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Okay, so this really is the end of the story. I think.

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I’ve never seen an alligator yawn before. It’s an interesting sight, isn’t it? Well, he isn’t the only one …

But, wait! What’s all this father-son relationship jazz? Wasn’t there an entire family here? Or is that why the gator looks fatter than he did a few days ago? Yesterday I posited three possible reasons for this story. It seems that it really was about father-son bonding; or at least, that is what is turned into. Blech!

So now, Happy and Mark are going home, arm in arm, to write an article together. About their trip. If Kelly Welly was here, she’d probably throw golf balls at them for wasting this opportunity.

“You’re a nature journalist”, says Happy. Aren’t they the ones that write those Sunday newspaper articles about fishing for bigmouth bass with Gadabout Gaddis, hunting squirrels in the Big Woods, and taking Ol’ Blue duck hunting? But they leave actual investigative work to trained professionals.

Art Dept. You might think the giant speech balloon in panel 1 is another kind of narration box. But, no. The balloon’s tail runs up Happy Trail’s shirt, but was accidentally colored in. At first I thought Jules Rivera was satirizing the misplaced speech dialog trope of pre-Rivera Mark Trail.

What ever happened to Happy’s Nine Iron?

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What started out as an informal (that is, unpaid) investigation into local water contamination has turned into a contest of rivals to see who swings the biggest golf club. From here, it certainly looks like Rivera either lost track of the plot or simply jumped the tracks and went into a different direction. I’m only surprised (well, okay: disappointed) that the dads didn’t join in with the boys to have a more interesting and enjoyable four-way slugfest. Now that would have been an interesting sight. I think Rivera missed an opportunity for some real fun!

This being Thursday, there are still two days left in the week. What to do? That’s not really time enough to resolve this story, so there will be at least one more week. Will Rivera turn Mark back into an investigative reporter, skulking around the resort at night to get hard evidence? Will Happy Trail want to go along and relive his younger days of activist nature journalism? I’ve always wondered about Happy’s “been there, done that!” attitude, as if he simply got burned out from chasing poachers, kidnappers, arsonists, and weirdos and now wants to live out his life like a normal person, indifferent to the environment.

But maybe the Trails will just head back home and forget the whole thing, which may be what a lot of readers are doing, already. I really want to see some suspense and drama. Even for a little bit.

Happy Trail takes his turn

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If I remain “in story mode”, then I blame Mark for creating this mess through his ham-fisted investigation, such as it was. Instead of going covert or at least subtle, Mark decided to confront the Cheddersons, head-on, without solid evidence.

If I look at this from an outside position, I have to wonder what Rivera had in mind moving the story in this direction. Is it getting us closer to uncovering the source of the pollution or has that already been “established” merely through Mark’s biased assumption? If Mark is satisfied the golf course is the source, shouldn’t either try to get them to clean it up or report them to the “proper authorities”?

Well, I might be asking too much. Maybe Mark will turn over his “evidence” to Ranger Shaw, who will once again hem and haw and hesitate, until Mark browbeats him into confessing that he got a free lifetime membership for looking the other way.

The gloves don’t come off, but words do fly!

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Mark Trail demonstrates another one of his well-known techniques on how to successfully investigate wrongdoing and solve a problem. Or maybe not.

As much as I don’t want to make this a pure snark-filled diatribe, I have to say this is pretty lame plotting; to say little of the dialog. There are a number of issues we can pick on, just today. I’m not sure I have the energy for all of it. So, I’ll pick one or two.

For one thing, it seems to be that, even now, Chet Chedderson has not made a single comment about his prior entanglements with Mark; and there have been two: the Zeeba Mussels story and the Bear Necessity story, where Chet had only a walk-on cameo at the start of the story. I’m wondering if he even remembers who Mark Trail is, and if that is a deliberate decision on Rivera’s part. That is to say, why would Rivera want to cause Chedderson to not recall Mark? Readers with better minds than mine may recall that the Bear Necessity story was when Jules Rivera made the unfortunate decision to change Mark’s face from sporting his stubbled beard to the tramp-like five o’clock shadow he now has.

The strip today reads more like comments on social media. Hey! Maybe that’s deliberate, since it’s become the standard for interpersonal communication, especially among the age group this rebooted strip is supposed to be aimed at.

