A Scouting Life for me?

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I wonder if Rusty is in two different scouting troops, or whether the troop has seasonal uniform changes. Back in January, Rusty’s Woods Scouts sported uniforms that were based on classic Boy Scout olive clothing with a red bandana. Today, he sports blue clothing with a yellow bandana, typical of the Cub Scouts.

Focusing on the story, we’re back at Lost Forest, and Rusty clearly has his own agenda. I’m intrigued how he is pulling this off, as his fellow scouts and scoutmaster (Ranger Shaw?) are standing around, watching him. Yet he walks away in the second panel. How is that possible, unless he’s just ignoring them? And what is Rusty’s objective?

Art Dept. Now, the composition of panel 1 has a lot of elements within three main zones: Foreground (Rusty), middle ground (Cherry), and background (the scouts and the forest). Yet, due to its width, it doesn’t seem cramped. But then we come to panel 2. It displays a different look and feel. Almost eerie! There is even texture and atmosphere! The scene seems narrow and somewhat crowded. An overgrown path zig-zags upward into the distance, suggesting some kind of hill. The forest is heavier and more lush than panel 1. Something like Spanish Moss or some other parasitic clinger droops from the trees on the left, even though the colorist may have misinterpreted them (or I did). The tree trunks show something else Jules Rivera rarely bothers with: texture!

Rusty’s heavily outlined, dark figure precedes a black shadow falling on the uneven path behind him. And that is also remarkable, because Rivera almost never bothers to include shadows or atmosphere! Comparing panel 2 with panel 1 is like watching Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, leaving Munchkin Land to travel through the dark, Haunted Forest. It’s a cool visual transition that has real visual suspense built into it.

However, Rivera doesn’t seem to know where to go with panel 2. No sooner does she create this interesting visual transition into drama and uncertainty, then she destroys it in panel 3, as we’re back to the bright friendly world of panel 1. So panel 2 becomes a question mark or an aberration.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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We spent most of the week before learning that Happy Trail had fallen victim to a popular Internet scam known as catfishing. It was no surprise to see that Jules Rivera devoted most of this past week to having Mark explain it all to Cherry. So Mark packed all of his household goods (it seemed) to drive down to Florida and save dad from giving away all of his retirement money to a phony girlfriend named Dreama.

Okay, this may not have the immediate appeal to suspense that we might find in saving a manatee from costume-wearing kidnappers, or attending an AI Conference in New York City, where Mark represented the anti-progressive, anti-AI luddites. But this new story about catfishing is definitely more in the realm of the ugly reality normal people face in a world filled with liars, corrupters, charlatans, and other crooks who ought to be locked up for a minimum of fifty years. So, how will Rivera handle this story? Stay tuned, adventure fans!

Jules Rivera may have avoided any direct observation of “Mothers’ Day” (which some people refer to as another Hallmark Holiday), but she countered that by giving some face time to Cherry in today’s nature chat. And the content is clearly presented, with no stupid jokes or puns. That, in itself, is cause for celebration! However, Mark’s explanation seems confusing to me. Bees transferring pollen from one daisy to another (panel 4) is not cross-pollination (as I understand it), but simply an example of pollination. So, I did some more digging. Remember, I am not a horticulturalist or botanist, though I play one on the Internet. Here is what I found out, but feel free to correct me.

Cross-pollination is the process where pollen from one plant or flower pollinates another plant or flower of a different variety within the same species. For example, Courtland apples require cross-pollination from compatible apple varieties such as Honey Crisp, Fuji, and Granny Smith. That is also why apple orchards have trees of several apple varieties. I also learned that some apple varieties such as Jonagold, must cross-pollinate from two different variety trees, because they are self-sterile and will not produce fruit on their own. The genetic term for that type of tree is triploid. Seedless watermelons and bananas are also triploid fruits.

Time to get your ‘Willie Nelson’ on and sing!

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Finally! Jules Rivera managed to get Mark out of the cabin and on the road again. And right off the bat, Happy Trail calls for one of Peach Pitt’s custom t-shirts. I wonder if that farmers’ market is open every day or did Mark leave on the right day? <Sigh!> I think I’m spinning my wheels today.

