Day 2 of the “Wha’ happened!?”explanation. I’m going to take a stab at it and propose that Aparna’s two-day “seminar” is a sequence that got left out of the original escape sequence shown two weeks ago. And Rivera is now “backing up” the time to catch us up. Maybe. Still, Aparna might find it easier to push that hood all the way back to make sure she can be heard clearly, especially as we have two days of panels essentially saying the same thing. Sort of.

However, we have a bit of an information flub. Data aggregators are concerned with managing large amounts of raw data and producing quantified summaries. Handling binary programming code in not their function. They are basically large-scale data warehouses on steroids. So: Uploading Aparna’s programming code to a “coding forum” is reasonable. Then it would be considered “open source” for any programmer to compile or even modify. At that point, the compiled program could be made available to the public for the purpose Aparna wanted.

Data aggregators, on the other hand, would be used to store data recorded by Aparna’s program as it would be uploaded by users. The summary data could then be used for further study. Maybe Rivera has Aparna is simplifying the explanation for Mark, if we want to give this flub a positive spin. Or, maybe she wants to make Aparna not as smart as she thinks she is. maybe somebody gave her some bum data. To be fair, maybe I am all wet.

The third panel showing Aparna’s face from slightly below is nicely depicted, something that Rivera’s predecessors tended to avoid trying, as I recall. However, Rivera seems to still be working out the details for drawing animals. That hare in panel 4 could be a yard statue.

As Quick Draw McGraw used to exclaim during a crisis, “Now hold on there!” What do we have here, if not some kind of chronological and textual revisionism? This is one reason why more time should be spent on each of the two story lines, before switching between them. If we go back a week, we should recall that the Herp Hacienda Heisters had taken the laptop and set off a security alarm. They were intercepted in a hall by Cricket Bro, only to have himself intercepted and restrained by Mark. By the magic of The Cartoon Universe, Aparna suddenly uploaded her app to the Internet before handing the laptop back to Cricket Bro. Mark and his two companions then ran out of the building while Professor Bee and Diana Daggers consulted some kind of tracking program as a substitute for physically chasing them down. Or so it seemed, based on the actual published strips.

However, today’s strip must be a parallel universe redo that altered the time and sequence of events. Mark seems to have forgotten that hallway scene with Cricket Bro. And Mark’s exclamation of potential failure in panel 4 seems to suggest he wasn’t paying attention as Aparna uploaded her app while berating Cricket Bro, who was still being held by Mark! So, where the hell was Mark’s mind during all this? Was he still thinking that he should get back and thrash Killer Bee some more?

And why do we see rats in panel 1 gnawing on what appear to be network patch cables? Is this supposed to create a spark that starts a fire and totally engulfs the building in flames? Does this mean that a fleeing Mark Trail will spot the fire and force the gang to turn around and run back into the building to save whoever manages to get stuck inside before they are potentially asphyxiated or turned into charcoal briquettes? Maybe these cables link to the building’s security system? Mystery abounds!

The art seems a bit uneven. The first panel appears to depict our protagonists as stick figures in clothes, whereas the other three panels are filled with more conventionally decent Rivera drawing. Lest anybody be unsure, I generally like her drawing. However, I am not so comfortable with the first panel. I have proposed a theory in the past that suggested certain elongations or distortions might be deliberate stylistic choices to represent high energy, action, speed, or other dramatic events. And in truth, it is only Mark—who is running—who looks rather stick-like. But I may be reading too much into this. That comes from my unfortunate academic background, I think.

Anyway, I’m okay with a bit of a recap, but not if it is going to alter the chronology and events.

So we made it through another installment of Cherry’s Trail of Vengeance. Frankly, I’d like to see Rivera commit to story lines alternating every two weeks for Cherry and Mark. With the additional, continuous time, I think better continuity and pacing could be established. As it is, we moved through the execution of Cherry’s plan to stick it to the HOA by getting her reclusive, anti-government brother and his “feral” hogs to destroy the Butterfly bushes put in by the Sunny Soleil Society. Those of you coming in late should know that the SSS secretly and possibly illegally replaced Cherry’s original installation of indigenous plants at that faux roundabout. So this was tit for tat. Maybe. No doubt, there is some visceral satisfaction to seeing the work of your nemesis wantonly destroyed. But as in Mark’s case, we have moral and legal complexity here, as Cherry decided to take a vigilante approach to problem solving. Of course, this is an adventure strip, right?

