It is a happy day, indeed, to see Jules Rivera revisit the old Mark Trail trope of the ambiguously misplaced dialog balloon. Hah-Hah. Look at that bird (is it a European Robin!?) shouting “ARGH!” So funny. Okay, it might be a little cute. But fortunately, Rivera doesn’t do this very often. Moving on…

Today’s strip is a filler, certainly not moving the story along, even though we’re only in the prologue stage. But let’s give Cherry (or Rivera) her due for keeping a popular southern oath (panel 1) in the public domain, where some readers might assume Cherry’s statement is the result of having spent the prior evening binge-watching The Beverly Hillbillies.

But I’m still a bit disappointed that Rivera chose to not have Cherry participate in this assignment. It would have been a nice change from her usual Sunny Soleil Society stories. That is, Bill Ellis could have given both Mark and Cherry their own, separate assignments. Instead, Rivera kept it conventional. Looks like we’ll have Cherry once again cleaning Violet Cheshire’s boots and putting up with Honest Ernest.