When Jules Rivera took over back in 2020, I was fine when she loosened Mark up from his prior Pillar of Moral Rectitude persona with his general lack of humor. I was fine that Mark frequently found himself out of his depth. I’m fine that women were not always propositioning him during every assignment. But I don’t get why Rivera often depicts him as some clueless, hick cornball. Living in a cabin in the forest doesn’t mean you have to be a reincarnation of Jethro Bodine.

Anyway, getting into today’s installment:  It’s legally safer to invent a Las Vegas hotel, even if it is an amalgam of existing resorts. You can probably figure out which ones, right? And inventing your own resort means you can’t get caught up by snarky critics who will point out everything that doesn’t match the original.

So, they meet up with Cliff. I’m not sure why the four of them didn’t all come together, since I thought they live close to each other. Well, no big deal. Fictional hotel aside, I do have some questions: 1) Where is their luggage? 2) Are all tools provided by the host of the Woodsman Olympics? It doesn’t look as if Mark and Cliff brought any along. 3) Don’t these people have a change of clothes!? I mean, why would Cliff wear his fishing vest on a trip to Las Vegas?

Art Dept. Well, this is not one of Rivera’s better art days. As we have seen before, sometimes it just seems as if she can’t get these strips knocked out fast enough, as so little effort is made in cleaning up the drawing (and signage). I can’t even tell if that is an actual entrance to the hotel, though there seems to be some kind of sidewalk. Or maybe it’s the wide, green area that is the sidewalk? In any event, behind the ersatz pirates (whether people or statues, I can’t tell), is what looks like a giant board, not an entrance. That could explain the adult and child walking away in panel 1.

So, go ahead and post your exploding boat jokes. I can take it.