So, what is this sense of mortal fear our brave trio seems to be experiencing? Mark thinks going up against a cargo ship’s defenses designed to repel a gang of armed pirates is somehow easier than dealing with two middle-aged dudes who like to knock loudly and yell. Does he think these guys came armed with heavy weapons? Perhaps Mark had nightmares of the now-missing “Mommy Trail” knocking on his bedroom door in the middle of the night, only to find nobody there.
Okay, I’m with those who think it’s time for Mark to quit acting like the too-sensitive lead character in a Hollywood Rom-Com and start taking charge of the situation. The Monty Python song “Brave Sir Robin” comes to mind. Diana never explained why she stole Cherry’s shovel, so she clearly cannot be trusted. Wait… Isn’t anybody over there capturing this drama on video for their big article, or at least for a potential lawsuit? WHERE IS A TEENAGER WITH A PHONE WHEN YOU NEED ONE?
Gosh, Mark. Maybe you guys should climb out of a window and just sneak away. I suppose some heavy door knocking can be quite disturbing and intimidating . . . if it was going on at 2 AM while you were sleeping, that is! Instead, Mark and his cohorts seem unsure of how to respond. Well, Diana does at least have some kind of an idea, which Mark is keen to squelch with yet another lame pun. Cliff’s silence and doubtful expressions suggests that his military experience did not include any time in special forces.
And when did Mark figure out who these cats were, anyway? They didn’t exactly identify themselves or why they are there. As far as Mark knows, they could have been new reporters sent by the magazine to replace him and Diane for their lack of progress and dubious conduct. However, I suppose one must grant Mark some degree of intelligence—even if he rarely shows it—and allow him to deduce the intentions of people who hammer on doors and say they only want to “talk”. We’ve all seen plenty of crime shows and know how that kind of talk usually plays out. Those guys haven’t even bothered to identify themselves. But this is what we should expect after schools quit teaching social etiquette.
Well, dear readers, let’s get up-to-date on the events of the past week: Mark, Cliff, and Diana are holed up in Diana’s B&B, where they have been viewing Mark’s underwater photos of zebra mussel infestation on the Duck Duck Goose cargo ship. Diana focused on her own laptop, perhaps doing research, or maybe checking up on her NFT valuations.
They seem to think their lives could be in danger if Duck Duck Goose Shipping discovers their whereabouts. Mark takes on the role of Crisis Catalyst by assuring everybody that none of the bad guys even knows his name. Of course, the timely “bamming” on the front door announces that dark forces have, indeed, learned about him. With a shovel and their own determination, Mark, Diana, and Cliff intend to make this their own Alamo Moment. For zebra mussels.
It is logical, of course, for them to hunker down and try to solidify their field work with some good investigatory research. But I’m not sure we are seeing that. In fact, Diana urged Mark to quickly upload his photos to some web site where they can be publicly viewed, to protect themselves. This reminds me of the “solution” that the Herp Hacienda Gang used to defeat Cricket Bro’s sitting on Aparna’s animal air tracking app: They stole it and uploaded it to a public server for anyone to acquire. The fact that Duck Duck Goose’s concerns are completely different from Diana and Mark sets up an interesting plot crossroads, where it is possible both groups will continue to work at cross purposes, unaware of the other’s true motives. We’ll see what happens on Monday, but for now, it’s the Sunday Nature Chat!
As usual, Rivera gives us a nicely designed title panel and a timely subject for the season. The turkeys are well drawn. They are found in neighborhoods and other public places, not just in country fields. I often see them walking around the university campus. Okay, turkeys are an easy subject. I’d like to see Rivera use Sundays to bring reader attention to lesser-known animals and nature topics.
However, the popular tale about the turkey being considered for the national bird (or on a coin) is just fiction. Turns out that Ben Franklin was only making a comparison to the bald eagle in a letter to his daughter, Sarah; but that seems to be as far as it ever got. And by the way, Mark, George Washington never threw silver dollars across the Potomac.
