Frequent reader, Downpuppy, was able to help stopper the memory leak in my head by pointing out there is at least one reference to Bill Ellis’s location:

Talk about non sequiturs, Bill Ellis’s attitude and expressions today do not match his reaction yesterday, which looked more like a person who was just told by the IRS that they might be able to pay their tax penalty if they sell their house.

Okay. Now, coincidences (Bill is aware of a federal investigation) can be a helpful, if clichéd, plot device for stories; especially in adventure strips. For this story, the FWS agent is probably going to welcome Mark to join his investigation. In reality, the federal agent would almost certainly tell Mark to stay as far away from the shop and its proprietor as possible, or risk jail time for interfering in the investigation.  But this is the Mark Trail strip! So maybe the FWS agent will simply turn over his investigation to Mark so he can finally take some vacation time with the family.

That won’t happen. On the other hand, looks like we’re going to get introduced to a new character! Always glad when that happens. Still, I miss Jules Rivera’s innovation of Mark working for a publishing empire with several magazines, each having its own editors, missions, and readers. But lately, that’s all been missing. Likely as not, it takes more work than Rivera is prepared to do, given her unknown salary. So, she is (so far), relying on the traditional relationship of Mark and Bill, to hand out assignments.

Well, it’s about time Mark thought about paying the bills once again. But how curious that the shop in question is a reptile pet store, not a pet fish store. Mark seems to believe that “unethical activity” is enough evidence or suspicion to sell an article that will keep the Trail family financially afloat; or that it would even be worth publishing in the first place. Not much meat on that bone so far.

However, a genuine plot twist arises in panel 4 with Bill Ellis’s panicky response. I don’t know about you, but I am just slightly curious how Bill Ellis is linked to an otherwise obscure pet store in Nashville: He’s a partial owner? The store is owned by a relative? The owner is a big advertiser? It’s where Bill buys exotic snakes?

I don’t believe the location of Bill’s work place or residence has ever been specified in the strip. Maybe Jules Rivera will break ranks with her predecessors and reveal Bill’s secret stomping grounds.

Art Dept. The inadequacy and confusion (to me) of Rivera’s portrait balloon phone call convention is starkly revealed today. They lack the usual “tails” that point to the location of the speakers. And we are left to determine just where these people happen to be. From their relationship to the background, it would be normal to infer that Mark is in the greenhouse while Bill Ellis is sitting somewhere in the cabin. Of course, that is not the case, but it’s an easy call to make. Thus, this particular composition could have worked had Rivera drawn the tail of Mark’s portrait pointing to the cabin, while the tail for Ellis’ portrait balloon could have pointed to Mark’s headphones.

Sad! That green-screen background in Panel 4 is the giveaway they didn’t want us to see. After more than 70 years, we now see that the glorious Lost Forest, the caves, the boats, even the animals in Mark Trail were all faked on a Hollywood sound stage. And all of the human characters are just paid actors (I think they are on the 25th version of Andy). Over the decades, actors have come and gone, to be replaced by different actors. This helps explain why the major characters in the strip look different over time. And this time around, they didn’t get their actors from Central Casting!

It’s just a theory, of course. Mark and Ranger Shaw must track down that suspicious dealer legally selling blue diamond shrimp! How dare he!? And Ranger Shaw—nobody’s idea of a Jeopardy contestant—seems embarrassed (panel 3) that his kid didn’t spend his allowance, instead, on normal things young boys enjoy, like vaping and porn. But Mark is actually correct: A dealer that sells one kind of exotic animal will sell others. Insightful observation, indeed, Mark! Of course, diversity of inventory is a standard strategy virtually all business owners understand and follow.

However, the clincher to Mark’s “accuse first, find evidence later” strategy is revealed in panel 1, where Mark has already all but claimed the dealer is likely a crook for selling shrimpy shrimp that can be turned into an invasive species in the wild. So they’ll need to visit the shop and see whether they can find more evidence of wrongdoing. I’m thinking that, other than watching cave disaster videos, Mark enjoys crime reality TV shows.

The plot thickens (note that I avoided the all-too-common clichéd pun) as Mark makes Ranger Shaw aware of this “dangerous situation.” However, do parents really give pre-teen children prepaid credit cards to buy things online? I mean, I know kids get gift cards for presents. And where is Mrs. Shaw? Has she left Ranger Shaw once again? There are other inconsistencies in today’s strip. Have fun with that.

As we have noted earlier, selling ornamental shrimp is not illegal and is done virtually everywhere. Owning shrimp is not illegal. They are not really an invasive shrimp species unless they are released into the wild. Jules Rivera is making Mark out to be an over-enthusiastic alarmist. And this pet store could be a street shop in Thailand, for all anybody knows. What’s Mark gonna do then!?

