What’s been going on this past week? Mark conducted a nighttime hunt for the lost reporter in the woods alongside the STEM retreat. In a short time, Mark stumbled onto the reporter, one Jebediah Jeter, who popped out of the bushes. Seems Jeter was thrown into the woods by Sid Stump to be killed by a bear (!!) for discovering his secret plan to use AI (Artificial Intelligence, in case you came in late) to take over the world, or something like that. But Jeb and the bear somehow befriended each other. Jeb can’t leave the woods without Sid coming after him. What to do? We’re waiting on Mark’s response, which could appear as early as Monday.
I was a little disappointed in the story development, as I had thought there would be a chance for a more dramatic plot development. Well, maybe it is, a bit. Jeb is yet another weirdo; a bewhiskered reporter dressed more flamboyantly than necessary, running around the woods like Grizzly Adams. Jeb wants Mark (and us) to believe that Sid Stump is willing to kill him to prevent exposing the fact that AI can be used to create destructive amounts of fake information. The notion that other people are not already aware of this fact about AI seems farfetched, even within the Trailverse. Still, it’s a topical item in the news these days, and that’s something. At least Mark isn’t once again trying to expose fraudulent fishing at a bass tournament, so let’s see how this story develops.
I still don’t like Mark’s new beard. It just does not look right. Jules, return the stubble, please!
Hmmm. AI is a timely enough plot device here, but I think, for all of his self-assumed brilliance, Sid is behind the curve. Everybody in the real world knows AI is being used to generate fake news, fake student papers, and fake conspiracies. But, maybe in the Trailverse the inhabitants are still getting used to no longer being stuck in the 1950s. It’s a lot to process in a short time!
As for Jeb’s little plight, bunk! Now that Mark knows, he’s also a marked man. Here’s a suggestion, Jeb: Take the back way out.
Sheesh! Making friends with a brown bear. “Gentle Jeb”, is it? Yeah, I know. GentleBen was the bear in that 1960’s kid’s TV show, but I won’t pass up an obvious reference. I’ll pass on Grizzly Adams. Oh dear, I feel like I’m being pulled to the Dark Snark by forces beyond my control. I’m doing my best to look at this dispassionately. Really, I am.
So, there is an effort here to move the story along by explaining the reporter’s disappearance and the motives behind it. But every panel today is a source of ambiguity: First, has everyone really been looking for this flake? Jeb’s own testimony in panel 3 seems to contradict Mark’s platitude. Second, what truth was Jebediah looking for? Clearly, he was not ready for the truth, and I don’t think that was covered in Mark’s briefing for this assignment. Third, who are the “they”: Sid and some of the guests or Sid and some staff that we haven’t seen yet? Fourth … well, you fill that one in, if you wish.
So it looks like Mark’s assignment just took another left turn, which might wind up reprising the “sneak into the office to get the goods” dodge he pulled while in Palm Springs investigating Cricket Bro’s operation.
Ow! Stabbed in the back again! Rivera tries to get cute by having Mark respond to the narration box in panel 1, as if it actually is his own thought. Actually, that is kind of clever, but not here, not now.
The big stab comes as Rivera pulls the rug out from under her suspenseful buildup and returns to her comfort zone of farce. Farce has its place and I enjoy it, but once in a while I’d like to see some actual drama play out here, without oddball jacks-in-the-box popping up or suffering Rivera’s inexplicable reliance on retreading the same opponents, over and over, like the 1960s Batman TV show and its rotating list of villains. Okay, so Jebediah Jeter is a “new” member of the troupe. Journalist? He looks more like “Jebediah Jeter, Professional Hobo.” And he has to portray another joker familiar with Mark and his work. Small world.
So what the hell has Jeter been doing, wandering around the woods for the past several Trailverse days or more? After all, he went missing before Mark was even called to take on this assignment.
