Rivera focused 11 days of the strip to Mark’s interview with Tad Crass. Too bad only about 3 days were dedicated to the actual interview (sort of), which quickly went south when Tad exploded over Mark’s aggressive questioning. The six days of this week fixated on Mark’s physical altercation with security staff that Tad called in to throw Mark out of the building. As Mark got away, a phone call to Diana Daggers revealed that she fully expected this to happen, since she told Mark that Tad always gets mad at journalists and throws them out. Okay, fine. So what, then? Mark never got anywhere with his interview, and it seems as if he was not meant to. Is there an ulterior motive for Diana’s sending in Mark?
Just so, their growth and longevity may also benefit from the lack of human contact in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a more than 1000 sq. mi. area off limits to humans. Still, we can hope the scientists find something useful for humans with regard to cancer.
The ancient Latin phrase above (it had a legal significance even in the time of Cicero) generally translates as “who benefits?” (my Latin teachers would criticize this casual definition, I’m sure) Anyway, I believe the expression applies here, as Mark discovers that Diana Daggers fully expected the altercation because of who Mark is and because of how Tad acts.
What is the point, then? How does a failed interview and fight benefit anybody? Will Tad Crass swear out a police complaint against Mark? Maybe Diana is using Mark to flush Tad out in the open so he’ll say something that hurts him. Still, has Tad Crass done anything illegal, aside from possibly bribing some government officials to help him relocate mustangs running on his property? Surely, Diana is not that interested in just rooting out government corruption. Cui bono?
Art Dept. Hey, how about that statue in panel 1? Well, check it out! Why it has highlights on both sides of the body—while no highlights exist elsewhere in the panel—is a mystery. Then again, this comic strip almost always avoids depicting any kind of atmosphere, where every day is almost always warm and bright. In fact, we rarely see anybody or anything even cast shadows! Clearly, atmosphere is not of central importance to Rivera.
Well, that was good fun, reading your votes and comments. I’m glad to see the additional proposals, as well. But so far, it appears that Rivera is milking this travesty of a confrontation for all that it’s worth.
“And puts his other two feet on the ground!” – how many feet does Mark have? Is he a secret centaur?!
It must be more than two, as Rivera has Mark Trail step on his third foot <ahem!> to ruin another important interview early on. He always seems like an over-excited idealist (or 12-year old), even to the point of breaking the law and fighting with (or fleeing from) law enforcement. Why? Sure, Mark has always had recourse to fistfights in the past, but usually directed against crooks, poachers, and other bad guys. With Rivera, Mark’s environmental activism is hands-on. Is Rivera trying to turn Mark Trail into one of Edward Abby’sMonkey Wrench Gang? That could partially explain Rivera’s treatment of the character and stories. But it is sometimes difficult to see the underlying serious intent, as the overt parody and absurdities overshadow it.
Art Dept. It’s as if Rivera is not even trying, though I think that is incorrect. Still, the art can look haphazard, even deliberately distorted. Those guards in panel 1 apparently grew two extra feet (or Mark shrank). One guard seemed to be levitating in Wednesday’s episode. Further, Mark merely has to wave his hands in panel 3 and two guards go flying, as if Mark was a Wing Chung master like Ip Man, the trainer of Bruce Lee. Are we experiencing Mark’s own idealized view of reality? That could even help explain the weird characters and the often distorted and flattened figures. Unfortunately, there is no context to support that hypothesis.
But let’s don’t be partisan about this. Some of you may recall that there was lots of dislike and snarky comments directed towards James Allen during his tenure, not only for his frequent copy-and-paste artwork, but also for drawn-out and meandering stories (e.g. the bat cave story and the bank robbers/kidnapping/cave travel story) and post-adventure patronizing dialog between family members.
Hey, gang! Hurry and get you votes in now to select which option below you think will most likely conclude this week’s exciting action. (One vote per person, please.)
Mark drops his hands and pleads “Can’t we just get along?!” Instead, he gets handcuffed and arrested, as Tad Crass laughs.
Mark uses bothFists O’ Justice to knock down the guards. Tad Crass flees through a secret door, but gets permanently lost after following an AI-generated map.
