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Just when Mark thought he was starting out with a clean slate…

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Well, we can’t pretend this story is taking place in the 1980s, can we? As I and virtually every other commentator has pointed out, zebra mussels have been around for a long time. Been studied, tracked, and attacked. Is Mr. Suave even more clueless and out-of-step than Mark? Has Rivera created her own version of the Mark Trail Alternate Universe, where time is elastic and discoveries occur only as they are needed for the story? Or, as others have proposed in more direct language, is Rivera just an incompetent writer? Does Rivera depend on her old high school biology book for primary research material?
On the other hand, dear readers, this is a family-centered comic strip, not a history book or a Nature Channel documentary. Still, with all of the actual real-world nature-oriented issues we face these days, Rivera shouldn’t have any problems picking one of them to build a story around, rather than going with a relatively old, well-documented issue. But, here we are. We’ll have to see if Rivera comes up with a novel twist to the story. It might turn out, for example, that the focus actually is somebody Marks runs into during his zebra mussel research. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one!

Boy, I got it right, again. Diana Daggers returns! But, how is a director also a videographer? Seems like different skills to me. And how did she wind up in this gig?

In any event, Rafael clearly enjoys Mark’s reaction in panel 4 to his news. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if there is something ulterior going on in this whole magazine empire. A pretty small world where Diana Daggers would also be known or available to this same magazine editor. Or is there some kind of conspiracy going on between Amy and Rafael to put the screws to Mark? Maybe this is all the work of Dirty Dyer, plying his revenge trade in the background.

In any event, this twist should make for an interesting story, don’t you think?  Maybe zebra mussels will, indeed, become less of the focus. But I have to admit it: Mark’s expression in panel 4 is priceless! Well done, Rivera.

A side-bar before today’s strip

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Reader, gird thy loins and prepare thyself! I feel the urge to “philosophize” again. Read on or skip down to today’s comic and avoid the blah-blah-blahs!

The daily snarkfest over at King Feature Syndicates’ (“KFS”) ComicsKingdom (“CK”) is getting a lot of mileage out of the recent innuendo-filled Mark Trail dailies. Can’t say that I blame them going after such tasty, low-hanging fruit. And I figure that Rivera knows that and is probably pulling branches down to make it easy. It does bring up the question whether Rivera is writing to troll snarkers at the same time she is working to overhaul this presumed white bread, patristic, patronizing, and out-of-touch adventure strip that was followed by a shrinking number of faithful newspaper readers.

I know Rivera follows the comments over at CK and has also added her own ripostes from time to time. She even looked at this site at least once. Anyway, running across a clever insult or pun is a pleasant way to spend a few minutes. Everybody like a good compliment, but “even bad publicity is still publicity. And that’s good!”

Looks like KFS is going to stick with Rivera as she works to make Mark Trail more popular, which will likely mean younger, more diverse people. Still, Rivera has previously pledged to keep this a nature-based adventure strip, and she has done that, albeit in indirect ways:  The first story about “Daddy” Trail was peripherally about land abuse and pollution; the Cricket Bro story was about…uh, well, characters who were named after insects, an air quality app, reptiles, and the weather in Palm Springs. So that counts, right!? And Cherry’s recent story was about invasive plantings, seen from both Cherry’s point of view and the Sunny Soleil housing authority’s view. Never mind that the only people who really got knocked around this time where Cherry and Mark!

Nature and the environment are definitely major concerns of younger generations, so Rivera should not have a hard time attracting more readers if her stories start building on current events and avoid some of the old Mark Trail themes, such as poaching and dog abductions. In closing this opinion piece, a typical writer would usually end with a rhetorical question, such as “But can Rivera attract and hang on to new, younger readers in time?” However, I try to avoid such an over-used cliché. I think a more insightful and provocative exit question could be: “But to really pull in the younger readers, will Rivera go so far as to have Rusty start questioning his gender identity?” While I’m thinking about it, let’s move on to today’s installment and commentary.

Okay, so the magazine is actually called Hot Catch. Got it. Now, zebra mussels, huh? Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Mark already pontificate on these pests last Sunday? These people must be in some kind of causal time loop or Kurt Vonnegut’s chrono-synclastic-infandibulum.  And either Mark is yawning in the last panel or he’s thinking “Dude, I know this, already! Don’t you read the comics?” Well, the assignment is a real conservationist topic; and Rafael seems sincere and engaged. Mark presumably already knows (or remembers) some information on zebra mussels.

However, at last we have a timely, practical assignment for Mark. Seems like a fairly straight-forward project of research, interviews, photos, analyzing and writing. Obviously, things are not going to work out that way.

We’re finally getting to the point

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Well, part of my wish comes true:  Mark gets to work for another editor of another magazine. Glad to see Rivera taking advantage of the publishing empire she has envisioned. So, Rafael Suave? Clearly, a poser, but the jury is out on his other bona fides. I’m not sure if the magazine is called “Fish Magazine” or “Fish Magazine Hot Catch”; otherwise, what the hell does “Hot Catch” mean? Shouldn’t it be more like Catch Hot Fish Magazine? I don’t get it. Anybody? Anybody?

