As we look back over the past six days, the story has shifted from the makeshift eco-video—that we didn’t get to see—to an unexpected close encounter with one of Mark’s childhood frenemies: Rob “Cricket Bro” Bettencourt. Born with a silver spoon in his posterior, he turns out to be the investor for the unseen eco-video and invites Mark and Reptilionnaire to a party at his villa to hob-nob with some BikBok science celebs. Based on his facial expressions, Cricket Bro must have ulterior intentions; else, where is this story going? In the meantime, he takes every opportunity to set Mark up for humiliation. And in good, old-fashioned dramatic form, we ended the week with a crisis of decision:  Cricket Bro entices an angry Mark Trail to take advantage of a vague, but menacing, recommendation. We are left wondering what that really is…and what Mark will do. He also has has no animal around to talk things out. Run, Mark! It’s a trap!

Within this broader view, a plot does begin to formulate around the daily humiliations. Mark is being manipulated beyond mere childhood jealousy. Can we all agree that Cricket Bro is the designated villain of our story? Are the Professor and Diane Daggers part of the gang or just one of Bettencourt’s diversions? And is Reptilionnaire also part of the plot or an innocent dupe? What is the master scheme, anyway? Every villain has one, you know! But will Mark Trail uncover it in time to defeat the bad guys? Is there even a time limit? Wow, this does feel like an old episode of Batman! Tune in next time… same Trail Time, same Trail Channel!

And now for something completely different:  The Sunday nature strip.

The last skunk we saw was on Day 3 of Mark’s Very Bad Week, back in March. So, unless we are figuring on Cricket Bro doubling as a metaphorical skunk, I think the theory that the Sunday animal appears during the current week’s dailies is incorrect. Or Rivera forgot. In fact, other than Reptilionnaire’s lizard, I’m not sure we saw any actual animals. Cute pun in the last panel, by the way, Jules! And as usual, Rivera creates another nice visual pun in the title panel. Say, Mark! You should turn these Sunday discussions into YouTube videos! You don’t need help from Brotein Boy! Rusty will be your director!

From one point of view, Mark Trail is the Rodney Dangerfield of the comic strips.  I know, I know. On one hand, I’ve recommended that we forget the past and just look ahead; but sometimes the past catches up and drags you back. We’ve been watching Mark get pushed around, insulted, assaulted, and humiliated, especially by females who clearly won’t need or want rescuing. So, has Mark become a punching bag for male misogyny? Is Rivera throwing brickbats at complaining Trailheads who miss the old Big Guy, the meandering stories, and the old-school art? I think the answer to these questions is “You bet!” But I don’t think Jules is malicious. She has a wicked sense of humor that is likely different from many long-time Trailheads. Maybe they are just upset that the old strip isn’t around any longer for them to poke fun at, rather than the cartoonist?

Well, the hits keep coming and Mark gets no sympathy. Interesting that Mark (who looks like he aged 20 years in the first panel) chooses to have a hissy fit in the company of the one person guaranteed to use it against him. And just what is on the card that Cricket Bro holds up in panel three for Mark to take? In spite of being insulted by him once again, Mark humbles himself enough to reach out and take it, while scowling in silent petulance. Rivera seems to indicate that, while Mark might want to bring out his Fists of Justice, he also realizes this is not the place and he is out of his element. “No poachers, no forest fire starters, no ocean polluters, and no animal maltreaters:  What the heck am I doing here?” But I’m sure Mark will swallow his pride and ride out the storm of indignities until a proper plot device appears that Mark can work with.

Still, I keep wondering where Reptilionnaire is (and why I keep misspelling his name)!

Hoo-boy, is that “bats and trafficking” topic the only article for which Mark is known? Props to the professor for actually knowing about Trail and having read the article. With that backhanded compliment from the professor in panel two, Mark silently intones Rodney Dangerfield’s “I get no respect!”

Otherwise, we have more over-the-top characters acting up, such as the very proactive “bodyguard” in the last panel. And there is more to wonder at:

– Does our current Mark Trail have the old-fashioned ethics of the original Mark Trail when it comes to hitting females?
– How does Mark know Hollywood women might be tough? Does he watch reruns of “Charlie’s Angels” or “The Real Wives of Orange County”?
– And isn’t this bodyguard the same woman we saw in the background from Wednesday’s strip, holding both a camera and smart phone?