But such an action is not what the old Mark Trail stood for, much less practiced. We are in a new (or parallel) Mark Trailverse, where those old sharply defined lines are more blurry. That blurriness stands in contrast to Rivera’s drawing style, which happens to feature sharply defined lines.  Not sure if there is a connection there. Still, we must wait at least another week before we see the fallout from Cherry’s adventure. Meanwhile, brother Dirk (who served as Cherry’s convenient dux ex machina), like other characters and subplots in the original Mark Trail, will likely disappear from the strip without further fanfare or attention.

And now for something completely different:  Sunday’s strip.

Well, the animal of the week was actually the animal star of the week this time. And no, I didn’t recall that feral hogs were such a threat, so thanks for the info, Mark! In spite of the subject, Mark delivers the info chat, rather than Cherry. Is this because Rivera is sticking to the tradition that Mark always delivered the nature chats in the past? Wikipedia says that these animals can host at least 34 pathogens dangerous to animals and people. That, alone is reason enough to carry a rifle, even though I don’t think we’ve seen Mark actually hunting for quite some time! And Mark might want to warn Cherry to check her vaccination records.

Mark’s remark about the 1980s is interesting, given that he would have been a small kid at that time (accepting his apparent age now). And what about that hot pink bathroom tile with the small, colorful shapes stuck on the wall. Where did that wall come from out there, in the wild? Is this some kind of nod to the 1986 movie, Pretty in Pink? There is a bathroom scene with similar tiles, where the character Duckie is pushed into the “Girl’s Bathroom.” Not sure those tiles were exactly this color, but the reference might work.

ADDENDUM: While doing some research on prior Mark Trail strips, I had forgotten and overlooked the fact that Rivera already covered feral hogs on a Sunday strip! “ThyTrailBeDone” creator Dennis Williams posted that Sunday strip here on March 2, 2021. A repeat so soon?

Also, I wonder if Rivera’s use of the term “vaccine” is incorrect. since vaccines are designed to protect against disease. I’ll let better researchers in that field find the correct term she alludes to.

Okay, I reckon that this was the inevitable outcome. So much for taking the High Road of litigation!

And I suppose if we want to give any credence to the “think outside the box” cliché, then Cherry certainly did that by enlisting the assistance of Dirk and his Hungry Hogs. I think we can count on this action to certainly raise the hackles of Violet Cheshire the next time she passes by!

Will she try to blame Cherry for the destruction? Will Cherry keep a low profile or stand proudl and yell “Yeah! I did this to the Sunny Soleil Society!” That would seem foolish, but tell me, faithful readers, what has not been foolish or reckless in Cherry’s saga so far?

Finally, what is that red “design” thing on Dirk’s beard in panel 2? It looks like one of those Japanese or Chinese “chops”; that is, a signature affixed to paper or a silk painting. A crimson ink was standard.

It’s easy to be snarky with a comic strip that usually takes itself seriously, especially one that kept itself in a world of old-fashioned values, corny dialog, and formulaic stories. The prior version of Mark Trail was a moralistic and moralizing strip with clearly defined good and bad actors. It was like “Father Knows Best”, staged in a fantasy-land, where the rugged father was usually out saving the environment, while leaving his family to fend for themselves. And they were always waiting at the door for his return. With its repetitious poses, Mark’s unflappable hair, his strong sense of self-importance, and a supporting cast of one-dimensional characters, Mark Trail was an easy target for poking fun at, like the fat grandfather at Thanksgiving telling jokes that were last funny when he was a boy.

But Jules Rivera does not give us an easy target. In fact, her iteration of the strip is, itself, sometimes self-parody, sometimes satire, and sometimes self-destructive. So maybe some fans are pissed to see that Rivera is out-snarking the Snarkers? Her drawing style deliberately changes from the old standard to what many feel is either incompetence or disrespect. Yet, the characters are given more realistic personalities and depth. The strip is also no longer only about Mark, which is good! Yet, Mark is especially put through a variety of external and internal crises that cause him to act in ways that the prior Mark would never experience. That includes a reckless streak that has more than once crossed the line of legality. It happened in Florida and it seems to have repeated in California, where we have spent this week watching a theater of the absurd take place in Cricket Bro’s HQ, all to help Aparna purloin a company laptop that apparently contained the only copy of a program she wrote for Cricket Bro’s company. Who is the bad guy here? Who is the trouble-maker? The usual tropes rarely apply, as Mark Trail coexists alongside a real world where good and bad are more often seen as transactional behavior.