Well, I don’t think I need to go too far out on a limb and suggest that, based on Mark’s over-reactive response in panel 4, Mark might be getting set up once again for some oddball assignment. But, hey…this time it is a fishing magazine…I think. And maybe Rafael is an actual angler. No reason to presume not, even if he’s not wearing a hat covered in trout lures and sitting in a boat.  As with Amy Lee, I’m thinking “editor” means “Editor in Chief”, so Mark is getting his assignment straight from the top, not some feature editor.

Back in October 2021, Mark’s appearance when he got his first assignment from Amy Lee of Teen Girl Sparkle was fresh and positive. The drawing was more refined in its treatment of line, contours and color. Compare it with panel 4 today, and Mark looks like he is forcing himself to be positive. The face looks frazzled; the expression looks happy and positive, but the eyes appear worn out, as if he’s just rolling with the conversation. Okay, maybe I’m reading too much into a single panel here. And maybe it’s just because the more refined drawing of Mark from last year makes the current version of Mark look sketchier and flatter.

And check out the image of Mark in panel 1. It has that simplistic, heavy black line and shape that reminds me of discount animated cartoons; maybe even something like Clutch Cargo, minus the super-imposed human lips. Ah, it would be great to see Rivera return to the earlier version of drawing Mark we see here.

In any event, looks like we’re heading into story number three. I’m hoping this will be an assignment truly in Mark’s wheelhouse, where he can make use of his well-honed skills. Mark deserves a break, don’t you think? And yeah, maybe Mark will get some time to actually use his two fists of justice, in addition to whatever other skills he needs to employ. Maybe even take some pictures, once in awhile?

A Mark Trail Teaching Moment: How to handle an important phone call.

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If Mark was so damned eager to take that phone call, why is he wasting time with this nonsense?

As I wrote before (or should have), a little irreverence, humor, and satire go a long way. I don’t think we need to return to the “always business formality” of the old Mark Trail. So, Ms Rivera, do inject humor and satirical insights when they make sense in the story line. But the last thing I want to see here is Mark Trail turned into a silly or gag-a-day comic strip. It has been—and should remain—an adventure strip focused on nature and conservation issues. That is what makes it unique and enjoyable to many people. Nothing against gag strips, but they already make up the majority of the comics pages.

Unfortunately, in response to Bill Ellis’s trying to get down to business, Mark takes a non-sequitur approach and starts riffing on his “replacement” conservation award. HahHahHah. Guess Mark thinks he’s ready for standup. Is this how Rivera is going to pad out these times in between adventures? I hoped we’d have more family situations, working out the trivial events of daily life, rather than the “contrived” setups of today and yesterday. I’d much prefer to see a real conversation between Rusty and Cherry on the way to the scout meeting. Or maybe seeing Doc’s reaction to Mark waving off his breakfast invitation so he can get back to Bill. For example, Doc could have coughed out a haughty “Harumph!“, pretending to be offended as he scrambled eggs. The humor in that scenario is low key, but natural and believable, because it fits into a believable situation.

As for the art today…well, Bill’s image in panel 3 is markedly jagged and unevenly constructed, as if the head was glued down in the wrong position. Frankly, he reminds me of old-fashioned wooden marionettes, like you can see on the English “Thunderbirds” TV series. As for Mark, I think we have to accept the fact that Mark’s unkempt hair is always going to be that way; a thumb in the eye to the prior Mark and what I describe as a pomaded side-slicked haircut and spit curl.  And I’m okay with that! As for the drawing of the award, it looks like it was designed to be in Pearls Before Swine. I reckon that it is supposed to be some kind of glass ball on a brass stand, but looks more like a balloon glued to the top of an old-fashioned inkwell.

Do as I say, not as I don’t do!

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Could Cherry really forget something she has been reminding Rusty of all week? Are Mark’s tough-guy charms really that disarming? Well, if there is a Scout meeting to go to this early, why isn’t Rusty suited up in his Scout uniform? Oh, I see…the days of formal Scout uniforms are long gone. No more official matching shirt and pants; no more military-style cap; no more kerchief; no more unit patches and sash. Instead, we see a non-identifiable green shirt, jeans, and a…rucksack? I don’t recall bringing packs to my scout meetings.  In any event, Rusty now has the parent-child advantage and it remains to see how this steely-eyed kid is going to exact his pound of flesh. Clearly, Rusty is definitely a child of the current age, not like his namesake in the former version of Mark Trail, where it was always 1958 for him.

Unfortunately, some lame sitcom humor unfolds in the punch-line panel. I was okay with how today’s strip was unfolding until that point. Puns can be fine if they are based on an actual situation or remark just made; but not based on a contrived dux ex machina frog stuck in the middle of the last panel, however well it is drawn. “Jules, it ain’t as if I hadn’t toad you before…!”