Art Dept. Rivera continues to play on the “Like Father Like Son” trope, coming off like the parody she likely has in mind. And I think this is the first time we’ve actually seen a golf bag (panel 2). But more important than any of this (to me) is that I think Rivera drew this manually with pen and ink, rather than a her digital tablet. The lightness and variety of lines, and the unusual hatching on Brett’s face and especially in the tree behind Mark in panel 3 lead me to this conclusion. I’m not saying she’s using old Speedball or Gillotte nibs; it’s probably a set of technical pens with different line widths. Sorry, I’m just getting a bit too geeky here. But I’d like to see her stick to using these pens, as it might loosen up her drawing and make it more interesting. Again, I could be totally wrong. Digital tablets have come a long way since I last used them.

Looks like Brett was just biding his time to teach Mark a lesson.

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Hoo-boy. I suppose Mark is under contract to solve all problems within his immediate vicinity, regardless of whose problem it is. I don’t see Cherry too bothered by it, and Happy Trail is happy to share in the solution, as well. I’m not sure if this is the “end” of Cherry’s adventure, as she is seen here as a mere background appreciator. However, Honest Ernest happily gloats as he puts the recovered peacock back into his van, somehow parked on the golf course.

And regular reader Daniel Pellissier  pointed out that my theoretical plot twist of trapping the wrong peafowl was full of holes, because a close-up of the captured peacock in Saturday’s strip showed the bird with his male plumage intact. Still, in the real world, that kind of treatment would have to be really bad for the peacock and his tail feathers.

But Cherry’s week in the sun has set (so it seems) and we return to the sturm und drang of Brett Chedderson’s beef with Mark Trail, who broke with the tradition of not insulting your hosts by insulting his hosts. I’m not sure what that yellow traingular design is behind Brett in panel 3, but it can’t be a good sign.

It reminds me of those high-back collars you see on old-school villains (e.g. Ming the Merciless, The Evil Queen of Snow White, and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula). If Mark hasn’t fully exercised his fists o’ justice, this might be a good time to do so, unless a better idea pops up.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Rivera side-slipped us back into Cherry’s Runaway Peacock story, while still on the golf course. As you may recall, she popped up the Saturday before, in the middle of the Trail-Chedderson Slapfest, along with the errant peacock. The fight immediately stopped and the peacock disappeared. Mark volunteered to help Cherry chase it down, the pollution fight, seemingly forgotten.

Then we cut to a scene of Honest Ernest with a butterfly net trying to catch the peacock and failing. Comparisons to “Coyote and Roadrunner” were obvious. At least Rivera showed good taste in what she borrowed from.

When Ernest complained about Mark and Cherry trying to hog credit for catching the bird, they assured him they didn’t care. It didn’t take Mark long to come up with a way to trap the peafowl using sticks, Happy’s golf club, and a granola bar that Cherry happened to have. Exactly how the trap worked is not really explained, but the bird was considerate enough to wander into it. Honest Ernest grabbed the trapped bird and ran off to impress Violet with his capture. Exciting stuff.

The only thing I’ll add is that Rivera may be throwing us a curveball.  The peacock shown and trapped this week did not exhibit the long tail that the (male) peacock originally displayed. Either Rivera forgot that “subtle” distinction when she drew the bird or she is playing off the fact that there are “feral” peacocks loose in this country. So it is possible that they trapped the wrong bird (a female in this case) which will backfire when Honest Ernest returns it and claims credit. This could be the best ending yet for one of Cherry’s stories.

For sure, I thought that Rivera would create her custom title panel using mouse droppings to spell out the title. Seemed obvious to me! Well, I read up on hantavirus and, frankly, I’m pretty bothered, especially as there is no specific treatment (cure) or vaccine against it; and fatality rates go as high as 50%! Uffa! Sure, it may be rare and mostly in western states, but that’s not the same as “non-existent.” We get an occasional mouse, especially in the Winter. I’m doubling the mouse traps this year. Maybe get a cat or two.

I see it now: Mighty Mouse was really a foreign agent, sent here to spread hantavirus under the ruse of “coming to save the day.”

Honest Ernest shocks Cherry by claiming the bird and the credit!

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Well, I don’t know why Mark and Cherry are surprised by Honest Ernest’s actions. After all, they told him that they were not interested in the credit, just capturing the peacock. Yet here they are, dismayed at Ernest taking their word on it.

I was hopeful that Mark would at least explain how his trap worked; you know, just in case a peacock shows up in my backyard one day.