Art Dept. I’m not sure what to think of Mark’s auto in panel 1. It looks like Jules Rivera is experimenting with a woodcut style drawing, based on the blocky feel to the car; the use of flat, heavy “hatch” lines that thin out on one end (e.g. radiator), and contrasting with thin parallel lines on the side of the car. The window glass doesn’t come off very well, and the zip lines behind the car to denote movement are too short. However, I wish Rivera would have extended this woodcut style to the entire panel.

Now, the use of popup portrait bubbles is a device Rivera often uses to highlight somebody from inside of a structure when the view is external. It’s a good technique, though I think also putting Mark in his own bubble is overkill. Yes, it adds a visual symmetry with Happy, but it makes the panel more crowded and lessens the impact of Happy’s bubble.  Mark could have been shown inside the car. However, I’ll give Rivera extra credit for drawing Mark’s seat belt! It’s an easy detail to forget or omit in this situation.

Finally, on the road … no, wait. Almost. Maybe tomorrow.

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Mark is optimistic and naïve to think an 11 year-old kid would miss dad for a few days. But as I feared, Jules Rivera is using the entire week to get Mark out of the house and on the road; apparently, to work on her comic strip humor chops.

And what’s with all of (at least 5) the bags (panel 1)!? I thought Mark was the only one making the trip. It’s only going to be a few days; a week at most. Hell, a few years ago I spent an entire month in England with the contents of one backpack, so I can’t figure out what he’s bringing along.  Surely it can’t be clothes, since he always wears the same outfit. Well, he might have a closet full of red plaid board shirts, for all we know.

Perhaps, as a professional wildlife and nature photojournalist, Mark tries to be prepared for the chance to ply his trade as the opportunity presents itself, so he’s bring along some equipment. Or, this is a clever ruse to sneak out of the house with all of the junk food in the kitchen cabinet.

The Blah, Blah, Blah continues!

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Oh dear, looks like Jules Rivera is going to use up an entire week of strips just to get Mark out of the cabin. And it isn’t as if there is any substantive dialog here where Mark and Cherry actually engage in an informative and educational discussion on Internet scams and how catfishing suckers people. Nope! All we’ve gotten so far are gag strips pretending to be a storyline.

I don’t even know why Mark is yelling in panel 2, since Cherry is directly in front of him.

Art Dept. To reinforce my theory of “Blah! Blah! Blah! Laziness” going on, compare the compositions in today’s panels with yesterday’s. See any parallels? Well, at least Rivera kept the lines inside the panels today.

The tedium is strong with this one …

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Perhaps Jules Rivera thinks this extended discussion will help educate readers about catfishing; but all it does is create opportunities for more unfunny gag strips (i.e. Cherry continues to play the ditz). Aside from the unnecessary redundant dialog, we slog through Cherry’s naive question in panel 2. Why naive? Because Internet scammers are anonymous, as are most users.

Now I don’t understand Mark’s choice of words (“they”) in panel 3, unless he is trying to be gender neutral, because immediately after, he switches to using the female gender. There certainly are times when using “they” makes sense, but this example just sounds forced. Anyway, three days of this conversation is more than enough time for Mark to explain why he has to go to Florida. It’s time to get on a plane or in a car and get moving!

Art Dept. Today we see another example (between panels 1 and 2) of ink lines extending beyond the panels where they clearly do not look like stylistic refinements. They look more like individual whiskers or stubble. (Say, maybe they are remnants of the face stubble Mark used to sport before Rivera cut it off and replaced it with tone fills. <LOL!>) In any event, they look sloppy. I’m surprised that King Features didn’t bother to erase them. And don’t ask me about the French-kissing raccoons, either!

A catfish and a retired nature journalist walk into a bar …

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So the Formal Point of today’s strip is to have Mark explain to Cherry what his emergency is all about. However, the Underlying Purpose of today’s strip is for Jules Rivera to pretend this is a gag strip and set up the punchline in panel 4. She did that by having Mark mansplain his emergency using carefully framed grammar to cause Cherry to question Mark’s jargon and offer her own cute humorous response; a comment that would fit nicely in Family Circus. But Cherry (or Rivera) should leave comedy to the professionals.