Instead of worrying about his phone disappearing, maybe Mark should be more concerned about the disappearance of the plot in this story!

And where the heck is Reptilianairre?

Answer to yesterday’s quiz: The clever trick (as I see it) is manipulating the strip’s convention of depicting animals in almost every daily strip. In this case, the insect-people are the animals! So Rivera has given us a new take on this popular Mark Trail convention. Well, just a theory, anyway.

Rivera’s focus on “cricket brotein” is timely. The BBC just featured a story on insects as a great protein food source throughout the world, except where people of European origin tend to live. I reckon we “Euros” have too many negative preconceptions about creepy crawlies and would prefer to have proteïni insecta disguised in whatever form and not told about it. Maybe my parents should not have been too hasty to bypass those insect tins in the grocery store. Wouldn’t you think Mark Trail and family would already be supporters of insect protein?

In today’s installment, Mark is reluctantly dragged farther into the world of Internet Influencers and scientist standup comedy routines. I’m not sure what those “Waaaa!” and “Waaagh!” yells are all about. Are they some kind of agreed-upon acknowledgement code for Prof. Bee Sharp or just the current fashion for showing awareness of a celebrity?

In spite of the fact (observation, if you like) that this story has degenerated into a series of silly actions one would associate with a Reality TV show that has no plot (am I being redundant?), I continue to appreciate Rivera’s art and her irreverent writing. Prof. Bee struts around like huckster Professor Hill in The Music Man, then leans back into the scene with a pointing finger and insincere response (“Sure, friend!”) to suggest he might be something other than an actual scientist. That seems to be Mark’s take. Okay, maybe I’m just getting carried away by obtuse, self-delusional musings, but at least I’m no Marxist Deconstructionist critic!

Final note for today: Some of Rivera’s art reminds me of Japanese Manga (as in the Dragonball illustration to the right). Rusty’s explosive reaction in the last panel is so forceful, it virtually fills the entire space, shutting out everything else around Mark. What do you think?

Today is April 21, the traditional day of the founding of ancient Rome by Romulus and Remus. One way the Romans tracked time was to count from the founding year of the city (“ab urbe condita”). Thus, this year makes Rome 2774 years old! To a Roman, that would be MMDCCLXXIV auc. Now, cut me some slack. How many opportunities do I get to trot out my otherwise wasted graduate school education?

And it’s not as if Mark or Reptiliannaire (remember him?) bother to celebrate Rome’s birthday! Heck no. As we see, Mark is too busy worrying about why he is at a party with so many screwballs, such as the guest of honor who is running to the foreground in his sandals to perform for…people behind him?

Okay, Jules got me. I guess I didn’t exactly see where this strip was going. But now we know what—or who—the Killer Bee is. Speaking of which, does everybody here have a name (and costume) that sounds like a Batman villain? Are you intrigued how Cricket Bro’s public announcements are reaching the ears of people more than 15 feet away?  Are we not also intrigued by the woman in the background holding a camera in her left hand and a smart phone (i.e., a camera) in her right? And the one person here who should be taking photos for an article is not!

Rivera is building a social climate that is as kookie as episodes of the British TV series “The Avengers”, when Diana Rigg played Emma Peel. Well, Rivera lives in California, so I reckon she is entitled to exploit the state’s reputation for weirdness.

When looking back from the time Jules Rivera took over this strip, we have watched Mark confront his cluelessness and discomfort with modern social mores and environments, as if he just awoke from a coma that began back in the 1970s. But as Cricket Bro has demonstrated, Mark is no longer the star of every situation; sometimes he is just a bit player. Still, I’m befuddled like Mark, wondering where and when the Big Problem for him to resolve will appear.

Quiz-Time, faithful readers: What is the clever trick Rivera is playing on us Trailheads regarding a popular Mark Trail comic strip motif?

Just who is Cricket Bro talking to in the first panel? Perhaps all those purple people in the background. Rivera’s choice of a uniform color is a nice artistic decision to make Mark and “Rep” stand out in their entrance. Hmm, I bet Bettencourt is drinking a cricket cocktail.

Most readers here likely know that fried and roasted crickets are a popular snack in parts of Asia.  Growing up, I used to see cans of fried crickets and chocolate-covered ants for sale in a local grocery store. Those were strange items to find in then-conservative Virginia during the early 1960s. Never got around to trying them, however.