Sure, Rob Bettancourt is a jerk and a bully. Professor Bee Sharp and Diana Daggers are certainly dodgy characters. But are they an actual criminal gang? Other than taunt and humiliate Mark, what have they done that’s illegal? Cricket Bro’s project management style may be slimy, but he did pay the programmers before firing them. What they designed belongs to him, no matter how he chooses to use or not use their work. Aparna appears to have no legal right to that software. On the other hand, the plan to recover “Aparna’s” app through less than honest means is almost clearly a criminal action, aided and abetted by Mark.

But I take issue here, as nobody (with the possible exception of Rivera) wants to think that Mark would actually cross the line into illegal or criminal actions. Damaging private property, fleeing police, and assisting in the theft of private property are contrary to what we’ve come to expect from Mark’s character. At least, the original Mark. So I’m not sure what the motivation is:  Perhaps it is a finger in the eye of long-standing readers who complain about the change of style, character, and stories. You can make a character (or family of characters) more rebellious, adventurous, and even reckless, without crossing that line, unless you are also going to make that character accept responsibility for those actions. Shucks, I like Mark better when he is holding conversations with animals.

Perhaps using that roadrunner as a false clue this past Thursday, Rivera jumped over to another speedy animal. Interesting information in the panels today, though the closing statements seem repetitious: How do the young jackrabbits survive? Oh, I think Mark already spilled the beans in the earlier panels. Rivera gets better and better at drawing wildlife. One might quibble over whether that is dust coming from behind the bunny in the last panel or perhaps some internal gas. Likely, the former! As usual, we see that the title panel is composed of that dust kicked up by the escaping jackrabbit, as Rivera continues her habit of linking the appearance of the strip’s title to the main theme.

I hate to admit it, but this story is really going sideways. Maybe the art, as well. Perhaps Daggers (in panel 3) means she has all of the Herp Hacienda Gang’s transgressions captured on a security video that she can access from her phone and will turn over to the “proper authorities.” Or she put a tracker on the Prius.

Rivera has an aggressive drawing style that I like (though many Trailheads strongly disagree!) ; and it is well done most of the time. But here, it looks like a first-year student in “Cartooning 101” got involved, especially panel 1.

Anatomy is almost completely warped out of proportion, and details, such as Cricket Bro’s hands, are painful to look at. The composition is flat. The “Smack!” effect (including the lettering) is crude and not well-balanced. It kind of reminds me of the low quality work you could see in the old Charlton comic books of the 1960s. Some of you may know what I mean.

Anyway, the drawing gets a little better in panels 2 and 3 (even Diane’s hand looks pretty decent), but the overall effect of the strip is disappointing. Rivera normally does a lot better, though we’ve seen some inconsistencies lately. It makes me wonder whether she is working under deadline pressure or perhaps has an assistant doing some of the work. We know that cartoonists (including Dodd and Elrod) sometimes use assistants for things like lettering, backgrounds, or inking. At an extreme level, the Garfield comic strip is completely drawn and inked by Jim Davis’s assistants (or “ghosts” as they are called in the cartooning industry), though he creates initial sketch ideas and approves the final strips.

So, which is it? I know that Rivera works in an electronic format (as does Dilbert’s Scott Adams), so that could easily allow for cooperative work. But this is just idle guesswork. Most likely, this is all her work and I’m just making shit up.

On a positive note, I applaud Professor Bee Sharp for his ability to so rapidly change back into street clothes, like some actor playing multiple roles in live theater. Granted, all he did was pull off his boxing attire and jump into a workout suit, but that’s still fast work. Now wouldn’t it be nice if Mark ever changed his clothes! I wonder: If you opened Mark Trail’s closet back in Lost Forest, would you see 20 red and black plaid shirts on hangers?

Er…uh, okay. I reckon. Did I see this on “Saved by the bell”? I mean, it’s like watching snarky teenagers as they try to pull off another dumb stunt before getting caught by the Principal as they walk around the corner on their way out.

