Thicket!? I don’t see no stinkin’ thicket!

Editor’s Note: Sorry, everybody! Seems I plumb overlooked including today’s strip. It was in my draft, but for some reason, I failed to transfer it in the final post.

It seems the hog-hunting heroines may not be the experienced hunters they pretend.  In addition to Shania standing in a vulnerable position and facing away from the wild hog, she apparently brought along her child’s small toy rifle instead of her own. And Reba has her own rifle slung, rather than in her hands, at the ready.

Art Dept. Sure, traditional syndicated comic strips are usually restricted in size, but the framing of the figures in these panels does little to enhance any sense of danger. Proportions and space look out of whack. Ending the series with an alliterative joke further kills any suspense. The hog in panel 4 looks like it is stepping out from another spatial dimension into ours. As if we don’t have enough feral hogs, they are now popping in from a parallel universe.

Perhaps a more dramatic version of panel 4 could have been accomplished with the reverse of what we see now. The hog is in the foreground looking back towards Shania, standing alone in the open.

Or maybe just show an extreme close-up of the hog’s head, like this one. Imagine turning around to see that head staring at you, close up. Pretty damn scary all by itself!

Why, Mark Trail…How young you look! What’s your secret?

So, what is Mark’s secret of youth? I gather it’s shaving.

I wonder how disappointed or even angry Cherry will be when she learns that she didn’t really have to shoot any animals, after all. Except maybe with a camera. Anyway, here we go with another round of disconnected dialogs. I also think Jules Rivera really needs to practice more with her narration boxes: “Hog-Hunting Hootenanny”!? Talk about an alliterative non-sequitur…. Rivera could at least have brought the phrase into the 1960s with “Hog-Hunting Hullaballoo!” Or, if she is looking at cute alliterative phrases that more sense, how about “It’s Hog-Hunting Harvest!”, “It’s Hog-Hunting Heaven!”, or even “It’s a Hog-Hunting Halidom!”

Being Saturday, we once again come to the issue of whether we get back to a week of Cherry and Holly Folly, or continue following Mark and the Three Fates. On the other hand, does it matter?