This story is a bad fit for Mark. He is not an online investigator. He does not work for the FTC, DOJ, FBI, or even USPIS, federal agencies tasked with professionals who handle online fraud and illegal sales. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we discover that this online shop is within driving range, just as we saw with the story about the phony gorilla center in Florida and Happy Trail’s misplaced infatuation for its owner.

Art Dept. Regarding panel 1:  Plain embarrassing.

The Adventure of the Blue Diamond Shrimp continues as Mark finally got out of the cabin to meet with Robbie’s dad, Ranger Shaw. I’m hoping that Ranger Shaw is being sarcastic with his comment in panel 4, slapping down Mark’s paranoid delusions. It’s hard to tell with him.

Is it just me, or do you think it is a bit insulting for Mark to imply (panel 3) that Ranger Shaw is a negligent parent for not knowing that his son makes online purchases? I mean, does Mark think Robbie has his own credit card!? Well, does Rusty? (feel free to disagree)

But honestly, Mark sounds like one of those self-righteous neighbors who gets upset and starts up a petition because the Hobsen’s teenage girl across the street started coloring her hair and wears tats that are only partially visible below her dress. What’s Mark’s next fear, I wonder: That Rusty and the other kids in school dress up like blue diamond shrimp for Halloween!?

Alas, I can’t figure out what Mark is focused on here: Kids buying ornamental shrimp? Kids buying stuff on the Internet? Possibly letting shrimp loose in the river? The machinations of a mysterious online dealer?  The possibilities numb the mind. Or maybe it’s the story, itself. I’ll get back to you on that.

Jules Rivera must have been concerned about the length of this story, so she has dedicated some days on what I call “wasting time” with polite, pointless chatter. To me that signals a superficial storyline. The premise, alone, seems banal: a small-time operator of unknown resources and intentions, operating a business selling specialized sea creatures to kids (if that declaration is even true). Unless the dealer is also smuggling drugs or illicit antiquities, I don’t see a whole lot of story content coming our way. If that is the case, this story may focus more on the chase than the crook.

As far as I can see, we are still in the dark as to what the actual problem is.  Is it selling to kids? That may not be illegal or even factual. Is it the possibility of local water infestation? Not sure how the dealer is responsible for that, either. The dealer’s questionable past? Well, so what? One bright spot in this dim light is that we might finally get a new bad guy, unless it is one of the usual crowd of crumb-bums operating under an alias. Let’s hope this story grows some muscle by Saturday.

You can insert your own double-entendres here. They’ll likely be better than mine; or at least, printable.

When you come up with a possible story idea—kids buying non-native ornamental dwarf shrimp that can become a public nuisance and environmental threat if released into the wild—you then have to come up with a plot. One complication is that the sale and ownership of these non-native shrimp is legal in most states (except Hawaii and Maine, with some restrictions in other states, such as Florida California, and Texas). So, what to do? For Jules Rivera, the solution is to focus on a reseller with a shady background. Of course, we have to assume Rusty knew who sold the shrimp to Robbie and told Mark (in between the panels).

Thus, this story immediately pivots away from a strictly environmental or ecological angle to possible criminal activity that possibly relates to shrimp. The dealer’s “shady activity” will have to relate to the selling or disposing of these non-native shrimp to have any plausible reason for Mark to be involved.

Art Dept. Maybe Mark gets smaller (panel 3) at night due to some kind of long-acting agent that infiltrated his biology over the years of working on dangerous environmental issues and only sleep restores him. Or maybe the nefarious shrimp reseller developed an AI bot that somehow affects the hormones of people who visit his site, causing them to shrink when they view certain web pages. I mean, what else could account for Mark’s scaled-down appearance!?

So I ask you, what’s mysterious about these dwarf shrimp!? They are well documented. In fact, Mark devoted this past Sunday to talking about them! Did he already forget that? As for that dialog in panel 1, <Yuck!> It sounds like he’s reading aloud from something online. Even Ralph the Rat Snake can only look on in wonder.

Mark thinks that the cherry shrimp (Neocaridina davidi) may become an invasive species. Well, they are already considered so in various parts of the world, including Hawaii. In fact, online sources state that Hawaii already has a strong law against importing ornamental fresh-water aquatic species, such as these Neocaridina.

What does Mark intend to do with this information, anyway? Is he going to raid pet and fish stores to liberate or sacrifice these dwarf shrimp for the salvation of our oceans and waterways? Or maybe he’ll ensure they only infect waters in countries like North Korea and Russia? If not that, then what? I reckon he can at least write an article about them. Maybe get paid, too.

What we do know is that, once again, Mark takes the story away from Rusty and gives it to himself. So it would appear, and Jules Rivera is either too enamored over Mark or too indifferent to Rusty to balance the books and let Rusty try to carry the ball.

Mark must really be bored. However, he did just reveal the reason for his suspicions: The blue diamond shrimp can be invasive if they are released into non-native water environments. As a member of the species Neocaridina davidi, the shrimp are native to parts of South East Asia, around Taiwan, and off the coast of China. However, selling and owning these shrimp (they are bred in a variety of colors) is totally legal.