So now, I learn there is actually protein-rich cricket flour that can be used as an additive in various (human) food products. Even the United Nations extols the protein value of this food source. In short, Cricket Bro is really onto something! But will Mark be too distracted by his disdain for Bettencourt to pick up on this subject for an article?

And how many juvenile insults will we have to endure before Rivera moves this story along? While we try to figure out what the “Killer Bee” insult refers to, I wonder if Reptiliannaire enjoys being overlooked and treated like Mark’s sidekick. That might be a setup, as I think we can all see where things are going in the last panel.

So, our blue-tailed skink shows up after its Sunday premier. Yet another Rivera shakeup!  I reckon that my joke of a short shrift of the video shoot in order to jump to the after-party panned out. But isn’t that a cop-out? I mean, the whole point of coming out here was doing the video, right? We were all hoping to see Mark look goofy, out-of-step, and unintentionally funny. Instead, all we got was a few partial views of equipment and crew in the desert. Like the windmills, we are left twisting in the wind. Well, perhaps the actual video will show up in a flashback later this story. But consider: James Allen sometimes employed story arcs that suddenly disappeared and never returned (e.g. Dirty Dyer in the Caribbean).

Speaking of rivalries and regarding my passing reference to “Pearls Before Swine” cartoonist Stephen Pastis, today’s panels remind me of a video posted on YouTube several years ago of him visiting the home of “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams and challenging Adams to a drawing contest. On entering Adam’s somewhat lavish house, Pastis quips “So, ‘Dilbert’ really built all this, huh?” It’s worth watching!

Overall, I’m liking the art, not trying to make direct comparisons to the prior artistic conventions. Don’t think we have any “clip art” going on here, anyway. One minor quibble for me is the typography. Is it me, or does it seem a bit harsh or heavy? Perhaps that is meant to overcome the size reduction that takes place for newspaper printing. So, here is a section of the black & white Saturday strip, courtesy of my newspaper and my camera phone:

Apologies for the poor photography. Frankly, I think it may read easier in the actual newspaper. On the other hand, I think this example also highlights how much color does to liven up and define the artwork. Compare this to last Saturday’s post and you can see a world of difference. I would have liked to make that comparison last Saturday, but I don’t get the paper until later in the morning. But I may make a similar comparison later this week, on the same day, if I can work out the timing. I may have to post a bit later in the morning.

Jules Rivera continues to add light humor to her Sunday nature strips, as in the central panel, below, of the escaping skink; and more generally, in the first-panel titles. In this week’s entry, the “Mark Trail” title appears on a trail sign (take that, pun-master Stephen Pastis!), whose distance is marked in kilometers.

This time, the Sunday animal-of-the-week is not specifically depicted in the past week’s strips (I think), but is offered as a thematic compliment to Reptiliannaire, the eco-rapper. As Sunday sequences go, I would have liked to see something unique to the California deserts, as opposed to a lizard “endemic to North America.” But is it even a California lizard?

This may surprise readers, but I’m no herpetologist. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by the subject matter and did some limited research on the “Interweb” (as local radio personality Joe Soucheray likes to call the Internet). I stand ready to be corrected here, but it seems that the “five-lined skink” is not specifically found west of Minnesota! Wha..?! Perhaps this was a simple “lookalike” mistake, as California does have the Western Skink, which very closely resembles the five-lined skink, and which also allows its tail to be captured by predators in order to escape with the rest of its body and life, intact. Still, the predator does get a snack, so this as a Nature win-win.

Note: I’m dropping my “gka” tag from here on. I started using it so that readers who might take issue with any entry will not assume it is Dennis’s post. However, I realized my name already appears at the top of the blog entry, anyway.

I’m glad readers enjoyed the old strip/new dialog mashup in yesterday’s blog. It was fun to create, but sure took more time than I figured. Just finding a compatible old strip was my biggest chore! Anyway, let’s move on to today’s exciting installment…

The strip today is not merely a time-and-space killer to pad out a storyline, as we have often seen in previous Trailverse adventures. Instead, it introduces what will certainly turn out to be the more important plot device of the current story.