“Cherry, I rarely saw you at the Woodsman Olympics; why change now?’

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Art Dept. Okay, I think we have to call foul on the wall, specifically the logs on the right side of the door. If we can see the ends of the logs on the left side of the door (which makes sense, as our frame of reference is to the right of the door), there is no way we should see the ends of the logs on the right-hand side. Jules Rivera should know this. Also, Cherry’s speech balloon in panel 1 looks detached only because Jules Rivera (or a staff artist) colored over the balloon’s tail.

Rivera’s Cherry displays a kind of independence that was not normally present in the days before Rivera took over. With that kind of trust, I’m not sure why Mark needed to be vague about his travel (panel 2), though it will certainly be spelled out tomorrow. Perhaps it was necessary in order to give Cherry the spotlight for her friendly dig in panel 3. Mark get the jab; but shouldn’t he look a bit more bothered and concerned? Anyway, I hope tomorrow is enough time for explanations, and Mark will get out of town the day after.

Now, this story—as we understand it so far—can rightfully be criticized for having nothing really to do with the environment, animals, or water pollution. The same can always be said for numerous stories before Rivera came on. We could argue that this adds more depth and complexity to Mark’s character. But we haven’t see a lot of real conservation-oriented stories lately; so it would be great if Mark put his family life aside for a while and tackle something on which his fame and reputation actually depend. After all, this is not Mary Worth!

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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There is at least one thing we can say about Jules Rivera’s take on Mark Trail (the strip and the person):  Mark has become a more complex character with a more exposed home life. The earlier incarnations of Mark were fairly simple and clear-cut. Mark’s character had about as much depth as other good-guy characters in the 1950s-1960s, be it on television, radio, or film. That is, Mark had noble virtues and an unwavering sense of justice. But the “private life” of Mark Trail was minimized in order to focus on Mark’s environment-based adventures.

In the hands of Jules Rivera, Mark Trail got a more complicated personality, an expanded home life, and an extended family, leading to complications in ways that Jack Elrod, Ed Dodd, and James Allen rarely bothered to explore.

Thus, this past week we learned that Mark’s dad, Happy Trail, is currently under the spell of an Internet romance scam known as catfishing. Niecy Roger, a neighbor of Happy and friend of Mark, phoned him from her home in Florida to update Mark. Of course, Happy won’t listen to Niecy or her father (Jolly), so she pled with Mark to come down and save his father before he sends all of his retirement savings to the anonymous online crook. And this came just as Mark was hoping to enjoy some down time, too!

Rivera’s tendency to get cute in these Sunday nature chats can diminish and limit what information she presents. So the double-wide panel with Mark reacting to “hypnotic” stripes gives more emphasis on a small point, and possibly the wrong conclusion: The tail is certainly used to confuse or distract predators, though I don’t think “hypnotic” is the correct interpretation. The tail could be offered as a sacrifice that a predator might mistake for the body. An interesting fact is that ringtails (which tend to be loners) can be domesticated and were once used by miners to help keep vermin out of mines and shacks. Maybe not a great house pet these days. I also learned that ringtails change their home every few days to avoid predators tracking them.

Niecy’s phone call finally comes to an end as Mark’s involvement begins.

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I suppose Jules Rivera felt it necessary to extend the phone conversation to fill out the week, rather than getting on with the story. Now poor Groucho Mark has to upend his day to save his dad from bankruptcy. Is there no justice anymore!?

Okay, here and now is where I want to see a Bill Ellis phone call take place, rather than in between stories, as it normally occurs. Not that Mark would have any trouble making the right decision here, but it would be interesting to see him deal with it and see Bill’s reaction.

Hook, line, and stinker

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Well, say hello and goodbye to that “toad on the road”, in case it gets run over by Cherry in her pickup truck on the way home (okay, bullfrog doesn’t rhyme with road, so sue me!). I reckon Happy Trail can also say “Aloha!” to his retirement savings he’s been sending to his phony heartthrob. Perhaps the best thing that Mark can do at this point is call his dad or drive down there and convince him that he is being scammed once again.

Poor Happy Trail: once a nature journalist—like his son—uncovering fraud, corruption, greed, and the poaching of natural resources; yet now, he is a repeat victim of fraud.