Okay, there should be no need to point out the obvious, but why pass up an easy lob? Consider silly details, such as “farmer” enforcers; the shovel that Diana just admitted to conveniently stealing (for no apparent reason); Mark’s punch-drunk expression in panel 1, and “gasping”, as if he was a villain surprised by a police raid; and there is that lame-o pun in panel 4. As I noted from the start, I think some of this over-the-top madness comes from Rivera’s appreciation for the bizarre stories and characters of Florida crime and humor writers.
But if you want to ignore the literary references, just, ignore all of that goofinessand focus instead on story development.
Like, why should they even bother letting these people in, especially as there seems to be only two of them. Not bad odds, if it came to a fight. Mark has his alleged “fists of justice” (it’s been a year and we still have not really seen them). Diana has her purloined shovel. And Cliff has his…uh…well, since he is a fisherman, he can lure the two heavies in the wrong direction to help Mark and Diana gain more advantage.
Or they can just call the police and wait. Still, I imagine how surprised these intrepid investigators will be if and when they find out the actual reason why Duck Duck Goose is taking such drastic measures.
No, this isn’t about misspelling the name of the Rubbles’ son on The Flintstones. But my goodness, does Diana think they’re exposing Iran-Contra or the Pentagon Papers? All they did was take pictures of zebra mussels on a ship’s hull. As a regular critic on CK noted yesterday, shouldn’t these “journalists” be interviewing the Duck Duck Goose owners to get their side of the story? Isn’t that part of what any good, objective journalist would do? Of course!
Instead, we see partisan “advocacyjournalism” in progress. I would expect more from Mark. Then again, we’ve never seen any of Mark Trail’s articles, so this could be his standard M.O.
Finally, the hired thugs from Duck Duck Goose arrived, huffing and puffing and banging down the door, ready to do…what? And how did they locate Mark, Diana, and Cliff in the first place? Usually, this requires help from an informer. Hmmmm . . . .
I’m not sure if observing only one ship is enough to make a general statement about an entire fleet. Anyway, at least one turkey is going to be able to look back on this Thanksgiving Day. But then, we have been brought up over the decades to eat domesticated, factory-enhanced turkeys; not the wild bunch. I suppose that is necessary to meet demand. Eating a couple hundred million wild turkeys every year would soon see them only on labels of cheap booze.
So, what else do we see here? Mark is primping his hair as he relishes his anonymity. As Rivera implies in her second message box, she is deliberately making Mark once again a victim of his own pride. I don’t know if that means a military-style assault on the house or a subpoena from a federal court to cease and desist. Yet, I still think the jury is out on Cliff’s true role.
As I wrote before, based on some comments, I’m trying to write more concisely. I’ve edited out about 30% of my post, which means my text just might c
Really? THIS is the terrible truth, that Duck Duck Goose is responsible for zebra mussel infestation!? And what river pipes is Cliff referring to: Runoff pipes from companies and large farms pumping waste into the river? Clogging them might be a good thing, I think.
This story would have more plausibility if Mark and Diana admitted up front that the zebra mussel problem was a national (or international) issue. And their focus on a single source of contamination is obviously not to solve zebra mussel infestation, but to show an example of how zebra mussels can spread through inattention or indifference.
But the plot twist here—which I think is good—is that Duck Duck Goose is actually concerned about anentirely different issue, and that is something they do not want Mark to discover. We await the Duck Duck Goose enforcers to get this story moving along.
Some nice layouts in the panels today. Panel 2 is remarkable for the amount of detail and space injected into such a small panel, without looking cramped. But I’m a bit put off by the extreme expressions in panel 4. Compared to the prior panels, they look too exaggerated. And should Mark be surprised by the photos? He took them!
Given that those actually are zebra mussels in panel 4, what are they attached to? That odd shape on the laptop monitor sure doesn’t look like the hull of any ship. In any event, what’s the issue here? They have their photos, so why waste time “studying” them? Time to move on to the next phase of the investigation.