One guard says “Oh, you’re that Mark Trail? Sorry, sir. We’re big fans!Can we get an autograph?” Tad Crass screams at the guards as Mark takes out his Sharpie.
Andy, the Saint Bernard, suddenly appears in the room and chases the guards away.
Tad Crass tries to bribe Mark with a mustang. Unfortunately, it works.
Tad panics, pulls out a revolver, and shoots Mark Trail. Kelly Welly takes over the strip. Distraught and unemployed, Cherry becomes an alcoholic; Rusty flees to joins a cult; and Doc Davis still searches for Banjo Cat.
There used to be a weekly live show on a local public radio station here called “Mark Trail Theater” where locals would act out the week’s strips. It was a kind of tongue-in-cheek spoof, with overly-dramatic “acting.” But it was all in good fun.
It’s a different thing altogether when the strip spoofs itself. Now, I don’t wish to be hypocritical, because in the past I’ve supported several of Rivera’s jabs at TrailVerse Traditions. Sometimes you have to cut down some old trees to make room for the new ones. On the other hand, there is a danger of going too far, where parody becomes the paramount feature, overtaking the strip. That seems to be what is going on here.
When pre-Rivera Mark got into a bought of fisticuffs, it was usually in dramatic situations involving typical bad-guy villains who wanted to get Mark out of the way. Getting into fistfights with rent-a-cops is not at all the same thing, even if the rent-a-cop started it. There is nothing really dramatic going on here; it’s more a sequence of overreaching, overreaction, and overdoing it. The fact that Rivera spends at least two days on this one action changes what used to simply be a hands-on solution to an immediate problem into a spotlighted plot feature, complete with Rivera’s commentary to make sure you don’t miss her point. “I’ve got two fists o’ justice for ya!” is the kind of hokey dialog you might hear in an old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, but without his unique delivery.
I must lead a sheltered life. I don’t hold a phone that way, and I doubt anybody else holds a phone like that, unless it is someone standing up in a restaurant asking “Did anybody drop their phone?”
Apparently, it was necessary for the security guard to pose, statue-like, so Mark could conveniently grab his phone. I’d have thought/hoped that Rivera could have come up with a more realistic or, at least, more imaginative scenario. For example, the guard could have put the phone in his back pocket, whereupon Mark would have lifted it back out as the guard turned.
While Mark watches, the guard “walks” his fist over to Mark’s face (panel 3), reminiscent of slow-moving alien villains in cheap 1950s sci-fi movies. Well, Mark is quite polite to wait long enough for physical contact, which is reinforced by some top-rate Rivera Commentary (panel 4). A truly considerate dude is our Mark, and I hope the guard appreciates it, as I expect Mark will return the gesture on Wednesday.
Art Dept. Aside from the rather decently-drawn image of Mark in panel 3, I’m left wondering what happened with the rest.
Yeah, I know. Sometimes it’s just too easy to pick this apart, like any of the regulars over on the CK will certainly do. Well, just in case they are lax, feel free to submit your own observations. But why Rivera decided to post a recap of Saturday’s strip today seems cynical. Even old-time Trailheads should be able to remember what happened two days ago. And any Trailhead could have read my Sunday weekly recap, in case they needed a refresher. Rivera should have known all this and chose to push the story ahead.
Anyway, I’d rather point out that Tad Sass’s desk is actually just a big box. A conventional Big-Time Operator would usually sit behind a large, tastefully-carved desk of East Indian rosewood, Burmese teak, tropical walnut, or some other exotic wood, thus presenting an image that breathes tradition, money, and power. But Tad Sass seems like any other tasteless parvenu; and his idea of a desk shouting “power and money” is possibly just be a solid chunk of mahogany. Or if he is just a phony, the desk is probably a plywood box with mahogany veneer.
I hope this story gets back on track, just as soon as Mark gets over his attack of constipation (panel 3).
In developing this story about wild horses supposedly running amok in Salt Lake City, Jules Rivera has Mark working for Diana Daggers, head of Instigator Magazine. Her point of view has already been established and Mark’s job is to get conformation and create lots of reaction. Her point of view presumes a greedy, uncaring land developer suborning Bureau of Land Management agents to remove free-range mustangs running across land he has purchased. There are additional rumors that the mustangs may be ill-treated in captivity and sold for slaughter to companies that sell horse meat for human consumption.