I’m genuinely interested in what else Mark thinks he can do, except something drastic, like running a sting operation on the crook to possibly recover some of the money or at least get the person arrested … assuming the person is in the US or a friendly country that is willing to cooperate. That kind of lone wolf activity might work in the movies and comic strips, but it would take the resources of the FBI to do it in real life.

Several people have referenced the currently ending story in Mary Worth that features the same theme: An old widower got scammed by a fake online romantic interest, resulting in the loss of a pile of money. I haven’t kept up on Mary Worth for some time, so I completely missed it. But it is common for writers and artists to inspire each other, sometimes with deliberate acknowledgement. The Mary Worth story began back on February 23rd. Given that cartoonists work weeks and even months in advance, it is possible that Jules Rivera saw the start of the Harvey Hart storyline and was inspired to craft this story for Mark. I guess if Happy Trail’s girlfriend is also named Trixie we’ll know for certain!

Did Happy Trail fall for an Internet relationship scam?

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Here we go again! Mark had to help Dad (Happy Trail) out before, when he got conned in an NFT scam run by the Crypto Bros out in Oregon. Now, Happy may be getting scammed by an online romance crook. Is it time to put Happy’s money into a supervised trust and appoint a guardian? That could be done, but it would also be the end of the story. So, nope! And Mark is not going to tell Niecy “Dad’s an adult and it’s his money to do with as he wants. If it makes him feel good to give away all of the money he intended to leave me, then the hell with him!”

On a serious note, Internet scams are a recurring issue for senior citizens who may not be that discriminating or knowledgeable about emails scams, fake websites, popups, and other online hazards. Hell, you don’t have to be a senior citizen to be taken in by online crooks and pranksters. We all like to think we’re too wise and too smart to fall for that stuff. It’s a vanity that online crooks exploit.

Anyway, it’s a good thing that Niecy is contacting Mark to update him on the situation down there; though it’s going to be a nearly impossible job if Niecy or Happy expect Mark to recover the funds already transferred. There are practical things they should do right away if this is an online racket. But we’ll just have to wait and see where this story goes.

And “where it goes” is the most important concern for us: how Jules Rivera treats this issue. Will it remain a major plot device for the story or will it be cast aside as the story shifts in another direction?

A phone call comes out of Mark’s past

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As the cutout of a Northern Bobwhite curiously sits out in the open (panel 1), Mark answers his phone. I was at least partially correct about who would be calling. Not quite actual family, but extended family, I reckon. Most of you may recall that Niecy is the daughter of Jolly Roger, neighbor and friend of Happy Trails. Their troubled past was part of the drama in Mark’s first adventure when Jules Rivera took over. It’s a story worth reading and especially viewing, as it displays what I consider Rivera’s best art on the strip. If you get distracted by the slightly different take on Niecy, don’t worry. The appearance of many comic strip characters evolved over the years. However, the initial version of Niecy Rogers certainly looked a few years older, as in grown up!

Well, it looks like another non-paying adventure is lining up on Mark. I hope he got a sizable check for that non-story on Tad Crass.

When just getting the mail isn’t good enough.

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Well, the rest period didn’t take so long, after all. I reckon that the dinner last week took the place of the post-assignment nature walk. It appears that Jules Rivera is wasting no time in getting Mark back in the saddle. While I don’t mind putting myself out on a limb, I wouldn’t be surprised if this phone call had nothing to do with Bill Ellis, but was from somebody in his family. Better yet, it would be a hoot if it was a robocall or solicitation. I don’t know if Rivera has the guts or curiosity to devote a few panels to the idea, but who knows? It could be used to spur a new investigative adventure for Mark.

Well, I’ve also wondered what Mark would say if Bill Ellis called him in the middle of one of his personal adventures and pitched an assignment:  “Sounds like a good one, Bill, but at the moment, I’m competing in a Woodsman Olympics in Las Vegas—yes, Bill. Las Vegas—and also investigating a land dispute involving Tad Crass…Say what? You’re going to give the assignment to Kelly Welly if I don’t take it? No way, Jose! Sign me up, Bill. Cherry and Rusty can fly home later with Cliff!”

Mark hopes to cash in on his Tad Crass exposé!

