“This hike was a bust.” What a quitter! Ah well, is this another busted adventure? The gang could not have walked very far before finding the horsehead mask. Yet, they somehow thought they needed some kind of GPS or compass to avoid getting lost. This suggests that Lost Forest is not very large or that Rivera decided to omit about four hours of hiking between the Thursday and Friday strips. It begs the question: Shouldn’t they just keep searching? And I agree. Stopping now would be a drag. By the way, this plot has nothing to do with the environment or ecology, right? Whoah! This is the Mark Trail adventure strip. Why can’t Rusty get involved in environmental matters like his parents?

Let’s get to another of the issues, shall we? (I’ll leave you to discover another one.) In panel 4, Mark says “I don’t know, Ernie.” Ernie!? WTH? Mark has been talking to his own son, Rusty! Has Mark spent so little time at home that he forgot what Rusty looks like? We might be able to make that case for the pre-Rivera iteration of Mark Trail. Another possibility is that Mark’s brain is working slowly and is only now reacting to Ernie’s outburst in yesterday’s strip.

Nevertheless, Mark’s lame joke in panel 4 is a clear setup of things to follow. For those of us who might be misled by Rusty’s all-too-easy surrender, Rivera has taped a “To be continued” sign to panel 4.

Maybe the costume horse head came from the prop department of “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” which occasionally trotted out Secretariat, the dancing horse. Just a thought.

Yesterday’s reader commentary noted the suspicious omission of smartphones from the general discussion, in spite of Ernie’s apparent attempt to use a tracking app on his (I’m not sure why I forgot  his name the other day). The more important comment may have been the general dismissal or concern for smartphones in order to justify Mark’s intervention as he arrived to “save the day.” Taking on the role of hero is Mark’s calling, of course. He just can’t stop himself.

In Rivera’s version of Mark Trail, his attempts at heroic posturing often result in minor catastrophe or at least, setbacks. As I noted in the past, I think this is just fine. It makes him more human. In the pre-Rivera iterations, Mark was always just a trifle too righteous, too honorable, and too dang smug. However, many readers (I suspect) consider Mark’s current image has been pushed too far to the other side, making him appear more foolish than just more human. I think Rivera also kept the old “smugness.”

Did you see anything noteworthy in today’s strip?

Apology: Thanks to reader “be ware of eve hill” and Dennis (the blog’s originator) for their help in my finally figuring out why the “Like” button was not showing up (at least for me) on the main page. But I also have to be more careful about my posting technique. Apparently, viewers who are subscribed to this blog (I think there are at least 2 or 3), automatically get notified by email immediately when I post. Ouch! On one recent occasion I accidentally posted but forgot to load the strip on the page. A moment of distraction on my part. If you were especially quick, you might have viewed that post without the strip. I quickly corrected it, but it was embarrassing. I don’t know if you got re-notified. This “not ready for prime time” fiasco could have happened before, as I sometimes have to post my blog “early”, because this site’s “preview” function does not always work. Anyway, I’ll try harder to cut down on these goofs!

Well, at least we’re moving along. Mark trots out some “woodsman” wisdom, for little purpose. Sure, moss grows on the north side, most of the time. Flowers tend to lean towards sunlight, so they may lean south, some of the time. But you better hope it isn’t a snowy winter. Say, weren’t any of these kids ever scouts!?

Again, neither moss nor compass tells you “where you are”, only in what direction you may be heading. Big difference! I reckon that Rivera was never a scout, either. But I suppose if Mark’s main intention is just to make sure they are moving in one direction, then fine. But if you are not counting steps or marking trail (oh, I just made a pun!) as you go, then getting back where you started is not guaranteed. Still, this is just Lost Forest, not the Alaskan Wilderness. If we’ve learned anything, there are lots more people living in it or around it than we thought. Just yell. Somebody will find you. Maybe even Klingons.

The troop sets off to discover something that is possibly from another world. Truly, that’s a life-changing adventurous for any child.

But I’m sorry, there is much wrong here. “Aliens are technically nature,” spouts Rusty. What does that mean? Ignoring the primary definition of “someone from another country”, the relevant definition of alien is something not of our world (e.g., “Klingons”); so therefore, not “nature”. Something alien could even just be a meteor, but a crashed spaceship would be better.

Once again, the Moe-haired kid in panel two asks the necessary question:  How do you find something if you don’t have a route to follow? Doesn’t stop Mark from taking the lead (as he always tries to do). For his bona fides, he implies his pocket compass will help them find the site.

Again, I’m sorry. A compass does not “find” anything, except the Earth’s Magnetic North. It’s for keeping track of your direction of movement or for following a map. But it does not home in on crash sites when you don’t know where they are. Unfortunately, it seems doubtful that the kids will see through Mark’s flummery.

“Mark Trail is everyone’s True North.” That statement in panel 4 is certainly debatable, but it also functionally conflicts with the purpose of Mark’s compass. True North is not the same location as Magnetic North (where a compass points). Magnetic North is not even a fixed spot. But Rivera is invoking a metaphor popular in religious circles where a holy leader is “the true north” for believers, the direction for moral and ethical behavior. I don’t think Rivera means to imply the religious aspect of that metaphor. Instead, I think Rivera suggests the kids should shut up and trust Mark. Like they did before.

