One of the running gags on the old “Gilligan’s Island” TV show was how the castaways were always able to bring out all manner of equipment, new clothing, and other props when needed, as if their island had a shopping center hidden behind the palm trees. I was wondering if something like that would happen here; and thus, a first aid kit magically appears!
Unless Mark secretly enjoys seeing Sharp in painful distress longer than necessary, let’s hope he simply decides to call home to have Cherry or Doc bring his “secret weapon” to the rescue. I reckon we’ve already established that there is no help to be had at the retreat, itself.
Talk about protective coloration, Jadsen should bottle it and sell it. How did he slip by us so easily? He’s literally been out of the strip since last Tuesday, while Cricket Bro (aka Rob Bettancourt), Bee Sharp, and Holly By-Golly (whatever) took up all of the picture space. But suddenly, here he is, a “survivor” of a collapsing trailside.
Methinks this is suspicious. Could this so-called “accident” be a trap-gone-wrong, set up by Jadsen (and maybe Rob) to get rid of Bee Sharp? If true, it could provide some complex plots and character development. We have not seen any complex plotting here. To be fair, this is just a comic strip, not a novel. Elaborate plotting would likely not hold the interest of readers who expect to see jokes or direct action; not read Neal Stephenson. I doubt that even the pre-Allen Mark Trail stories would be popular today, except to Trailheads. Otherwise, KFS could save a pile of money by just reprinting them, the same way we see other legacy comics in perpetual reruns. Good grief!
Yelling at two injured people is not exactly leaping into action, as far as I’m concerned. Of course, Jadsen is completely useless as he always has been. Not even a good comic foil. At least Holly had the wherewithal to run for help. I’m sure curious what Mark will do, since he has no rescue equipment on hand. I’m not sure he has any rescue training, either. Maybe he knows some emergency first aid? I’ve done enough guessing, so I’ll just wait to see what Mark does.
Sorry, people. I got caught up in my Italian studies and a test today, so I’ll combine the Tuesday and Wednesday strips into a single post tomorrow morning (well, Wednesday morning from my point of view).
“It’s not as bad as it look. It’s worse!” Call me Mr. Ignorant, because I’m not sure what that means. Is Mark being sarcastic? Sounds contradictory to my pea brain.
Well, that’s a well-drawn terrain in panel 1, by the way. Good variety in flora and perspective. The bird’s-eye-view in panel 3 is another welcome return to Rivera’s early use of varied viewpoints to highlight a story. It’s good to see her getting back to some more creative compositions, rather than the flat, straight-on close-ups she has been using for a long time.
But the characters look different, especially Holly Folly. There’s her strange posture in panel 1 where it looks like she’s falling over. We can possibly excuse the crude images of Sharp and Cricket Bro at the bottom of the hill in panel 3, owing to the very small size the panel has to be.
Another remarkable thing (to me) is seeing Mark’s normal rough stubble suddenly looking like a smooth, carefully tailored “5 o’clock shadow”, defined using an old-school ziptone-like pattern. Back in the day, several cartoonists used specially printed transfer sheets to apply patterns to their drawings, largely as a replacement for hand-drawn shading. This technique has largely gone out of fashion. Rivera draws on a computer, so the beard pattern is rendered digitally. I assume that Rivera is experimenting with her style. So far, I prefer the hand-drawn stubble.
Mark showed up for work, only to get distracted by squabbling between Professor Bee Sharp and Cricket Bro, who just happen be some of the participants at this tech/nature retreat. As I indicated before, the rest of the participants are most of Mark’s other recurring opponents. Cricket Bro’s remarks about Bee Sharp’s new main squeeze, Holly Folly, was the reason for the fracas. Mark wisely walked away from this fight, but the group eventually continued on with their nature hike.
Mark went to work on his assignment, quickly discovering a major reason why bears were coming onto the grounds of the retreat. Mission Accomplished? Not so fast! Not so fast! Holly Folly suddenly came running back from the hike to plead for Mark’s help. Seems that the boys got caught in some kind of geological mishap on their hike. But why did Holly run to Mark, a nature reporter? I suppose the apparent lack of any professional staff on the site is deliberate and a part of Rivera’s ongoing goal of poking a stick into Silicon Valley’s impresarios, geeks, and its elitist male culture. But as far as adventure is concerned, it’s early on; so I hope things start picking up. Until then, see below!
Today’s topic is not a big surprise, considering the week just completed. We’ve all read reports of people feeding wild animals outside of their homes or at national parks. Or they try to snuggle up to them for selfies, sometimes with unfortunate results for the person. And making wild animals dependent on eating human food is not a good thing for the animal, either. So, it’s not surprising that people in certain areas of the country will fail to recognizes that wild animals often eat whatever they can find and that looking for (or avoiding to become) food is one of their main activities.