Yet, we see all three of the transgressors (just where the hell was Reptilionnaire during this hallway scuffle, anyway?) in panel four heading to their car for the getaway. So where are the other Cricket Bro companions? Are they still hanging around the boxing ring waiting for Mark to “come back from the bathroom” or whatever lame excuse he must have used to leave the room without being followed? I wonder if that roadrunner is supposed to be a symbol, such as “We better get outta here before the cops show up!”

I wonder how “the world” is going to enjoy Aparna’s app, since it is just the source code. Source code needs to be compiled into an application before it can be run by somebody; so maybe Aparna really means “the world of programmers”. Okay, enough of taking Rivera to task for her fast-and-loose awareness of computers, as if any other show on TV or Movie Land did it better.

Anyway, I’m left wondering:  What the heck was Mark thinking!? How did this episode resolve his conflicts? How did it reveal any possible wrong-doings at Cricket Bro’s company? And doesn’t he want to go back and knock Killer Bee’s block off his shoulders?

Well, maybe there will be another car chase after they peel out in their Prius!

In action films it seems that the villain is always destined to waste time describing his/her/their true motives for taking over the world, the country, or the local pizzeria; meanwhile giving the captured hero time to break loose, destroy the villain, and try to save the movie. So it’s not enough for Aparna to steal (back) the laptop (which she doesn’t own) with the program (that she was paid to write for Cricket Bro). She has to take time to wipe Cricket Bro’s face with her own justification. This waste of time should give Bro’s cohorts plenty of time to figure things out and come to the rescue. Odd isn’t it: Who are the “bad guys” here? In spite of Cricket Bro taking away Aparna’s righteous indignation in panel 2 by revealing that his so-called insult was just his way of firing people, Aparna didn’t take the hint. She just continues with her vengeance panel 3.

Getting a bit nerdy here for a minute: What the hell is Aparna doing using the antiquated, unsecured File Transfer Protocol to upload her program to “the Internet”? For one thing, what server is she trying to send to? The transfer can’t simply go to “the Internet”; that’s not how FTP works. If it was going up to any server, it would normally be the Cricket Bro’s server. I suppose we can assume the entire building is a wired hotspot. So when did she have time to log on? Wouldn’t her account have been disabled when she was fired?!

Regarding FTP, there are several modern alternatives she should be using, but we need not get into those. After all, this is not a computer science blog. Suffice to say, it is a curious trope Rivera uses; and one that most readers will likely not even recognize. As this is a family comic strip for general readers, Rivera could have simply used a more recognizable abbreviation, such as XFER to keep nerds like me quiet. But then again, we know that Rivera likes to send up her readers.

Back to the story:  I suspect that there will be a full-court showdown by Saturday between the two groups, before jumping back to Cherry and her brother’s swine. That should make for an interesting week to come!

Finishing on a visual note, we are back (I believe) to a well-constructed set of panels, very nicely drawn and composed. Notice how Cricket Bro’s face is darkened in panel 3. Is this symbolic of his “dark nature” or simply a means of making a contrast to the background? Instead of using old-fashioned Ben Day dots or even simple hatching, Rivera uses a pattern of mixed line types, which adds more texture, though it makes no attempt to suggest facial contours. In this particular case, it would probably come across as too busy.

“They thought he was just an Outdoor Nature Cornball. They found out he is a Man with a Certain Set of Skills, which don’t include fixing fences, installing light switches, or imitating bird calls!”

So, is this “Mark Trail: Nature Vigilante” now? We’ve come a long way from Mark’s former boy scout approach to righting wrongs, haven’t we? It’s one thing to twist an arm to get cooperation, but I think Mark is taking that to a new level. And I’m not sure I like the direction it is going.

First of all, Mark seems already sold on an application that seems to be a standard practice in many occupations, including animal welfare. And we never learned the practical, operational qualities of this app, which is to say, what’s special about it and how would it be used in a realistic setting? Furthermore, if it is designed for wildlife, what are you going to do if the air is not prime for the animals? Somebody going to go round up about 3,000 water buffalo and take them into a climate-controlled habitat for a bit? Mark never bothered questioning the practicality of this program. Frankly, I’m siding with Cricket Bro at this point, based on his responses and Mark’s actions.