Nevertheless, there is positivity here. In a way, we are getting something fresh and interesting that was rarely seen before:  That Mark and Cherry have an actual home life together and have to deal with regular family issues, though forgetting your son’s scout meeting is not exactly cutting-edge drama. It’s just normal life, and that’s the point. Sure, in the old days we used to see the Trails around the dinner table between adventures, eating pancakes and talking about fishing trips or more recently, social media.  But we’ve gotten more insight into family affairs over these past eight months or so. I know this is supposed to be a nature/adventure comic strip, but it’s nice to round off the edges a bit and add some depth to the characters. As many have noted, the danger lies in going too far with this rounding.

Finally, I think the artwork today is pretty good, overall; especially Rusty in the second panel. His image is nice and sharp, focused, and effectively highlights his mood by his expression and the isolated figure. The foreshortened view of Cherry seen from below in panel 3 is also drawn quite well. However, Rusty’s flat profile clashes with Cherry’s image and nearly ruinsthe panel. Wonder where Rusty’s big chin suddenly came from? I’m also not going to go into detail about Mark’s absurd face in panel 4, except to say that a person trying to crack wise should not be laughing outrageously. It’s unbecoming.

Let’s hope they have a lock on their bedroom door. And a loud radio!

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I think Rusty must already has an idea in his head what “nature walk” means. But that’s fine. He seems more clued in than his earlier incarnation, at least.

Still, the opening panel looks more like a satire on love, with its over-done expressions. Still, every statement here can’t be some sexual innuendo, can it? On the other hand, what about “…plans for breakfast”? Well, that seems, uh, a bit ambiguous, but innocuous enough for a family comic strip and Steven Pastis’s comic strip censor.

Otherwise, what’s Rusty’s beef? He should know by now that Mark and Cherry spend a lot of time away from him and the cabin. Of course, they probably tell him in advance when they are going to be gone, most of the time. Apparently, unlike other teenagers, Rusty must have gotten up way before 9:00 AM. Anyway, what’s with that background in panel 4? Looks like somebody started to paint and stopped mid-way through. I bet it’s not even visible in the black & white printing, but I’ll have to wait until the morning to find out.

I was going to write something about the seemingly ever-changing cabin they live in. Each time it is shown, it looks different to me. This might be a deliberate decision on Rivera’s part; an additional bit of absurdity in a strip that does not shy away from spectacle and craziness. But I need to think more on the subject.

Now, I wonder what the next assignment will be?  We’ve only had two stories so far, since Rivera has taken control of the strip. Neither one falls under the mantle of a standard Mark Trail adventure. So, will this new assignment send him on a trip to locate poachers? Forest arsonists? Litterbugs? Or will he go to work undercover in a petrochemical plant to get the goods on the evil factory manager who is dumping some God-awful mess in a river?

Here it is, folks, the weekly review and Sunday nature chat you’ve been waiting for!

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Nothing like a whole week of lovey-dovey hiking and flirting, while Cherry and Mark wait for “the phone call” that puts Mark back on the plane for another paying assignment. Well, we also got to see Cherry’s roundabout restored (by Cherry); and Mark’s close encounter with the weird kind (handled by Amy Lee, who told Protein Boy to take a long hike off a short pier). But were there any legal complications for either party? Of course not!  So, I’m not sure we have real closure on the California trip as of today. I have a feeling we have not seen the last of Diana Daggers. At least, I hope not.

Still, it might be funny to see some Sunday pages devoted to Mark giving nature talks to prison inmates as part of a community service agreement. It could even feature questions from a few inmates, just to keep Mark on his toes! How about it, Jules!?

So, algae as a pet!? That’s a new one on me, Bubba. In any event, we finally seem to be moving closer to habitat as subject matter in Mark’s Sunday nature chats, rather than just animals. But is the topic about “Marimo” or “Zebra Mussels”? Or maybe, both!? Marimo, by themselves, seem harmless, but the Zebra Mussels indeed are destructive, as any lake enthusiast can tell you.

Using everybody’s favorite source for facts (Wikipedia), I discovered that the word “Marimo” is a portmanteau, not a breed of Spanish sheep. It was coined by a Japanese botanist combining the Japanese words mari (a bouncing ball) and mo (referring to water plants). In a sense, they are like miniature versions of StarTrek Tribbles, but without the purring. Mark should have also mentioned the Marimo/Zebra Mussel webpage of the US Fish & Wildlife Service, which goes into more details about this problem and what to do about it.

As many people have noted (here and other places), the Sunday Mark Trail strip often presents a more traditional and acceptable version of Mark, in terms of appearance, form, and content. The larger format size of the Sunday strip has something to do with that, of course. It is also possible that Rivera draws a batch of Sunday strips at one time, so she can get into that groove. Then again, the Sunday panels are usually simpler to draw, with rather basic compositions; fewer people to draw; and a need to be more didactic than merely entertaining.

