I dunno. I don’t get it. I mean, Cherry could have wrecked these bushes on her own quite easily, without the extra drama. Is there something special about hogs eating bushes that is going to create a bigger impression on Cheshire than the site of bushes that were mowed, pulled up, or scythed? Perhaps she will tell Ms Cheshire that it looks like “feral butterflies” took liberties with the bushes.

But what’s with the “Oh my!” expression in panel 2? Has dainty, Miss Wallflower never seen animals feeding? Did she think they would bring forks and knives? And in panel 3, Cherry asks a rather pointless question: ”How do we make them stop?” The obvious answer is “When they run out of things to eat, little sister!” It make me wonder what happened to Cherry?

Cherry’s supposed to be a self-aware, get-your-hands-dirty person, not afraid to mix it up with anybody itching for a fight. But, ever since meeting Ms Cheshire at the start of this story, she seems to be all talk and no walk:  getting tossed out the SSS HQ, turning to her brother for help, getting surprised left and right, and now acting as if she ate too much pizza and cheese sticks. If this is going to continue, perhaps Rivera should just retire Cherry to the cabin and have her start stocking up on flapjacks for Mark’s next temporary return home. But maybe I’m missing the point?

Visually, I really like the composition of panel 2 a lot. The distinctive differences in size between Cherry, Dirk, and the hog are wonderfully illustrated by making the hog’s head front and center, with the other two looking on in the distance. Kind of reminds me of that “Gorilla Glue” commercial with the red–headed female household owner and the much taller contractor facing down the oncoming gorilla. Okay, maybe just a thematic reference. But it’s panels like this that show Rivera’s inventiveness and compositional flair that distinguish her work from her predecessors (e.g. Dodd and Allen), whose panels are certainly direct and illustrative, if banal and rarely surprising. And that was all the readers cared about, anyway, right?

But I have to agree with some other observers that Dirk’s beard must be fake, as if for disguise. And a probable deduction, based on Dirk’s antigovernment paranoia. And I’m still wondering what that red marking is on the beard. It does not look like any kind of a natural redness in the beard. Well, it does in panel 2, but in panel 3, it definitely does not, just like in panel 2 of yesterday’s strip. Has a kind of “Asian” (e.g. Korean, Japanese, Chinese) style to it; but it’s too hard to really differentiate. This is totally invisible in the black and white versions found in most physical newspapers. There are reasons for this I’ll bring up another time.

My reference to The Coasters aside, today’s strip shows Cherry making her nighttime rendezvous with brother Dirk and his hogs, for purposes yet unknown. The way Cherry sways back back in panel 4 seems an overreaction to watching Dirk feed junk food to the hogs. Perhaps she thought the hogs would reach out and sniff her or try for quick Cherry Smash.

Speaking of bad jokes, I’m thinking Rivera engaged here in some Comedy Club humor of her own. Today’s strip breaks with adventure strip pacing and instead follows gag strips in that the first three panels sets up the punch line delivered in the last panel. The text box in panel 4 serves as the Comedy Club drummer delivering the clichéd “Ba-Dum-Tsh!” to ensure we don’t miss the joke. After all, Trailheads who take their adventure strips seriously might misunderstand the point.

In a standard “adventure strip” sequence, we might have moved from Cherry’s arrival in panel 1 right on to the other panels showing Cherry and Dirk going over the plans for the night. That is, we wouldn’t necessarily get three extra panels that effectively do nothing to move the story along. On the other hand, padding the story was a common complaint by Trailheads before, especially in James Allen’s stories. Or need we bring up the cave adventure once again?

I don’t think Rivera is trying to make a subtle reference to any of this pseudo-analytical nonsense. Instead, I think she just had a light bulb moment, saw some humor, and decided to indulge a bit. Yeah, I know. There are a lot of followers (or ex-followers) who believe that all of this stuff we’ve been seeing since Rivera took over is indulgent, but will soon be revealed to be an extended nightmare sequence that the real Mark Trail is having. Mark will wake up in his bedroom, all now drawn in the traditional and approved Mark Trail style, turn to the figure sleeping beside him, and exclaim “Honey, you wouldn’t believe what I’ve been dreaming!”. He’ll then discover that the person in his bed is not Chery, but actually Bill Ellis. The end panel shows Mark letting out a piercing scream, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

Okay, that might be a bridge too far.