Robbie makes an excellent point, of course. None of the other kids showed up with their daddies (who all probably have stable jobs, anyway). Furthermore, the boys won’t be able to cuss or talk about girls with a parent along! But I covered this point yesterday (And that’s a pretty well-drawn Mark in panel 2).

I’m not sure that Rivera ever got around to naming all of the kids. The kid with the Moe haircut seen in panel 1 of yesterday’s strip is Ernie, son of Jeanette, who operates Planet Pancake. I think that the unnamed kid who says “Pfft”(behind Robbie) is selectively recalling events. The reason Mark saved them from the ‘gators is because he was responsible for putting them on the island with the ‘gators (cf January 2023). And there were no other adults around, anyway!

Finally, I hope you see the parallel drawn here with Rusty and Robbie in relation to Mark, right? That is to say, Mark and his own childhood nemesis (later turned grownup nemesis).

Prolog: For a long time, I was puzzled by the fact that there was no “Like” button on my post pages. I had finally forgotten about this until I started seeing “Likes” tabulating on my pages! Huh!? Where did they come from? In the WordPress settings, the Like button setting was enabled, but I still saw nothing. One of my readers even told me she only sees Like on the Comments page. I didn’t see it there, either.

I use MS Edge, so I went through its settings to see if there was anything to change. Nothing. I brought up Chrome and there was the Like button where it should be on the main page! Now I was really puzzled. Why Chrome and not Edge? After a lot of cogitation and throwing CDs at my heavily dented door, I had a wild idea and turned off Adblock just for WordPress. Lo and behold (as they say), the LIKE button now shows up on the daily blog! Man am I getting slow. Well, on to today’s Mark Trail strip:

Okay, put away any excitement for Cherry’s story as we return to Rusty and Mark. The Trails do move in their own, restricted circles. For Mark, it’s people like faux-Prof. Bee Sharp, Diana Daggers, Rob Bettancourt (Cricket Bro) and his brother, and finally his dad. For Cherry there are Georgia, Honest Ernest, Violet Cheshire, and various members of the Sunny Soleil Society. For Rusty, it’s his buds. Yeah, there is some comfort in familiarity, of course, but there is also tedium. At least here, we have Rusty’s friends. Most kids like to spend time with their friends, so it is only natural to see them reappear when the strip focuses on Rusty. So, we give Rusty a pass, but not his mom and dad.

I don’t get the gag in panel 4 about Mark being “worth waiting for.” Those kids were neither expecting Mark nor waiting for him. More sarcasm? Rivera is supposed to be expanding the Trailverse to allow other family members to get some of their own face time. So why does Rivera continue to redirect attention to Mark? Can’t these kids just have their own adventure for once (think of the movie “Stand by Me”), or at least hold Mark back until the kids get into trouble and need to be rescued. It’s time for the kids to start making their own decisions and mistakes.

Yup, Mark is scamming his own kid with that “too dangerous for you boys” line so he can poke his nose into their business. So, where is that camera? Unlike smart phones, a DSLR is a bit large for a pocket (unless you happen to be Captain Kangaroo). Alas, poor Rusty. He should have trusted his instincts. Nothing says “fun” like having your dad tag along when you go meet your friends.

Phew. Today’s setup and dialog seem like a parody of 1960s TV shows. Maybe Rivera still believes her target audience consists mostly of Boomer Generation readers. Maybe she’s right (though I’ve never found any statistics from her syndicate). After all, who even calls cops “Fuzz” anymore?

I dunno. Is Mark just playing along by humoring Rusty with his aliens search? And why does Rivera deliberately make Mark out to be a clownish hypocrite, then mock him for it (panel 4)? I suppose I shouldn’t be too harsh. As parents, we were sometimes guilty of “Do as I say, not as I do!” behavior.

Still, one can’t get over the notion that Rivera is set against maintaining Mark Trail’s traditional image as a steadfast source of parental rectitude. Since pre-Rivera Mark Trail’s morality was a 1950s-time capsule, that’s probably not too bad of an idea. Maybe we’ll get more clarity on Saturday.

Mark being confused is rather common, isn’t it? But once again, Rusty disses dad about his social shortcomings. Cryptids are so Old News. Kids have (re)discovered alien incursions, previously the interest of corn farmers and Art Bell enthusiasts. Let’s hope this topic leads to a very interesting and fruitful story. At least until Mark gets his usual phone call.

Mark sure seems like a needy dad trying to make up for not being around. I’ll cut him a lot of slack here. Most of us fathers know how it feels! But the pre-Rivera Mark Trail never seemed too concerned about his fatherly duties. At the same time, pre-Rivera Rusty rarely seemed to go anywhere, much less have friends.

Anyway, I sure hope that tiny log structure in the background of panel 1 is just one of the out-buildings on the Trail estate and not meant to be the actual family home. That would be ridiculous.

Finally, Mark must have touched a nerve with Rusty, because his façade of calm quickly evaporated when Mark pressed him for details. I sure hope it is something really interesting. But will Mark stay out of it?