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Sunday Delay

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Because of prior commitments, I will not be able to post the Sunday blog until Sunday afternoon. Please enjoy your new-found free time to sleep in; attend the religious service of your inclination; mow the lawn; or finish reading that book before it has to go back to the library. You know which one I’m talking about.

Or, you can while away the time looking at this field of dots. Some people think that if you look at it hard and long enough, you will see the ancient Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in Rome. Other people think that prolonged viewing will just give you a headache. Personally, I think this could be one of the game sheets for the Tokyo Olympics “Connect the Dots” finals (won by the team from Djibouti). Well, you’ve got some time on your hands to figure it out.

But fear not, Faithful Readers: Mark Trail will soon return!

Hello? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?

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You know, I was trying to not skim ahead (as I am wont to do) and take each panel in turn, so I thought for a moment that when Mark’s phone connection broke in panel 3, Mark did that on purpose to keep The Big Clinch Moment alive. Then again, Mark already broke the BCM in yesterday’s strip by answering the phone. I should have known better. Mark always answers The Call of Nature.

So then, why this pointless talk about getting back to the cabin, which seems to have mysteriously appeared just around a tree and down the hill? But is that their cabin? It does look different than it normally appears. Anyway, is Cherry being sarcastic or pragmatic in her response in panel 4 (i.e. “Go back early? Of course! It’s a paying gig, you idiot!”)? This situation reminds me of the old “Sorry, Rusty! We’ll get to that fishing trip when I get back.” kind of thing.

Well, I could see the old Mark Trail being not too concerned with hitting the road shortly after coming back from the last job: There was clueless Rusty, dottering Doc, and Clingy Cherry. And that blasted dog was always getting into trouble! But in this new life, Rusty seems fine on his own, Doc is mostly MIA, but Cherry is a firecracker looking for a match. Mark already has a “red hot” opportunity right here! If I was Mark, I might be inclined to get back to Bill tomorrow and close my cover before striking today. But it seems that Pragmatic Cherry has already put the BCM behind her. Good ol’ role reversal!

Meanwhile, Rivera (or more likely some syndicate hack) continues the lazy technique of applying a simple green wash across all of the trees and calling it good. Now, ending on a technical note, if Mark lost a phone connection standing on top of a hill, how does he expect service to return after moving to the bottom of the hill? Or am I misreading things here? Well, maybe he has a signal booster in the cabin.

Cuteous Interruptus!

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Looks like good ol’ Bill Ellis is still getting some comic strip time, after all. And he talks with the exclamatory tones favored in the original Mark Trail strips! Some traditions just don’t fade easily!

Not surprisingly, the romantic Big Clinch Moment (BCM) comes for Mark and Cherry while out on their nature walk, while standing behind a wooden statue of a squirrel. According to the rules laid down in Chapter 3 of the Standards and Practices for Comic Strips(23rd edition), the BCM must be interrupted just before the moment of physical excitation. In a family comic strip, that means just before they share a kiss.

The BCM Interruption is a commonly-accepted cliché in the entertainment industry, though not always appreciated. One of the great scandals of comic strip history was when The Phantom and his fiancé Diana Palmer were found to have progressed past the traditional BCM while in the Skull Cave, without so much as a loud chimpanzee yell to interrupt them. The International Committee of Comic Strip Ethics (supposedly founded by Johnny Hart), was prepared to excommunicate artist Lee Falk and demote The Phantom to a servant in the Mandrake the Magician comic strip.  At the last moment, Falk agreed to have The Phantom and Diana marry, saving his career and providing his strip with more story options.

The only prior scandal of this magnitude was caused by a misplaced grammatical period in Elsie Segar’s Thimble Theater comic strip, soon after Popeye made his initial appearance in 1929. Olive Oyl was talking with Popeye when he apparently said “Well blow me. Down!” Fortunately, investigators discovered that the period between “me” and “Down” was actually just a dead gnat that Segar swatted off his forehead while inking the strip, and he never noticed that it had fallen into the text balloon. The potential Problem Period was caught in time by the comic strip syndicate, just before the strip was shipped out to the newspapers. However, Segar had his salary docked to pay for preparing the corrected strip for publication.

Not much else to note here, except to wonder:  Which magazine will it be this time? I truly hope we meet a new editor and magazine. There are supposedly at least 17 magazines that make up the “F.E. and Cook” publishing empire (see the 10/19/20 strip), so I hope it will be something closer to Mark’s world, such as “Flyfisher King” or “Trapped in a Cave Digest”.

Addendum to the August 5 post

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I had brought up before the issue of coloring and how it can affect (pro or con) the appreciation and interpretation of a comic strip ; and I wrote a bit on that in today’s blog. I remarked specifically on the tree line in panel 1 being the same color as the background, which is not that common in Rivera’s panels, and how it tended to hide details and minimize the depth of field. However, I looked at the strip as it was published in black & white in my town newspaper and found what I think is confirmation:

Well, newsprint certainly lacks the luster and brilliance of a direct-from-screen image, doesn’t it? In spite of that (and my less-than stellar photography), I think it is interesting that the trees become more obvious and “closer” in the black & white version, with the forested mountains clearly in the background. Details of the eagle’s wings are clearer, as well. So here is one case where (the choice of) color may not have improved the artwork.