For the sake of the plot this week, Rivera ensured that Mark did not know the name of the person he was to interview until they met for the first time. That person turned out to be Tad Crass, the former comedian-turned-author of a notorious AI-based camping survival guide that was a significant plot device in the earlier “Rusty and the alien invasion” story (If you missed that adventure, you can search for it using the above-quoted title). This put Mark on the defensive, a poor way to start an interview!
Anyway, meeting Crass greatly affected Mark, who was torn between questioning him about his dangerous camping guide and asking about his position on the wild horses. In a near-repeat of his engaging interview with a US senator involved in the Ohio train derailment story, Mark’s aggressive, accusatory questioning once again led to a quickly-terminated interview. Crass, getting angry and defensive, called in security to (illegally) confiscate Mark’s recorder and throw him out.
“Bighorn sheep are known for their horns.” Who knew!? Mark forgot to mention that low numbers of Bighorn Sheep are also due to overhunting and animal predation. The National Wildlife Federation reports that males can weigh more than 350 lbs. and carry horns that weigh up to 30 lbs. Females normally top out at 130 lbs. No wonder that, when males smash into each other at 40 mph, the sound of their impact can carry for a mile.
Heh! Heh! I should get an award for prescience, don’t you think!? Come to think of it, if I was prescient, I’d already know, right? Not only is Tad Crass reacting like Senator Small, he must have hired the Senator’s security force, or the railroad police, as well. And like the Senator and police, they want to shut Mark up and take his phone. But this time, Mark didn’t have time to pull out a fake. (“Something Fishy” adventure)
Yet, how do we know Crass has convinced the BLM to round up mustangs to benefit his property? I know that environmental and animal rights groups claim that the BLM sometimes works with private companies to deliberately corral mustangs into isolated areas where they are not well cared for, all to make public grazing lands more accessible to large ranchers. The BLM states otherwise. Anyway, we’re not here to take sides.
The point is that Rivera is making this the focus of Mark’s adventure, but is she attempting to explore the opposing viewpoint? So far, no. What we have here is Mark making accusations for which no corroborative evidence has yet been produced. In Ohio Mark at least noted dead fish in a river near the chemical spill from the train derailment before going to the press conference. Well, based on panel 4, I wonder if we’re we going to get a repeat of the Ohio press conference police smack-down?
Art Dept. The drawing is getting pretty sloppy, as if hastily done.
Did Mark just wake up from a nap (Panel 1)? Mark’s interview quickly descends into antagonism and insults. I think it was Senator Small in Ohio who was also pretty upset with Mark’s questions and wanted him arrested. Seems like Mark just can’t get through an interview without a fight.
Seems to be some confusion: In Thursday’s strip, we’re told that Tad’s company was located next to where the BLM rounds up mustangs. In today’s strip, Mark says it’s the BLM that decided to start rounding up horses near Tad’s property. Which is it, then? I think that matters.
Did Diana Daggers misrepresent to Crass what Mark was going to ask about? Shouldn’t Mark have interviewed the BLM first to get their take on the situation? If the BLM is, indeed, rounding up mustangs next to Crass’s property, what’s the problem? The BLM have to settle the captured horses on protected grazing property, as is their federal mandate. Therefore, there would be no problems for Tad. So what’s missing here?
Mark puts his “gotcha” journalistic technique into action. Tad’s talk (heh! Heh! That’s almost a pun!) is the kind of simplistic, sarcastic drivel that TV villains like to use. I’m stuck understanding why the location of Tad’s property next to a BLM holding area makes any kind of difference, since these holding areas are generally required to have perimeter fencing.
Wouldn’t a real CEO have the company’s PR Rep on hand to field most of the questions, hand out a bunch of literature, and basically try to gaslight Mark? This idiot (No, I mean Tad!) simply admits he’s going to do something unethical and very likely illegal, while being recorded. I can’t wait to see how this interview continues!
Tad may not be Rob Bettancourt, but he could be his brother. He exhibits a similar disdain for the technology that he exploited to scam gullible readers. Mark clearly decided that voicing his disgust with Tad would quickly end the interview and very likely his assignment. It’s a deflection, but not a foul.