But, can Cliff really be trusted? It’s easy to be suspicious of characters who suddenly show up in Mark Trail strips, of course. But Cliff ticks several boxes: 1) His less-than happy exit after losing Cherry to Mark; 2) His covert shadowing of Mark and Diana in the boat; 3) His convenient “rescue” of Mark after he abandoned Diana; and 4) His silence about items 2 and 3. I could write more, but you get the drift; and I’m supposed to be writing more concisely. If only . . . .
As we return to the main story, we find that Mark has left Cherry to her duties and gone back to his own work. Looks like they have set up shop in Diana’s B&B. Given this is Thanksgiving week, I wonder how many Turkeys Rivera will manage to stuff into the strips this week.
Diana’s assessment of Mark’s underwater photography brings up a fair point: Have we, in fact, ever seen Mark engaged in underwater photography? As far as I can recollect, we have rarely seen Mark take photos of anything, much less underwater subjects. Correct me if I am wrong, folks!
But is Diana upset about the quality of the photography or the fact that Mark shot photos of barnacles, not zebra mussels? Remember, Diana: Mark was working under water, under duress, and with a good amount of stress; hardly the conditions for excellent photography. Anyway, we’ll probably find out what she means tomorrow.
If you are up-to-date on the strips this week, feel free to skip down to the Sunday strip. For those of you who missed some—or most—of this week, Cherry and a surprisingly available Mark were working on all things gardening. A work van pulled up, out of which stepped “Honest Ernest”, a Good Ol’ Boy in yellow coveralls, who turned out to be the exterminator hired to kill the bees in the Sunny Soleil Society’s garden. In fact, this entire week of strips (about 5 minutes “in Trail Time”) was devoted to Honest Ernest first annoying, then shocking, the Trails (and us) with his phony “aw shucks” patter and sociopathic attitude. The Trails mostly just stood there, mouths agape; though Cherry once again put forth her weak bees defense, repeating her earlier failure to convince Violet and Caroline (Ernest’s wife). Once Ernest left, Cherry recovered enough to reiterate her intentions to raid the garden overnight with the help of her Garden Mafia to remove the bees to safety. Surprise of surprises, Mark offered to help, apparently indifferent to his current zebra mussel assignment.
All in all, there was little action, though the introduction of Honest Ernest is an important angle to the story. Maybe this week could have been compressed into just three or four days, allowing Rivera to use the other days to portray Cherry meeting with her Black Rose Society colleagues as they prepare to raid the garden. But, at least we can see better why Cherry’s defense of the bees went nowhere with the Sunny Soleil Society. It wasn’t just Cherry’s lack of persuasiveness, but the ignorance and delusional attitudes of the social-climbing members of the Sunny SoleilSociety. Their pretense of sophistication was revealed by the cynical glibness and threatening attitude of Caroline’s rube of a husband. But, it’s time to move on to the Sunday nature strip. See you in three weeks, Cherry!
As Mark channels his inner “John Lennon” in the last panel (nice pun, Mark!), the Trails serve up a second helping of Sunday Bees; this time, the friendlier domestic version. Rivera’s tradition of making the Sunday title panel thematically link to the current subject continues, as does the tradition of linking the subject to the current storyline. This is not her best title panel, but it’s still a good tradition. Cherry continues to serve as the Second Banana. Frankly, most of this information has already been discussed in the daily strips. But repetition is generally a good instructional method. So, do you agree that the Sunday strips are generally better drawn than the dailies? Not sure why. Well, we might have a different opinion on the hands.
Funny, but I didn’t get the idea that the Trails’ relationship was in any real trouble. Quite the opposite, in fact. But here we have a clear cross-over in story lines, insofar as Mark is now donating time away from his investigation to assist Cherry.
Monday is supposed to bring us back to Mark’s, uh, storyline, as Cherry’s plans now get placed in “publication suspended animation” for two weeks. So, what—or who—will we find on Monday?