But, what do you think?

Mark and Cherry go out on a limb, er, walk

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As the Trails hike along a path that looks more like a tree limb, they continue their cutesy double-entendres in order to fill out the week. Hmmm, I don’t think we need to take Mark’s final comment seriously, as it is clearly the expected punchline to Cherry’s provocative come-on. And heaven help me, folks, I’m doing my best to avoid indulging in similar innuendos. It’s hard enough to get some basic commentary put together. And I’m not sure if what I write always measures up.

Not much else here. Artwork is fine, though a bit heavy on the lines, I think. It is always difficult to comment on color, since I don’t know if Jules does her own or it’s left to the syndicate. Since hardcopy newspaper sales keep falling, they turn to online editions. Their comics section is essentially links to the comic syndicates web sites, so online comics are in color. So, I’m thinking the work is Rivera’s. I think it is an important point: No cartoonist would want to leave such decisions in the hands of somebody outside of the cartoonist’s studio. And one thing I notice is that the trees along the road behind Mark and Cherry blend right in with the dark green background. Normally, she would make that front row of trees lighter.

There hasn’t been much room for landscape in this last story, and even Cherry’s adventure was limited in background details. But, if you look at the panels of Mark and Rusty back in March, just before he went to LA, I think could see how Rivera’s approach seemed different today. I might be overdrawing a distinction here, and this is just a singular occurrence.

Otherwise, we can check off the box for “Do the Trails really love each other?” and move on to something else. Like maybe that Doc has a drinking problem because he has nothing to do (so far) and gets tired of sitting around waiting for his token appearance and gloomy utterance.

Look! It’s a bird! It’s a popsicle! No, it’s Red Valerian!

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Okay, what’s going on here? If Cherry restocked the roundabout, why would she put in any kind of invasive plant when she could have replanted what she originally used? My superficial research lists this plant as invasive and banned only in South Africa, though it is not recommended in our western states, where it can grow aggressively. It seems that its benefits outweigh its detriments in the US.

Anyhow, more light-hearted banter today, serving either as time fodder to pad out the week or as a means to help establish more of Cherry and Mark’s relationship. But I think we already have a good handle on that, don’t you? I’d prefer to see Rivera spend more time fleshing out Doc Davis’s character a bit more, even Andy’s. Maybe Mark’s snake avatar could make another appearance and warn him of an impending crisis, such as teenage girls already moving past Mark Trail and his videos. The newest sensation turns out to be…Professor Bee Sharp!

There has been some snarky chat over at Comics Kingdom about possible sexual undertones in the first and third panels. Anything is possible, of course, but I think the hand positions are wrong to support this hypothesis, however suggestively the flowers are drawn.

You know, I just had an odd thought:  Had Rivera taken over the strip some 15 years ago (assuming she was old enough, so just play along, okay?), and somebody thought her take on Mark would make a good TV show, they could have gotten Bruce Campbell to play Mark. Campbell has the kind of personality and acting chops necessary for our new Mark Trail. But Bruce no longer looks like a perennial 32 year old. What a lost opportunity, unless some studio is willing to put out a senior-citizen version of Mark Trail on TV or the cinema. Kind of a “Mark Trail Returns!” type of movie. Well, it worked for Bruce Wayne!

America’s Favorite Nature Couple Continues Their Walkabout

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Okay, more cute wordplay and flirting. Well, this helps answer a question some Trailheads had with whether Cherry’s story ever had a proper ending. I think it did, within the conventions of how Mark Trail adventures often end. But here we see, fully grown, a recreation of what must have been Cherry’s original design. And is “Roundabout Royale” the location’s actual name or just Mark’s self-coined appellation? So, it looks nice enough for a roundabout that doesn’t seem to be part of any road system. We also get to see another side of the roundabout, with two houses in the distance. I’m guessing that Planet Pancake must be behind Mark and Cherry? I may just be a slow kid from Virginia, but I also wonder how Mark found out about the hogs? Did Dirk call Mark? That seems odd, given Dirk’s anti-social habits. And why blab to Mark, anyway?  Did Dirk want to ensure Mark knew that Cherry could not succeed on her own?

Geography aside, I reckon we’ll have a few days more of Mark & Cherry cavorting around before a new story begins. Perhaps ol’ Doc will make a brief appearance, pretty much as he used to. As for Rusty, since he clearly is no longer a clueless dweeb, perhaps we will find him looking to hook up with the daughter of a local land baron who wants to create an exclusive hunt club providing exotic animals for wealthy members. And thus, we would segue into a real Mark Trail crusade. But I reckon we’ll have to wait for the inevitable Zoom chat later this week. I’m still hoping it will be somebody other than Amy Lee. She’s sent Mark on two assignments; now it’s another editor’s turn.