I have yet to figure out why Rivera almost always portrays an animal looking directly at us readers. Sure, part of this was originally a parody of the Trailverse Tradition of depicting all manner of animals parading across the panels. But why continue this full-frontal meme?
Anyway, this depiction of Tad is barely more than a sketch. Is he fat, musclebound, or does he just go in for ill-fitting suits?
Of course, Rivera wants to spring this meetup with Tad Crass as a surprise for us, and that makes perfect sense. It falls in line with Rivera’s habit of character recycling. And for once, we have a character/opponent who has been a factor in two stories, but this is the first time he has had any actual presence in the strip. At least this isn’t another appearance by Rob Bettancourt (aka Cricket Bro).
However, it seems wrong from several points of view. Let me explain:
Diana Daggers—reprising her role as driver and frustrated guest character in the strip—sets up an interview between Mark and a big-time land developer in his office, but fails to inform Mark what his name is. Presumably, Crass could have been referenced as Theodore G. Crass, Jr., which might not have been so obvious to Mark or us gullible readers.
So Mark just sauntered into Tad’s office, without being escorted by Crass’s personal assistant/secretary, assuming he has one. Maybe Sass isn’t so big-time, after all. He certainly doesn’t much to say, so far.
Is that building we see in panel 4 all Sass’s, or does he just rent space? From what Rivera has shown so far, his office could be a converted storage room, based on the double-door entry.
Art Dept. While Rivera can usually handle unusual foreshortenings, such as Mark’s uplifted face in panel 3, she seems to have trouble with three-quarter rear-facing heads. So Mark’s head in panel 2 is really in strong profile, even though his body is turned toward Sass. Speaking of Tad Crass, Rivera’s depiction of him is stiff, flat, and unconvincing. If Crass is into A.I., perhaps Mark is looking at an A.I. depiction of Crass, rather than an actual person. After all, this “Crass” neither spoke nor stood up, as business etiquette demands.
We’re back to Mark’s World and some less-than convincing artwork in panel 1. Okay then. In the March 1 strip, Diana mentioned an unnamed land developer anxious to “clear this land of all wildlife.” Is that just horses, or does the threat includes newts, jackrabbits, snakes, birds, scorpions, turtles, and a myriad other animals? Maybe the horses are really a scapegoat for getting rid of prairie dogs.
While we ponder Mark’s thoughts, we observe that he is decked out in his interview clothes, ready to investigate. Wait! Those are his normal clothes! Mark should really impress that land developer, wearing the same clothes he wore yesterday (and the day before, and the day before that, and the…).
Mark’s speculations do seem precipitate, but at least he is thinking beyond the obvious. How about “Where are the horses going to be cleared to?” I mean, there’s a heck of a lot of land out there. One would think that if you have property you want to develop and protect, you hire some professional wranglers to move the horses to some other location, then fence off your property. Unless your property is the size of Ben Cartwright’s Ponderosa Ranch on Bonanza, a property larger than any city in the lower 48 states.
In case you missed it, King Features originally posted Saturday’s strip in glorious black & white, but later reposted it in color. Why that happened is a matter of conjecture; but it was an elucidating experience to see the difference, so I posted both strips for us to see the difference and think about whether Rivera’s drawing technique is based on the expectation of color or can stand on its own.
As for this past week’s strips, we returned to Cherry’s search for the elusive Banjo Cat, because of his indirect responsibility in damaging Violet’s harp. But Cherry was more concerned about the fate of birds at the hands, or claws, of outside cats. It’s a valid point, I suppose. Lo and behold, somebody else suddenly popped up in the bushes. No, it’s not some sexual predator, but Cherry’s dad, Doc Davis, also looking for Banjo.
This provided an opening for a short backstory on Banjo, that being an outdoor cat attracted to Doc’s banjo playing. But Doc Davis exerts no control over Banjo Cat’s comings and goings, accepting them as a philosophical necessity of personal and musical freedom. Okay, Doc may be guilty of anthropomorphizing. But Doc does have a clever theory that playing his banjo will make it easy for them to capture frisky Banjo Cat. We’ll just have to wait a few weeks to find out, as we return to Mark’s horse fantasies tomorrow.
