I think I prefer the Bearded Lady… and the threat of Hogs running wild all over Violet’s Gardens!
The only question I have is Transportation! How do Feral Hogs get penned and toted? I am supposing that Dirk the Hog Whisperer has an answer for that one…
And apparently, Extradition! What do we suppose Dirk went IN for? UP the River, so to speak? Prepositions are funny things… One would be IN Jail, but (if IN a canoe) one is ON the river… But then why does one go UP River to go to jail? Does all the Crime-ing and prosecuting happen DOWN-RIVER?
I will say this much about Dirk- He’s a big fella! Check out the difference in stature in panel 3, while panel 4 reminds us once again of the most unnatural and unholy of all beards- looking like one of the beards worn by Ulysses Everett McGill in Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
As we make the acquaintance of Cherry <Davis> Trail’s “Big Brother” Dirk, we all have to wonder what on earth did Doc do to create such a large family, only to drive them all (save for the good daughter Cherry) away? How many more of them are there? How is Rusty ever going to draw a family tree when there is a literal Diaspora of Davises?
But I call your attention to the third panel… Dirk really does look like a lady with a fake beard… Maybe that’s just me. Or Maybe what forced “Dirk” to live off the grid is that his only other option was to star in a circus sideshow?
Guessing we will see an exposé on Feral Hogs this Sunday (That is if we already haven’t covered that territory… have we?)
Thanks George for keeping the flame lit, and safe travels back to the hot (and finally steamy) North Country. I swear the only thing that recommends this region is the fact that it will remain arable and livable long after sea levels rise!
Mysterious cabin in the woods? Is this some kind of primordial Lost Forest cabin?! “Dirk Davis” sounds like the name of a typical Mark Trail villain (e.g. “Sting” Ray, “Dirty” Dyer, Black John, Rocky Rivers), but belongs to another one of Cherry’s throwback siblings. Not much action here, other than another family get-together. This time, instead of Cherry helping out her Mom and sisters, she’s getting Big Brother to help out with her own problem. Well, seems a bit early to me that Cherry would be out ammunition so early in her confrontation with Violet Cheshire, but maybe that’s looking at things too narrowly. Dirk is just another resource, another tool, for Cherry to pull out of her toolbox. But to what end?
Perhaps there is more than meets the stereotypic eye here. Sure, Dirk looks like a participant in a wilderness Reality TV show. What possible function can somebody like this perform that could help Cherry overcome the machinations of the elitist and nefarious Sunny Soleil Society? It doesn’t look like Dirk is even that big a fan of the Sun!
However, looks are not everything, as we learn. I suspect that Dirk has unexpected talents that belie his mountain man appearance. Perhaps he is some kind of former federal agent, unexplainably still equipped with a full computer suite he can use to investigate, probe, and snoop, as needed. That seems to be the kind of help she needs: Somebody to dig up background dirt that Cherry can use to bury her antagonist.
On the artistic side, this is a great series of panels, with interesting angle changes. The first panel is an especially well-done composition in terms of viewpoint, color, and contrast; to say nothing of the luna moth in the foreground providing a light contrast. Note the subtle variations in light and color in the woods behind the cabin. There is something to like in each panel, such as the smudged shading in panel 4. It’s almost an abrupt change of style. It’s a shame that a lot of this will likely not be apparent in the black and white version that appears in most newspapers. And that’s where the strip can get hurt, as it depends on color for a lot of its depth and texture.
However, I’m not sure why Cherry’s mouth drops open in panel 3, as if she is shocked. Surely, she’s been here before? Or has it been so long since she saw Dirk that she doesn’t recognize him right away? But then, why does she go on to refer to Dirk with his full name, since it is already made clear in panel 3 that they are siblings? Just for the sake of alliteration?
Well, I’m going to be driving through the mountains myself in a few days! And I can relate to Cherry’s consternation over missing road signs, too. I once got lost in a section of southwestern Wisconsin, with its identical rolling hills and valleys and meandering roads without street signs. Every hill seemed to have either a farm or a church with a shade tree. It was night, it was starting to snow, and I was on a honeymoon trip with my wife, looking for our B&B. We wound up driving 5 mph behind an Amish wagon for a mile or so, until it pulled into a farm. But I digress. . . .
Anyway, a pun-filled adventure for Cherry continues as she climbs further into “feral” territory in search for…what? Or whom? What secret weapon would be available up here for Cherry to employ against the Sunny Soleil Society?
