Well, Aparna had no problem with the door code, whose “dit-dat-dit” sound calls to mind the letter “R” in Morse Code. Maybe that’s an “Easter Egg” planted by Jules Rivera. So, how many laptops are in that room? I can’t tell where they are, or are those two structures on either side of the room supposed to be the stored laptops!? Black Widow spiders wanna know!

Also, there seems to be an inexplicable continuation of the fight which Dare had just stopped! Supposedly. Well, if we see this entire series of panels as concurrent with the panels of the prior days, then panel 4 may just be a recap of the impromptu fight that Dare goes on to stop, although Killer Bee originally walloped Mark with a right jab, not an uppercut.

But this is all quite vague and contradictory. In fact, the timing…er, time, seems out of whack. The clock on the wall in panel 4 looks like it is around 7:20. However, the strip yesterday clearly showed the clock at 6:00.

So, what gives here? I’ve got no answer. Do you? Oops, I’m out of time.

Dare has a vision!? Looks more like he has Excedrin Headache #22. Poor Dare. If only he had bothered to share his vision with everybody before the current kerfuffle! But even by panel 4, we have no idea what that vision is. Does it involve Killer Bee, dressed in boxing attire, attacking Mark, sans gloves? Or maybe the two of them meeting in the middle of the ring, knocking fists against each other, and deciding to work together to solve the world’s problems? Or maybe Dare has a deal with ESPN.

Well, while we wait, seems that Mark has a busted lip (panel 3), leaking black blood, not red. Either that, or Rivera smeared the ink before it dried.

I think we have to assume that a good ten minutes has gone by since Dare first let Mark into the building, while the Herp Crew snuck into the off-limits wing. That means—if my college German is any good—that Mark only has to fool this crowed for 20 more minutes. But if Mark’s strategy is to coax Killer Bee into a premature rematch, I’m not sure this is a winning approach, as either the Bee goes down quickly, or Dare the Bear knocks them both down.

Maybe Mark can play Boxing Clown to Bee’s Rodeo Clown and waste a lot of time literally running around the ring, avoiding those yellow gloves. Or Mark can break the fourth wall and ask Jules Rivera to change the minute hand on the wall clock so we can get this story moving on.

Yes, as commentator Downpuppy pointed out, size isn’t everything, and whipcord-ripped Mark has no problem sparring with The Bee. In fact, it looks like Mark’s right cross carried a meaningful message of danger to the arrogant Bee-man. Frankly, Killer Bee looks more bully than boxer, and his technique frankly stinks. I would bet that, had this “fight” gone on, Bee would go down in the first round. But as Rivera, herself, pointed out, the fight got stopped by the local version of Andre the Giant, just as it got started.

And that brings up more questions, such as

a) What’s the point of the boxing match gimmick in the first place?

b) Why was it stopped:  Did Cricket Bro get disappointed that Mark can actually fight?

c) Where is Cricket Bro, anyway?

d) How are those two Herp Hacienda members getting on?

e) And where is this story going?

So far, we have Mark invited to fly to LA and participate in a still-unseen video with Reptilionnaire; also invited to stay at Herp Hacienda, a reptile retreat filled with assorted human oddballs; then invited to a party by the video’s “money man”, “Cricket Bro“, who happens to be Mark’s childhood nemesis, Rob Bettancourt. This turned out to be a party where Mark was systematically and deliberately insulted, ignored, and threatened. We learned of a revelation by Aparna, one of the Herp Hacienda staff, about Cricket Bro stealing her intellectual property. This subplot is added on by a plan hatched by Mark to infiltrate Cricket Bro’s offices to help steal it back; but the plan was weakened by an otherwise pointless interlude with Professor Bee and Diana Daggers stopping Mark and his “street posse” on the way to Cricket Bro’s office, ruining any chance of surprise. But then a discussion between Mark and the human mountain doorman enabled Rept and Aparna to somehow slink into the off-limits Developer’s Wing. And finally, we have this outrageous boxing match setup for another alleged video. This is truly some off-the-wall goofiness!

But, other than the so-called theft of an animal air sensor phone app, where is the Injustice against Nature that Mark normally works to resolve? It has to be more than the two videos or the simple thrill of humiliating Rob “Cricket Bro” Bettancourt. There has to be something more, something much bigger. Perhaps we’ll see it this week.

I think a second week of Cherry’s story would have been better, but we did leave Mark in mid-punch, getting hammered by Killer Bee. We return to the action and its follow-up, which amounts to Mark still standing after that right jab and vowing to unleash the much talked-about “Two Fists of Justice!” Of course, it might be wise for Mark to put on some boxing gloves in order to minimize the chance of breaking a knuckle. But will Cricket Bro foil Mark’s justice and stop the fight before Trail returns the compliment to Killer Bee?

