybody else simply came back down the hill to the flood in order to see Tess swept away. Of course, Mark has to rescue her, so there he is in panel 1, walking like an Egyptian. But Tess is floating on top of the water, not in it. Perhaps she happened to land on a branch that is propping her up.

It’s a crazy Twilight Zone world. Mark has conveniently found a branch. Fine, we can go with that. Mark tells Jess to grab the branch while he goes after Tess. Again, the concept is sound. So why is Mark still holding onto the branch in panel 3?  And if he is “bounding toward the water to save Tess”, why he is running in a different direction from where Tess is?

The laws of time and space work differently in the Trailverse, perhaps something like a Moebius strip. I hope Venus is getting some good shots for her “Hog Hunting Heroines Horrific Hunt” article. But if Mark spots a giant boat float by with a bunch of animals looking out the side, he’s about to have bigger problems!

Art Dept. No, I don’t know why Mark is looking up in panel 2.

In terms of plot, today’s sequence makes logical sense:  For one thing, it appears to be in the correct order, compared to yesterday! There is a flood, people are trapped and trying to escape. Somebody falls into danger. All very standard “disaster movie” fare. No matter how much they walk, they either are not getting far, or that flood is really moving and rising quickly. And from what we know of flash floods, especially in open, dry spaces such as canyons and arroyos, that is a reality.

At the same time, some details undermine the action. For example, panel 3 shows the flood threatening to engulf Tess Tigress, which takes place in panel 4. But the last panel also shows one of the tents, suggesting they have not really made any progress moving up!

Next, the textbox in panel 2 states they are moving “through the surging currents.” I’m confused, but I was under the impression that they were moving away from the surging currents.

Art Dept. That squirrel has got to go! It totally ruins the scene. Although the other layouts are fine, the artwork is really, really sketchy; so much so that in panel 4, the barely-visible head of Venus Verité looks like a painted ball! We’ve been following Jules Rivera’s work long enough to think that she is deliberately drawing expressively, rather than naturalistically. I’m suggesting Rivera’s art—often simplistic, sketchy, even crude—may not be this way from a lack of talent or from lack of trying (even though I’ve suggested that from time to time).

Think of a standard song such as Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walking”, sung in a normal pop fashion with easy-to-understand lyrics. Now go listen to the same song interpreted by the band, Megadeath. It’s a completely different vibe. Unless you understood the lyrics, you might not recognize it at all. Clearly, Megadeath’s aim is something other than a straightforward cover of a 1966 pop song. I think that’s what I’m getting at. Okay, so this goofy idea popped into my head. And I could be totally wrong.