A timely subject for St. Patrick’s Day, or St. Patrick’s Day Weekend, as it has become, with an appropriately-designed and well-drawn title panel. Wikipedia’s article on the four-leaf clover states that the cause of a “fourth leaf” is still a matter of debate, centered on environmental and genetic influences. The article also points to the existence of five- and six-leaf clovers being rarer and highly coveted by collectors. How lucky is it to find one? It may depend on what patch of clover you happen to be searching. In fact, there are places that specifically farm and sell four-leaf clovers, in case you are only interested in results and disdain the joy of the search.
Hoo boy! Is this a printer’s mistake or did Rivera decide to go full-on, old school B&W? If the latter, I don’t think she did herself any favors. The broken harp in panel 1, for example, took time for me (at least) to recognize. I reckon Rivera must not have had a good picture of a harp on hand.
But this is your (or some child’s) opportunity to be Jules Rivera’s colorist for a day! Get out those crayons or water colors, print this strip, and go for it! You could also copy it into a paint program on your PC and do the same thing. That would be closer to what Rivera does, I believe. But why stop there? Print a copy out for every family member and hold your own art show!
[ADDENDUM] Wow, is this ever a great opportunity to compare formats! Apparently (based only on my surmise), the color overlay was accidentally left off when the daily was first posted on ComicsKingdom. Now they have caught up. What do you think? Although the harp in panel 1 is easier to see, I think some of the coloring was rushed. Note the bird. Its entire head and bill are painted in one color, with an unpainted white highlight. That isn’t right, though I’m not sure what type of bird this is. Well, back to what I wrote earlier…
Anyway, this exciting story seems to be racing towards a climatic ending, with Doc Davis coming up with one sure-fire method for capturing Banjo Cat, thus saving the local avian wildlife of Lost Forest (or what’s left). Too bad it will likely be two weeks before we get back to Cherry’s adventure, since she used up her allotted one week time slot without capturing Banjo Cat.
So as I predicted, this story is more like a PSA pretending to be a story.
If Rivera wants to infuse her strip with more and more puns, she might want to mentor under Stephen Pastis for a few months. He’s been doing it for a lot of years now and has a funny series of song-related puns currently running in Pearls.
Does Doc Davis even live with Mark and Cherry anymore? How is this the first time they are talking about the cat? So now we see that Cherry is playing the “Cat Safety” card with Doc, which is interesting, given that Doc is a veterinarian and should already be aware.
Okay, so I’m thinking that this story is really a PSA for helping keep birds safe by encouraging you to keep your cats safe and inside. Shucks, we can wrap this story up tomorrow by having Doc vow to do better as he walks off with Banjo Cat in his arms as he passes a smiling Violet holding up her ruined harp. Various birds fly and tweet overhead, happy to see the last of Banjo Cat as Cherry tosses off another lame one-liner. Then, back to Mark!
Speaking of cats, today’s daily is largely wasted on a joke hardly worthy of Garfield. We learned yesterday that Banjo Cat is Doc’s adopted friend, whatever that implies. But Cherry’s point is well-taken. Cats do kill more than their share of birds.
Historically speaking, cats were domesticated at least 10,000 years ago, so they’ve had lots of time to sharpen their skills. In fact, recognizing a cat’s instinctive need to hunt, ancient Egyptian nobility brought them along as hunting partners and beaters. Below is a detail from a larger wall fragment that originated from the unlocated tomb of Nebamun, a royal scribe living around 1350 BCE. This fragment was part of many that were literally hacked out of his tomb by a tomb robber in the early 1800s and sold to the British Museum.
Being the long-time vet that he is, you’d think Doc Davis would know enough to keep Banjo inside the cabin if he is going to adopt him as a friend and also accessorize him. Little wonder that Cherry’s once-again repeated visual memory of the harp accident (panel 3) becomes a defining moment of shame as she continues to complain. Man, Cherry is really stuck in the moment.
Anyway, Banjo Cat did not directly knock down Violet’s harp. Poor Cherry is working her way towards a fictionalized version of her and Violet trying to manually move a poorly-mounted harp, but then losing control after getting surprised by Banjo Cat’s actions. Well, proper loading and transporting procedures would clearly have prevented the accident. But then, many adventure stories begin with an act of carelessness, stupidity, or malice.
The Daily Trail 