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Yearly Archives: 2023

Stay away from what you don’t understand. Or figure it out.

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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.

“I have a unique investment opportunity for you all…!”

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On to the next adventure! Mark offers a very effusive greeting to his friends. I was afraid that Mark might start groveling in gratitude.

So that no-name camper dude Mark and Rusty rescued is a friend of the De-Bait team!? Hoo-boy.

Anyway, it sure looks like Mark is going to try and follow through on his plans to create a survival retreat and get his “good buddies” to volunteer some of their time. Or money.

But credit where credit’s due:  That drawing of Mark in panel 3 is one of the best panels Rivera has drawn. The perspective and proportions are very good and there’s nothing of the cartoony, whacko, sketchy style Rivera often uses. It would be great if Rivera repeated that quality throughout the strip.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Welcome to TW3: This Was The Week That Whoofed. The Kudzu Commander Caper came to a less-than mysterious ending, revealing that Violet Cheshire was the slanderous Kudzu Commander,  all because of her need for companionship and long walks in the wilderness. But the only way she could find a solution was to slander Cherry’s reputation in order to create a reason for teaming up and going on the hunt. Violet might have gotten more mileage out of this charade, except that she bungled the job by accidentally revealing her complicity.

Squirrelly Sandy and her zombie squirrels were bribed to come along for this final act, performing more or less like an ancient Greek deity in Homer’s Odyssey:  cajoling the two women, interfering in their actions, and reacting with indifference to the climax of this sad adventure. At least this adventure didn’t last ten years.

It now looks as if Rivera has wrapped up both Rustys’s (Mark’s) alien/camper story as well as Cherry’s kudzu quest. What new adventure awaits us on Monday? I don’t know, but there’s no need to wait for the Sunday nature discussion.

Okay, that’s an interesting title panel formed by turkeys sleeping in trees. We see numerous wild turkeys around the Twin Cities in the fall, even in town. They will strut along sidewalks, hang out on corners, and sometimes just stand in the street, as if daring traffic to hit them, which sometimes happens. They don’t seem particularly concerned about humans, which isn’t a good strategy for them. But seeing them fly is remarkable, both because of their appearance in flight and because it doesn’t seem like they would be capable of flying. You can ponder Mark’s politics on your own.

A Break in the Action!

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You know you have reached a certain amount of notoriety when you are asked to be a “Guest Jumbler…” Well played, Ms. Rivera!

The startling conclusion to Cherry’s mystery!

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Pretty much every time we’ve seen Violet she has been outdoors. In fact, about the only times I recall her being inside are when Cherry first met her at the Sunny Soleil Society Headquarters and later on, when she was feeling sorry for herself in a booth at Planet Pancake. So, call me unsympathetic.

Anyway, I think Squirrelly Sandy speaks for all of us regarding this “adventure.”

A story ending so quiet, you could hear a pen drop.

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Leaving aside (for the moment) Violet’s failed logic, Sandy’s theatrics, and Jules Rivera’s patronizing comment, one is left with … radioactive squirrels from Planet X.

We learn that, in spite of the continuous complaining, posturing, and smugness by Violet towards Cherry, she reluctantly felt the need for Cherry’s approval and companionship. She just has very odd ways to cultivate that need. But it might explain how Cherry still has a job with the Sunny Soleil Society after all of their confrontations.

On the other hand, this is yet another story that Rivera could have developed into a more complex and interesting adventure. She could have employed literary mystery-story devices such as red herrings, more complex and enigmatic clues, traps (real and imagined), more characters to provide additional suspects and atmosphere, and a more “deductive/detective” reveal of the culprit. Could this add another month of storyline? Sure, yet a well-scripted story is not a chore to read. But it does take more effort to compose.

The butler did it.

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Oh, wait! There is so much that is problematic here:

  1. I may have overestimated Rivera’s plotting (or I was full of myself). Why did she go with the blatantly obvious culprit, Violet, rather than a more interesting, less obvious person, such as Ernest, Squirrelly Sandy, or somebody completely different? For example, it could have been a more aggressive environmentalist who thinks Mark and Cherry aren’t doing enough to protect Lost Forest.
  2. Now, what’s with those creepy pet squirrels? Do they read human emotions? Are they even real squirrels? Is Rivera attempting to suggest they are like the empathic tree-cats found in David Weber’s Honor Harrington sci-fi series? (fun reading, by the way!)
  3. How is it that Violet just happens to have a purple pen that just happens to fall to the ground? I’m surprised her dress even has a pocket.
  4. Why is Cherry more concerned about the purple pen than the fact that Violet is being attacked by squirrels?
  5. Will Violet try to get Squirrelly Sandy arrested for assault? (Does Lost Forest even have a police department?)
  6. Why did Violet try to blame Cherry in the first place and then suggest this search? She could have just forged Cherry’s name to the notes, rather than make up the nom-de-plume Kudzu Commander. (That’s a cool moniker, by the way.)
  7. Rivera leaves us with two days to explain everything before Mark takes over the story time. Then it’s another two to three weeks before we return to Cherry, by which time we’ll have forgotten the plot.
  8. Will Violet’s explanation be something completely unexpected?

If you feel inspired, click on the Leave a Comment link and suggest some answers. Or propose pertinent questions I overlooked.

Squirrelly Sandy reveals an important clue!

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How the heck would Squirrelly Sandy know she was the last target? Otherwise, Jules Rivera seems to be making a color-pun in panel 4, equating violet with purple for the sake of the story. In reality, purple has a slightly reddish tint which is lacking in violet. They are not the same. Feel free to look it up for yourself.

I think Rivera should have written “Fun Fact:  The word purple also means violet!” in panel 3. Why? Because the idea is to point a finger at Violet. But this could be just another red herring. What do you think?

And what about those squirrels in panel 2?

A Soft Squeeze

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Right. The squirrels are Sandy’s Lost Forest Irregulars, eh? There is a lot of contrary information online about whether peanuts (legumes) are good for squirrels. The consensus seems to be that raw (or salted) peanuts should be avoided, but roasted nuts are fine. And give them in moderation.

Anyway, how the #@(!! are the squirrels going to assist with the search? Are they trained search-and-rescue rodents? Did they graduate from Lassie U? Perhaps they have interrogation techniques we have not realized. I’m reserving judgement at this point.

And this is what I was waiting to get back to?

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With Rusty and his adventure tucked away in bed, we finally return to Cherry’s goal to find the Kudzu Crusader and help clear her name. She must have thought Mark was too tired or too busy with his own “important” plans to bother him with her trivial problems.

I suppose we do have to suffer through some nonsense and recaps to remind readers that Cherry has her own storyline in progress. Do you think the Sunny Soleil Society is paying Cherry for this extra-curricular investigation? As I recall, Violet originally blamed Cherry for this—as did a lot of the town—because of several anonymous insulting notes. Makes sense to me.

As for Squirrelly Sandy, I’d probably keep my distance, no matter what. Anybody letting wild squirrels run loose in their shop (a bakery, no less) and over their body probably is nutty, or infected. I’m with Violet on this one. Thanks, Sandy, but we’ll keep in touch over the phone.

ON THE PLUS SIDE: Rivera shows us much more of Lost Forest and its inhabitants than we saw in the past. This place is called Lost Forest, but there is no end to the number of people who find their way there. Except for Mark Trail’s former reporter nemesis, Kelly Welly, who seems to have gotten lost along the way. She was here when Rivera first took over, but she has been mostly absent ever since.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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This past week was dedicated to the search-and-recovery summary, which Mark initially tried to downplay. Skipping over several details, Mark told Cherry that they found the lost camper that he had earlier surmised, in a delirious state. Mark put that off to following the bad advice in the guidebook written by former TV comedian and presumed huckster, Tadd Crass. But Mark’s ongoing discussion led to his own disclosure that what the world needs now is not love, sweet love, but a retreat for training men in forest survival techniques, as conducted by a professional. Namely, Mark.

This entire story is thus, a bit perplexing. Did Rivera concoct Rusty’s alien invasion adventure solely for the purpose of jump-starting Mark’s survival course adventure? That would trivialize Rusty’s story, right? In other words, what started out as a “Rusty” story was actually just another Mark Story with Rusty as a plot device. I must remind myself that the name of this comic strip is Mark Trail. I shouldn’t lose focus!

It just seems that every time Rusty gets some story-time thrown his way, he becomes another Charlie Brown, facing failure and disappointment. It would be nice to see things go Rusty’s way once in a while. That’s not too much to ask, is it, Jules?

It took a few moments for me to realize that the title panel is meant to be a large leaf, overlapping smaller leaves that surround it. Sometimes I just miss the pattern, like the hidden images in those autostereogram (aka “stereogram”) patterns popular back in the 1990s. Well, today’s strip looks very decorative, in a 2-D sort of way. The poured leaves are surrounded by a heavy black border, that makes them look more like they were just a big cut out. Even the trees look more like paper cutouts. But this does fit in with what appears to be Rivera’s increasingly flattened, decorative style.

