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Monthly Archives: February 2024

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Mark’s men’s-only survival camp came to a pathetic end by diluting itself down to a simple weekend fishing event. Even that fell apart when Mark finally got The Call. Bill Ellis was determined to get Mark on board with an assignment involving rampaging wild horses in, or around, Salt Lake City. Ellis’s comment about them being considered an invasive species (like the zebra mussel) sent Mark into a near-catatonic state. It seems Mark was under the impression that the wild horses were a native species in our country and had a symbolic patriotic value equal to the Bald Eagle. So Bill’s statement just did not compute. Let it be known that Mark reacted to this situation in a way that we probably have not seen since his assignment to investigate his own father’s shady business dealings.

It turns out that—in the real world—wild horses (aka mustangs) have a complex background that involves genetics, ranchers, animals rights activists, land activists, and governments at the local and federal level. None of what I wrote in this paragraph has yet to be brought up in the strip, but seems to underlie the direction of the drama. Let’s hope Rivera presents a fair summation of … oh, who am I kidding!? This is Mark Trail! Whatever Mark decides to do will be considered fair and just. It’s the way things are in the Trailverse. So hang on, buckaroos!

Here is Mark Trail once again making me look flat by apparently contradicting himself. No wonder he was in shock just the other day! Mark knew all along what the story was; or at least, one version of it. Does this knock the stuffing out of the daily’s continuity? Well, you know, we Americans of non-native stock are also an invasive species to this continent; we just tend to forget that from time to time.

Mark gives free reigns to his emotions

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First, a note: Based on more research and enlightening commentary posted by some of my readers (e.g. Downpuppy), I’ve learned that the issue of whether free-roaming, untamed horses (to use a neutral term) are invasive or native to this country, whether these horses should be called wild or feral, and whether they should even be “managed”, is very contentious. Those terms carry a surprising amount of political and social baggage, sharing space with the science. 
I must admit that Mark’s reactions yesterday (and today) may not be simply based on an assumed ignorance (I might claim that for me). Mark’s reactions could be based on understanding and accepting the untamed horse as a reintroduced native species, rather than an invasive one. Hence, his shock. So I must disavow most of my snarky commentary from yesterday (which I otherwise liked) and hope Rivera does a good job dealing with the complex issues surrounding these horses, at least within the limits of an adventure comic strip story! But for now, it’s on to today’s strip:

So we have yet another day of Mark emoting over his horse friends. One thing I don’t get is why Mark thinks he has to write negatively about them, unless Rivera has not yet reported all of his conversation with Bill Ellis. From what I’ve read, Ellis should want Mark to put a positive spin on the horses.

Art Dept. The repeated arrangement of Mark (more or less) on the left side looking (more or less) to the right helps visualize Mark’s singular train of thought across the four panels. The coloring of panels 1 and 4 acts as pendants to the different coloring of panels 2 and 3, the latter being designed that way to emphasize Mark’s imagining of the horses in his memories. In short, I believe today’s strip is well-designed.  

Rivera’s art follows a more conventional mode of representation, save for Mark’s fingers, which seem as if they don’t have real bones in them. Otherwise, this should be good enough to satisfy all but the more diehard Trailheads. I do hope the story holds up, as well.

Get a grip, Mark! Or maybe an education.

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Just imagine:  One person’s entire life has been directed by a love for animals; specifically, those of the genus equus. Horses fill his waking (and sleeping) hours, and even though he dislikes Westerns, he watches them just to admire horses galloping across the prairie or drinking from the town’s horse trough. His childhood bedspread had a design of a corral of stallions. He had three different scale models of Trigger in his room. He even has an autographed photo of Mr. Ed! He memorized every extant breed of horse and can distinguish them by sight. His first car was a Ford Mustang. His dream vacation was a Dude Ranch. His dream job was owning the Dude Ranch. In his mind, America’s wild horses rushing through valleys and canyons is a symbol of what makes our country great!

However, that person is not Mark Trail. Mark has little experience with horses, wild or tame (unless Jules Rivera creates such a background for him). There is no evidence Mark watches The Kentucky Derby or even reruns of BoJack Horseman. So, what’s going on here? Why does Bill Ellis make a big deal about the foreign heritage of these feral horses? Is this some kind of riff on illegal aliens? And why does Rivera create this phony over-the-top, melodramatic sequence for Mark?

Who’s doing the talking, anyway?

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What’s going on here? In panel 1, Mark expresses shocking ignorance of wild horses. In panel 3, Mark displays more ignorance about their origins. Then suddenly, he immediately answers his own question, followed by his flummoxed expression and response in panel 4. Clearly, Mark cannot simultaneously be ignorant and knowledgeable about wild horses. Ergo, it was Bill Ellis who provided the informational response to Mark in panel 3. But the poorly aimed dialog balloon creates the ambiguity. There is precedence for this, however.

One of the more popular memes of pre-Rivera Mark Trail was the occasional ambiguous speech balloon, where it wasn’t clear who—or what—was talking. For new readers, this forced error on the part of the cartoonist was a source of continuous hilarity and ridicule for years. Here is one example, preserved by blogger Michael Leddy back in 2015, where the joke was whether it was Rusty, Mark’s elbow, or the dock’s bollard responding to Mark.

So, might we entertain the notion that Rivera is deliberately echoing this meme? Or did she just make a mistake that nobody caught in time?