The cabin is starting to look a lot more rustic than we have come to expect, even from the prior version of the strip. And when did the front door get a 4-pane window? I looked through a random sampling of prior years (thank you, Dennis!), but most of the time, the front door was always in the shadow of the front porch. Just seems odd. Another thought occurred to me that this home is looking more like a camper cabin you rent in a state park!

Some of the panels in today’s submission are quite good (especially panel 1 with its complimentary angles and contrasting lighting), but panel 3 is an awkward bird, with Cherry framed in the middle of the panel by an entranceway. Eech! It’s the kind of framing mistake photographers and portrait painters try to avoid, for obvious reasons.

However, this certainly cannot be the front door, because we all know there is a large porch on the front of the house, on which family members sometimes hang out! So, we might hazard a guess that Cherry went out a side or back door. Maybe King Features Syndicate forget to give the floor plans to Jules Rivera when she took over drawing the strip!

Now, why does Cherry have to sneak out, and only after Rusty is put to bed? Isn’t Granddad Davis still living there!? I mean, the last we saw of ol’ Doc Davis he was escorting Cherry to the Sunny Soleil Society HQ. Reckon Cherry must have decided he was too useless and stored him in the Mark Trail Unnecessary Characters Box until the current adventures end, whereupon he will be taken out for a brief appearance when everybody is home again. Just a guess! Maybe she hired the squirrel to keep a close watch.

While Cherry’s statement in panel 3 is meant to establish an expected upcoming contradictory event, panel 4 displays a textbox that clearly should have been hung in panel 3. And Cherry, do you think putting the pedal to the metal is really the best way to sneak away? I reckon the squirrel is as nonplused as I am. But I think we can now agree that “the point” Dirk referred to is not Lost Forest.

Okay, not the most creative title, but it’s late and I’m tired. Anyway, I appreciate getting informed about two Pokémon references Rivera placed in recent strips. This shows to me that Rivera is certainly trying to catch the attention of younger readers, as her drawing style also suggests.

It’s nice to get away from Crazy Town for a week and return to a more relaxed, crisis-free scene where Cherry is working on her Home Association problem? Rusty is confessing to being extremely careless with his snacks. At least, Cherry is checking in with Rusty from the comfort of her own command chair, while drinking out of her “cherry” mug. Cute pun. We can probably excuse Dirk adding extraneous characters in his “cyu soon” text, but I suppose he was just making sure to be understood. That could be relevant, since Cherry clearly did not wait to drive back with her brother, Dirk.

I was initially shocked to see Andy in panel 2, looking really, really big, even for a St. Bernard. Or perhaps Rusty is smaller than he previously seemed to be. Maybe it’s just the artistic needs of the composition. Still, Rivera did give us a minni-Sunday nature talk on the Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig, and it isn’t even Sunday! So why is Cherry surprised by Dirk’s message? She did, after all, invite him to come and help out. Presumably “the point” mentioned is the small bit of land jutting into the lake where her cabin sits.

Well, will we have a week of Cherry and Dirk sitting around and going over options in a similar way Mark did with the Herp Hacienda crowd? Or are we going to quickly move to action? And will it wake up the apparently always-sleeping Doc Davis?

And is Dirk really bringing his hogs to town, or is he actually a crackerjack lawyer, set to bury the Sunny Soleil Society in a mound of legal documents and court hearings?

But how about that squirrel, folks?! It is a squirrel, right? Help me out, because I sucked wind in my college Biology class!

Give us a break, Cherry, you know exactly how to take a stand… You just playin’ with Dirk…

And wait a gosh-darn minute- is that Salvia in the foreground of the second panel? Would that be a tip-off to a more native species of perennial? Or am I getting ahead of our story line here? Looks like Dirk’s beard has been given a touch more relief in the last frame… we can even distinguish the mustache from the rest of it!

The only question I have is Transportation! How do Feral Hogs get penned and toted? I am supposing that Dirk the Hog Whisperer has an answer for that one…

And apparently, Extradition! What do we suppose Dirk went IN for? UP the River, so to speak? Prepositions are funny things… One would be IN Jail, but (if IN a canoe) one is ON the river… But then why does one go UP River to go to jail? Does all the Crime-ing and prosecuting happen DOWN-RIVER?

