Props to Rex for his spot-on reply to Mark in panel 3. Now, some people never move past their glory days, be it high school football fame or a babe who put the “hot” in hot wheels. Thus, Sally repeats the days of her glorious youth. Either she thinks Happy has a short memory or maybe she does. Or maybe she just likes to talk about it.
But I’m really confused over Sally’s glasses. Aside from their goofy alignment, they look more like a bikini top lifted from a Barbie doll. Still, I am left wondering why Sally wears sunglasses at night. Could it be blindness?
SPECIAL FEATURE!
Blog creator, Dennis Williams, sent me a Zippy the Pinhead strip that is a funny take on rebooting old comic strips, with a mention of Mark Trail. So, here it is. Enjoy!
Rex: “Ah, nice fire, eh Mark?” Mark: “Yep. And a quiet evening, too.” Rex: “For sure. . .No sirens or squealing tires.” Mark: “. . . .” Rex: “Twenty bucks says my mom makes the first move.” Mark: “I’ll cover that and see you another twenty.” Rex: “You’re on, Nature Boy.”
Jules, you don’t get to mock your own strip! Mark can mock himself (and sometimes does), but you have to remain neutral. It’s the privilege of your readers to decide who or what to mock, and when.
Now, where the heck are these people hiding, and where did those tents come from? Perhaps this is some kind of base camp for Rex’s work. Anyway, Mark’s gratitude that he and Happy can finally sleep easy sounds hollow, considering he’s responsible for his own situation. I bet some jail beds are at least halfway comfortable because jailers don’t want to be sued for torturing prisoners. Mark probably should be apologizing for helping to make Rex and his mother, Sally, possible fugitives from the law.
Let’s see, what happened this past week…? Nothing, really. Cherry spent the week quizzing Georgia about “colony collapse” as she was outside tending to the depleted beehives. Never mind that Georgia already informed Cherry about this some time ago and Mark just delivered his Sunday nature lesson about ravioli mites. Er, the Varroa mites, that is. I reckon all of that wasn’t enough for Rivera, so we spent another six days on it! And the week ended with an ominous phone call about Mark being “wanted by the police”, thus ending Cherry’s superhero fantasy of fighting the mites to save beehives and bees.
——————————————————————————————————————– “And that concludes the week, folks. Okay Dizzy, what are the stats (1-10) for this week?”
“Well, Pee Wee, after considering the content and the management’s overall decision-making, I give it the following:”
Story Development: 2 (the phone call) Action: 0 Character Development: 2 (Georgia’s look of despair for bees or Cherry’s interrogation) Ho-Hum Factor: 9
“Those are troubling numbers, Dizzy, but I hope that they can pull themselves up and salvage this storyline.”
“Well, we won’t begin to see the results for another two to three weeks, Pee Wee, as the strip will be returning to its main storyline, ‘On the lam with Mark Trail.'”
“Good grief!”
“Hey, you can’t say that, Pee Wee. It’s a slogan for a different cartoon character.”
“D’oh!”
“And that’s another one! Sorry, folks. And now a few words from our sponsor….”
Today’s Sunday Supplement should ruffle a few feathers, but in a good way. Rivera does not force the jokes (or puns) this time and the information is actually interesting. The title panel is cleverly designed (as is common). I think Rivera must have enjoyed doing this one. Coincidentally, my wife was telling me today about a murder of very large crows she saw across the street, but I missed them. And that’s about usual, as well.
Georgia does all of the work and Cherry, enthralled by the information Georgia has spoon-fed her, is already starting to act as if she is actively involved, herself. That is, until she got notified on her phone about the newest episode of “America’s Wildest Police Chases.” Okay, this is not the cliffhanger I was hoping for, but it gets us out of this rambling interlude.
Yeah, you tell her, Cherry! Be the master organic gardener. What’s wrong with a few weevils, aphids, and Japanese beetles, anyway? Is that why you seem to have so much free time and so few customers for your lawn and landscaping business? But I wonder where Georgia is getting her “Dyno-Mite” chemical application from? Could it come from one of Cherry’s main nemeses? Maybe we’ll find out on Saturday. That will make for a dramatic cliffhanger.
Anyway, my wife and I were talking today (we actually do that once in a while) and she asked me “What kind of music would Mark Trail listen to?” I was stumped. Just what kind of music would Mark listen to? Would Cherry like the same or different music? I think the pre-Rivera Markand Cherry, being the old-school rural citizens they were, would like bluegrass. Maybe even some “Great American Songbook” music or “classic country.” You know, nostalgic comfort songs. But for our newer, millennial Mark and Cherry, I don’t think Bill Monroe or Vic Damone would cut it. Perhaps musicians such as Hootie & the Blowfish, Foo Fighters, Tupac, Metallica, Prince, or Beyoncé? I dunno. What do you think? think? (I think I forgot to do a second proofread!)
Note: I saw that a reader over on Comics Kingdom commented on the apparent “smiley face” seen in the thought bubble in panel 2 of yesterday’s strip. In fact, it looks like a ghost or cloud face, which is either winking or has a black eye. Anyway, go ahead and look if you don’t recall. I’ll wait. I saw that face yesterday, as well, but didn’t think it worth saying anything about it at the time. But today, there is another possible smiley face in panel 2, kind of a clown face with a short screw-lid hat. Or so it seems. We humans are pattern finders by nature, so it is possible these “faces” are coincidental arrangements by Rivera. What do you think?
Anyway, getting back to the story: Is this even a story? Is it going anywhere? “For my next demonstration, Cherry, pull my finger!” This is looking more like a female version of “Mr. Wizard.” I mean, just where can you go with this plot? There’s no villain to foil, except nature.
I suggested some time ago that Rivera should have Cherry host the Sunday nature chat one in a while, maybe even with guests such as Georgia. I think she could have given a much more informative presentation on Varroa Mites than Mark. Better that than trying to add some meat to this very lean bone of a story.
Wow, completely new information?! Who knew Varroa mites hit these beehives? Who knows anything about these creatures? Well, just about anybody who has been reading the strip since at least June would. Cherry Trail must be having a memory loss, since Georgia informed her about the mites in mid-June. And Mark gave us an exposition on Varroa mites last Sunday. I reckon Cherry does not read the Sunday comics pages, either.
So, is Rivera just padding out the story with rehashed information and sketchy art in order to meet her deadlines? Is she still trying to figure out where to take this story? It is a shame to reduce Cherry’s involvement here to that of some clueless child.
If Cherry takes the trouble to write Georgia’s explanation down, she can go home and tell Rusty and Dad all about the mites, which I am sure would make interesting reading in a comic strip.
Well, I guess today’s panels function as a “For those of you who came in late…” recap, as this information was originally shared between Georgia and Cherry over breakfast in Planet Pancake back in June. Of course, that story seemed to have arbitrarily stopped, once the cause of the bee failure was diagnosed. Now, it resumes.
At least nobody here is being chased by law enforcement after punching out some cops.
The Daily Trail 