Mark outlines his cunning plan to catch the peacock

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Hoo-boy, here we are again, as Mark “McGyver’s” a trap for the runaway peacock, who is obviously going to hang around the golf course long enough to be enticed. Seems like Honest Ernest isn’t the only one playing Coyote to the peacock’s Roadrunner. I suppose it is supercilious of me to ask questions, such as where you get tree branches on a golf course. But of course, they are on the edge of Lost Forest.

Can Mark can build a big enough trap out of just branches? How will he lash them? Will he build a trap door, as well? These questions, and more, are apt to be ignored in favor of just showing the finished trap, as this is not an episode of Wild Kingdom. A blanket could also be used, so wouldn’t a mother also carry a blanket for ad-hoc picnics and resting?

But why specifically nuts, when peacocks will also eat grains, seeds, fruit, berries, and even leaves? Mark could probably find most of that stuff more easily than having to rely on motherhood to save the day.  Quibble, quibble, quibble. I know. You’re saying “Enough with the obvious questions, George! We get it, already! ” Sure, a trap is likely better than trying to run down a peacock or catch it with a small net. But the peacock has to be near enough to the trap in the first place to be suckered. Well, today is Thursday, so a lot has to happen for that peacock to be caught by Saturday. And thank goodness for that!

Art Dept. I was going to say something about the characters in the middle ground in panel 1, but you probably know what I would be saying. Consider it said. Otherwise, I’ll conclude with criticism for the longer-than-necessary run of boring panel layouts. An inventive, interesting layout can make even a dull or dumb story more interesting.

Mark finds an easier problem to solve

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Frankly, I don’t know why they would want to help Honest Ernest, unless it was to help him sink into a deep hole. But, Cherry still has her job with the Sunny Soleil Society to keep. Maybe she could look for other clients, but I don’t imagine there are too many paying customers in that sleepy little village.

Are you confused by the storyline? Of course! Mark and Cherry have magically transferred into the Cherry and the Runaway Peacock story, leaving the lake pollution story, as well as the probably perplexed golfing party, on the other side of the comics page. I reckon Mark got his “you’re killing my environment” anger out of his system for the time being, as he seems happy to devote some time to this trivial event. But credit to Rivera for continuity: Mark’s facial scrapes from his fight with Brett remain in place.

Art Dept. Sometimes I wonder if Rivera uses marionettes as models for the characters. I mean, check out Mark in panel 3. And there are more of those “lines beyond the borders” today, too. One might think that Syndicate editors would catch that stuff and fix it before publishing. But that might be optimistic. It could be they just slap the strips online and send them out to the newspapers, as is.

Catch the latest news on The Great Peacock Hunt!

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All regular readers of Mark Trail are long familiar with Honest Ernest, who probably started life as the school bully; only now, he is depicted more like an older version of the Class Clown. So it makes sense that Rivera would depict him here in a role reminiscent of the Warner Brothers Coyote with his ACME butterfly net trying to catch the Roadrunner, played by local favorite, the take-no-prisoners wandering Peacock.

Art Dept. I noticed the same kind of pinched-in, distorted face in panels 3 and 4 today that I talked about yesterday. This kind of distortion of facial images in background figures has often plagued the strip, and I believe it might be due to size restrictions on Rivera’s digital (or manual) pen. It’s as if she is trying to cram too much detail where it becomes more noise than information.

PS: I sometimes look at the Comics Kingdom comments, but only after I post. So, I want to let you know that I did not pinch my Roadrunner analogy from Bill F‘s comment. Frankly, I figured most Mark Trail readers would have picked it up, anyway, especially with the pose of the peacock in panel 3.

How about a zesty bowl of potpourri commentary?

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Welcome back to the Third Annual National High School “Draw Mark Trail” exhibition, where the excitement level is hovering around the “Our son drew that one!” level.

We were all impressed with an entry from yesterday (Sunday), drawn by 10th grader Zigmodo R. Pettyfogger of Zuni, Ohio with a “Walking Dead” interpretation of our favorite wildlife journalist. Gotta say, Zigmo, you nailed that one!  Okay, we hope to return to this exhibition, but for now, let’s get back to the current story…

“Segues!? We don’t need no stinkin’ segues!” The Mark-Brett confrontation has been pushed aside for the moment as Rivera makes a giant pivot at a moment’s notice, continuity be damned. At least her appearance on the greenway did stop the playground altercation going on, so there is that. But how is it that Cherry can’t seem to see the peacock she is looking for, as it continues to fly all around her? Or is that a depiction of her mental state?

