Okay, we’re certainly back into the kind of weird world of chaos and absurdity for which Carl Hiaasen is famous, though I think it might be too far out even for him. Well, maybe not for writer A. Lee Martinez, but we lack his monsters and deities. And certainly not too much for Jules Rivera. But it must be too much for Mark Trail, who once again finds himself not in control of the situation, but having his butt saved by the two naïve nerds he is supposed to be saving.
But just trying to make sense of this situation gives me mental cramps. I think I’m going to have to just nod my head, accept that absurdity is real, and wait for the situation to resolve itself. I fail to grasp
- Why Prof Bee was waiting to follow Trail
- Why he gave chase and ran him off the road
- Why Trail was challenged about including Aparna and ReptMan
- Why Bee appears to suddenly accept their flimsy excuses, in spite of Diana’s warning
- Whether anybody actually in control here?
- Whether the creators of Japanese anime will like the influences going on here.
We can expect Mark will make it to Cricket Bro’s mansion. What happens after that is a subject for another day. And we have three more days of strips this week to get Mark there. So far, it has taken eight days of strips for Mark just to drive “half-way” (an educated guess), which means we might as well be watching an episode of 24. In spite of that, I have to admit that the story does not seem to be dragging. Confusing, yes. Anyway, it might be time for another Mark Trail Time Lapse to occur, where the Thursday strip finds the crew already inside Cricket Bro’s house, confronting the insect entrepreneur, himself.
The Daily Trail 
I do, however, have one comment. On line, I looked back at the last week of Mark Trail. Since Jules took over, I am not sure we have had a story line that begins or ends. Please correct me if I am wrong. Also, when does he go into the Wilderness? Where is lost Forest, Doc and Andy? I’d just like to see him punching a poacher and taking care of a foot loose bear. Come on Jules! 🙂
Well, Mark, you HAVE missed a few things along the way, so let me try to summarize for you:
1. Jules writes a major storyline (Mark) and a concurrent secondary story line (Cherry) that may or may not interweave. They may or may not involve Rusty and Doc.
2. The first main story (about 10/13/20) was Mark going to Florida to interview his Dad (the prior Mark Trail, it seems) about his business dealings. At the same time, Cherry and Rusty went to visit her mom and sisters in Florida. Lots of drama, fights, and anguish all over. Rusty tags along for a school project while Doc stays home worrying. The two stories get wrapped up early March. You’ll just have to scan back through this blog to see the dailies.
3. There follows the usual “in between time” (starting on the March 10 blog entry) before the next big adventre. Normally, Allen and his predecessors wrote a week’s worth of bland, pointless panels to fill in as “real life” before Mark suddenly gets called away on another story and the rest of them get put into deep-freeze. With Jules, the in-between strips actually help generate the plots for the second story lines for Mark and Cherry. I thought that was clever.
4. As a result of Mark’s interaction with the more clued-in Rusty, Mark gets assigned to a story in California, while Cherry’s landscape business takes a sideways turn when she comes into conflict with a local Home Association. Doc gets more air-time here with Cherry, while Mark is stuck in a convoluted plot with a bunch of stereotypical California kooks.
So, Rivera is attempting to fabricate a more extensive world for Mark Trail that includes other people and stories than just Mark Trail, himself. We are still in the middle of these second adventures, and it is about time (I think) for Jules to switch us back home to see how Cherry is going to win out over the Sunny Soleil Society’s ham-fisted actions.
Therefore, Lost Forest is still around, as are the rest of the crew. Even Andy, who tagged along with Cherry and Doc when they started their campaign for justice.
Hope this helps, Mark.
Well, your summary certainly helped me, George.
I’ve been away from the blog for a while and my hometown paper no longer carries the strip.
I’ll have to put checking back in here onto my calendar to see just how Jules is making out with the great transformation of the strip.