Good, this adventure is turning into a classic mystery. And our shipping tycoon finally floats back to the surface for a moment. Mark conducts his search with a bright flashlight, so I suppose that stealth is not a priority for his investigation. Just as well, since he’s also been talking (or “thinking”) out loud to himself. Rivera has not gone with the traditional thought balloon. As we know, Rivera already relegated the thought balloon to its new role of showing a “reference image” for what is being discussed. While this function has merit, it does mean “thoughts” become another problem to portray in a comic strip. Should a dialog balloon also function as a thought balloon? We are left with this weird vision of Mark talking to himself, a situation sometimes diagnosed as a symptom of a mental illness.
Granted, Rivera needs to reveal additional information for the sake of the story. Maybe, for once, this would have been better handled by using narration boxes rather than dialog balloons. They would not be obtrusive but would help maintain the air of secrecy and silence that a night-time investigation normally requires. And they would make Mark look less weird.
Normally, when characters talk to themselves, the artist uses a thought balloon, not a dialog balloon, as we see here. If this was a 1940s film noir—think Double Indemnity, where Fred MacMurray confesses his participation in a murder told in flashback—Mark would here be reflecting back on how he broke the case of an attacking bear and uncovered a sinister plot. But, this is not a flashback. So who is Mark talking to?
Based on Mark’s research, the obvious next question is Sowhy are these losers here? And how will this trip salvage their crumbling careers? Riffing again on film noir, maybe that narcissistic rich boy who owns the resort invited them here so one person has a chance to gain favor and funding by fulfilling some really difficult task or puzzle. Of course, this type of story usually involves one of the hopefuls getting rid of the competition to better the odds. Can anybody say “booby-trapped cliff”?
Now if this turns out to be the way this story is going to develop, it could be an exciting adventure!
Nothing says “diving deeper” better than climbing a hill!
Okay. Today’s installment makes less sense to me. First, how can Mark be staying late when last we saw, he was home with Cherry? Did I oversleep for a week? Second, who said this was a resort for the rich? It is supposed to be a retreat for STEM professionals. That could mean teachers, too. Third, when and how did Mark check into the financials of the residents? Fourth, Mark’s “faces” balloon in panel 2 fails to display the shipping owner and his assistant, who were present when Mark first showed up. Don’t they count, or did they check out immediately after Mark arrived? Fifth, why is Mark searching through the hills at night if the issue is financial? Does he expect to find a hidden workshop printing counterfeit thousand-dollar bills?
Any answers or explanations, other than Rivera must have been cuckoo or stoned?
I won’t have much to say this week because I have a head cold and I’ve messed up one of my oral discussion projects in my Italian class. Mama mia! Che schifo!
This week should have featured Cherry and her concrete adventure. We got to it, but not until Thursday. The strips for Monday-Wednesday were devoted to Mark and Cherry trying to share an intimate moment sitting out a nighttime storm. Normally, such lovey-dovey events appear after completed adventures. In fact, it originally seemed that Cherry’s concrete driveway story was done and buried under the concrete when Violet Cheshire went ahead with plans to lay a concrete driveway, using the services of Honest Ernest. Of course.
After the nighttime storm, Cherry showed up at the Sunny Soleil Society the next morning with Violet, only to discover pools of water on the floor inside the house. Somehow, water also got onto Violet’s work desk! Is there a leaky roof, too? Well, Violet acted as if she had no idea that there could be bad consequences to a concrete driveway, in spite of Cherry’s earlier warnings. Cherry volunteered to help clean up, issuing an odd warning about the (very remote) possibility of spadefoot tadpoles showing up, presumably to lay eggs in the pools of water. Somehow, this flooding disaster was supposed to have made Violet more sensitive to Nature, the Earth (e.g., Earth Day), and Conservation.
Okay, the Saturday strip was not a lead-in to today’s discussion, as I guessed. Fool me once, shame on me… fool me uh … won’t get fooled again!