And what will Mark do from here on, now that he’s blown his cover and killed whatever cooperation he might have been able to inveigle out of the Cheddersons?

What are we to make of this odd intrusion? In the past, Rivera has, on occasion, put Mark or Cherry into each other’s storyline, usually for a short time to help the other out. But this time around, it isn’t just Mark and Cherry doing cameos; we have a convergence of their two separate stories, to the point where it becomes a question as to whose plot we are currently following. Is this a bit of cinéma vérité, perhaps? Or am I just making stuff up because I wanted to use the term cinéma vérité ?

In other news: I just paid my yearly dues to renew the domain name (thytrailbedone.com) and storage space on WordPress for my daily scribbling. So I’m committed to another 365.25 days of following the misadventures of the Trail Family. Also, I was just daydreaming about what might happen if Jules Rivera turned the entire Trail family into a team of environmental journalists/advocates, going on assignments and saving the planet. You know, like in The Incredibles movies. Well, the Trails would probably lose the cabin for lack of a second income; and they could get arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor for keeping Rusty out of school and putting him into harm’s way.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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This was the week that wasn’t. Was it? It was make or break week for the polluted lake story. Mark and Happy continued with the golfing expedition, along with Chet Chedderson and his son, Brett. Rather than continue with his ruse of just being a guest of his dad so he could covertly investigate the resort, Mark jumped right up to accuse them of deliberate environmental damage, bringing about a heated exchange. This resulted in a fit of desultory face-punching between Bret and Mark, until Cherry suddenly popped onto the scene, more or less accompanied by that errant peacock nobody seems to be able to corral. It wasn’t clear if the peafowl showed up on its own by happenstance, though why a peacock would even want to invade a crowd of humans is unclear. There must be a reason for all this tomfoolery. But it sure looks as if this storyline has crashed and is in serious threat of burning. Why so?

It’s too early for this story to arrive at a conclusion. Plot-wise, it is still in the midway point; or at least, should be. At this point, Mark should be investigating the resort grounds more thoroughly, possibly even at night, as he did with Diana Daggers while investigating a secret data center site in Utah.

Instead, Mark couldn’t keep his mouth shut (as his dad recommended) and let the cat out of the story bag too early before gathering actual evidence. Did Mark find evidence for the assumed runoff? Did he compare onsite fertilizers with the sample that Ranger Shaw had taken from the lake? Did he interview the groundskeeper? No. No. And NO! It would have been simple enough to dramatize all of this over another week or two, building to a dramatic climax.

Ok, which is it, Mark?  “Super typhoon” or “Super Cyclone” (panel 4)? It’s all Potatoes and Potahtoes. Typhoons (Pacific Northwest), cyclones (South Pacific and Indian oceans), and hurricanes (mid-Atlantic and Eastern/Central Pacific oceans) are geographic synonyms. The term “cyclone” was coined in the 19th century by an English sea captain studying tropical storms in India. The term “typhoon” has a confusing origin, with the Chinese using a similar word for such storms as far back as 1124 CE, though “typhon” was used in France at least as early as 1504. And “hurricane” was derived from a Spanish term, which was taken from the name of a Caribbean god of evil, which evolved from the ancient Mayan god of winds and storms (“Hurricán”). Etymology is very cool.

Figured out the flags, didn’t you?

Is this a subtle tip o’ the Mark Trail Hat to its own past?

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Taken at face value (pun intended), Mark appears to be getting the worst of this “tussle.” Either Mark is holding back or his vaunted Two Fists O’ Jello … I mean, Justice, are not doing the job they were anointed to do.

Now, as for panel 2, I’m gobsmacked, as the Brits sometimes exclaim. We can see that Brett is shocked, as well. But I like his expression! Cherry showed up as if she is arriving at a neighbor’s backyard BBQ party … accompanied by her pet peacock!? I don’t see a string or leash, so how is it the peacock also showed up?  They don’t even like people. Did Cherry win it over with her winsome ways? Did she bring along rare peacock food to entice it?

Or is the peacock on its way to actually attack the Cheddersons, just on principle?

At this point, I thinking that a once-plausible storyline has rolled into a hazard, and there will be penalties to pay.

Tip of the hat: Okay, what’s with today’s podcast title? If you observe all of the dialog today, notice that every statement ends with an exclamation point! This was pro-forma for dialog in the Mark Trail strips before Rivera took over. One of her improvements was to stop that and only use them when they were called for. And she has been fairly consistent with that. Until today. So, are all of those !s in every speech balloon appropriate for today?

