I don’t see where Violet has ever been concerned about the health of bees; her former and recent history show just the opposite (see Monday’s strip). After all, she is the one who wanted the original hive of bees to be exterminated by Honest Ernest. Let’s face it, Violet hates bees! So why would Cherry think that revealing the true fate of the bees would create bad feelings?
As for the gratuitous narration box in panel 4, what’s being saved here? There are times when holding back can be valid (e.g. In a time of personal crisis), but this doesn’t seem like one of those times. Violet may be passive-aggressive, but she is not a child asking about Santa Claus.
I suppose that if you are trying to expand a (so far) weak storyline, then why not also pack it with pointless prattle that insults the intelligence of readers while killing their brain cells at the same time? This is like the old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland “Let’s put on a show!” shtick, but without Mickey Rooney or Judy Garland.
As several of you know, I have always believed that expanding Cherry’s personality and role in the strip is one of Rivera’s best contributions. But I’m starting to have second thoughts. Cherry’s storylines seem to be getting more vapid, especially when compared with her earliest adventures. Maybe Cherry is “growing up” from her earlier brashness, but she’s becoming less interesting.
Is Cherry on salary with the SSS or is she putting in all this free time as charitable work which she can use to write off taxes? That is, she does have a garden and landscape business. Yet, it seems to be less and less of a necessity. This is odd, considering the fact that Mark has also not had a paying assignment for quite some time.
But I like how in panel 3 Cherry answers her own query she posited in panel 2. This rhetorical trick is popular with politicians, sales staff, and other hucksters, as it saves so much time and keeps the sucker one step behind. Cherry deftly proposes that local Lost Forest businesses should shoulder the burden of support for an activity promoting another private business (The Sunny Soleil Society, which acts on behalf of an HOA). Dang! If Cherry can pull this off, she should run for Mayor.
After all that parody (or was it just satire?), it’s nice to get back to Cherry’s more practical, logical stories that … uh, wait. What’s going on here? Didn’t we cover this, already? Cherry is virtually always outside when we see her. And as for a new foot, well, we can’t see it, because Violet’s dialog balloon is in the way (okay, that comment was just cheap sarcasm. By the way, if this strip originated in France, Rivera would probably have written that Cherry and Violet are starting off on a whole new meter. Sometimes it’s hard to constrain my wit).
Still, it’s heartwarming to see Violet once again getting her comeuppance for her hypocrisy and snobbishness; So what’s her game? All of her talk and actions about wanting to spend more time outside in nature seem disingenuous. Let’s hope we find out before the week is over.
If you were too busy this week with Thanksgiving, preparing for Winter, preparing to avoid Winter, or just watching as much “MeTV” as you could stomach, then I can fill you in on the past week’s strips.
There was not much in the Action Department; this was a week for Man Talk. Mark arrived at the De-BaitTeam’s lodge, where he met up with Duke and Cliff to discuss his idea for a men’s-only nature retreat. Based on the sad plight of the lost-then-found camper (whose name we learned is Connor), Mark expressed strong emotional rage against the bad influence of the error-prone survival guide of Tadd Crass and how it could lead to future disasters for men who live around Lost Forest. Mark must fix that!
Along the way, it came out that Connor was having relationship issues, and it was suggested that it might have led to his unwise decision to escape into Lost Forest. With that untested assumption in place, Duke and Cliff actually suggested Mark should also offer relationship advice to all of the men who are sure to sign up for the retreat (because why else would men want to go camping?) Mark’s off-the-frayed-cuff response about successful relationships was to the effect of “Look good, bring home the bacon, and don’t forget dessert.” The question remains: If this is a sample of their wisdom and experience, what does Mark want from Cliff and Duke?
Meanwhile, I had questions about the underlying purpose of the strip, itself. You’ll have to go back and read the daily posts for the details. With luck, I’ll be totally wrong.
No arguments about this from me. People continue to cuddle up to wild animals as if they are having tea with Bambi and Thumper. It’s foolish and dangerous. That includes putting food scraps on your steps or in your yard for the benefit of raccoons, possums, etc. They start showing up in greater numbers or frequency, leading to potentially bad outcomes for pets and children.
BTW, I still think Mark’s beard upgrade is cheap. If Rivera doesn’t like to stipple beards, she can just drop the whole beard thing. Mark can sport bandages from shaving with his wilderness survival knife.
When I start to wonder whether the self-parody theory of Mark Trail is just overblown babbling, Rivera publishes something like this. Where to even start? I’ll assume you are all at least as observant and perspicacious as I am (though maybe falling a bit behind my natural wit and talent for irrelevance, as is to be expected).