Did Aparna or Reptilionnaire or Mark even think to simply ask Cricket Bro to buy back the application? I mean, if it isn’t a money-maker, why wouldn’t he let it go for a relatively small charge and the possibility of some royalties if the product ever hits the market down the road and makes a profit? They could have started with something like that, before starting instead with grand theft and battery. If all of this is caught on security cameras, I don’t think even Father Trail will be able to keep Mark out of jail and a bad date in court.

From the artistic side, I’m thinking…another day of quickly-drawn images, not like yesterday’s panels. In short, with last week in mind, perhaps some inconsistency in the work. As far as I know, Rivera does not have an assistant. Of course, as I noted before, it could be a case of employing style to represent the mood or temperament of the situation. But that is sounding like a stretch at this point.

Well, it’s nice to see that the boys shared a moment together.

Thoughts, anyone?

Time and space compression is at work once again as we see Cricket Bro and Mark magically transport into the alleged “complex” web of hallways where the Laptop Duo is attempting to make a getaway. Never mind that the company’s so-called Security (the person known as “Dare”?) has apparently disappeared. In any event, Mark adds to his expected growing list of possible criminal charges of accessory to theft and fraud by assaulting Cricket Bro, who suddenly speaks like a 1940s film noir character.

So where are Killer Bee, Diana, and Dare in all of this action? Did none of them think to come running when the alarms went off, or are they off to their appointed “battle stations”, ready to intervene if needed?

Today’s strip is a great improvement in artistic quality, with regard to style, staging, and overall effect. The off-kilter point-of-view in panel 1 underscores the urgency and anxiety of the current crisis. Cricket Bro in panel 2 is well-delineated in a three-quarter, foreshortened pose. Though Mark’s corralling of Cricket Bro in panel 3 gives the impression that the Herp Hacienda team now have a free pass to escape, it may be an illusion. Or delusion.

After all, Mark has to also escape. And there are still three formidable forces for Mark to deal with, excluding Cricket Bro. What will they do now?

Oh, about that software:  Why would Cricket Bro leave it on a docked laptop, if it was so important? In any realistic situation, the software would have already been uploaded to a server or other secure storage devices and the laptop drive wiped clean. In fact, it would have been proper that all of the laptops were connected to a server while being used.

Now, should we assume Jules is just not cognizant of such things? Hard to believe in this day and age. So, is there another angle here? Is the software issue merely a blind? A ruse? If so, for whom?

In adventure strips of the ‘30s and ‘40s, it was common for the big Sunday panels to more or less summarize the previous week’s dailies, since many newspaper subscribers only took Sunday. We don’t have that in Mark Trail, since Sundays are reserved for nature talks. In fact, we don’t normally have recap strips at all. However, today looks mostly like an “In case you missed a day” strip, with a recap of Mark’s silly boxing match with “Killer” Bee Sharp, while the Herp Hacienda kids have (already) set off a security alarm. All old news! In short, today’s strip gives us nothing new with regard to the story.

It’s not specifically story padding, as what we have here is more review than pointless filler. But why bother? The storyline is already getting long; it’s time to move it forward.

I’m also wondering if Rivera is deliberately playing around with continuity. That is, deliberately altering space and time for some unspecified reason. I already pointed out the example of the changing clocks, which have since been absent. Today we see the presto-change-o position of Cricket Bro, originally observing from the floor; but suddenly up on the outside edge of the ring.

The composition of panel 1, lowered point of view, well done. The overall drawing of the panels is tighter, though still looking off from Rivera’s usual work. Mark’s face in panel 1 with its punch-drunk expression will likely tick off long-time readers as either incompetent drawing or just a disrespectful representation, though I think it is deliberately humorous, like the way villains and tough guys looked in the old Popeye comic strips after they got walloped.

A possible interpretation of Mark’s face in panel 1 is that he is visually suggesting to Killer Bee that this is what his face looks like, as Mark also orally taunts him in the first two panels.

Final observation:  I think the dialog in panel 2 is a reference to the rhyming jokes in The Princess Bride. What do you think?

As we recall, this past week was the continuation of “Mark’s Trail of Woah!”, as we bounced back to his impromptu fight, in progress, with Killer Bee Sharp, after cutting away for a week to watch Cherry cozy up to another one of her oddball siblings.