“Mutual scheming aside, Mark, where are your priorities? Are you letting Cliff and Diana take over the zebra mussel assignment while you get involved—once again—in yet another possibly illegal activity? The last time you tried to help somebody skirt the law, you barely escaped! If Cherry has any brains, she’ll tell you to go soak your head (in the river) and get back to your real assignment.”
Breaking News on Fox 9: Rusty Trail, son of famed nature writer Mark Trail, was arrested earlier today for tagging the home of the chief of police. Rusty reportedly said “I’m just looking for some attention, any attention at all! My parents are always away with their crackpot activities. Grampa just sits around drooling and talking about his years putting his hand up cows’ asses. And the writers of this comic strip never let me make time with girls. It’s all a real drag, man. I want out.”
Including today, Rivera has only two days left to push this story along, rather than spend so much time milking this faux huckleberry exterminator routine. After Saturday, we have to put Cherry back in the box for two weeks and get back to Mark’s other story. Or will he still be stuck here, moving garden supplies? I dunno, because Mark certainly doesn’t seem too worried about his zebra mussels assignment. Makes you wonder what’s going on with Diana and Cliff while Mark is away.
Now, where the heck are Cherry’s clandestine gardeners? The way Cherry talks in the last panel, one would think that the group changed its mind and went to hang out at Planet Pancake so they can enjoy pancakes when they are still warm and tasty.
We are zoomed out in panel 1, where we see a nest of bees conveniently placed to reflect the current subject. The nest and its supporting branch are arranged along an angle that acts as a means for establishing a foreground to symbolically define the location in the panel where the viewer is standing. Well, at least that was often the intention of painters from the Renaissance onward who employed this popular compositional device, often as a means to help “bring the viewer into the picture” as viewer and participant. Phew! Sorry, my former art history days are slipping out again. But seriously, didn’t the nearness of the bee nest make you involuntarily back up a bit, just for a moment?
It didn’t take long for local yokel Ernest to start dropping his “Good ol’ Boy” persona, revealing a more fundamentally chilling personality. The coldness in his expression and his statement in panel 4 should leave little doubt for Cherry and Mark.
Speaking of Cherry, I can’t say I’m impressed with her lukewarm justification for keeping the bees alive. “They help more than harm”? That’sthe best you can do, Cherry? You might as well ask Ernest if you can help hold his gear while he exterminates the bees. I hope her underground Garden Club gets the job done.
The cornpone humor continues, as even the rabbit is gob smacked to see this retread from a 1960s sitcom showing up in Lost Forest. It seems that the veil of propriety has been lifted from this area and we’re discovering that it is filled with a growing variety of oddballs. The apparent proximity of Lost Forest (near the coast of Georgia, it seems) to Florida must have something to do with the influx of creeps, kooks, and connivers. As another link to the influence of Florida weirdness, the moment I saw Ernest’s work van, a slice of tv trivia dropped into my bread pan. How about you? Think back to cop shows in Florida, around 1984. Okay, so there was only one. Miami Vice featured an undercover surveillance van disguised as a pest control truck, with a “flying ant” on top.
This is just one version of the van; there were several, including a white one. Any influence on Rivera? Other than a general “Florida Weirdness” vibe that Rivera favors, it’s hard to say. Still, you don’t usually see such things any longer, as workers tend to use their van tops for holding ladders.
Well, Honest Ernest may be a cloddish jerk and kind of simple, but I have to admit to liking the pun-name Bee-heading; the name, not the technique. Anyway, is Mark just going to keep on holding that bag of plant soil?
Well, shucks, drop my trousers and call me Cheeky. Doesn’t Honest Ernest present a nice contrast to the affected sophistication of his wife and the Sunny Soleil Society? Still, I’m surprised that Mark and Cherry are “surprised”, unless it has to do with the quantity of hokum in this yokum.
