When we last saw Cherry and Rusty, they were hoping to see Mark compete in the wood chopping contest, but were left wondering why he wasn’t there. Instead, Mark chose to skip his favorite event, only making it back in the nick of time for the boxing competition.

It’s possible Cherry and Rusty are still at that event area, rather than here. But maybe they’ll make it over here in time for Saturday’s strip. It could act as both a cliffhanger for Mark and Cliff and a transition back to a week with Cherry and Rusty.

But for now, we’re here at the start of the tag-team log camp boxing competition. Now, it’s kind of odd, don’t you think, that this competition seems to have been specially put together just for these two teams? Certainly Tad Crass wouldn’t go to the expense of erecting a rink solely for this fight!? Perhaps it is only a special tag-team grudge match inserted into the normal schedule of boxing events. If nothing else, it is clear evidence that I’m spending more time on this than it deserves!

<CLANG!> goes the non-existent bell to start the fight, watched over by the so-far non-existent referee. Cliff goes first, because Mark has to be the one to finish off the opposition. The Grungey Boys start right in with a popular tag-team wrestling trick, as Cliff is maneuvered over by the ropes (I keep wondering how that small cap remains on top of Connor’s Ten-Gallon haircut). Of course, Mark is conveniently someplace else at this exact moment, perhaps looking for Cherry and Rusty or getting sidelined by Tad Crass. It’s all classic wrestling theater. Perhaps we’ll get to see Mark hit Connor across the back with a folding chair. It’s fun! Fun! Fun!

Through Jules Rivera, Tad Crass is using the pro-wrestling gimmick of “tag-team boxing” to provide an excuse to wash his dirty laundry in public and go after Mark Trail. Since Tad invited Mark to participate in these Olympics, we’d have to conclude that he also knew Mark would snoop around in his real estate scheme. That could explain how Tad’s security team found Mark and Cliff so quickly. Still, it begs the question of why he invited Mark to come at all? Perhaps it’s a weakness of amateur villains that they often invite their nemesis to the intended scene of the crime, just to gloat…before getting taken down by the Good Guy.

So, Tad’s Plan A—using the two Security Dudes to sideline Mark—has failed. Now it’s time for Plan B: Using the Grungey Boys to humiliate Mark in public. “Surely, this time it will work!”  I think we’d all like to see that happen once in a while. You know, for the sake of “reality.”

Speaking of the Grungey Boys, can we ignore Connor’s high school trashing of English grammar? More largely, I think we are witnessing Connor’s growing confidence and arrogance, compared to his earlier days when he was just a naïve, inexperienced, and quick-tempered jerk (“<Sniff!> How quickly our little boy has grown up!”). Just as surprising, Honest Ernest seems happy to let him take the spotlight, which is also noteworthy.

Art Dept. What’s with Tad’s mouth in panel 4? Can’t say I’ve seen anything like that. It doesn’t even look human. Could Tad Crass be an alien from the secret planet, Tralfamadore?

You heard it here, second, for sure:  Jules Rivera just posted a panel from a not-yet-published daily on her BlueSky channel, showing Mark sitting in an office. He’s in conference with Tad Crass, while the two MMA fighters/security guards stand by, looking on in defeat. But Mark’s confrontational repose, refusing to shake Tad’s hand, is one of his best depictions. I’m anxious to see it in published form.

Now, let’s move on to today’s unfortunate installment:

For Pete’s sake! We already know this so-called Woodsman Olympics competition is bonkers, and there’s no credit to me for predicting the obvious lineup for this “tag-team” boxing event. It seems that tag-team boxing is a real thing, though it is presented more as entertainment (“a fun sideshow”) than as professional, serious boxing. So it fits right in!

By the way, which Grungey Boy in panel 4 is Honest Ernest? I’m thinking it is the dude beside the door, behind Connor, though I really can’t tell. I don’t know whether Jules Rivera’s hijacking the nickname of traditional Mark Trail readers to use as Mark and Cliff’s “team name” is an homage or just part of this parody. What do you think?

Art Dept. More despair and frustration comes from Jules Rivera letting that same 12-year old kid who scribbled panel 1 in yesterday’s submission do the entire set of panels today. Do I need to go into detail? I think panel 4 is the worst, where a vague higher viewpoint has all of the guys almost stacked on top of each other, as if they were posing for some ancient Egyptian tomb painting. Never mind the disregard for relative proportions between the players. Never mind the sketchy drawing, overall. Never mind the clumsy composition.