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I’ve always thought that Mark and Cherry’s cabin was something like Dr. Who’s Tardis:  It looks rather small on the outside, as if it might have space for a front room and maybe two small bedrooms. Yet, once you enter, there always seems to be plenty of space with a kitchen, living room, dining room, a hallway, presumably a bathroom, and then the bedrooms. Unless the family has adopted the Medieval tradition of the Great Bed where everybody slept together, the cabin must accommodate Mark and Cherry, Rusty, and Dr. Davis. To say nothing of the two dogs. That’s a lot. But sure, this is just a comic strip and we need to just go with the flow, like TV shows where friends just walk into peoples’ homes without knocking and not getting shot as intruders.

Also interesting is that today’s strip signifies the actual end of the story, especially noted by the “TV sitcom finale” of Mark winking directly at us readers. And how curious it is that this story ended on a Monday, as opposed to the end of the prior week. Anyway, there is the rest of the week to fill out, so maybe we will see Rusty get the attention he deserves in his scouting troop. Or maybe Troop Leader Ranger Shaw will point his finger at Rusty and reprimand him for aping Robbie’s photo achievement.

Art Dept. I was going through some early stories and found what I think may be the earliest incarnation of the Grungey Boys. It is actually in the story (Sunny and the Bees) where Honest Ernest is introduced as an exterminator and the other two people are his assistants.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Whatever became of the Grungey Boys? Is Cliff angry at Mark for getting him DSQ from the Woodsman Olympics? Did Tad Crass fold his tent and fade off into the desert after Mark Trail announced he was publishing his exposé? Did the City of Las Vegas come to a decision? Did Paul Bunyan enter the Woodsman Olympics as a Dark Horse and completely sweep the field?

The answers to these questions—and more—will not be found in this past week’s strips. Instead, we got a week of Mark and Cherry playing footsy with each other at a fancy restaurant as Mark revealed what he really had been doing. Meanwhile, Cliff got stuck being the baby-sitter for Rusty and hanging out in the hotel’s swinging backroom video arcade. I’m sure this will help build up Cliff’s self-respect and friendship with Mark. Cherry showed Rusty’s photo of a “bighorn sheep” to Mark, who went on to drool over the anticipated success of his tell-all article on the machinations of Tad Crass.

Okay, this is not exactly an obvious ending for the story. Keep in mind that Jules Rivera has sometimes explicitly concluded stories with a “THE END” tag. Therefore, we might get another week of this epilog. With Mark Trail stories, sometimes we just don’t know when they will stop. Or pick up again.

Bullfrogs are interesting. I ran across them many times as a kid in the southeast. I used to catch their tadpoles in the ditch alongside our house. Never had the desire to eat a frog (that is, the legs), though they are a menu item in the South as well as other places. They are an invasive species in the rest of the world, having been released into at least 40 countries. Oh, I just read that females can lay up to 20,000 eggs at one time! That explains all the tadpoles in the ditch!

Jules Rivera gives Mark so much space and face time in these Sunday nature talks that there is just no room for more information. Then again, in this age of tweets, perhaps Rivera’s approach meets the brief attention-span criterion for public consumption, but might spur some readers to seek more information. Nevertheless, too much Mark Trail Face Time.

The week ends with the start of a long night

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Oh, Jules Rivera devoted today’s strip to reach a visual punch line, because, what else is there to explore or discover, right? No flashy gambling halls, no big-time shows, no outdoor presentations, no trip to Hoover Dam, not even any streetwalkers! In short, no Las Vegas experience.

You know, I was thinking that Mark might have tried to clear his project with Bill Ellis ahead of time, so he wouldn’t waste his trip or his opportunity to become the Top Woodsman and get that Big Money! Bill just might have warned him off, like he did to Mark at the end of the A-I, A-I, Oh! story that ended in late June 2025.

Mark turns the conversation around to his Tad Crass article

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Confessions of an American Crow-Eater (with apologies to the late Thomas De Quincey).  My trivial “what’s wrong here?” quiz blew up in my face when I checked my assumptions on human anatomy only after I posted yesterday’s blog. I was struck by the descending length of Cherry’s fingers in panel 3. “Probably a design choice,” I thought, ”but clearly not realistic! After all, my fingers don’t look like that!” Well. Turns out that some hands (more frequently on females than males) do have finger lengths that run from longest to shortest. It’s not at all common, but does happen. Busted! So, my apologies to you all for running with an inaccurate assumption while ignoring one my basic tenets: Do your due diligence first!

