“Over-the-top” is good in this case. It would have been a drag if it looked like an actual zoo. The “theater of the absurd” is a standard approach Rivera has used in her stories, and a good approach (as also seen in literature and movies).
Tiger Touch Center must be a fairly exclusive zoo if Tess Tigress really has the time to personally welcome every arriving guest. Kind of like Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island. And like an island, this place looks to be in the middle of nowhere.
While wet-blanket Mark takes on a pose of indifference, Diana curiously remains a silent and ignored partner. Is this a strategic pose on her part to encourage Rex to bond more with Mark? It seems likely, given her admission to Mark when she picked him up at the airport.
Okay, did these two even go to sleep last night? I could be guilty of talk radio punditry if I pursued this line of questioning any further, so I’ll let you all deal with it.
But why is Mark so mystified about the trip to a roadside zoo? Doesn’t Mark remember that this particular zoo is the reason he is here in the first place!? Well, at least he no longer sports that dorky bandana around his neck.
I won’t claim that this past week was a snoozer by any means; it was more like narcissistic arrogance. Even though Rex Scorpius had already told Mark he was tired and just wanted to go home and sleep, Mark acted as if Rex’s departure was an unsolved mystery that he needed to resolve. At least, that is the excuse Mark gave to Diana Daggers (remember her?) as he wandered over to Rex’s trailer and snooped around.
Assuming he had the right to do so, Mark started peeking through a window, only to discover that Rex was talking to his dog on the phone. Accidentally making a noise—as all peeping toms are required to do in TV shows and comic strips—Rex discovered Mark’s creepy activity. But Mark quickly distracted Rex by admitting that he, too, was a closet pet caller. So they decided to have a “four-way” conversation. Afterwards, Rex opened up about his depression and disillusionment. It was touching, in a way, if you define touching as something resembling getting hit on the head by a 2×4. Before we, hopefully, head out on Monday to the tiger zoo, let’s spend a few minutes reading Sunday’s nature lesson!
Pretty lame joke, Mark! Don’t quit your day job. Today’s strip seems more like a random collection of factoids with no overarching point to make, other than highlighting (no pun intended) another Texas lifeform. The National Wildlife Federation website claims that the nine-banded armadillo is, in fact, the only armadillo species in the U.S., and found throughout the southwest and even in the southeast. With regard to road-awareness, slowing down isn’t the only issue. When surprised, these “little armored” mammals tend to jump several feet straight up in the air, turning them into unintended highway suicide commandos!
No reason to get into the science of canine perception of images on small-scale video screens, just as there was no reason to fret over the “universal translator” in StarTrek. They are necessary plot devices to help move the story along.
It is also surprisingly silly to assume that Rex could not have brought his dog with him while doing his show. I’m sure that kind of thing happens all the time. In fact, my minimal research confirms it is quite common. And how many times have we seen Mark “chat” with Andy on his smartphone? Irrelevant, as this is just another plot device, put here to provoke male bonding.
This is still a bit creepy. Yeah, the two dudes are bonding over their dogs and their messed-up lives. To Mark’s (the commenter, not the guy in the flannel shirt) point, this contemporary interaction would likely have never occurred in vintageMark Trail, simply because it would be looked on as something only females did. But in the Gen Z World, that is not the case. Change is sometimes hard for us, especially when the change is dramatic and surprising. Like personal pronouns.
This is all getting very creepy. Mark says he is not spying on Rex, but then pretty much shows that he has been spying with his stupid suggestion of a four-way pet call. Is Rivera being sarcastic in panel 4 about making friends, I wonder? I sure hope so. If I was Rex, I’d send Mark packing back to Hicksville. If I read Joseph Nebus correctly in his “Another Blog Meanwhile“, he suggests that Rivera is attempting to emulate a Jack Elrod style of writing through her use of certain words—especially interjections—and putting greater emphasis on exaggerated poses. She is doing that.
Nebus’s hypothesis is that this look-back might be a deliberate appeal toold school Trailheads and might help them appreciate the strip again if they look at it with this idea in mind. It’s a tempting idea.`
I think most Trailheads would agree to the general assessment of the pre-Rivera version of Mark Trail as a person and world caught in a time freeze of the 1950s with often hokey stories, simple morals, and TV-style action. As Nebus rightly says, a lot of readers enjoyed the strip specifically for reasons like these. Certainly, online commenters enjoyed poking fun at the old Mark Trail. As I wrote many months ago, this could be a major reason they dislike Rivera’s version: Because it could appear to be a deliberate parody, a continuous snarking, of Mark Trail (the comic strip), thus usurping their fun. Just a thought. Yet, I do think Rivera’s vision is larger than simply poking fun at a legacy strip and its long-time readers.
I still think Mark is acting very creepy in this story.
The Daily Trail 