Sorry, Mark! Rusty is no longer an 8-year old boy, hanging on to every empty promise you made. After years of putting him off, I think Rusty has new aspirations. And I’m not sure that the idyllic image in your head of you two enjoying a heartwarming father-and-son fishing trip matches up with the cold reality of a chilly predawn boat ride. This isn’t the 1950s anymore, and Rusty doesn’t wear a coonskin cap.
On a positive note, it’s at least interesting to see that Rivera has invested the Trail family with a more complex set of relationships, wherein Rusty seems more like a real kid. Maybe Mark might score more points with the kid by taking him on one of his assignments. After all, Mark has done so before, in his earlier incarnation, that is. But take note: The trip to Oregon was a vacation, not an assignment.
Onomatopoeia. This is the literary convention of creating and using words that mimic sounds, such as “squeak”, “hiss”, and “Ka-Boom!” Rivera’s noteworthy contribution is the creation—or use of—everyday words as sound effects. While “SLAM” is a standard sound effect label, “WALK” is one of Rivera’s own, along with earlier instances, such as “STOP!” (for a car coming to a quick stop) and “CLENCH!” (for a fist clenching), as used in earlier stories.
Now, “WALK” certainly seems to suggest a deliberately aggressive walk, resulting in a distinct sound of feet slamming the floor. Rusty’s posture suggests such an interpretation. It is more interesting than the traditional “STOMP! STOMP!” But is it more than this? It could be a symbol for a sound that we must complete in our head; we each may have our own impression of that sound. Or maybe it’s a bit of satire. Your thoughts?
Finally, it is interesting that Rivera uses a similar visual “syntax” for both sound effects. The bordered orange “SLAM” effect actually appears like a fittedoverlay to Rusty’s door, implying that the sound fully incased it. An inventive solution.
Sometimes the passage of time seems glacial and sometimes it just jumps. Yesterday, Rusty was chillingout on the family sofa. Today Rusty is simply chilled while out on the family boat. Didn’t Mark and Cherry teach him anything about dressing for the weather? Sheesh!
Hey, there seems to be four people in the boat. Perhaps Cherry and Doc Davis came along for moral support.
I’m not sure if Rusty sees this little vignette in an historical light, but he certainly has a deer-in-the-headlights look as he realizes that his downtime is about to be sunk by Mark’s surprise attack of agreeing to take him on that long sought-for fishing trip that no longer seems important.
At the same time, in spite of the fact that Mark Trail (the strip and Dad) has been dragged into the 21st century, Mark seems oblivious to the cynicism of contemporary youth, or that kids no longer accept empty promises. It’s the age-old story of a father being too busy to be around, and by the time he is, the family has grown up and grown past him. Still, we can hope for a better outcome.
Uh-oh. The revived drawing style didn’t last long. We’re moving back to stick figures again, along with lame humor. I suppose with that setup line in panel 3, Mark’s phone will ring in tomorrow’s strip.
I also thought it was amazing that Mark could open the front door simply by pushing on it. Either he is really strong or that’s one crappy door frame! Then I looked more closely and noticed the door has no lockset.
Mark is nice and chipper on his walk. And why not? He’s done with his assignment and it’s a nice day. But does Mark have “people”? Doesn’t he mean “family”? He didn’t get elected the mayor of Lost Forest, did he?
Anyway, today’s strip is a very nicely drawn sequence, similar to Rivera’s earliest submissions. There are none of the usual attenuated, “Etch-a-Sketch” figures that we too often see. Rivera is also once again providing interesting backgrounds. I think if Rivera would maintain this style, much of the disparagement against the strip would fade away.
America lost its bid to win the World Cup and Tess Tigress lost her bid to keep her questionable Tiger Touch Center. It fell apart, not so much from Mark’s investigations as from Rex Scorpius’ dismay and disgust and Gemma the Rampaging Elephant’s inopportune appearance, resulting in the destruction of the Center and Tess’s abandonment and flight to a foreign country.
Mark spent this week filling Bill Ellis in on the aftermath of his assignment, though I assume Mark sent his article in to Amy Lee for publication (this is much more information that we normally never got from earlier Mark Trail stories). The tigers were all liberated by Mark, Rex, and Diana and seeded out to various legitimate zoos. “Broken-hearted” Rex resumed his Internet show and apparently now has the hots for a zookeeper in California (of all places). The abandoned employees were left to fend for themselves and likely wandered off into the desert. Mark is not a social worker. Gemma plodded off into history. But the whereabouts and whatabouts of Diana Daggers have been left to the imagination. So, you are now up to speed and can relax a bit with today’s nature talk!
The customized title panel makes a clever link to the just-completed Tiger Touch Center story. Otherwise, this comes across as something like a student’s PowerPoint presentation, “Our friend, the elephant”. On the other hand, the drawing is fairly good here. We could have dispensed with the faux Wild West reference panel and used it more wisely to impart more useful information.
For example, it seems that elephants like music, especially classical music. For some time now, Paul Barton has been playing classical piano alongside rescued elephants living at “Elephants World” in Thailand, for therapeutic support. Barton’s YouTube video of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata played for Mongkal the elephant is enlightening and heartwarming.
Rivera finishes out the week and, hopefully, finishes out this post-game coverage of the Tiger Touch Center/Save Rex ScorpiusAdventure with a typical Trailism, “There’s no place like home…with my dog, Andy.” Rivera illustrates this homey scene using a below-horizon view in panel 3. By itself, a good idea, but some details merit attention.
Looking at Andy’s face, I get the impression he is a bit nervous and anxious to be somewhere else. He doesn’t look comfortable. Maybe Andy has reason for anxiety: One look at Mark’s denticulate face gazing upon the back of Andy’s head gives the impression that crime is not the only thing Mark might want to take a bite out of!
Still chatting with the self-proclaimed “world’s best editor”, Mark provides additional follow-up information. Also, this is a clear one-up on former Mark Trail artists/writers who were content to close out just-completed adventures within a few panels of Mark arriving home.
Would any of Mark’s updates have been put into his article, or did Mark discover this information only after his deadline? Deep thinking required!
Theoretically, this tiger adventure should come to a welcome close on Saturday. What do you suppose the finale will be?
Three tigers? There were only two in the cage of the secret trailer. There are only two in panel 3. So where is that third cub? Anyway, we see that ol’ Rex is sure quick on the rebound.
Regarding Rivera’s new technique of “recap balloons”, as I’m temporarily calling them, I notice that she uses the standard quotation format of only adding closed quotation marks to the last consecutive “paragraph” (panels 3 and 4), as seen in the panel 4 recap balloon. Noteworthy from a grammatical point of view, perhaps, but it looks awkward in a comic strip. Few readers would even get it or appreciate it. Putting close quotes in every recap balloon would look more consistent.
The Daily Trail 