But just in case there are a few outliers, why in @)#! would Duke assume a nature retreat is the solution for relationship issues? Does Duke know anything about interpersonal issues that “lots of guys like Connor” have with their significant others? What the @)#! do issues with females even have to do with camping, anyway? (“So, I had a fight with Janet, right? I heard that the best way to cope was to go camping in Lost Forest. Ain’t never done that, but Billy gave me his survival guide. It’s printed on toilet paper. ‘Read it as you use it’, it says. Ain’t that a hoot!? So I went camping. Next thing I know, I woke up in a psycho ward! But Janet and me, we’re a pair once again!”)
Really, Rivera? Just what are you trying to accomplish with this line of sexist absurdity, other than to continue to make Mark look like a gullible bonehead?
Okay, in the Trailverse there appears to be an untold number of men who live in and around Lost Forest who nevertheless seem to have little or no knowledge of woods or camping. Yet, having no knowledge, they might still get inspired by a phony survival book to go camping. This might then result in them winding up in a hospital or morgue, like soon-to-be poster boy, Connor (“this could be you!”).
So fine: If Mark wants to create a training camp to help these dudes, I hope he can find enough clients with the time and ability to pay the costs. But guys who purchase $25 survival books probably don’t have the funds to pay for in-person survival training. Heck, if Mark has any business sense, he’ll call Bill Ellis to get his publishing company to help underwrite the project for the PR and Mark’s articles (Ed. note: “Why am I fantasizing about this, since the strips were already written weeks ago?!“)
Well, it’s too bad that former lost camper and current hospital patient Connor didn’t learn anything from his outdoorsmen friends, Duke and Cliff. Maybe Mark should keep that in mind if he has any plans on using them in his project.
Mark continues his rant. But how many dead campers have actually been found with Tadd’s book in their backpacks? How many lost or injured survivalists were rescued while clutching his survival guide? Has Mark done any actual research before going on this holy quest of his?
I’m starting to think this storyline is a Mark Trailparody. The whole “male dominant” nature of the comic strip comes under the microscope. Although the de-BaitTeam has a female member, she is left out of virtually all interactions with Mark, in favor of the guys. Then there is Mark continually referring to only male campers. Where women do shine is in Cherry’s stories. Kelly Welly, one-time rival reporter, seems to have checked out. Nobody knows what happened to Diana Daggers. This gender bifurcation seems odd coming from a female artist/writer working to modernize this old strip.
But wait, there’s more: In addition to his ongoing rant, Rivera offers up some sarcastic commentary in panel 4 about Mark and his “big jobs,” reading like a jab at his maturity, with an implied notion that Mark’s quest is overblown. Okay, perhaps I’m projecting here. I’m not a sociologist. Help me out, people! Am I guilty of making mountains out of mole hills? Should we take this at face value?
Tad (or Tadd) Crass sure must have been pretty popular back in the day. And like Mark, Cliff seems to think that having one career makes you unable to have a second one. Does being a former combat vet make you ineligible to be a fishing guide? Clearly, the members of the De-Bait Team don’t think so.
Well, keeping up with the times, “AI” is the bogeyman to this version of Mark Trail that the Internet was to the prior version of Mark Trail. (from February 2020)
Anyway, if Mark wants to crush Tadd’s AI-based survival guide, he might consider publishing a better one! That would give him a better chance to counter Crass’s book than starting up another boutique survival camp that only a few people can afford to attend. But where would be the story in that?
Art Dept: I won’t spend time on it, but you scan the posts from October 2021 to see what Mark, Cliff, and Duke originally looked like and draw your own conclusions.
When it comes to drawing beards, Rivera may not be your go-to artist. Her attempts at men’s facial fashion usually look like pasted-on comedy beards, and I don’t mean just Duke’s own fuzzy-wuzzy. Lost-camper-finally-with-a-name Connor (in panel 2) has a beard that looks more like a sloppy Covid mask.
I’ve commented in the past on Mark’s disaster of a five o’clock shadow. His original stubble beard was good, but possibly got too boring for Rivera. Maybe Rivera is trying to give Mark the kind of beard we see on the sweaty face of Humphrey Bogart (as Fred C. Dobbs) in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Mark doesn’t have that kind of personality, which is to the good; but I think it takes that kind of person to wear that kind of beard with any authenticity.
As for how this story is shaping up, I can’t tell. It seems like a diversion. More to the point, it feels like a sly criticism of Mark’s male-centered universe. In panel 3, Duke holds his hand beside his face in a kind of “gossip sharing” gesture with which women are often stereotypically portrayed in mass media. This is reinforced by Rivera’s comment in panel 4.
The Daily Trail 