I will say this much about Dirk- He’s a big fella! Check out the difference in stature in panel 3, while panel 4 reminds us once again of the most unnatural and unholy of all beards- looking like one of the beards worn by Ulysses Everett McGill in Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

But I call your attention to the third panel… Dirk really does look like a lady with a fake beard… Maybe that’s just me. Or Maybe what forced “Dirk” to live off the grid is that his only other option was to star in a circus sideshow?

Guessing we will see an exposé on Feral Hogs this Sunday (That is if we already haven’t covered that territory… have we?)

Thanks George for keeping the flame lit, and safe travels back to the hot (and finally steamy) North Country. I swear the only thing that recommends this region is the fact that it will remain arable and livable long after sea levels rise!

Mysterious cabin in the woods? Is this some kind of primordial Lost Forest cabin?! “Dirk Davis” sounds like the name of a typical Mark Trail villain (e.g. “Sting” Ray, “Dirty” Dyer, Black John, Rocky Rivers), but belongs to another one of Cherry’s throwback siblings. Not much action here, other than another family get-together. This time, instead of Cherry helping out her Mom and sisters, she’s getting Big Brother to help out with her own problem. Well, seems a bit early to me that Cherry would be out ammunition so early in her confrontation with Violet Cheshire, but maybe that’s looking at things too narrowly. Dirk is just another resource, another tool, for Cherry to pull out of her toolbox. But to what end?

Perhaps there is more than meets the stereotypic eye here. Sure, Dirk looks like a participant in a wilderness Reality TV show. What possible function can somebody like this perform that could help Cherry overcome the machinations of the elitist and nefarious Sunny Soleil Society? It doesn’t look like Dirk is even that big a fan of the Sun!

However, looks are not everything, as we learn. I suspect that Dirk has unexpected talents that belie his mountain man appearance. Perhaps he is some kind of former federal agent, unexplainably still equipped with a full computer suite he can use to investigate, probe, and snoop, as needed. That seems to be the kind of help she needs:  Somebody to dig up background dirt that Cherry can use to bury her antagonist.

On the artistic side, this is a great series of panels, with interesting angle changes. The first panel is an especially well-done composition in terms of viewpoint, color, and contrast; to say nothing of the luna moth in the foreground providing a light contrast. Note the subtle variations in light and color in the woods behind the cabin. There is something to like in each panel, such as the smudged shading in panel 4. It’s almost an abrupt change of style. It’s a shame that a lot of this will likely not be apparent in the black and white version that appears in most newspapers. And that’s where the strip can get hurt, as it depends on color for a lot of its depth and texture.

However, I’m not sure why Cherry’s mouth drops open in panel 3, as if she is shocked. Surely, she’s been here before? Or has it been so long since she saw Dirk that she doesn’t recognize him right away? But then, why does she go on to refer to Dirk with his full name, since it is already made clear in panel 3 that they are siblings? Just for the sake of alliteration?

Well, I’m going to be driving through the mountains myself in a few days! And I can relate to Cherry’s consternation over missing road signs, too. I once got lost in a section of southwestern Wisconsin, with its identical rolling hills and valleys and meandering roads without street signs. Every hill seemed to have either a farm or a church with a shade tree. It was night, it was starting to snow, and I was on a honeymoon trip with my wife, looking for our B&B. We wound up driving 5 mph behind an Amish wagon for a mile or so, until it pulled into a farm. But I digress. . . .

Anyway, a pun-filled adventure for Cherry continues as she climbs further into “feral” territory in search for…what? Or whom? What secret weapon would be available up here for Cherry to employ against the Sunny Soleil Society?

Traveling into backwoods country, let’s hope that Cherry does not run into any hostile mountain men, like the Atlanta “city boys” in Deliverance; or a county mounty who could pull her over for holding her smartphone while driving! Put that phone in a caddy, Cherry! Anyway, as she is using a smartphone, who cares if there are road signs, when you can just turn where and when your mapping program tells you to. Unless the phone is suddenly out of range.