Artistically, I know people will complain (as they already have) about the sometimes spindly anatomy of various figures, whether it be Dirk’s legs or Mark’s body in panel 2. But it seems to be a stylistic feature of the strip in general, and here, it is used to effectively differentiate Mark’s appearance from Killer Bee’s partially-visible strongman physique. By the way, this feature was not apparent in Professor Bee’s initial introduction, where he looked a lot slimmer, more like a dancer. But he was wearing a full-length coat or duster. I suppose ‘clothes make the man’? Anyway, this difference helps set up a dramatic question of whether a person of slight build can overcome a person with a more aggressive and strong appearance. In the old days of this adventure strip, the outcome of this fight would be obvious. With Rivera, the outcome seems less certain.

Perhaps that sense of uncertainty we have seen in Mark’s character is a deliberate ploy created by Rivera, so that when Mark does send Bee to the mat, it will be a greater surprise to the onlookers and a more pleasing dramatic turn of events. This reminds me of watching a Popeye cartoon, where the much bigger Bluto always pounds Popeye mercilessly until he can consume his magical spinach and gain the strength of ten men. Then Popeye wipes the floor with Bluto and wins the day. But we’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see what happens next.

Now, Rivera has a good sense of design, and panel 1 is a good example. First, there is a similarity in angle of the two figures, which aids in the aggressiveness and movement from left to right. The curved bee antenna is mirrored in the curvature of the “stars” of Mark’s face as he gets punched. Nice touch!  The funnel-shape above Mark’s head, which I suppose represents part of the effect of Mark’s head getting walloped, is mirrored by the triangular shape of Mark’s torso, as it falls to the right.

Anyway, in spite of my academic noodling above, I think we are all ready for some good old-fashioned Mark Trail Payback at this point. And it’s about time we see Mark return to his “man of action” roots! There’s been enough of Mark The Clueless Wimp.

Thanks, Dennis, for once again taking up the reigns while I drive through rain storms and sweltering heat from Virginia, back to Minnesota. Okay, I had the AC on the whole time, but still, three days of driving does wear on. And those thunderstorms dropped rain like it was a heavy fog. No fun when driving through mountainous terrain.

Well, well, well. Is Cherry calling in the bovine cavalry? Seems a bit of a stretch for her to set a sounder of wild hogs loose on some garden patches. So this week’s strips somewhat slowly unroll the character of one Dirk Davis, a hitherto unknown sibling of Cherry’s, whose appearance belies any family resemblance. And let’s face it:  Either Rivera does not have a lot of experience drawing beards, or there is something else going on here. As has been pointed out, this has got to be one of the phoniest looking beards on any cartoon character.

In any event, not much action, nor much in the way of explanation at this point. While we might complain about the slow pace here, I do think there is a valid explanation, and that is there must be something important about Dirk’s backstory and his particular set of skills that makes him vital to Cherry’s success. But there are concerns:

1. Why doesn’t Cherry tell Dirk the whole story? She is clearly shading the truth here.
2. How will getting hogs to run wild through flower beds resolve the larger issue here of the clearly arbitrary and negative rules of Sunny Soleil, much less its arrogant staff?
3. Why did Cherry think she had time on her hands when she took the day off to visit the rose garden that got turned into the butterfly bushes? I suppose that was to set up a reason for getting Dirk.
4. And what about the palmettos?
5. And how is any of this going to make the Home Owners Association change its rules?

This seems like the wrong time to switch back to hapless Mark. We need to see more of the story before it goes to the back burner.

So the subject of today did not appear in any of the panels this past week. The Title panel shows one of the ducks grabbing the “K” in the name formed of sea grass. It is another cleverly designed panel and makes sense when you view and read panel 4, explaining the Moscovy Duck’s feeding habits. Why can’t these invasive ducks be legally removed? Rivera does not say why, but they (at least the feral version) are classed as invasive in the US. Rivera lacks space for really detailed discussions, but I learned that this duck has been around for a very long time, especially in Central and South America. Its feathers were used by Aztec rulers for cloaks. According to Wikipedia, they are considered indigenous (not invasive) in a few Texas counties.

I’m wondering if Rivera draws up these Sunday panels in groups, as she assigns herself the time; then arbitrarily selects which ones get published in what order. Somehow, this reminds me of some of her earlier Mark Trail work, but that might just be my imagination at work.

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 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

1. Why Prof Bee was waiting to follow Trail
2. Why he gave chase and ran him off the road
3. Why Trail was challenged about including Aparna and ReptMan
4. Why Bee appears to suddenly accept their flimsy excuses, in spite of Diana’s warning
5. Whether anybody actually in control here?
6. 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.

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 7^th 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.

Well, well, well. The Trailverse is certainly becoming more adventurous and harrowing! But why the heck are Mark and his comrades-in-conspiracy holding up their arms as if they are being arrested? Do they believe Professor Bee (apparently driving at night in his pajamas) is going to shoot them down in cold blood? Where are the guns, guys!?  

Funny how Prof. Bee wags his finger and scolds them, as if they are naughty children. It’s ironic that he is claiming they are the ones up to no good. But why is Mark depicted in panel 4 in that cheap movie cliché of a guilty person fingering his collar when being questioned? Surely Mark must have some degree of self-control, yes!? So much for any contingency planning. But shucks, they’ll never tumble to Mark’s true mission, based on his innocent composure!