You know, I’m surprised that Jules Rivera did not turn Bill Ellis into a lowly Messenger Boy (i.e. toady) for this mega-magazine empire, where Bill must personally contact Mark to hand over material for his next assignment. The actual editor-in-charge would still contact Mark to provide additional insights. Say, doesn’t this sound like the usual first act of almost every episode of “Charlie’s Angels”?

Get a cabin!? They already live in a cabin!

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Let’s not take a cynic’s view but simply take some time to enjoy two people in love with each other, enjoying an early walk among the trees, surrounded by a “Hallmark Card” heart-shaped opening, flanked by two Monarch butterflies (they do not have the tell-tale horizontal line crossing the rear wing of Viceroys. We should assume Rivera knows that). Okay, that’s enough time! Is that a double-entendre in the middle panel or just a corny pun? But why does Cherry need convincing to take a morning walk? Is she sacrificing her morning fix at Planet Pancake? Something is bound to happen pretty soon…!

But looky-there! We have yet another case of the ambiguous text balloon, this time in panel 3, where Mark is apparently sighing over himself. Clearly this was supposed to be Cherry’s response. I think I just talked about these misdirected balloons yesterday, didn’t I? Is this really a flub that got by Rivera and the syndicate editors, or is Rivera still indulging in satirizing the older strips of her predecessors? A little bit goes a long way, Jules!

I do hope that Rivera does not continue the old Mark Trail tradition of ending story lines without filling in useful details. For example: Did Cherry (who was fretting over her company’s bankruptcy) pay for the new roundabout installation? And what went into it? Did the Sunny Soleil Society officially get off her back and allow her to replant the native palmettos they hauled away?

But it’s nice to see Rivera’s return to a higher standard in her art. She is quite good. I took a look back and was amazed at how her style has already evolved since she took over last October (I believe it was then). Here is one of her early strips from late October:

It shows a definitely lighter touch in the drawing, shading, and color (assuming Rivera has control over the coloring of the dailies, that is).  The overlapping tree lines create a simple but effective sense of space in the small-sized panels Rivera has to work with. The middle panel here is a subtle example of Rivera’s early interest in more unusual points of view and compositions, something that has not always been a strong feature in her more recent work. Again, I’m guessing time constraints and deadlines are forcing shortcuts, which is too bad. But that’s how it’s always been for cartoonists, even back in the early decades. But I’d sure like to see more.

The Weekly Recap and Sunday Nature Talk

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Well, that was the week that was; or was it?! A six-strip installment of Mark and the Herp Hacienda Crowd slapping each other on the back with congratulations at getting away with their arguably illegal and unethical escapade. Mark was invited into the building, as Amy Lee reminded Cricket Bro, ignoring the clearly dishonest actions of his accomplices. Well, Cricket Bro seemed stymied by this technicality, but should we? I’ve already argued my position more than once on this topic, a dodgy and slippery slope that Mark has been willing to slide down more than once. Not that Cherry’s actions have been without questionable tactics, either. Given the deliberately quirky characters and setting, we could see this story line more as a “fantasy/comedy” than a traditional drama. But there is little evidence that Rivera had this in mind, as far as I can see. Parody? Yeah, sure. Satire, almost certainly.

It may be that we are also seeing (overall) a less-filtered, more “realistic” view of Mark Trail, compared with the “Aw shucks” romanticized version we’ve been spoon-fed these many decades. It’s like the difference between William Boyd’s white-bread, polite “Hopalong Cassidy” character of the movies and early TV, compared to the original Hopalong Cassidy character in the books written by Clarence Mulford. That “Hoppy” was often an impulsive, cigarette-smoking, devil-may-care cowhand, quick to judge, quick to shoot, but loyal to his friends, and honest; and free with his cussing. Yet, that Hoppy was also one of the “good guys”, not a trigger-happy sociopath. So the latter character is infinitely more interesting than the sanitized “shoot the gun out of the bad guy’s hand” version William Boyd created. So, Rivera clearly has done the same thing in reverse: Her Mark Trail is not the invulnerable, self-confident, fists-of-justice nature warrior of yore. Mark now displays a more complex, textured personality (to adapt a term of literary criticism), beset by doubt, demons, and reckless behavior; but also backed up with a strong personal code of honor and justice. Sort of. Mark is the kind of “hero-not-a-hero” common in contemporary literature and movies.

Moving on to today’s nature topic, the title panel is a subtle one where Mark’s last name is camouflaged. Do you see it? Rivera’s Sunday panels (as here) are usually well-drawn, in part, because of the larger size Rivera gets to work with, and friendly in their delivery. And Rivera’s title panels are almost always inventive. Now, what’s with that crazy vest Mark is wearing!? He looks like a model for LL Bean! I like the humor of using a mirror in the prior panel as a visual pun for Mark’s age comment. But the reflection doesn’t look anything like Mark; more like Daddy Warbucks, in fact!