Long-time follower of this blog, Mark, periodically expresses his ongoing frustration with the stories and the artwork. Certainly, it looks less accomplished comparing it to the former version using the same set of aesthetic values. Sometimes it just looks less accomplished, even based on Rivera’s standards. Take Ernie, here. He certainly looks like a literal blockhead, especially in panel 3. One wonders if Rivera is trying to make a visual pun based on Ernest’s personality. In support of this theory, I offer a definition by that 18th century British man of letters, words, and odd gestures, Samuel Johnson:
“hátchet-face n.s. An ugly face; such, I suppose, as might be hewn out of a block by a hatchet“
If you wanted to visually portray somebody’s personality, how would you do it? Walt Kelly, the creator of Pogo had a knack for that. The jury is out on this one.
When we last saw Cherry (a few weeks ago), she was marching with her band of gardener commandoes to check out the bee statue at the Sunny Soleil Society gardens. And Mark was sitting at a picnic table with Cliff and Diana Daggers, hoping to work things out between themselves. Yet, here are our two lovebirds, working together, as if nothing else was going on. What’s with that? With luck, we’ll at least see what Cherry and her group will do by this coming Saturday.
But, what’s this?Some clown in a yellow jump suit has driven up, billowing snide commentary like the typical B-movie bully who thinks he is both funny and dangerous. Until he discovers he picked a fight with a woman who happens to be standing next to Jean-Claude Van Damme.
At first, I thought this might be one of the thugs sent by the Duck Duck Goose shipping company to persuade Mark to back off. But, that would be integrating the two storylines. As I wrote before, I think that would be a great idea; yet it doesn’t have that feel. My guess is that Mr. Yellow Jumpsuit is the extermination business husband of Caroline (a board member of the SSS), who has come around to “put the little woman in her place”, as it were. Clearly, his truck has that “business” look and it appears to have something on its top. Possibly a stereotypical “bug” figure. And that’s why Mr. Yellow Jumpsuit also hides the logo on the side of the work van. The Big Reveal is on Tuesday.
Rivera diverted from the main storyline (Remember, it is the search for Zebra Mussel smugglers!) this week. She expanded on Diana Dagger’s earlier confession to Mark and Cliff that her friends back home had diverted her income into trendy and controversial NFTs. This week’s strips feature (I think) a mini-parody of the world of NFT Development, as seen through the machinations of Cricket Bro; his financial backer and co-conspirator, Professor Bee Sharp; and one very hungry caterpillar, er, goat (okay, the goat isn’t exactly eating the lab coat, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to make the Eric Carle reference).
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the week was something that confused and angered numerous readers. This was the Thursday strip, wherein Professor Bee Sharp appears in the foreground viewing photos, while in the background stand silhouettes of the Professor and Diana. She is arguing against having her salary automatically invested into NFTs. Some readers thought the panel was confusing (or that Rivera had lost her mind, in general), presenting Diana as if she was suddenly in California, instead of Lost Forest. Clearly, the image is deliberately ambiguous and permits of several interpretations: Is this a scene playing in Sharp’s head while he reviews the photos? Is it just a flashback to an earlier conversation Rivera stuffed into that panel, mainly for its artistic effect? Is this distinction at all significant? Why portray this shadowy scene as if they were physically in the same space at the time, when we clearly know that was not the case? Ruminate on that as we move on to a ruminant in today’s Nature Talk!
Another interesting title panel for a non-surprising subject. It would have been clearer for Mark to point out that the cliché of goats eating anything is not accurate. So forget feeding them your empty cans; they are just herbivores. I’m not sure I can go with Mark’s attempt at acronymic humor in the last panel, though they may be the greatest buttinskies of all animals . On the other hand, the image of a goat “testing” Mark’s shirt in the central panel is both relevant to the discussion and humorous. I think we have to recognize Rivera’s bias (as it were) to focus on goats, themselves, rather than on their additional existence as resources for human consumption (fabric, cheese, meat, etc). It’s a reasonable approach, as Rivera only stated she was delivering a few “fun facts.” There’s only so much you can cram into a Sunday strip.