So, we have another topical subject, still in the news. Rivera provided another great custom title panel. From what little I read in a Scientific American discussion, rather than one giant blob (or “mat”) of Sargassum, it is more like a lot of separate chunks floating together. That distinction may not matter much when we are dealing with some 5,000 miles of moving seaweed. This might not be the best time to take a vacation to the Southeast, Caribbean, or Gulf coasts. The NY Times reported the seaweed contains arsenic, so it should not be used as fertilizer or in animal feed, as some entrepreneurs are wondering.
Finally, why is Mark’s figure outlined in white in the central panel? Is this some kind of “flashback”? I don’t think so; rather, it was probably done to ensure Mark’s image did not get obscured by the Sargassum background. I don’t think it was necessary, given she didn’t do it with the other images. Perhaps we are looking at an example of digital copy-and-paste.
Why did Cherry back down when Violet questioned her about the driveway? Cherry certainly did not lack backbone when she confronted Violet before the concrete was laid. But, spadefoot tadpoles, Cherry!? Adult spadefoot toads would have to make their way into the house, lay their eggs in the puddles, then move out. And it takes a few days just for the eggs to hatch, so what’s the emergency? They will get mopped up when the floor is cleaned. Maybe Cherry is just trying to put a scare into Violet.
I’m going to go out on a limb and prematurely give Rivera credit for having Violet’s comment in panel 4 set up what I think is a clever segue into Sunday’s nature lesson. We’ll see if that limb I’m on gets cut, sending me down into a puddle of embarrassment.
Yes, dear readers. April 21st is the traditional (modern) date for the mythical founding of Rome. Having noted that, my prediction about how this flooding incident would be characterized by Cherry is hardly inspired. But Cherry was wrong. The storm did not cause the damage. It was the incompetence of Honest Ernest for not properly angling the driveway to funnel water away from the building. I’m betting he didn’t partition the driveway concrete pouring, either. But none of this explains the water on top of Violet’s desk.
Blimey, who knew Violet was British? As for the water, I’m sure we’ll hear something from Cherry about how the concrete driveway must have been involved. No doubt there is a way that sneaky concrete also caused water to form on Violet’s desk.
As an aside, the Sunny Soleil Society is supposed to be supporting the interests of a local HOA, which is how Cherry first got involved with them. So, since Cherry appears to be under contract to the Society, why wouldn’t they have Cherry provide landscaping and gardening services to homeowners served by the HOA, rather than have her work only on the Society’s grounds? Where’s the money in that?!
Anyway, I’d think Rivera could generate more story ideas through the interactions of Cherry, the Society, and various (quirky) homeowners. Got that, Jules? You can’t keep milking the old Society Cow forever. Dodd didn’t make Mark catch the same poachers, over and over.
If this is Rivera’s take on the “vintage” version of Mark Trail with its 1950s social mores, she should stick with the current crazy version of Mark Trail, thank you. Blech!
I have to admit that that is the worst drawing of lightning that I have seen in years. Sorry, Jules.
Um, in panel 1, Cherry’s hands are pressing against Mark’s chest. Doesn’t looks like a willing embrace to me! But it does look like Rivera has been looking at old-fashioned woodcuts. Why do I think this? Well, the composition is unusual, as is the straight-line hatching surrounding Mark and Cherry. We just don’t see that technique in her work.
The example on the left is clearly not the source, but it does show the linear hatched lines and a tightly-framed composition, like the window scene.
Or maybe Rivera was inspired by 19th century Victorian art, as in the example on the right.
Or maybe she has another source. Any ideas, people?
Okay, I’m wandering, but that’s pretty much what’s happening this week in Mark Trail, as Cherry’s Week gets the short shrift with this inane series of bad puns.
Am I the only one who thinks the strip looks a bit different today? Perhaps it’s the somber coloring or maybe the different look to Cherry’s appearance. Perhaps that is just a deliberate choice to set the proper tone for Cherry’s despair, as well as her usual exaggeration. Perhaps Mark and Cherry would both feel better after a nighttime “nature walk”. I think the avian “lovebirds” in panel 1 have already set the stage.