What we first learned on March 5 was that land originally allotted to a solar energy firm is now “under dispute with Tad Crass.” Then on March 6, we discovered that Tad Crass had already started construction on the site in question, but it had been stopped by the city and was under review. I’m not sure how any major construction project can take place without permits already in place. Right?

If the land was first “allotted” to the solar project, where did Crass get the permits to begin construction on the site? Well, I’m not sure how much Jules Rivera researched how construction projects take place or how land disputes are resolved. In fact, we never found out how the land dispute turned out. I suppose we are to believe that solar arrays now fill that valley for hundreds of acres.

It all seems backwards to me, but I know nothing about such subjects. And Cherry’s suggestion for the title of Mark’s article, (panel 3) suggests she should stick to her day job of being Violet Cheshire’s factotum.

Art Dept. Rivera’s drawings of Cherry look natural and believable. No exaggerations, awkward poses, or goofy expressions. Unlike Moosejaw Mark.

Cherry catches Mark up on family activities

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Rant. Yesterday was Earth Day. Yes, I forgot that, until now. My brain is a sieve. But I don’t write and draw this strip. Did Mark Trail (or Jules Rivera) say anything about Earth Day? No! You’d have thought it would get a mention, since the salvation of the Earth is kind of Mark’s Prime Directive. I mean, Rivera could have shoe-horned it into the story: Instead of having their dinner right away, Mark and Cherry and Rusty and Cliff could have stopped on the way back to the hotel and spent a small bit of time (4 panels’ worth!) celebrating (or at least acknowledging) Earth Day. But they didn’t do it. In my opinion, it’s a major oversight. You would have thought Rivera’s syndicate editors would have said something in time. And that’s all I have to say. Time to move on to today’s installment!

The story pivots to Rusty’s photo where a small, but significant morality event is recounted. And once again, Mark is shown to be self-centered. Is this deliberate or does Jules Rivera believe she is just writing a sarcastic quip? Shouldn’t Mark’s first remark be something more along the lines of “That’s pretty cool! Looks like our Rusty is growing up.”

Or, we could take his comment at face value. Mark is both happily surprised at the photos, yet bothered that he was left out of the experience until now. But once again, Mark comes across as hypocritical. After all, did Mark share his own experiences with Cherry during his investigation? Did she even know where he was half the time? I don’t think so. Mark could have said in panel 4 “Gee, I’m sorry I missed all that, Cherry. I got so caught up in my investigation that I forgot to check in with you!” Either way, as far as I can see, Mark comes out looking like a chump. But maybe I’m making too much of a petty issue.

Art Dept. I think Rivera made a mistake drawing a part of Cherry’s anatomy. Can you spot it?

Cliff gets shafted and stuck with Rusty, so Mark and Cherry can celebrate!

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There’s Mark, not feeling very sorry for Cliff, in spite of the fact that Mark shares the majority of the blame for taking advantage of Cliff’s friendship that got him into this position. Cliff really wanted a crack at that prize money, but Mark didn’t care. He had no hesitation or doubt about corralling Cliff into his plans to derail Tad Crass, even if it meant Cliff getting injured or disqualified. Which happened! As panel 2 suggests, Mark believes a few arcade games is all it takes to cheer up good ol’ Cliff, because …what? Cliff is a pushover, a friendly goof who is easily led? So Mark shouldn’t be taking anything hard at all, since what happened was a consequence of his actions.

And why did Cliff get stuck babysitting Rusty? It looks like another example of Mark taking advantage of Cliff’s good nature. No wonder he’s glum. Mark should have hired a nanny and let Cliff go someplace on his own and find some fun. Wouldn’t be hard in Vegas. But instead of female company or rolling dice, he’s stuck in a silly arcade with an eleven-year-old kid! All in all, I’m not feeling very positive about Jules Rivera for making Mark act like an inattentive dick. Or am I reading too much into this story?