But this PSA might also ironically dilute some of the satirical intent of Rivera’s daily strip, since it implies that even “normal” people who live in areas frequented by bears can be careless or ignorant of proper safety measures.
Again, with stating the obvious in textboxes!? Tell us something different that the illustrations don’t, Rivera. You know how to be creative, right?
I have to say that I’m not at all happy with how this nature retreat is run. For one thing, where is the director/founder? Shouldn’t he be directing something? If this is a nature retreat, how come there isn’t a naturalist on staff? I suppose Rivera’s satiric goal here is to point out how ill-prepared and naïve tech-weenies are in the real world. That’s fine. It’s a popular theme that Rivera has used before. I just hope that Rivera has added some original, creative, twists to give this story some interest.
For example, just why is Mark’s usual collection of opponents all here at this camp at the same time? Why is it they seem to be the only people at this retreat? Did Bill Ellis pull strings behind the scenes to engineer this entire setup because he secretly loathes Mark? That might account for the serendipitous matchups that keep happening on Mark’s assignments. I have an hypothesis: Kelly Welly is having an affair with Bill Ellis and pushing him to hamstring Mark at every turn so that she can more easily ascend to the top of the nature-reporting hill. It’s not as if she’s had any real part in any adventures since Rivera took over. That’s a missed opportunity.
I was studying for an Italian test when I posted the Wednesday blog. Thus, I was distracted enough to miss a better title pun, “Beware the Idiots of March”, rather than going with the lame “Beware the Ides of March.” But it’s too late to change it, so I lamely stuffed it in here. Let’s recall what Omar once wrote: “The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on.”
So we’re moving on. Okay, Listicle? How many of you knew what that meant? I had to look it up: An article based on a list of headings/titles/categories with supplemental text. Is this a necessary word?
It seems as if Mark “took my advice” and ditched the duds (for the most part) to do his job. Molto grazie, Rivera! This is a nature strip, not a game show. And it seems—on the surface—that Mark has solved the case in the first week on the job. Now that is efficient work! Therefore, he must be wrong.
Once again, Rivera seems to have gotten too enamored over “Reality TV” contrivances and has lost track of the storyline. Is she just making this up as she goes? I’m doubtful of that, since a fair bit of her background was in storyboarding; that is, outlining in graphic form, the development of a story or event.
No, I think she is just indulging in a preference for double-entendre and cheap laughs. This is not story development, but story padding and making fun of stereotypes. Wasting a week’s worth of strips. Again, why is Mark even concerned? He supposedly has his own agenda, which has been largely forgotten.
And speaking of being put aside, where is Cricket Bro’s brother, Jadsen? He was here earlier. Did he just start on the hike by himself or is he hiding in the bushes? Does anybody really care? Forget these idiots, Mark, and just do your job for once.
Okay, we finally find out who the gal with Prof. Bee Sharp is. I suspect that, in Rivera’s eyes, she is meant to satirize one of the thousands of gals on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok (BikBok!) who are self-declared experts on being hip, pretty, fashionable, or just au courant on whatever they want to talk about. In short, a bimbo. And that accounts for the grade-school behavior of those two losers.
What I don’t get is Trail’s sudden need to accompany these bozos, as if he’s their den mother. Why should he care one way or the other? This isnot logical, Ms. Rivera! How will this help solve the attacking bears mystery, unless Trail thinks that bears prefer their meals to be on the narcissistic side? He should be happy they are leaving the area, since he was clearly bothered that they were here in the first place.
On the other hand, I appreciate attention to detail when I find it, such as Rivera differentiating the backpacks the hikers are using. She could have given everybody the same “generalized” backpack.
Well, was yesterday a replay or the beginning of Mark’s second day on the job? Simon Stump is no longer hanging around, nor are the rest of the guests, so let’s assume this is Day Two. We can’t tell from the clothing, since most characters wear the same clothes all the time. This is a tradition in comic strips going as far back as The Yellow Kid, in which the clothes act as kind of identification badge or part of the character’s inherent identity. Little Orphan Annie almost always wore a red dress. Charlie Brown was always in shorts and a t-shirt with a horizontal zigzag stripe. Mark used to always wear a plain work shirt with two button-down pockets. Now it’s a red checked shirt, recently enhanced with a black tee undershirt. A bit of progress, perhaps.
Aside from yet another possibly unnecessary textbox in panel 4, this looks like a little story stretching going on. Or perhaps this is a setup for these three goofs to encounter a bear on their walk and either call out for Mark to come save them or retreat to camp to report the encounter. With luck, they could get “kidnapped” by the bear and never seen again.