Well, Cherry has apparently dropped her phone as she panic-stopped in front of that wild boar. Will she discover that the phone has broken when it was dropped, leaving her really lost without it or any road signs?

We are finally back to the Cherry v Violet Grudge Match.  Not sure that a school night sleepover is such a great idea for Rusty, based on his grammar. I suppose that’s elitist thinking on my part? But Cherry must have a reason for wanting to dump Rusty off some place, especially given the fact that her Dad is still presumably at home and capable enough of watching over the kid. Unless, he is part of the plan Cherry has in mind, that is.

Business in the mountains? What—or who— is up there? Perhaps some “backwoods” person she knows or is related to, who will assist in her mission of vengeance? Or maybe she has a hidden stash of drugs in a cabin that she will secrete in the Sunny Soleil Society’s office before making an anonymous call to the police.

I suppose the “stick figures” in the background of panel 4 are meant to suggest the effect of distance on objects. And in the size comic strip are published, it is probably a necessity to avoid problems when newspapers downsize the original comic strip to fit its limited, allotted space. Nevertheless, Rivera can still fit in a remarkable amount of imagery, when necessary (e.g. panel 1). Well, I am intrigued by Cherry’s closing remarks. This should be a very interesting week!

I’m sure there are readers who are thinking “Boy, oh boy! Is that Violet crazy or what? She’re really going to get it!” A lot of readers are no doubt looking forward to this death match.

But, who is Dirk Davis? Sounds like the leading man in a cheap action movie. Being the sucker that I am, I did some quick online “research“, assuming that the name on Cherry’s smart phone (or iPad?) is an actual person or based on one. What I found was:

1. A not-so-nice character in the Goosebumps® series of books who seems able to switch bodies with other people.
2. A character in a DC comic book who is secretly one of the intergalactic police officers known as Manhunters.
3. A real-life professor in a private Christian college.
4. Another real-life person in Academia.

So, I’m guessing “None of the above.” In short, I’m up a tree as to whom this Dirk Davis is. Possibly Rivera is having fun with comic strip geeks (that includes me!) looking to eek out hidden symbolism and cultural references. But the textual reference to “intervention” and “divine intervention” by the two characters suggest candidate #3. Or a comic strip version of that person, anyway. We may have to wait a bit before we find out, if Jules switches back to Mark’s story line.

Based on past practice, I’m surprised that Rivera did not label a “Wave!” sound effect in panel 3. Still, it looks like Jules is getting this story to a good pivot point to head back to Palm Springs where Mark seems eager to pin Cricket Bro to his own personal specimen board on Monday.

It is a stereotype of tv and movie villains that they often speak in a cultured, polite tone, in order to make their patronizing dismissal of the protagonist all the more humiliating. I don’t suppose Cherry is going to call her lawyer at this point. Do you? But will she also risk arrest, like her husband, and jump that fence? There’s no turning back from that, Cherry, in spite of your threatening fists o’ justice.

But really, Violet sits contritely and alone under a backyard tree, having a cup of tea!? It’s as if she expected Cherry’s visit! I would not be surprised if her husband/partner were upstairs filming this entire episode as part of an anticipated criminal complaint against Cherry. Still, what’s their motivation here, other than some kind of perverse pleasure in using obscure rules to harass and oppress other people?

What? You mean, that often is enough of a motivation for some people? Wise up, Cherry! You’ll need more than your fists to overturn these two slimeballs!

By the way, I got the pun in panel 4. Did you? And do you have a different opinion to share? Feel free to leave it in the comments!

Hah! So, these two incidents are, indeed, linked! Cherry’s good deed rose garden has been sabotaged by the evil machinations of Violet Cheshire, the public half of the suspicious Sunny Soleil Society. And let’s give credit to Rivera for having Cherry throw out a really good descriptive insult of Violet, to boot. Wish I had thought of it! Good ol’ Cherry is also keeping it clean for the family readers, too. Impressive!

But how did Violet learn of Cherry’s volunteer project, much less what it was composed of? Is this “roundabout” (referring to the garden’s location) garden next door to Palm Tree house? Did Jeannette, the “Laura Dern” waitress, somehow leak info to Violet? The more we learn about this Cheshire person, the more I’m going to cut Cherry slack in how she resolves her issues.