So, we watched this supposed “pretend fight” start and stop and start and stop again, allowing Killer Bee to get in more actual punches than our “Champion for Nature” was allowed to do. Still, when he did connect, he left messages.

While Mark was more concerned with how to make this travesty of a meeting last for about 30 minutes, the Herp Hacienda kids bungled their attempt to sneak Aparna’s laptop out of Cricket Bro’s hands. Oh, it’s been a herky-jerky week for Mark and Company, both in story and in drawing. If this was the first week of viewing Mark Trail for a reader, I would understand that person complaining of headaches and confusion. Even many of us veteran observers are likely scratching our noggins trying to understand current events. As before, I think these story segments demand two straight weeks at a time in order to help improve overall continuity. And let’s get Dirty Dyer back!

Even though the Butterfly Bush has been mentioned, along with its problems several times in the past few weeks, it has still found its way into a Sunday nature talk. Once again we see a nice cooperative Sunday chat featuring both Mark and Cherry. Still, I wonder why it couldn’t be just Cherry this time, as it falls in her bailiwick. Perhaps there is some long-standing rule Mark Trail has in his contract where he has to be in every Sunday strip.

Well, at least Rivera gives us a set of recommended butterfly plants that help the butterflies. Good show! I will go on to add that the common milkweed (Asclepias) is another good choice, especially beneficial to Monarch butterflies.

Otherwise, this is a nicely drawn page. Perhaps Rivera draws several Sunday strips at one time, after several weeks of dailies are drawn. This would help keep the drawing consistent from one Sunday to the next, especially as the Sunday strips are generally drawn cleanly, evenly, and sympathetically; whereas the style in her dailies is more confrontational and sometimes jagged, perhaps to support the current drama. Anyway, some good continuity with Mark showing garden shears in the middle panel and again with the same shears in the final panel!

Hapless is as hapless does. I reckon that Aparna never realized there were security alarms for the docking stations. Apparently, Reptilionnaire set off the alarm when he removed the laptop. As Aparna is shown in panel 1 half-way removing a laptop without an alarm going off, it is clear that only total removal matters. As if that mattered, anyway. Have to admit that Cricket Bro is no dummy. Meanwhile, poor Mark is once again denied his revenge, just when he is again getting into form. Fisticuff Blue Balls, to coin a bad metaphor.

Artistically, we see Mark’s oddly-foreshortened face certainly looking like it took a lickin’, while Killer Bee’s countenance merely looks like Rivera’s ink pen slipped. Hate to note it, but the overall drawing again looks rushed and untidy, especially panel 3. The panels also lack the kind of detail we normally find in Rivera’s work. Not sure why. One thing for sure:  Cricket Bro needs better pest control for his offices!

Perhaps, when these two kids are captured, Mark will finally get to—if not have to—use his Fists of Justice to save the day.

Okay, I’ll admit to being confused here. More than usual, that is. Based on the remarks of Diana and Professor Bee, I’m thinking they are not quite the bosom buddies of Cricket Bro. Or am I misreading the room? It’s just that their comments have the tint of criticism against Cricket Bro. But is the phrase “It’s the only influence he has in the ring” meant to refer to Mark? Surely not; that makes no sense. But neither does this entire phase of the adventure.

So what happened to Dare and his role in this so-called video commercial scam? Did we miss a day of panels?! Or did Jules drop a daily without fixing the continuity? And exactly how is Cricket Bro provoking this fight? Certainly, his lame insults at Mark are not “encouraging”, unless they are meant to get Mark mad enough to lose focus? Sounds like Cricket Bro is self-projecting! In fact, as I recall, no provocation was needed for Killer Bee to start this so-called fight by throwing a sucker punch at Mark. Dare temporarily stopped it when Mark was getting his licks in. And suddenly, the fight has somehow resumed.

On the cartooning side, this is not one of Rivera’s shining examples. In fact, the entire set of panels looks rushed and sketchy, as if she submitted a draft, rather than a finished product. Or maybe this set of panels was ghosted by somebody filling in for Rivera. She usually does better, in spite of how anybody feels about her drawing style. And as for that last panel, it’s a nice overhead composition. But Mark’s right jab is more of a probe of Bee’s weak defenses rather than one of those famous “fists of justice” he has thrown in the past.