Appearing to contradict himself, Mark downplays the seriousness of the situation and the plight of his fellow campers, all while modestly praising his rescue of Tess Tigress: “<Sigh!> It was just another heroic rescue. Nothing unusual.” Mark’s account seems to have gotten altered just a bit in the retelling, based on panel 2. “It was a one-handed rescue while I knelt on the shoreline. Easy peasy.” To be fair, don’t we all downplay serious activity to “spare” our friends and loved ones a lot of worry?

(Wait:  Am I saying that Rivera is offering a pertinent critique on (or parody of) the Human Condition that desires to be recognized and appreciated for a personal action, above and beyond, while simultaneously pretending it was a trivial thing that anybody would do? Hmm … that might be too deep for the readers. Better cue the sitcom laugh track for panel 4.)

BTW, where did Mark get that phone? Up until yesterday, only Venue Verité had a phone, and it’s red.

There is a lot to unpack here, which is more than we can say for Mark and his group, since the flood seems to have washed away all of their packs, camping gear, hunting equipment, and transportation.  As usual, in times of crisis, everybody asks, WWMD? The ever-optimistic Mark always knows what to do … well, Venus Verité does, in this case. Mark’s big idea is to conquer wet clothing, rather than hunt for lost baggage or vehicles—if they are still present—to see if they will start or have emergency kits. But Mark is certain help will get there soon, as if Emergency Services would give top priority to a group of hunters foolish enough to go camping in the path of a predicted flash flood.

Art Dept. I know what some (or most) of you are thinking: Was Rivera on something when she drew this? Take Panel 1 (please!). Cartoony characters stand around gaping at a landscape that might have come from an LSD trip or a German Expressionist painter. Arms flex in unusual ways. Panels look as if they are in a post-nuclear war wasteland, bereft of flora, fauna, and natural landmarks. But, perhaps the drawings are meant to symbolize the group’s feelings of isolation, despair, and loss. If not the group’s, then ours?

As Jess and Tess cuddle in the background in panel 1, it is comforting to see that Jules Rivera injected some moments of reality in today’s installment. The gang realizes that the flood has taken virtually everything. But once again, Venus Verité was the only one prepared. She came out of her tent already dressed and thought to bring her phone. I would have thought—given the impending disaster that Mark had been going on about—that Mark would have had an emergency “Go!” bag in his tent, at the ready. Why he didn’t or wasn’t better prepared is something yet to be explained.

But for the love of Mike, why does Rivera constantly make Mark seem like a reincarnation of Gomer Pyle? He often acts like a hick or gets befuddled by the modern world, as if he had gone to sleep in 1959 and just woken up. Well, he did just wake up, right? Perhaps a better question for Mark in panel 3 would be “That’s just what I need, Venus! Where did you get it?” To be fair, Venus could simply have said “Oh, I have a working phone right here!” instead of acting all “East Coast Elite.” But I reckon that is how she is supposed to be. In short, the hunters are all hicks, but Venus Verité is urban and urbane.

Art Dept. I wonder when Mark became a middle-aged couch potato (panel 2)? Yuck! I think Rivera should have expanded that “Me too!” dialog balloon (which should have included a comma) to cover Mark’s flabby torso. If we’re going to admit that Mark’s union suit is all soggy and baggy, how come Venus looks like she got off the plane? Oh, right: Urban and urbane.

So perhaps we must assume that Mark was trying to think on the run: “Tess is caught in the flood! Quick, pick up that branch. Let’s see…Tell Jess to take this branch of mine to he hold out for me after I collect Tess. No, wait. Too complicated. I’ll jump in with the branch, grab Tess, and have her hold on to it as I swim against the current and drag her out to safety.” Or something like that.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Tess also blamed Mark for the lost and/or ruined equipment, cars, guns, and hog carcasses, and try to sue him for damages. Heck, maybe the trauma will restore her lost memory, as well. This might be a good time for Mark to make an exit, stage right!

“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.

I’m not sure Mark’s logic in panel 1 is accurate. Whole chains of people certain can get washed away, depending on the circumstances. But it’s a good group psychological trick to minimize panic. And it is a shame that Jules Rivera again undercuts the drama and value of Mark’s advice by indulging in buffoonery in panels 2 and 3. A flash flood is a dangerous situation, a guaranteed bit of drama and suspense, made to order. So why piss on it?

This confusion is further exacerbated by a contradiction between the dialog and the imagery in the panels. That is, the dialog follows a chronological sequence, but the images definitely do not. Let me demonstrate (ignore the dialog for the moment):

Panel 1: Everybody climbs the hill as their campsite is flooded and washed away.
Panels 2 and 3: Jess and Venus stand around, not linked arm-in-arm or climbing, while they joke.
Panel 4: The entire crew stands around their campsite at the bottom of the hill.

Now, consider the dialog once again. Logic indicates a more accurate sequence of panels should be P4>P2>P3>P1. We’d have to change the message box in panel 4 to something more applicable: “The group agrees to bug out!”  Like so:

I think the revised sequence builds drama with Mark’s warning coming at the end.