Getting back to the title panel, I don’t think constructing the strip’s title using leaf veins is successful. It’s just too busy and forced. A more successful result might have been made using the stems of leaves, or maybe a combination of leaf stems plus the leaves. Well, it works in my head, anyway.

…And here is the Big Reveal!

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I dunno, Mark. Does being a (former) comedian mean you can’t also be a survival expert? Does being a nature photographer make you a survival expert? Methinks you are showing your social bias, Mark. Les Stroud is a famous Canadian survival expert who also happens to be a musician and documentary filmmaker. So there!

Anyway, as we all likely suspected, Mark’s post-rescue chat leads up to his BIG IDEA:  Start a MEN’S survival skills camp, which reminds me of that mountain STEM retreat created by Sid Stump. I don’t know about you, but I smell trouble, starting with Mark’s restriction to males. I expect Cherry will have something to say about that. Well, she should, right?

Mark is leading up to something . . .

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Why is Mark repeating information that Cherry already heard “last night” when the three of them were discussing the horsehead, the actor, and the guidebook? Oh right, this recap is just a standard convention used to help readers who forget these details.

Call me crazy, but how lousy does a guidebook have to be to make somebody delirious and confused? Did the guidebook recommend eating whatever mushrooms you can find in the woods? How can somebody be so confused that they couldn’t walk down a path or two until they found somebody’s house, or even find the car they drove in on? I mean, starving in Lost Forest? C’mon! This ain’t the Alaskan wilderness.

Okay, I get it. These are just minor details about reality that get in the way of the story. Plot-wise, the bottom line here is that Mark is talking himself into another one of his crazy ideas for a project he’ll try to sell to Bill Ellis and finally earn some money.

Mark didn’t expect the Third Degree!

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Yes, Mark, you wanted to protect “the little woman” from the ugly reality of what really happened, but you gave in pretty easily! The horrifying details start to spill out. Brrr! There are sure to be nightmares over this nasty business.

And once again, Rivera can’t resist dropping a narration box in panel 4 with a childish pun, even if it makes no (horse) sense.

SSSH! You’ll wake up Doc Davis!

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A slow comic strip day, if not week. I thought we’d have another “here’s what happened” session. Oh well. Cherry hasn’t yet brought up her search for the Kudzu Commando and the need to salvage her reputation. Maybe now is the time, before she gets dressed for work. “Oh great. Then Mark can invite himself into her adventure and take control.” Hey, Mark: Get a job!

Regarding panel 4, is this parody? Satire? It’s like the epilogue of a 1950s family sitcom.

Mark, be glad the cops didn’t spot you in that getup!

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Dragging out this “reunion” interlude seems unnecessary. C’mon, Rivera, let’s just get on with the explanations! There are five days left to tell the Rest of the Story, but why is Mark putting out that silly “sitcom” excuse in panel 3 instead of telling Cherry what actually happened? Seems kind of patronizing to me. And I think Rivera should tell us readers what happened before the ambulance came. Perhaps Rivera is going to use this time to now have Cherry update Mark on what’s going on with the Kudzu Commando. There is time for both explanations.

Art Dept. What’s with the family house/cabin? The logs in panel 2 look like they were drawn on the wall, so to speak. The cabin in panel 3 looks more like a fake theater prop. Of course, the strip is meant to be reprinted in the micro-format of modern newspaper strips, but still…make the effort, Rivera! Oh, just call me cranky today!

Two reunions in 24 hours!

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Okay, the epilogue to Rusty’s adventure seems to be playing out as expected:  Get home, run into Cherry, start in with excuses and then explanations. But I have one question: What’s in the container that Mark is carrying in panel 1? Perhaps he and Rusty stopped by Squirrely Sandy’s bakery in town. Wouldn’t that be a hoot!?