In any event, a welcome return to Cherry’s World. But where does the story go from here? The concrete is down, so there is not much she can do about it. I doubt she is up to sabotaging the fresh pouring by doing something really bad, like walking on it or taking a pickaxe to it. Her isolationist brother might be interested, but wrecking a concrete driveway isn’t the same thing as destroying a flowerbed. Does this mean Cherry’s adventure is over, having hardly begun? That would be fine, as long as she is ready to jump back into something else right away. The way Mark usually does with his assignments.
Another week that wasn’t. Or was it? Aside from a welcome cameo by Ralph the Rat Snake, we saw Mark jump on Rusty for slamming “Professor” Bee Sharp because a) Sharp posted incorrect information Rusty used in a report that made him a laughing stock; and b) Rusty discovered Sharp was not a real professor at all. For his part, Mark shamed Rusty for dissing Sharp because “the Professor” was in the hospital suffering a broken leg. But how was Rusty to know this? Didn’t matter to Mark the Moralist.
Given Mark’s own history with Professor Fraud you’d have thought he would be sympathetic to Rusty, but ‘twas not the case. Instead, Mark was fixated (as we have seen) on Sharp, as if he was a long-lost brother. Mark has been unusually focused on Sharp and his health, to the point of ignoring his own assignment. He didn’t have much to do with Cricket Bro, either. But Mark has started pondering whether there is a nefarious hidden conspiracy underlying the accident as well as the missing reporter. This presages a change to a more dramatic mood. But, can Rivera pull this off without making it a farce?
Warning: At this point, you can keep reading or skip down to the Sunday strip and avoid my rambling analytical musings on Rivera’s art. You’ve been warned! No take-backs.
Comments on Rivera’s drawing came up again, so it’s an opportunity for me to respond: I reallydo share people’s frustration with Rivera’s art. It certainly conflicts with the more naturalistic styles of Dodd, Elrod, and Allen. But honestly, some of their work was crude, mawkish, and just mediocre. We’ve all joked on their overuse of clip-art (cut-and-paste) and hokey stories. Of course, that was part of the charm: That unintended corniness. The traditional Mark Trail style could be cloyingly sentimental, like a petit point embroidery. The old Mark Trail was everybody’s grandfather with silly jokes. As “Mark Trail Confidential” author Mark Carlson-Ghost cataloged, Elrod (and maybe Dodd) even went so far as to recycle older stories. Hey, you want to see great adventure strip art? Look at Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and John Prentice (Rip Kirby, in the vintage section of Comics Kingdom.). Daily newspapers focus on quantity over quality, so reduced-sized formats can no longer faithfully reproduce their work.
Rivera’s art (and writing) was originally a wake-up call and a bold redo to bring the strip into the 21st century. Bravo for that! But Rivera’s current flat, sketchy style with virtually no modeling and a deliberate disregard for proportion mirrors her sometimes chaotic, weird storylines. I like a bit of parody and weirdness; but I also like variety of mood.
I still believe Rivera’s original visionand style was more appealing, sophisticated, inventive, and fitted the grittier storyline she had. Start back in October 2020 and view those earlier strips. Even the storyline moved between drama, comedy, and social issues. I don’t know why Rivera abandoned all that, unless she didn’t have the time to keep up. Her predecessors had assistants, which certainly made it possible for them to maintain their traditional Mark Trail style.
Okay, a good, informative Sunday strip! Nice try on the title panel. As long-time reader Downpuppy commented earlier this week when he complimented Rivera’s awareness of this recent event: “The reordering of Artiodactyla [is] based on molecular biology.” I do have one nit to pick: In the penultimate panel, Rivera notes that “…new information can shake up established beliefs”, which I think includes a careless term. Neither science nor scientific results are based on beliefs, but on the results of observation, experiment, and testing to arrive at a supportable conclusion based on the evidence. New evidence can cause scientists to revise their conclusions. These are not beliefs, since the concept of belief does not have to be based on research or evidence. It would probably be more accurate to state that new information can shake up established knowledge.