As any faithful reader will know, Rivera selects her Sunday subjects based on the main location where Mark happens to be working; in this case, California. And last week was butterflies, which links to Cherry’s storyline. I think that is a clever approach. Unfortunately, I do not have a backlog of Sunday strips from previous years to draw on, so I do not recall if this was something that Elrod, Dodd, or Allen also did. Does anybody know?

Anyway, there is one thing I wish Rivera would expand: Subject matter. For the most part, it seems that the Sunday strip always focuses on animals. All well and good, but Mark’s universe is supposedly all of nature, so how about devoting some ink and color to the flora and geology? Maybe even branch out to themes, such as what can happen when people build/encroach on beach fronts, hills, or dense forests. That could even make the basis for some interesting story lines for Mark. How about it, Jules?

Amy Lee is such a joker!

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Okay, we must allow Jules to have her joke. Where is it? It is the 4th panel, where everybody is having some kind of vocal group hug and the speech balloon points to Mark, though the text seems to be something the other four would be telling Mark! Trailheads sometimes speak of older strips where dialog balloons on occasion seem to point to the wrong person, or thing. I admit that I was too lazy and tired to look through the backlog of strips, so feel free to add some footnotes in a response. In any event, it seems odd that Mark would be welcoming himself to Herp Hacienda, unless this is meant to be some kind of campy commercial where Mark and crew are actually welcoming us readers to come back. Well, thanks anyway.

Like so many other stories, this one ends with a trunkful of dead-ends and unexplained subplots. We all know what they are, so I won’t waste my time or yours going over them, yet again. Just scroll back through these blogs, if you have the desire and patience.  As for patience, I can’t say I won’t be glad to be shut of those four Herp Hacienda Hippies. But it would have been nice to at least find out what and who the two creepiest characters were. And why the hell they keep lining up, as if they are suspects in a police lineup?

I think many of us will agree that this is not the strongest ending to a Mark Trail story, though it is not much worse, either. Aside from the dodgy animal air check app, this story seemed to be a series of unresolved, random vignettes. I’ve never been a professional comic strip artist, but I’ve played one in my head, and I know that there can be tremendous pressure to put out a 7-day comic strip. In fact, have we not seen other cartoonists these days going on hiatus every so often, content to rerun older strips in order to get away from the pressure? Or, perhaps to catch up? And perhaps Rivera deliberately constructed this story in a way that would mimic or rip some Mark Trail story memes sure to raise the blood pressure of Trailheads. Or, maybe Rivera is just ripping the old-fashioned notion that a Mark Trail story should follow conventional norms.

MOVING FORWARD:

Well, my biggest request here is that Mark gets a chance to do a story for one of the other 7 or so magazines that make up part of the holding company that Woods & Wildlife get rolled into. Let’s see how Mark gets along with a different magazine editor for a bit. And let’s get some more conversations with snakes! Too bad he didn’t try to talk with any snakes at the Hacienda. A missed opportunity, if ever there was one.

Mark tries to bluff, but is called by Amy

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Readers who are coming to Mark Trail without a lot of knowledge of the strip’s history could do worse than read the Mark Trail Confidential page of Mark Carlson-Ghost. It is an in-depth review of the strip, its characters, artists, and a lot more. You’ll learn, for example, that Woods & Wildlife magazine had been bought out at least twice before; that recycling old stories and subbing difference characters was a common practice; that under James Allen’s tenure, Mark starting showing a more sculpted physique, Cherry became sexier looking. Mark started getting clumsy and not always winning fights, in spite of his ripped abs. And he was destroying boats as if they were enemy invaders! Carlson-Ghost also has created a yearly summary of major stories and characters, which is linked on the Confidential page. I might have written on this before, but I think it bears repeating.

There appears to be a total lack of reprinting Mark Trail strips. For some twenty years or so we have been seeing (and buying) sometimes lavish reprints of entire runs of vintage comic strips (Peanuts, Popeye, Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, Gasoline Alley, etc.). But where are the reprints of Mark Trail? I reckon that King Features does not believe there is enough public interest; or maybe much of the older art is no longer available or in good shape. Instead, they have recently started just posting old strips online.

Okay, looks like Amy Lee knows a lot of what went on, but still backs up Mark after getting tired of Cricket Bro’s immature and arrogant manner.  I reckon spoiled billionaires are getting to be pretty common these days. Today’s panels were apparently designed to showcase the many faces and emotions of Amy Lee. Now, where is Amy getting these photos from? Mark certainly wasn’t on assignment with his camera. But I wonder if Amy is now going to want a story based on Mark’s adventures in Loony Tunes Land? That would be quite the assignment for Mark, trying to figure out a way to describe the events without criminally implicating himself or his “new friends”.

And this is Friday, folks! There is one more day to see if Mark suddenly transports back to Lost Forest to signal the end of this story, or we buckle down to view another week of Mark sorting things out in California. According to the Mark Trail Confidential page, Mark has been fired more than once in his career. I wonder if he once again gets a pink slip, getting Cherry upset and worried about their finances, since her business also looks like it is in bad shape. Just like old times!