So, Rivera takes her shots at NFTs and their creators. I wonder if this satirical interlude was based on her own personal experience or that of a friend? In any event, I wonder also if the volatile Professor Bee Sharp (the actual goat this week) will suddenly mutate into Killer Bee Sharp and deliver several well-placed and well-earned stingers to Cricket Bro’s head. That might also help make up for Mark’s own neglect at serving up his usual brand of justice when he was in California.
We have a week of Rivera parodying NFTs and their seedy, single-minded entrepreneurs, using the convenient made-to-order idiots, Professor Bee Sharp and Cricket Bore. Somebody on CK questioned the identity of the animal in panel 1. Did that query intend to suggest that the two goose heads were somehow part of the head of that animal? We have to wonder whether Rivera deliberately composed them with that in mind. In any event, they certainly are two very tall geese! Frankly, I have no idea what that lumpy brown animal is. I hope somebody will educate me and the rest of us. By the way, is it me, or does it look like Professor Sharp is exposing himself to the goat in panel 2?
Unfortunately, I think there are some qualitative differences in today’s strip, especially compared to previous days. Let’s compare panel 2 today to yesterday’s strip (I am also using the second panel):
Wednesday’s panel is the left. Compare the photographer in both scenes. On the left, notice how his hand displays reasonably realistic bone structure, knuckles, and “feel.” On the right (from today), the photographer’s body takes up about the same amount of space.
But his hands today display no sense of bone structure or knuckles; they look flat and clumsily drawn. There is also a disregard for detail in the today’s face, compared with the one from yesterday. The camera looks out of proportion. As for the other two figures in today’s panel, they are also drawn in a clumsy, amateurish manner. Sharp’s head looks like somebody with a toupee that is falling off. Cricket Bro’s head and left arm are an effort.
Now, as long-time readers know, I have largely been a champion for Rivera’s art and overall approach, not only for the overall style, but also for her often-interesting compositions and expressive details that help define mood and action. However, what I see today bothers me, insofar as I don’t know if it is due to rushed deadlines, less-skilled assistants, or something else. Everybody has bad days and this may have been one of them. Rivera is usually much better than this, so when I see what appears as slapdash work, it saddens me, in part because it provides fodder for the complainers who prefer the 19th century illustrative style of the prior Mark Trail cartoonists…which they also complained about (as did I).
Finally, this awkwardness is odd, since it is not apparent in the other two panels, save for that weird juxtaposition of animals in panel 1. In fact, I like panel 3 a lot for its composition, facial expression, and the excellently-drawn foreshortened arm. The panel is first rate. So, what are your thoughts? Am I off the mark?
And who knows, but maybe a lot of NFTs are created as simply and simplistically as this example, then sold on the NFT market for hoped-for buckets of money to gullible investors. And “there is a sucker born every minute”, a phrase P.T. Barnum reportedly coined. Evidence says Barnum didn’t originate that line, but that’s not the point here, anyway.
Should we assume that the tête-à-tête going on in the background of panel 3 is some interpreted reimagining (for visual effect) of a phone call between the “Professor” and Diana? Or perhaps it represents a future contact between these two friends that Bee Sharp is playing in his head as he looks at a bunch of pictures, and trying to determine if he’ll make enough money to buy an island he can call his own? The fact that the two figures in the background are in silhouette while the real Bee Sharp is in the foreground makes it clear (as mud) that they are avatars of some recent or future communication. But, I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop, because there has to be a point to this week-long detour, other than farce for the sake of farce.
Oh, I do like the way that Rivera distinguished the plural form of “NFTS” in Diana’s dialog by bolding only the letters N-F-T. The word would normally be written as NFTs, except that full caps are always used in the strip; hence the bold font formatting. Okay, so you noticed that, too. I still like the effort.
The Daily Trail 