Sharp hanging out with his enemies? Well, I suppose there is a bit of truth in that. They certainly had a falling out over the NFT scam. And they bickered at the retreat, as well. So what? Mark still refers to Sharp as “Professor Bee Sharp”. I wonder how Sharp expects to obtain money by going to the mountain retreat, as Mark ponders. Blackmail? Well, Mark is sure jumping between assumptions like an Olympic runner over the hurdles. But does he have a point? Is there a secret plan of sabotage or worse? For the sake of this story, I hope so!
On the plus side, Ralph the Rat Snake finally has a cameo. I say, give him a few more panels and a few more words. But I wish Rivera would stop drawing animals that face the reader. That “Dagwood in the headlights” shtick is long past old and should be retired for about two years, so we have a chance to forget it.
So, Mark throws Rusty under the bus while still standing up for the phony “Professor” Bee Sharp? Seems to me that Rusty is the real level-headed person here and Mark is acting like some kind of wishy-washy “all sides are valid” dude. No, Mark. Apparently, he not only does not care that Sharp published misinformation that negatively affected other people; he doesn’t seem to care about Rusty’s own humiliation, as he continues to act as Sharp’s proxy. Nice “Dad moves”, Mark.
Well, I bet you could figure out what Mark would tell Rusty after he got run over by a drunk driver.
I think Bill Ellis might want to fire Mark and hire Rusty, because he just did something Mark rarely bothers to do: Research. Sure, Rusty did his research after the fact, but he still did it. So he’s young. He’ll likely learn from the experience. And the way Rusty can flex his anatomy (panel 1) has to be a game changer!
But Rusty’s revelation puts a new light on things. Mark should now be the one who is embarrassed by his own deference to that fraud. Sadly, it seems as if Mark is always getting played for a mark, which is another reason he needs a wingman.
Oh, on the artistic front, Rivera designs yet another visual flashback technique (panel 2), where Rusty’s recollection appears in an isolated area without context. Well, I should not call these images flashbacks, because they are really just memory snapshots frozen in time. I think I’ll go with the term recollection from here on.
Just what is Mark’s fascination with Sharp!? Why does he continue to come to his aid? Or is Mark going to try to teach Rusty the difference between a lie and an honest mistake, based on the notion that maybe Sharp’s video did not deliberately set out to mislead.
Or maybe this is going to be a put-down of cancel culture. If so, points to Rivera. It’s a terribly arrogant and ignorantly false morality.
Rivera has spent 3 days setting this family time scenario up, so I’m thinking this episode of Father Knows Least will continue into Saturday with Papa Trail unsuccessfully trying to impart his wisdom to a 10-year old kid. Or maybe Mark will order Andy to chase Rusty into the woods so he can get some rest.
As expected, this week we see wet-blanket Mark greeting his radioactive son at home, after a long day screwing around; and it’s not even dusk yet! Rusty helps justify why grocery stores tend to install restraints in their carts to prevent them being taken off the premises, or even as far as your car parked halfway down the parking lot.
Mark remains clueless about Rusty’s life, just like he was pre-Rivera. That, at least, hasn’t changed, even if Rusty has. But what’s with all of this sympathy for Sharp, anyway? Mark looks like he’s turning into a Bee Sharp Fanboy. It ain’t Sharp that can’t a break here. But now we have to suffer Rusty’s wokeness?
In Sunday’s comments, reader Mark linked to an Ed Dodd reprint in the Vintage Mark Trail section of the Comics Kingdom web site for a visual comparison with neo–Mark Trail. Boh. Va bene, but I’ve seen better from Dodd. This was originally drawn in 1978, so probably not Dodd or Tom Hill, his original assistant. I’m thinking it had to be early Jack Elrod. I’m willing to be corrected on that guess. The drawing looks a bit too wooden for my taste. In fact, Cindi looks like she died in panel 3. Still, it falls in line with the standard Mark Trail style we all grew up with and definitely contrasts with the present realization.
I wonder if anybody is reading this blog or even reading the actual Mark Trail strip who is under 50 years old? Or 30?
The Daily Trail 