Time to face the music?

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I certainly don’t want to turn this podcast into a one-dimensional snarkfest, which is not only unfair, but unoriginal and boring. Besides there are other sites that handle that well enough! Nevertheless, this storyline is really pushing my buttons.

Panel 1: Mark’s face looks like he’s a daydreaming teen fantasizing and drooling over some Internet babe.

Panel 2: Mark’s head morphed into some kind of pushed-in face, with the wings of Mercury above his ears. Of course, those are his standard “older man” hair lines, but appearing as if they have their own independent identity. And making me wonder if Rivera has been watching reruns of the original “Twilight Zone”, the four Herp Hacienda Oddballs are once again pointlessly lined up against the fence, as if to ensure we haven’t forgotten them from yesterday’s strip. And to date, no explanation for the two goofiest characters on the extreme left and right. I’d certainly keep my kids away from them. Also troubling is that Mark has, for some reason, bonded with these nerds! After all of his discomfort, ineptness, and questionable activities, you’d think he would be satisfied to never come back.

Panels 3 and 4: Amy Lee brings up Cricket Bro, who has been spilling the beans to her about Mark and his new friends. Well, I suppose he might have discovered the connection with Amy Lee, based on Mark’s prior story she published about his family’s business. Nevertheless, she is definitely not looking like the hip, coffee mug-holding, exuberantly mouth-wide-open editor we’re used to seeing. No, indeed! She is clearly upset with what she’s heard. And it appears Mark is trying to downplay his guilt and embarrassment at being caught out once again. I’m betting he wished his gray hair lines really were the wings of Mercury at this point.

Well, Mark. What did you expect!? You got involved in something you had no knowledge of, something completely outside of your wheelhouse. You let personal fears of inadequacy lead you astray and got you to help complete strangers commit likely illegal acts. You never came across any of your traditional crime-busting situations, such as poachers, drug runners, abductions, animal or insect cruelty, or missing pets. You never really came across any criminal activity at all, except for what you participated in. You did not even get a chance to fully bring out your vaunted Fists O’ Justice™. And now, you actually want to come back to hang out with your new friends?! Worst of all, you didn’t get photographs of anything! Amy won’t like that!

Well, if the mission of Jules Rivera is to totally make a mockery of Mark the Pro-Nature Hero and his paternalistic value system, I think she’s done a bang-up job so far. But Mark seems too wrapped up in his sense of self to be too bothered by this. Always the optimist?

One of the pundits on the Comics Kingdom site proposed that the result of Cricket Bro’s phone call was that he buys up Amy’s magazine and gets his revenge by firing Mark. Plausible. I wish I had thought of that.  I think none of this nonsense would have happened had Mark taken the time to talk with his snake friend back at Lost Forest, before he flew out here. But as Gregory Peck told David Niven in “The Guns of Navarone”, “You’re in it now, up to your neck!”

Let’s go with Option E: It’s Amy Lee on the line!

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So, Mark’s last night on assignment? Looks like Amy Lee once again called “right on time”, at the wrap of Mark’s adventure (so we must assume). Apparently, Mark has gotten into Cosplay fun at the Herp Hacienda and is wearing a “Walking Dead” mask in panel 1. Or maybe it’s feral hog.

Hard not to notice that Amy Lee’s depiction in panel 3 is quite decently drawn in comparison with Mark’s two images. It’s not as if Rivera could not have drawn a half-length image of Mark in panel 1 instead of that sketchy and flat scene with the too-small figures. Perhaps this is one reason (other than laziness) that former Trail cartoonists liked to use head shots of Mark to fill panels as much as possible.

So, this is Day 3 of the Epilogue, tying up several loose ends. Critics less charitable than I might call this a week of padding the ending to accommodate the entire week, as if Rivera is getting paid by the word, like some 19th century writer. But do we deserve perfect closure? Do we always find out what happened to that person at the Motor Vehicles Office who rejected your vanity plate slogan? Do we know the fate of that lover we abandoned because she needs to read Tarot cards to decide what to wear for the day? What will those weirdos do after Mark leaves? Do we even care?

Life is full of dead-ends, unexplained absences, and detours. People come and go, many not even speaking of Michelangelo. Life is messy, but stories are expected to make sense and have a clear Beginning-Active Middle-Meaningful End. Yes, stories need to have Endings. You can’t just pull the plug on a story and cut to a scene of Mark leaning against a porch rail as Cherry extols his manliness and professes her undying love and devotion. Rivera seems to be bucking the standard Trail Story ending technique and I’m down with that.

But the biggest black holes are still the so-called antagonists. Where are they? What are they doing? Why did they bother with this entire farce? The entire story still seems like a con. What was the point? How is it that Mark’s childhood nemesis just happened to be the Sugar Daddy for Reptile Man and the Herp Hacienda crowd?