Mark demonstrates how to break your hand

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Well, I guess if Mark wanted a fistfight, then using the word “Bully” was the right word, after all. But why would he want to fight?

Okay, I’m going to have to go along with the crowd (as I suspect) on this one. This is just stupid. Infantile. Embarrassing. Insulting to the readers. Not serious. Not even convincingly drawn!

Maybe referencing some actual boxing images could have at least helped Rivera draw the choreography.

But it just doesn’t fit. And speaking of not fitting, check out panel 3 and tell me when Brett acquired a sixth finger? I only ask because the top digit of his hand cannot be a thumb.

Mark has them where he wants them!

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Well! Since the verbal gloves came off yesterday, words continue to fly. By the way, I like how Rivera poses the two Cheddersons, like some kind of Doublemint Twins gag from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Well, “like” may be too strong of a word, but they do look like some kind of 2D prop held up by a board in the back.

Wouldn’t it be just a hoot if, after Trail gets through his entire spiel about evil golf course pollution, the Cheddersons reveal that they use only organic and environmentally-approved procedures for maintaining the course and handling potential runoff; and that they have a seal of approval from every environmental agency in the region. Then they reveal that they saw Ranger Shaw dumping something into the pond several evenings, so they reported it to the EPA for investigation. And that makes sense, given Shaw’s dodgy past with illegal dumping. Fully chastised and realizing how wrong he has been, Mark apologizes, quits his journalism job, and goes to work as a troubleshooter for Chet’s company. At least, no more worries about busted water heaters or Doc Davis’s rent and care at the nursing home.

Okay, that won’t happen.

But, a “Bully”!? C’mon, Rivera! How does that fit into this scenario? I don’t think being a bully is required to operate a golf course or to pollute the environment. Does it? Is that supposed to humiliate Brett? Is it Rivera’s intention to make Mark look like a hypocrite?

As you can see, I’m treading lightly here, keeping my eye and words strictly on the strip. I seriously don’t want this to go the social media route. So, please keep any comments focused on the strip. You can draw your own conclusions about external relationships, but keep them to yourself. I don’t want to see them. And I’ll likely remove or edit out any such comments.

We’ll return to the story in just a minute, but first …

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Hippies!? I wonder if Rivera got this cornball dialog from an editorial written during the Nixon era?

If Rivera is looking for inspiration, I recommend The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. Rivera can then turn Mark into a wildlife journalist with a secret nighttime identity as an environmental commando. After all, Mark has a family to support, so he can’t quit his day job. Even Superman has to pay his bills!

This land ain’t your land, this land is my land!

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Fighting words, Jules? Maybe they are for drunken frat boys, basement-dwelling Internet trolls, and spoiled progeny with identity issues. So I wonder how this part of the story will play out over the next several days. It doesn’t seem like Mark would take such easy bait as this, but …

I recently stated that I thought this story had legs. As a story, itself, I still believe it. Whether Rivera can follow through and keep it intact is another matter, altogether.  And from a practical point of view, the premise of the story (Nobody knew about this resort) is weak. But there’s a reason for it, I think:

Nobody just suddenly builds a golf course/water park resort. It requires lots of planning, surveys, permits, public and private meetings by a zoning commission, following regulations about placement, easements, sanitation, etc., and more. That can easily eat up a few years (paying off various officials, notwithstanding). That means the notion that nobody in Lost Forest knew what was going on is difficult to accept. In reality.

And that’s the catch:  If comic strip stories actually tried to be comprehensive, nobody would have the patience to read them, would they!? And the real point of the story is not “How to design and build a golf resort in the country”, but “How will Mark uncover the source of the recently-discovered environmental damage and resolve it?”

They don’t want you to see this!

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What about today’s blog title? Alas, I’m completely without honor or shame. I’m certain this kind of headline flim-flammery will bring in readers by the boatload. I mean, it works on other sites…!

What do you think?  For all the time Cherry and Rusty spent at the water park—which had to be at least an hour—this foursome didn’t get very far, as the main building is still right behind them. I doubt the gator kept them occupied that long.

Also, I would be peeved like Mark to discover that his own dad won’t back his play, especially knowing that Happy supposedly had the same “job” in his younger days. At the least, it suggests Happy Trail is somehow more mixed up in this business that he is letting on.

At least we can hope for some actual fisticuffs and wrestling on the fairway! Maybe it will even inspire our friendly gator to crawl back out to make a quick snack of the loser.