Okay, it’s been a week, so I reckon it’s okay to shove in a quick “recap” of the preceding events. But the fact Rivera changed the topography in panel 1 from the prior layout is not mere carelessness, but it was clearly done for the sake of design: a classic diagonal sweep that provides a more pleasing sense of compositional movement than a dead-on, orthogonal left-to-right layout would do. Is the care creeping along or is Mark just sitting in it while he rhapsodizes over his fortunes? It’s virtually impossible to illustrate a car creeping along, as opposed to moving at highway speed.
We turned our attention to Cherry this past week, where we found her once again working in the gardens of the Sunny Soleil Society, as if nothing bad has happened! I would have expected to see her fired by Violet Cheshire after that dustup with Honest Ernest’s lawn treatment gig and the revelation of their secret tryst.
Instead, Honest Ernest showed up to gloat over Cherry’s growing dismay at his newest business of laying concrete over some (or all) of the surrounding grounds and gardens. He boasted that this job will also help him get even with Cherry for her role in ruining his marriage and lawn care business. Cherry responded in her usual dramatic and hyperbolic manner, hoping to convince Ernest of a likely environmental catastrophe. Of course, he laughed in Cherry’s face, leaving her unsure how to proceed.
My criticism here is similar to what I leveled at Mark: the constant recycling of the same opponents in almost every story; in this case, in virtually every one of Cherry’s stories! Can’t Rivera put Cherry in a new situation once in a while, with different problems and different adversaries? This is kind of like watching somebody continually return to the same abusive relationship. Phew! Time to move on to the Sunday sermon.
Have to admit that, once again, I like her Sunday title panels. Unlike most strips that use a standard logo-style panel or none at all, Rivera always creates a customized panel that tries to fit the strip’s theme. Having said that, I’ll also award some points for a topic I doubt was covered by prior Trail artists. But I would have thought she would focus on forest fires, for example. Anyway, I think today’s strip looks hurriedly designed. And it is probably a bit too wordy for a strip issuing cautionary advice.
What to do, what to do!? Heck if I know! This isn’t even her property! Does Honest Ernest plan to cover the entire grounds in concrete or just a small area? Cherry fears the worst. But will it be as bad as she thinks? Certainly, the surface temperature and immediate area above the slab would feel warmer in the summer. But I don’t think there would be enough concrete to create what experts call an urban heat island. Anybody know otherwise? But heat isn’t the only concern: Storm water surface runoff affecting soil and water resources is another concern.
There are some possible mitigations, so I’ve read. For example, proper drainage and collection points can be created, something like gutters around a roof, to direct runoff into safe areas or containers for proper disposal. Most popular is pervious concrete that allows water to pass through it directly into the ground. Another possibility is to ensure plenty of shrubs and trees immediately around the concrete area to help absorb any runoff. Thus, Cherry couldwork directly with Honest Ernest and Violet to take some safety measures.
Or Cherry could go to a federal court and try to get an order forcing the Sunny Soleil Society to go through an EPA assessment and approval process. That should only take about 10 years or so.
Well, on one hand, Cherry-the-optimist is keeping her cool; but on the other hand, she’s leaning far into environmental hyperbole (panel 2). At least we learn a bit more about the aftermath of Ernest’s liaison with Violet, such as Caroline leaving her not-so-Honest Ernest. Still, this soap opera reality show will likely have used its entire first week of the story to establish a few simple facts: 1) Ernest wants revenge on Cherry and places financial stability over environmental safety. 2) Cherry sees his intentions more as a threat against Nature than her. 3) Violet appears to be siding with Ernest. No surprise, there.
On a technical note, there are some curious out-of-place outlines today. In panel 1, a white highlight of sorts separates Ernest’s head from the rose bushes. I see no reason for this, since Cherry’s image has no such corresponding whitespace. It could be a printing error, as it looks sloppy. However, the owl in panel 2 is odd for a few reasons, one being the unnecessary green highlight on the right side and head of the owl. Second, is the style of the drawing, appearing in a style different from the rest of the strip. Well, I could also be influenced by the oddly-shaped and colored bush behind the owl.
Frankly, this is hard to follow. There is supposed to be a dirt driveway here, along with the garden. Where? The earlier scene showed a regular lawn with a flagstone walkway. No cars or patch of dirt in sight!
So I don’t understand the logistics here. Certainly, the SSS staff drive to work on a normal road and probably have a parking lot of some kind, dirt or whatever. Or do they drive to work on ATVs?
Well, perhaps this conundrum isn’t really the point, after all. The point is a potential case of environmental damage versus a concrete driveway. Well, Ernest does support a certain kind of logic: The logic of aneye for an eye.