This tale is getting a bit whacky, even for an adventure yarn. If Bee and Daggers were going to trail Trail (thank you, thank you!), they could just as easily driven to Herp Hacienda and picked him up to ensure he came alone. Right? Why bother with the cloak-and-daggers stuff? Wait. This is an adventure strip: asked and answered.

A couple of observations on the visual angle:

1. Not sure what that greenish-yellow shape is in panel 2. It’s not a car door. And not a headlight.
2. An interesting choice to outline Professor Bee in white to make him stand out from the background, something Rivera did not do for Daggers in panel 2 or Trail in panel 4. While it does effectively bring focus to Bee, I wonder why Rivera did not use yellow instead of white, to maintain consistency with the car lights used in prior strips and provide a practical basis for the highlight.
3. Nice job of having Aparna crouching behind Mark while still peeking around him in panel 1. It’s a small, but well-done detail. Have we seen that kind of attention to poses and character in the older Trail stips? I cannot recall anything off hand. Usually, they’d all be standing around like tree trunks.

I still have a latent thought in my head that all is not what it seems and that either Cricket Bro or Professor Bee may not be bad guys. But that is asking a lot to have that kind of complexity in a comic strip. And it is already a more complex plot than we normally find in older Trail Tales. Where do we go from here?

This entire past week consisted of Mark, Reptilionnaire (sic), and Aparna driving their eco-friendly (and slow) car to Cricket Bro’s house to put their so-called plan into action. Well, it seems they were still working out some minor details along the way, such as figuring out how long it would take to get into the office holding Cricket Bro’s laptop containing the air quality app supposedly taken by Cricket Bro. As I’ve already noted, it appears that Cricket Bro may already be legally entitled to it, since he paid Aparna and other programmers to develop their apps in the first place. But Mark seems to have missed that legal point. We also noted the silliness of this entire operation, as any programmer would have made backups. For that matter, so could Cricket Bro, making this Mission Impossible plan pointless.

But Rivera throws a curve ball by having Professor Bee and his female assistant chase our protagonists down while en route. But why? Surely, not for Cricket Bro’s apparent feelings toward Mark, nor for such a pointless application. Something else is afoot. At the very least, Rivera gives us some good old-fashioned drama and action that leaves us puzzled. Is Cricket Bro the head villain or Professor Bee? Or are they the real good guys and Mark’s associates the bad guys who have apparently misled Mark?

Today, we focus on the Peregrine falcon, a popular species, even here in Minnesota. A family of Peregrines were the much-observed and reported-on focus of local TV station WCCO several years ago. The DNR had added a live webcam to a nesting box placed by the Midwest Peregrine Society atop a building in downtown St. Paul. Nearly daily reports on WCCO News showed mommy and daddy Peregrine nursing the eggs that eventually became a family of chicks. Problematic grammar aside (e.g. the caption in the penultimate panel), today’s nature strip is interesting, though the art doesn’t seem up to Rivera’s usual standard. Of course, other critics will quickly remark that none of her art is up to the standards of the old Mark Trail strips. But that is a false comparison, as I have noted before. Rivera is not trying to emulate that quaint style that had become as much a trademark of Mark Trail as the characters, themselves.

But what’s with the superfluous text in panel two: “Faster than any bird…on earth!” Well, where else would we expect to compare avian speeds!? Did NASA discover Martian falcons and forget to tell us?

Speaking of speed, Rivera’s comment about the influence on jet engine development looks correct. But it is important to note that she was not talking about the original creation of jet engines, but later developments, when jets attained supersonic speeds (Jet engine evolution inspired by the Peregrine Falcon – zackandscottkarmachameleons (wordpress.com)).

Finally, I like the fact that Rivera takes the trouble to dress Mark in clothing appropriate to the elevated height. Good attention to detail!

Ah, a rabbit frozen in the headlights? Well, this is a fine how-do-you-do!  Is this a bit of over-the-top acting, er, storytelling? I mean, all of this drama over an app that essentially does nothing that is not already being done elsewhere?

Of course not. Aparna already stated that Cricket Bro had gotten the app he wanted from somebody else and then fired everybody. But all of this, just so Cricket Boy can satisfy his juvenile fixation on somebody he knows is far better than he can ever be?  Well, that is a common motivation for arch-villains throughout literary and cinematic history, after all.

The artwork is correspondingly dramatic and bold, as the harsh lines of figures and the harsh glare of headlights work in conjunction to create a scene of blinding drama and potential betrayal. The style reminds me of some comic books from the 1940s. So, why are Professor Bee and his assassin-assistant acting like they are participating in a ransom payoff for a kidnapping? And what’s with Bee’s response to Mark about Trail trying to get someone killed? Is this group actually going to bump off Rept-Man and Aparna?  Clearly, there must be something really bad going on in the background to warrant this kind of reaction. And there is no longer any doubt that the good professor is part of this scheme, up to his neck.

Well, this wraps up the first week back in crazy Palm Springs, California. I’m guessing this would be a poor time to change horses in mid-stream and go back to Cherry, so I think this storyline will continue next week. I’m kind of going blind just looking at these panels!