I’m surprised that Cherry did not bring up brother Dirk and his sounder of feral hogs, earlier. I’d have thought they would be one of her main reasons for turning down Bill Ellis’ job offer.

Maybe Jules Rivera doesn’t see all of this time spent on Mark’s complaining as story padding, but that’s how it comes off. I mean, two days should be enough, right? Perhaps the explanation for all of this lies in one way I think Rivera handles story development:

Each week is a “chapter”, with one main point that gets promoted, explained, and hashed out by Saturday. Then on to the next chapter the following week. Sure, there is a simplicity and clarity in that approach. And it supports the scant time people spend on reading comic strips, so it pays to simplify. If  a reader misses a day or two, nothing much lost.

Nevertheless, there are parts of any story that do not deserve equal treatment. This is one of them. By Monday we should see Mark flying into a Texas airport, hopefully without the hokey western attire he wore the last time. I wonder if Diana Daggers will pick him up again!?

Using one of her standard bilateral layouts, Rivera starts off today’s strip by continuing yesterday’s hand wringing. I find it odd that Mark keeps repeating already-discussed points (“Texan women with guns”), to which Cherry keeps acting as if this is the first time she’s heard it. Mark’s comment in panel 3 doesn’t make sense. The women are out to kill wild pigs (hogs, or whatever). Sure. That Tess killed another animal, even an elephant, is supposed to make her a pariah? I think Cherry’s remark in panel 4 is correct. The other women—based on their avocation, not their location—would not see this as a detriment. In any event, there is no evidence that Tess killed Gemma, so why should Mark say that?

As for hitting on Texas—which happens to be the location of this trio of hog hunters—we could easily interpret today’s statements as Rivera injecting politically-charged comments, but we could just as easily see it as playing on common stereotypes about Texas. Both interpretations could be correct, but I’ll leave it to you to decide whether one takes precedence or if my interpretation is just wrong.

Then again, Mark and Cherry live in a small community in a forest, presumably somewhere in northern Georgia, based on the Old Trailverse Standard. In such a community, neither guns nor hunting would be strange. This would make Cherry’s comment disingenuous.