Cherry’s story continues to move along but has just two more days to arrive at a meaningful break point, unless Rivera allows for a second week of Cherry’s Revenge Salad: Retribution Never Tasted So Good. Well, I’m fine sticking with Cherry a second week.

Of course, with conspiracies in the air these days, I wonder if the Sunny Soleil Society is somehow linked up with our good friend and villain, Cricket Bro? A bit too much to expect, I fear, even for a comic strip.

Captions aid and abet today’s harvest of puns, the kind you normally find in local newspaper headlines. I’ll reiterate my earlier observation:  Cherry seems to have two major setbacks going on simultaneously, unless this “roundabout” project blossomed under the dark clouds of Sunny Soleil.

I hate to admit it, but it looks like Cherry is being taken for a sap as her business is about to get planted six feet under. It just might be too mulch for her! So why is Rivera dragging this sequence out? Will we discover the villainous source by tomorrow?

By the way, there really is such a plant as butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii). I know, as I looked it up online, the way we all learn these days. Let’s hope that we also soon learn what’s going on here.

Moon pies are an old southern snack that are sold in nostalgia bins, where you can find old-fashioned pop made with cane sugar. I have to confess that I did eat them now and then while growing up in Virginia, and I have consumed a few since discovering them by the drill bits in a neighborhood hardware store. But they can be kind of dry. Let’s hope that the Lunar Pie Jeanette sells at the “Planet Pancake” has solved that problem. Now, do we need to talk about the “My Favorite Martian” antennae that Jeanette is forced to wear? Is this an everyday thing or just a sales gimmick?

Meanwhile, Rivera continues to indulge in this sidebar scene, while we are left wondering (the suspense builds) what is going on. This is problematic, as it is the second instance where Cherry is totally out of the loop involving a major intrusion in one of her projects, assuming the Roundabout Plant Project is not part of her Sunny Soleil installation.

And I can understand reader concerns about the drawing here and there, as we see Cherry’s image, especially her head, take on weird shapes in panels 2 and 3.  However, I do like Rivera’s depiction of rolled and stacked napkin-and-utensils in panel 1!

Perhaps Jules is still figuring out what can and cannot easily be done within the size limitations of a daily comic strip. Or maybe changes in Cherry’s depictions are meant to be partially expressive, rather than strictly representational. For example, in panel 3, Cherry’s head looks like it has some kind of ratchet-jaw, as she jaws on about her project. When interrupted with bad news, her face in panel 4 takes on the shocked expression of an innocent teenager. No? Okay, maybe I’m stretching a bit (like Cherry’s marching up to the diner in yesterday’s strip). But I don’t think it is recklessness or lack of skill.

In any event (getting back to the story), what did they do and who are they, anyway?

Not many comic strips have multiple story lines running at the same time. No matter how much one might dislike Rivera’s approach to Mark Trail, you have to give her credit for attempting this complex balancing act in the restrictive format of a daily comic strip. And I think she is correct in not spending more than a few weeks in one story before jumping back to the other. However…

I’m surprised to find that Cherry seems to have put her Sunny Soleil palm tree problem behind here as she now has “free time” for her Roundabout Project, whatever that is. She is certainly in a pretty good mood and doesn’t mind stopping for a quick snack at a local diner as she jauntily steps out of the cab of her truck with the really big tires. I might be wrong, but Cherry doesn’t look like somebody who needs any kind of caffeine pick-me-up!

• Critics (including this writer) have remarked on Rivera’s sometimes harsh drawing style. And I was puzzled for some time at what was going on in panel 1. What…oh, okay. Her arms are behind the potted shrubs. Got it. But what is “below” or in front of her? Are they some kind of motion lines? No…oh, I finally get it. Those are garden tools seen front to back, in a foreshortened view. Okay, but it might have been better to show only one or two long-handled tools to make it easier to understand. For me, anyway! Otherwise, it’s a fair attempt at a take on the “lord overseeing his domain” composition.
• Also: Is that a snake on a rock or stump in panel 3? Can’t tell for sure.

Okay, count me curiously yellow to see what the Roundabout Project is and how Jules will link it into the Sunny Soleil storyline.