So there is no conspiracy going on and no attempt to violate international laws. Mark is just overreacting. I suspect he’ll wind up making an appearance at Rusty’s school where he’ll lecture (and bore) the students on the dangers of releasing pets into the wild. Shucks, anybody who lives near Florida probably already knows about that stuff! <Yawn!> Even for Jules Rivera, this is pretty light fare for a Mark Trail story. But the plot could go another way and make it a bit more interesting:

This is the kind of investigation that Rusty could undertake on his own and then present to class. It’s too minor a problem for Mark to bother with. He should just point Rusty in the right direction and then get out of the way. Rusty would be the protagonist of the story, not just a plot-device for Mark.

Rusty’s involvement would also help rebuild some of his lost confidence; to say nothing of putting Robbie on the defensive. Okay, that last part is not necessarily a virtue, but these are kids, after all. And Rusty can use a victory!

Mark thinks an investigation is needed because Robbie owns some blue shrimp!? Jules Rivera—and by extension, Mark Trail,—seems ignorant of the fact that blue shrimp can legally be purchased by anybody, throughout the United States. Case closed, Mark.

So when the heck is Mark going to get off his lazy butt and get an actual paying assignment?

Art Dept. Do I need to point out (in panel 1) that Rivera also seems ignorant of—or indifferent to—basic perspective, since logs on either side of a doorway cannot be simultaneously seen at an angle? That is, we should only be able to see the ends of the logs on one side, only. Else, we’d have to assume the wall curves away from the door on both sides. That might be the case for a house ready to collapse in on itself.

When Rusty Trail was (re)introduced by Rivera, he was portrayed as a relatively normal kid with the usual stereotypical glitches, such as shyness (around girls, anyway), a penchant for fantasy, and trying to not adopt all of his dad’s habits and hobbies (such as fishing). Rusty has lately taken on additional personality traits, such as unusual stubbornness and whining. The latter has been his go-to reaction, lately, especially when it involves Robbie Shaw.

Exactly how Robbie “beat” Rusty in show-and-tell has not yet been revealed, though Jules Rivera may give us a flashback this week. Of course, we might blame Rusty for his own downfall, based simply on his understanding of what show-and-tell is for, and for his apparent lack of preparation. We’ll have to see some evidence. After all, turquoise really is just a blue stone, so presentation is important! However, I’m also surprised that Mark “Mr. Wildlife” Trail did not seem to know about blue shrimp!

Art Dept. Panel 1 does not work as well as it should, visually speaking. Rivera has used the circular headshots quite often when showing people speaking from within a structure. This technique is often used to provide the current context for the conversation (such as inside of an airplane), where Rivera can mash two panel spaces together to create a more scenic composition. There is a lot of visual competition going on that gets in the way.

First of all, the composition has too much clutter, including the pileated woodpecker that eats up so much space! What is more important here:  The bird or the conversation? Second, the circular headshots would normally be linked into the cabin by “tails” running from the circles to the cabin, just like the dialog balloons. That insures we know where the speakers are. Third, Mark’s dialog balloon could have been more efficiently designed to display his words on only three rows instead of four. This could have resulted in more open space for the scene. Fourth: In this case, the scene could have been better composed by omitting the encircled heads and just tagging the cabin with the dialog balloon. This would more clearly put us, the readers, in the foreground with the woodpecker, while Mark and Rusty’s conversation goes on in the background. It would be like a common cinematic technique of hearing a conversation before seeing the speakers, as the camera zooms in from the distance and ultimately reveals and focuses on the actors.

It’s a new week in the Trailverse and time for new adventures! I know what you’re thinking: How on earth will Jules Rivera top the action and suspense of Cherry’s Bats in the Belfry story or Mark’s Caving with the Kooks adventure? I don’t know about you, but I’m glad we had last week to recover, so I’m ready for the next blockbuster drama! Watch out, Flash Gordon!

Apparently, Rivera has adopted a common “misdirection” approach to suspense, presenting a seemingly mundane activity, one undertaken by the Trails and other families during the school year, just to present a false sense of calm before the storm.

Yet, even now, we see some hint of suspense beginning to take root: Rusty has a stone of turquoise, something I’m sure that few people outside of Nevada have ever seen, much less heard of. No doubt, it’s a magical stone once used in secret ceremonies by an ancient indigenous people, now gone extinct. I’m thinking that a student in class (perhaps Robbie) will accidentally rub the stone in a way that causes it to vibrate furiously, glow brighter and brighter, then suddenly expel a ferocious cryptid, bent on eating everyone in the room!

Hold on, I need to catch my breath.

Okay, I’m better. On second thought, maybe Rusty’s fellow students will simply laugh at his boring blue stone, sending him running back into the woods to reclaim his King of Raccoons throne.