Okay, I’m not sure if Tess is levitating a blanket or if the blanket is glued to her back and hands. It’s impressive. For a moment, I thought that shape was the big square tent we saw yesterday, just poorly framed behind “In-Denial” Tess. But there is only sky behind her, and no ground line. You decide!

It’s possible that this crisis could break up the Hog-Hunting Heroines, as Shania and Reba are losing their faith in Tess. And sure, they realized too late that they should have secured the hog carcasses. Tess or Jess should have been aware. I mean, any hunter in the Real World would know not to leave the kill on the ground so predators can snatch or feed on them. This group is just not ready for prime time.

But where the heck is Venus Verité? Is she even awake? Maybe she is half-way up the mountain, taking photos of the disaster.

Art Dept. Before revising this section, I went into detail on problems in panel 3 with regard to Mark’s figure. I think you can all see the problems here. Not sure if it is a technical or a technique issue. But I think it could have worked better with a look-down point of view. This would also have required a two-panel spread to make it work, especially to show the oncoming flood waters Mark is indicating. But that would mean ditching the nice headshot in panel 4. By the way, did the rain wash away Mark’s nose?

ADDENDUM: What a surprise when I opened my newspaper this morning to find that the comics pages are now in full color! And this is the second day of color, but we only discovered it today. My wife was “gobsmacked.” Let me explain: Our newspaper company closed its in-state printer and went with an out-of-state printer for all of its publishing. Maybe that facility has more up-to-date printing services, though I’m pretty sure our newspaper moved away from linotypes and flatbed machines some time ago. Does your newspaper print hardcopy comics pages in color?

I’m going to start off with the most obvious question you all must have: “Does Jess sleep with his hat on?”  … Hmm … Okay, maybe that’s not the most obvious question. I’ll rub my big toe and look at a photo of Ringo Starr as I try again to perceive your primary concern:

“What in #(@! is that duck doing in panel 4!?”  Well, it ain’t flying! And it doesn’t fit the perspective of the scene in any way. So is it even floating!? The duck doesn’t even seem to recognize it’s raining. In short, I’ve got no good answer. Nothing from history, contemporary culture, or song lyrics comes to mind. Wait, there is something: I’m reminded of Colorforms, a toy first popular in the late 1950s and still around today. Vinyl shapes (e.g. people and objects) are placed and stick onto shiny surfaces with printed scenes. Most of you probably played with them. Some of you may still do that! But the point is, you can literally stick the characters onto the scenes with little or no regard to perspective, location, or common sense.

Well, that’s it. It’s the only thing that comes to mind. I don’t know what was in Rivera’s mind, though.

Next, who is Mark yelling at in panel 1? All the tents and people are behind him! Panic can make you do silly things. And what high ground is Mark referring to? Based on what Mark said earlier (December 19^th), they are already camping on high ground! The only higher ground we can see is the big mountain behind them in panel 4. Like the low-volume rain, we have to remember that this is supposed to be drama, not a documentary. So I am probably wrong for trying to make sense of things that are irrelevant.

You know as well as I do that in the pre-Rivera Mark Trail strip, we’d be seeing one or more of the women sneaking up to Mark’s tent and reaching for the zipper … to his tent flap, of course. But the current Mark Trail doesn’t seem to be much of a “chick magnet.” And maybe that’s all for the better.  Even the James Bond movies have largely pivoted away from the heroic stud stereotype.

Since the group pitched their tents atop a rise, this has to be one hell of a flood! The dam must have given way.  Which dam, you ask? Well, almost every flood disaster story seems to be based on a dam failing because of too much rain, sending watery doom to the sleeping population in the valley.

In fact, what panel 4 depicts isn’t just water rising to the top of the hill; we see waves and breakers, suggesting a surge of water. I reckon we’ll learn more in time.

I’d be surprised if Venus Verité does not try to get some good photos of their impending doom while Mark scurries around ensuring everybody makes it back to the cars. Oh, wait. The cars are down the hill, right? Given that the flood is cresting the summit where they are camping, escaping in the cars doesn’t sound like a viable option. Good thing at least some of them have experience climbing trees.

The question now is whether Rivera spends a third week in a row on this story or we jump back to Lost Forest and the fashion trash. At least here, we got a good cliff-hanger for once!

I reckon that if they didn’t talk so much, we’d have a better view of those storm clouds hiding behind the dialog balloons. At least some are peeking out in panel 4. Higher ground is usually a good strategy to follow in a situation like this, especially with a slight rise to assist in minimizing standing water. But what is this ground they are moving onto? It looks like clay or dirt, with no vegetation at all. Or is it rock? A dirt or clay ground probably would not be the best place to pitch tents in a storm.

Now, what about those kills? Are they being left where they fell? Taking any home for more pork chops? A small detail, perhaps, but leaving them on the earth will almost certainly render them useless for butchering later on. About as useless as Shania and Reba, who don’t seem to contribute very much.

