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The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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The “week that just was” focused on the liberation of Cricket Bro, trapped in a collapsed portion of the cave floor. Mark had called in the support of a better prepared rescue team led by Ranger Shaw, which brought along useful tools that Mark did not have. Well, who could have anticipated the cave floor would give way!?

We learned that the rescue attempt would take a long time because rescuers didn’t want to create a larger problem of accidentally causing more of the floor to give way. That could have sent Cricket Bro into an unknown hell below the surface. Yet, somehow, Mark and the rescue team didn’t consider tying a safety rope or harness around Cricket Bro to prevent him falling through. I think some readers would not have been too sad to see Cricket Bro disappear under the floor, never to be seen again.

The rescue was further complicated by the fact that different people were involved. Even stranger was the rescue team that arrived with Ranger Shaw; they seem to have disappeared from the cave and the story. Well, maybe they felt safer outside.

At one point, Mark suggested Cricket Bro just chisel his own self free, which did not get a round of applause. As flood water predictably began splurging into the cave, Diana Daggers made her reappearance in the story by berating Cricket Bro for his arrogance and then announcing what everybody could see: the cave was flooding. Ropes were extended to help Mark and Cricket Bro pull themselves up and out of the cave; but Cricket Bro missed his rope and almost got swept away. I think. But he was last seen grabbing onto a cave pillar as a veritable torrent of water was rushing through. I’m not sure where all of that water came from, since earlier scenes didn’t suggest a deluge was in progress.

This week’s strips ironically remind me (in a faint, general sort of way) of the British comedy series, The Goes Wrong Show, in which a hapless theater troupe attempts to present various plays, but with disasters along the way. You can find it on YouTube. The WWII and Nativity episodes are particularly funny.

Well, Cricket Bro was not the only entity that fell. The drawings this past week appear to have also fallen in quality, day by day. Not sure why: Impending deadline; heavy date; surf’s up; or maybe a better paying gig came along? Next week might see the conclusion of this story and of Mark watching cave disaster videos.

The customized title panel merits some appreciation for linking the comic strip’s name with today’s subject more organically than we’ve seen, lately. Mark’s primer on how rain forms is banal enough; though I’d have rather seen Mark spend more time on the second part of the topic, with more demonstration and explanation.

Rusty finds a natural ally!

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Okay, maybe I was too optimistic when I saw that “The Forest needs a hero!” oath roaring out of Rusty’s mouth a few days ago. Alas, Rusty is not Robin, the Boy Wonder or Bilbo Baggins; just an 11 year-old kid with a vivid imagination and a developing sense of right and wrong. It’s not a bad combination to have. But he doesn’t have the experience or maturity to know what to do with it. It’s not a fault. He’s trying.

But I don’t think we can look forward to Rusty creating clever traps in the forest like Macaulay Culkin did in Home Alone, playing the incredibly inventive kid, Kevin, who could put together funny traps and pratfalls faster than Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland could assemble a fully decked out stage show from items found in a barn. Over the weekend.

One question on somebody’s mind out there is likely to be “Will the Grungey boys act even stupider than Rusty thinks, and try to hold their lawnmower races on wet, sloppy ground?” My response would be “Have you ever seen a demolition derby?”

Extra: Have you been “following” or “enduring” the on-again, off-again, on-again adventure strip “Mara Llave: Keeper of Time“? Well, seems like Mara ran out of time, as the strip has disappeared from the Comics Kingdom web site, after 3 years of erratic submissions, dropped storylines, and ever-changing art styles. Too bad, as the premise was interesting, though a clear offshoot of Dr. Who.