Something to keep in mind is that a lot has happened in one 24-hour period: First, Mark went with Rusty and his friends on that initial fact-finding hunt for a possible alien crash site in Lost Forest (September 25). They came home that evening (October 16) and spent time talking to Cherry about their finds and theories. Rusty went to bed but couldn’t sleep. He decided to go back to the “crash site”, whereupon he and Andy stumbled upon the lost camper Mark had predicted. Mark arrived and expedited the anonymous camper’s medical evacuation. Now they return to meet up with Cherry again, the next morning.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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This past week saw the possible conclusion of Rusty’s alien crash search adventure as the lad—in company with faithful house pet, Andy—returned to the abandoned campsite in the middle of the night to uncover more evidence of an alien (Rusty’s hope) or a lost camper (Mark’s deduction). Why Rusty thought a midnight search would uncover more evidence than a daytime search is probably more a matter of drama superseding practicality. But it worked! Rusty and Andy were surprised by sounds and a dark form moving within the bushes. Spooky-wooky!

Mark, discovering Rusty’s exit from the house, lost time getting dressed before he could chase after him, but he arrived at the correct time to put himself between Rusty and the mysterious figure who turned out to be some anonymous crazy guy who had been following the bad tips in Tadd Crass’s camping guidebook. But did we hear from this dude? Nope! Rivera just moved us directly to a scene of an ambulance taking the poor guy away for treatment, as Mark and Rusty philosophized their way back home. While this looks like the end of Rusty’s adventure, one has to wonder: Is Rivera going to give us another week in the cabin where Rusty and Mark explain to Cherry what happened? Is this where we find out who this guy is and how he wound up in Lost Forest? Well, don’t you feel lost; just find your way to the strip below and follow along!

A nice tie-in to Rusty’s midnight search with a night-themed firefly topic! When I was growing up fireflies were very common in our yard and neighborhood. I think we called them lightning bugs. I bet some of you also liked to catch them and put them in a jar with a bit of twig-and-leaf, as if they would enjoy it. Up here in the north I rarely see fireflies. They may be more common in the rural area, but as they tend to like temperate zones, their rarity is not surprising. One surprising thing I discovered is that the female of at least one species of fireflies attracts males only to consume them for their toxic defensive chemicals. Oh, if  you are going to follow Mark’s advice about keeping part of your yard “wild”, be sure to avoid using any chemicals in that area.

Art Dept. The customized title panel might have been more effective with a darker background. Nevertheless, this is an interesting topic drawn in Rivera’s usual sparse style.

This is how it ends!?

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In standard Mark Trail fashion, details and explanations get tossed aside as we jump directly into the epilog of this “adventure.”  A shame that it turned out to be frustrating in several ways:

For starters, our mystery camper is not Tadd (or Tad?) Crass, but some fanboy, whose name we never learned.

Second, we get no information on how or why this person wound up here. How was it possible for him to get lost in the first place?  Even an ambulance was able to find the location without the apparent convenience of a road or address!

Was he really just under some mental duress? We never learned what is wrong with this fellow.

Next, we never learn why he was hiding in the shrubs. Was he being pursued? If he was lost, why wasn’t he at least in the open shouting for help or setting out signs for planes that pass overhead? Why not just hiking along a path until he finds something or someone?

Next, what did the horsehead mask have to do with him or the camping trip, other than act as a reference to Tadd Crass’s old TV show? From a plot standpoint, I reckon it was there to help Rusty make a connection and give him something decent to do for a change.

Finally, what was the point of this adventure? It wasn’t just to make that X-Files reference in panel 4, was it? That fellow could have had a very interesting backstory to tell us, leading up to this moment. What was the actual reason for the Tadd Crass details?

This could have just been a search for a lost camper. So having the Tadd Crass tie-in could add more interest if that part of the story was allowed to play out. Perhaps this “ending” is another red herring and the story will continue with Mark (once again) visiting somebody in the hospital to hear their story.

Mark intervenes.

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As a dad, I suppose Mark has a point for his protective behavior here, what with him putting the arm on that guy, who be Tad Crass or a die-hard fan (check out his shirt). Has he been surviving on magic mushrooms in Lost Forest?

I’m guessing that Tad’s characterization is a paraphrase of the “Chuck Noland” character played by Tom Hanks in Cast Away. So the horse head substitutes for Wilson, the basketball? Maybe I’m projecting a bit.

But as I feared, we have another weirdo coming out of the bush. I think Mark could start a successful business running a halfway home for lost nut jobs. Speaking of business, when is he going to get back to work? The Sunny Soleil Society must pay Cherry pretty well.

On Saturday’s strip we might find Mr. Lost Camper settling down to tell his story. Or maybe Mark gets the guy into a hospital. But we’ve now had three weeks dedicated to Rusty’s story. Will Rivera jump back on Monday for a week with Cherry or will she allow this adventure to continue?