So Rob Bettancourt is simply here to see how his money is getting spent, eh? As for his company’s name, what does Brotein actually mean? And just what kind of “huge gains” has his company made?  Perhaps the protein supplement allows people to make “powerful leaps in a single bound” or develop a tendency to chirp at night. The mind fairly hops with suggestions! But it also hints at some kind of nefarious mutation of Nature, which Mark will certainly have to remedy. I’m ready to jump past the video shoot and head straight to the villa! Aren’t you? Okay, that’s all I’ve got. -gka

Talk about a small world…! And quite the wind farm in the background. Unlike Dennis, I have not had the experience of being adjacent to, or working on, a wind farm, so I cannot testify to the overall sound level. The issue is fairly politicized, though with proper maintenance, it does not appear to be the significant problem detractors often claim. However, their proximity here indicates the sound will be a contributing factor to the video.

As we now see the production crew setting up, Mark one-ups his grade school friend with a clever comeback. So Mark had to suffer the indignity of an actual nickname? Perish Forbid! Unfortunately, with my own name—George—I never attained the high status of having a nickname <Sniff!>. Not even my own detractors found “Georgie” worth pursuing. Nevertheless, Rob Bettancourt must have been an annoying kid back then.

Rivera’s different drawing style certainly deviates from the original Dodd/Elrod/Allen tradition; but it suits the new narration, I think. Imagine how the dialog would work in the traditional “Mark Trail” style:

Anyway, will Cricket Bro accept Mark’s bitch slap or attempt to brush it off with feigned laughter? – gka

I am filled with questions: Mark gets picked up at LAX, then driven out by East Malibu to spend the night; then driven all the way back across LA to Palm Springs to film a video. Couldn’t they have just checked into a nearby hotel? Well, if they did that, I reckon we’d have missed the novelty of the reptile house and its weird inhabitants. Oh, and the reptiles, too.

We were already forewarned on this blog, and it seems Mark really is doomed to keep getting dragged back into his colorful past. In this case, it is some dude (possibly the investor known as “Cricket Bro”), whose right leg seems attached to his body in a way that is not typical (unless you are a cricket, perhaps). How long ago can this guy have known Mark, as he seems to be a good ten to fifteen years younger. Maybe Mark was his babysitter back in Florida. I’m sure we’ll eventually find out, though this story is getting more and more jagged as it jumps along. Mark does not look happy.

What do you all think? Is that dude just well preserved? How could he have known “Marky” as a young kid? Is he going to prove to be a real pain in the . . . neck? – gka

CPP? Cricket Protein Powder? Oh Mark, you could take a page out of Cricket-Bro’s playbook, right? I mean, isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Haven’t all the world’s songs already been written? It’s all about the A-Range-Ment, right!? Don’t go backward thinking about your scarred childhood (already a tired theme…)

Let’s look ahead, shall we? That’s what’s going to save you and this strip!!

Again with the self-deprecation and low self image… Mark, you are standing in the desert with a flannel shirt on! Make your statement! Build your brand!

Back to the story and back from a bit of head-cleansing in the Detroit Lakes area… And thanks to George for taking a turn! Well done!!

Scenic Wind Farms of Palm Springs? I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but this farm, located in the San Gorgonio Pass boasts 3,218 units and produces 615 Megawatts. How that compares to Coal I leave to the reader… But this is apparently one of the windiest places on earth, so why not, you know?

An investor?? Oh no, the plot thickens again… Is Happy up to his old tricks already? How could he be plugged into this “Eco-Rap” scene? Is he hipper than Mark? Wouldn’t take much…

Frequent commenter Mark (presumably not Mr. Trail) tipped us to the 75^th anniversary of the Mark Trail comic strip, whose history is summarized in this Sunday’s installment. I wonder if anybody has been following it for the entire run?

Another regular comment poster, Daniel Pellissier, recently compared Jules Rivera (seen in the last panel, above) to a new cook stirring up new recipes at your familiar corner diner. Good point. And while her drawing is often exaggerated and bold, I noticed a certain relationship between her new Mark and the original Mark Trail 1.0. Tell me what you think:

Okay, maybe this is a bit lame and not an extremely precise comparison. However, I’m picking up on the leaner, more rectangular structure of the Dodd and Rivera heads along with the longer chin. Whereas James Allen’s version retains some features, such as the arched eyebrows and falling hair lock, the face is more square, with a softer nose. Okay. Big deal. Perhaps I’m making too much out of too little. But I do think they share a similar gusto for adventure that the Mark Trail of intervening years had lost. As for the pipe, Trail kicked that habit back in 1986. -gka