Art Dept. I can’t think of a more “cartoony” face in Mark Trail than Brett’s (panel 2). He looks like he was pulled out of a classic Archie comic book.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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We first met Chet Chedderson as an unscrupulous shipping magnate in the Zeeba Mussels story ( 8/12/21-2/4/22), as he tried to prevent Mark from investigating and reporting on the occurrence of invasive zebra mussels arriving in American waters on the hulls of his tankers. Chedderson even went as far as hiring thugs to beat up Mark. Mark doesn’t seem to hold much of a grudge. So Chet became this strip’s symbol of corporate greed and environmental indifference. After a brief, unmemorable cameo in another adventure, he is here again, taking on the role of a rich dude building a golf resort without regard for the local environment. His son is merely a projection of his father. But this is all quite in keeping with traditional Mark Trail bad guys, insofar as their personalities are superficial and stereotypical. Golfing aside, it’s the kind of story that might have come from Allen, Elrod, or even Dodd.

A common complaint about Rivera’s stories is their weak plotting and absurdities. That can hardly be denied when seen in toto. I mean, lions in a house (e.g. snakes on a plane)!? It might be less so, here. For the most part, the story has followed a logical and coherent path: Mark discovers pollution from an unknown source in a favorite lake; a follow-up interview with the local forestry ranger proves uninformative; Mark learns about a new golf course and begins to think of runoff pollution; he “coincidentally” gets invited to spend time at the golf course; and discovers that Chet Chedderson is the developer. Of course, there are silly bits meant to keep the flow going and expand the storyline, such as the resort’s water park that Rusty explores, and Happy Trail being the person who invited Mark (and family) to the golf resort because he just happens to be a member of the new club. Overall, it’s a better than average storyline for Markey. But will it hold up?

We spent this week watching Mark and Happy deal with an alligator crossing the fairway while Chet and Brett whined and complained. Mark berated them about interfering with local nature habitats by building the golf course too close to the gator’s home. Then Mark helped the reptile get to its watery destination. This gator scenario will surely further convince Mark of the Cheddersons’ complicity in the lake pollution and embolden him to take more dramatic action. Or so I hope.

Alligators. Hardly a surprising subject, but as often as Rivera can, she relates the current subject to the current story or story location. The alligator literature says that gators do not normally attack humans unless provoked or reacting from a defensive posture. I’d still keep my distance. They are quite different from crocodiles, which will actively attack humans without provocation, often killing and consuming them. The Nile Crocodile (even feared in ancient Egypt) and the Freshwater Crocodile (S.E. Asia and Australia) have the highest annual body counts (in the hundreds). I never much thought about crocodiles when I was a young lad visiting Egypt and happily relaxed in low-hulled boat ferries crossing the Nile. But now? They scare the bejeebers out of me just thinking about them. You can look up “Crocodile Attack” in Wikipedia for more unsavory details.

It has to be revealed!

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Okay, so I used a popular click-bait title. It only works if people first see it, so I think I’m safe.

Today we get some good old-fashioned Grill-Master Mark work, as he roasts these two self-important boobies over some environmental ignorance. Nothing new, since a while ago Mark faced off against Papa Chedderson over zebra mussel infestation with his cargo ships, forcing court-ordered changes to his shipping business. So now, it’s his son taking up the reigns.

Art Dept. Sometimes I wonder if Rivera has somebody working with her, or if there is staff at the Syndicate doing post-production work. Maybe there was a printing or layout error. Who knows? But drawn lines extending from the artwork into the panel gutters is not a good look. Now, sometimes cartoonists will deliberately draw figures that overlap panel borders, but those instances are obvious and not accidental. The right side of Panel 1 shows the most obvious examples of this issue.

But runaway lines are in the other two panels, also (p2 shows Mark’s elbow extending beyond, and p3 shows the background curve running into the copyright notice). They are almost certainly not for visual appeal or invention. Cartoonists draw their own panels, so it’s difficult to account for these flubs.

If you have the urge, feel free to comment on these lines, or maybe the ever-changing faces of Mark. I count three variations today, one for each panel. Pretty sure Rivera is not doing a parody of the Tony Randall movie “The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.” Be Ware of Eve Hill might tackle the emenata.

Anyway, the gator is gone just in time for the end of the week. Is that a coincidence or what?! Maybe we’ll get back to Cherry’s story on Monday to see if it takes six days of strips to capture the peacock.