Art Dept. Did you notice how Mark can quickly move from one person and space to another? He’s like The Flash! In panel 3, he’s standing beside Tess Tigress, as she once again derides his cautious attitude. In panel 4, Tess relents, but Mark is already standing beside Venus Verité in the distance. Well, perhaps it is really just Tess who moved away from Mark and Venus, before deciding to go along with the plan. Not the Flash, after all.

Did I oversleep again and miss a day? I could have sworn that yesterday we saw Tess ripping into Shania, Reba, and Mark. All of a sudden, Tess is playing nice, with no hint of animosity. Maybe it’s because her photographer has also suddenly arrived on the scene. Repeating a common visual composition, Rivera shows Tess and the photographer standing in the foreground (in front of Mark, Reba, and Shania). But they look backwards at the trio while still facing us. The trio in the background line up, side by side, as if on inspection. It’s as if they are actors whose contracts stipulate that they must always be filmed in full view, never overlapping.

Again, I’m confused on geography. Tess talks about having to “stay” in place, as if they are already at the camping grounds, rather than still at the manse. Speaking of which, where is Jess? He’s been absent all week, though he was supposed to be coming along. Perhaps he picked up and brought Venus Verité along, and now he’s somewhere else parking his car.

A point of weather depiction here: I can totally get behind the “overcast” look in panel 1, with the halftone applied across the upper sky. Very effective.

Okay, this is the second day in a row where we’ve seen a gray cloud cover overtaking the sky. If you missed the subtle, initial appearance yesterday, go back to Friday’s strip and have a look. We’ll wait for you … dah-dah bum, dah-dah-boom dah- … ah, okay. Glad some of you made it back. Let’s move on.

Supposedly, the team is packing up for the big trip, but not much is happening. Perhaps they’re waiting for the servants to show up? Nevertheless, storm clouds do seem to be coming on; even the SUV in the background shows their reflections. But metaphorical storm clouds are also forming among the hunters. With Tess currently in absentia, “All thumbs” (as in “Couldn’t get a shot off”) Reba holds down the corporate line of pooh-poohing the science. Once again, Mark’s opinion gets dissed. If these gals were newspaper readers and followed the strip, they’d know better than to buck Mark’s advice.

And Jules Rivera really should stop killing what little drama she builds up when she inserts corny remarks in a narration box. Such remarks should be left to professionals.

Art Dept. I have to love the orange background in panel 2. Its heat-like tone fully supports Reba’s agitation. And the color contrasts sharply with the green camo the hunting heroines are sporting. Good job!

Gosh, it seems like it has only been seven days since last Friday … uh, well, my wife doesn’t think much of my stupid jokes, either. But they’re probably good enough for Mark Trail.

As for this strip, it’s easy to predict a wet catastrophe is heading their way, given Shania’s comment about camping in a valley. Mark makes a move behind Tess’s back to warn Reba and Shania, but then Jules Rivera (once again) breaks the dramatic mood by criticizing Mark in panel 3. Rivera’s sarcastic notes have done this several times in the past and I find it surprising. She could (and should) be supporting the drama, not editorializing. Well, there is sure to be a reckoning about this confab when Tess finds out.

Art Dept. I see that Rivera decided to free-hand the SUV, rather than embed an existing online image. I’ve mentioned before that using “clipart” and other image sources is a standard practice with comic strip artists and has been since the beginning. At least, the drawing of this auto more closely matches the overall style of the strip.

Speaking of style, it is difficult to grasp the ongoing transformation of this strip’s drawing, because it seems like it was always like this. Not so! If you want proof, I recommend viewing several strips for each year Rivera has been drawing, starting October 13, 2020. I think you’ll be surprised at how the strip has changed in tone, detail, and visual composition from its original appearance.

Mark and Tess have a classic argument based on a deliberate or mistaken misunderstanding. Weather is a relatively short-term (hours, days, weeks, etc.) state of the atmosphere in a given region. On the other hand, climate is described as a long-term (years, decades, centuries, etc.) statistical description of weather patterns in a given region, or even globally, through averaging all weather regions on the earth. It’s micro v. macro. So Tess pushed Mark’s environmental buttons and he gets defensive.

Mark should try to explain the difference to Tess, who appears to present herself as a climate change skeptic. Will he do so (or save it to Sunday)? Probably not. As in virtually all Mark Trail stories since it began, nature and environmental issues are usually discussed in a broad sort of way (emphasizing exposure and public interest), and serving as a motivation for the story, itself.

To me, an important question is this: Is Jules Rivera making Tess taunt Mark by misdirecting him with a deliberate misuse of the term “Climate stuff” that is almost guaranteed to unhinge Mark? Is Rivera just making Tess out to be a typical climate change skeptic or denier, to get Mark to defend climate change while she pulls out the weather card to show the immediate weather report isn’t all that bad, thereby undermining Mark’s “climate change” forecast?