See, Cherry!? I told you that your best course of action was to find another client. Instead, you once again get embroiled in this tawdry affair of petty power politics and corruption. You waste time with unhelpful sarcasm. Do you think Violet is going to come out and take your side? When has she ever done that!? Cut these losers loose while you have the edge, before you lose your job and self-respect. Don’t waste any more time!
Still married, is he? Well, I didn’t think Cherry had anything to apologize for, in spite of her insincere response in panel 2. But where is this situation heading? Is it just some kind of slice-of-life vignette thrown in before the real plot begins? Or will Violet Cheshire show up tomorrow and join in this verbal abuse party?
By the way, it always seems to be summer in Lost Forest, or at least, good weather. That’s not uncommon for comic strips, of course. But over the past two years, has there even been any Winter? One might think Lost Forest is in southern California. And maybe that would be a valid thought, though right now, southern California makes Minnesota look downright balmy.
Wait, did the comics syndicate put this strip on “repeat” mode? Cherry is once again working at Sunny Soleil Society and once again running into Honest Ernest, who—like Mark—has never changed his clothes. Wouldn’t Violet Cheshire have physically kicked Cherry out (again) this time for revealing her affair with Ernie to Ernest’s wife, much less for Cherry’s interference in Ernest’s lawn treatment? And how is it Ernie is still walking around, apparently injury-free? Furthermore, why doesn’t Cherry have the cajones to quit and find another, more amenable client? Must be good money.
On the other hand, the expanded panel 1 is a well-composed and well-drawn scene, thanks to using a 3-panel layout. Even the depiction of Cherry in panel 2 gets high marks for the strength of its drawing and the communication emanating from Cherry’s expression. The textbox makes the obvious pun but could have been left out. In fact, I think Rivera could have left Ernest out of panel 2 completely, leaving only his greeting balloon to ensure his appearance in panel 3 is the surprise it was meant to be.
Mark is on the job! Driving across hill-and-dale to reach the nature retreat, Mark met tech impresario and Retreat founder, Simon Stump, sporting a Tintin haircut. I wonder if Simon’s name is supposed to be a pun of some sort? Frankly, I’m stumped.
Not only is Simon worried about bears, he worries that bears might have kidnapped (his word) the other journalist (paraphrasing reader Downpuppy, “where is the ransom note?”). If that isn’t enough, Jules Rivera included almost all of Mark Trail’s prior opponents for the past two years as current guests at the Retreat! Isn’t hunting down bears and a missing journalist enough of an adventure (as it would have been in the old days)? Rivera seems to think that continuing to recycle these same sociopaths and con artists provides some kind of secret sauce to her plot recipes.
Yet, they are not even proper bad guys or villains; just twisted jerks. Sure, Mark does not need to face down super-villains like “Dr. Doom”, “Professor Moriarty”, or “Darth Vader.” But he could face a few actual bad guys willing to hurt, frame, or dispose of Mark for getting in the way of their plans. In most stories by Rivera, Mark’s life or reputation have never been under serious threat. Well, there was one, minor incident.
You might recall the recent zebra mussels adventure, where a shipping tycoon (also now at the Retreat) sent some knee-breakers to scare Mark off his assignment. However, the two goons quickly went down like sacks of rocks off a cliff. And that was that. A ripping good adventure could have taken place where the two pursued a fleeing Mark Trail down the river and through the woods in a serious life-or-death struggle. Whacky has its place, but I’d like to see Rivera integrate more actual suspenseanddanger into some of Mark’s stories. He needs to exercise his survival skills from time to time. Aside from aping Tintin’s haircut, Rivera could learn a thing or two from studying that Belgian teen’s adventures.
For those who think Rivera spends too much time on climate change, she frequently spotlights traditional Sunday topics, such as this one. I’m never quite sure if Rivera deliberately exaggerates Mark’s pointer finger (panel 5). It frequently looks like he’s holding another object in his hand. Hands and feet can be notoriously difficult to draw well. Go ahead, try it!
Taming wild bears, is it? Poor Mark, surrounded by posers and grifters. So why do Mark’s “enemies” just stand around in a straight line, as if they’re posing for a group photo? Maybe to maximize the effect of their being there. Now, what’s Mark’s next move? Maybe he’ll questions these guests to learn whether they have anything to do with the ursine incursions.
Moving on, now that we’ve spent the past few weeks getting Mark’s adventure off and running, it should be time to spend a week with Cherry. No, not like that! Will it be make-up time with Violet Cheshire, pancakes with Jeanine, or maybe another secret mission with the underground garden club?
The Daily Trail 