Traveling into backwoods country, let’s hope that Cherry does not run into any hostile mountain men, like the Atlanta “city boys” in Deliverance; or a county mounty who could pull her over for holding her smartphone while driving! Put that phone in a caddy, Cherry! Anyway, as she is using a smartphone, who cares if there are road signs, when you can just turn where and when your mapping program tells you to. Unless the phone is suddenly out of range.
Well, Cherry has apparently dropped her phone as she panic-stopped in front of that wild boar. Will she discover that the phone has broken when it was dropped, leaving her really lost without it or any road signs?
We are finally back to the Cherry v Violet Grudge Match. Not sure that a school night sleepover is such a great idea for Rusty, based on his grammar. I suppose that’s elitist thinking on my part? But Cherry must have a reason for wanting to dump Rusty off some place, especially given the fact that her Dad is still presumably at home and capable enough of watching over the kid. Unless, he is part of the plan Cherry has in mind, that is.
Business in the mountains? What—or who— is up there? Perhaps some “backwoods” person she knows or is related to, who will assist in her mission of vengeance? Or maybe she has a hidden stash of drugs in a cabin that she will secrete in the Sunny Soleil Society’s office before making an anonymous call to the police.
I suppose the “stick figures” in the background of panel 4 are meant to suggest the effect of distance on objects. And in the size comic strip are published, it is probably a necessity to avoid problems when newspapers downsize the original comic strip to fit its limited, allotted space. Nevertheless, Rivera can still fit in a remarkable amount of imagery, when necessary (e.g. panel 1). Well, I am intrigued by Cherry’s closing remarks. This should be a very interesting week!
As another D-Day Remembrance commences and becomes ever more distant to people born several generations after that event in 1944, we arrive at the end of another week of “Mark Trail, Clueless Adventurer.” It seems, jus when Mark gets his head straight, somebody knocks it off its axis again. Poor Markey! Well, this past week has been spent getting Mark, Reptilionnaire, and Aparna, the naive programmer, into Cricket Bro’s offices, so they can reclaim/steal back a program (or a laptop, or both) held by Cricket Bro. Not so much a car race as simply an eco-friendly car getting run off the road by a fossil-fuel injesting muscle car, the three conspirators are hassled by Prof. Bee Sharp and his assistant, Diana “Kato” Daggers before being allowed to continue on. Thereupon, the two nerds are somehow able to waltz into off-limit offices while Mark gets hoodwinked, once again, into taking part in some kind of dubious video (which is what got him into this mess in the first place) involving a boxing match against Professor “Killer” Bee Sharp. But it maintains the “absurdist” ambiance which often characterizes life in California, at least to those of us who do not live there.
No surprise that today’s Sunday panel focuses on the puma we saw a few days ago. And note that the title panel pays homage to the famous “Hollywood” sign, which is also shown here. Puma “P-22” is, in fact, the designated name for an actual puma that haunts the Griffith Park area in Los Angeles where the Hollywood sign stands. I was not familiar with the term “Ghost Cat”, so that is some new information for me to file away.
One of the innovations that Jules Rivera injects into Mark Trail is how she uses narration. Unlike the prior incarnation of the strip, the current strip uses narration boxes more frequently to provide context. Narration boxes have also been used to contain “flashback recollections” (see May 11).
However, what is most innovative is Mark interacting with the narration (see also May 12), as if there is a live speaker on site. This is a new trope to the strip; at least I did not find any occurrence in Rivera’s first story, where narration boxes were quite rare. Maybe this interaction is an alternative to Mark talking things out with animals, which was a feature in the Happy Trails story. I am guessing that Rivera is working out how much irreverence she can get away with while maintaining an otherwise serious adventure strip. No doubt, this approach pisses off more purist Trailheads who know that the original Mark Trail rarely joked when on assignment. Or off.
But one thing I’m stuck on: We all note the use of the derisive “Markey” in that first narration box, whereas he is given his normal name “Mark” in the second box (panel 4). Is there a significance to this usage? I dunno! Anybody got an idea?
Now we find Mark already in the ring…without boxing gloves. How did that happen, especially as he doesn’t seem too happy to participate? Certainly, Killer Bee (aka Professor Bee Sharp) takes it seriously. He is suited up, if you consider wearing fake bee antennae is part of being properly suited up for boxing. Still, even if Bee was some kind of college boxing champ, he is too much the narcissist to worry about the Marques of Queensbury rules. I hope that right jab to Mark’s face doesn’t put him down for the count, since he needs to keep these reckless bozos preoccupied for an entire 30 minutes.
Still, a 30-minute fight?! I don’t think so! Mark has fighting in his blood, as we know, so I expect he’ll connect fist to face and drop Killer Bee before long. Or Cricket Bro will interrupt.
Now, where is Cricket Bro? I figured he would at least be the referee, with Daggers acting the “ring girl”, parading her signs between rounds. And where are those cameras to record this commercial, by the way?
In the old Mission Impossible TV series, Willy, the “strongman” of the team, had to act as a diversion and keep a professional Judo champion as well as the “bad guy of the week” busy for several minutes while the team could put their plan into action. Willy was strong, but not well-trained in Judo. Nevertheless, he managed to last long enough. Mark’s plan is to act as a diversion for Aparna and ReptMan; however, it is clear that he was not expecting to go at least seven rounds with one of the kooks.
Still, if Mark ever needed an opportunity and excuse to bring out his so-called fists of justice, this is it! So we know Mark is capable, but Killer Bee (is this really Professor Bee Sharp?) is a dark horse. Is he a Golden Gloves graduate or just a goofball (I’m making that suggestion, based on his fighting attire)? I’m also assuming that even though this is just supposed to be a commercial video where everybody play-acts, I’m assuming that Killer Bee and Cricket Bro intend to wipe the ring with Mark in their infantile need for revenge and humiliation. Who is conning whom?
All in all, the art is good, with a nice variety of viewing angles across the panels. The “absurdist element” of this story is certainly all over the place. But the smart money is on Trail. He’ll take a hit and keep on hitting. But can he keep the gag going for long enough to matter? I’m starting to miss Cherry and her fight with the Sunny Soleil Society.
So the Mark Trail Time Lapse goes into effect, as I predicted (See!? Rivera does maintain some of the old Trail traditions, after all!). But I have to come up with a better descriptive label. Anyway, here we are down at the office building, with some kind of mountain lion/puma/cougar in the foreground, looking like one of those animals photographed at night with a hunter’s infrared camera. But why is the body lit on this side, if the puma’s body shadow also falls on this side? Artistic license, perhaps? And is that a neon green “BRO” sign on the side of the building!? Perhaps “CRICKET” is on the other side.
We meet another oddball, a gatekeeper/bouncer named “Dare” (pronunciation up for grabs), who meets them in the lobby (I suppose). Dare conveniently separates Mark from his posse/street team, so they can leisurely “sneak” into the Developer’s wing, somehow without the gatekeeper seeing them or hearing Mark give them a caution. Perhaps Dare was a trusting soul who immediately turned to open the door to escort Mark into the presence of Cricket Bro. Seems a bit reckless for a doorman, though. Still, I wonder why Rivera did not try to show them whispering, something like this?
I’d say that Mark looks like he needs a shave, something the old Mark Trail would never countenance; but we’ve already seen that this is part of his new look, channeling the current cinematic “leading man” standards. Or Clint Eastwood in his “Man Without a Name” Western days. Or Humphrey Bogart on almost any day.
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 onceagain 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 TimeLapse to occur, where the Thursday strip finds the crew already inside Cricket Bro’s house, confronting the insect entrepreneur, himself.
Aside from what, I think, is an alligator lizard in panel 2, I can’t figure this out, unless it is some kind of in-joke. “Hollywood gatekeeping” is slang for guardians of movie making, star making, etc. They could be professional movie producers, for example, previewing scripts for proposed movies; or agents, looking for whatever the current type happens to be in fashion. More generally, it could refer to self-appointed trustees of whatever brand, object, or genre a gatekeeper claims to know more about than you, such as Trailheads intent on maintaining what they believe to be the only proper and valid version of Mark Trail. Or they could be a hardcore fan of a particular band and want you to know it! Thus, their aim would be to assess whether you have the proper knowledge to also be an accepted hardcore fan. For example, what is the name and release date of the 7th album by The Black Keys? And who were the producers? Which guitar did Dan Auerbach use on track 6? Don’t know the answers? Go home, poser!
So, why are Prof Bee and Diana Daggers acting as gatekeepers? What is their leverage? What, exactly, is Diana Daggers prepared to do? More importantly, why are Mark and his “Street Team” acting like a bunch of sweaty fans hoping to get Backstage Security to let them meet Dan Auerbach? Weren’t we hoping to see Mark put Diana in her place, gender differences be damned? But maybe Mark and his friends are quick studies and deliberately acting like a bunch of dweebs so they can get passed on to Cricket Bro. If that is the case, it looks like the Street Team’s mission to covertly sneak into the Developer Wing to steal a laptop has gone into the crapper. No way they are going to be allowed to wander off on their own, now that they have been discovered.
The Daily Trail 