Home » 2024 » March » 01

Daily Archives: March 1, 2024

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

Posted on by

Apologies! I wrote this 2/25/24 Sunday blog early Sunday morning, whereupon I forgot to post it; so, it remained in my draft folder until an inquiry from a reader inspired me to take a look. Hoo boy! I’ll blame it on my being away from home and out of my usual element. So much for easily adapting to changing circumstances! Though it probably won’t mean much, I’m still posting the Sunday blog to ensure some continuity in the record. SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE MONDAY POST.

Greetings! Our return to Cherry’s day this past week started with Cherry trimming trees but getting called by Violet to help with moving her harp into her office. Seems she feels the need to get in more practice. Cherry used the opportunity to get in a few digs about Violet getting upstaged in the talent show by Doc Davis and Bango Cat. Violet was not amused, but kept complaining about how difficult it was to move the harp, even with Cherry’s help. That might have been because the instrument was mounted on a too–small dolly. But wouldn’t you know, Banjo Cat suddenly appeared and surprised the two gals so much that they lost their balance and wrecked the harp. The week ended with Violet even angrier with Banjo Cat and ordered Cherry to capture her.

The pacing seems to have been deliberately drawn out to ensure that Cherry could deliver her passive-aggressive comments and “jokes.” The artwork was pretty sketchy, not the relatively finer style Rivera has been lately showing in Mark’s story. How come? Maybe Rivera wrote and drew Cherry’s story very quickly, so she could give more time to Mark’s story. Just a thought.

Rivera once again presents a Sunday nature topic based on the location of Mark’s current adventure. As such, it is a good topic, developed well, and without being too hokey. I’m glad to see that Rivera has again used her imagination and design skills to come up with another original title panel.

Did you catch Mark’s age reference in the last panel? I think he refers to the age of the comic strip, itself, which is now about 77 years old (“nearly 80 years”).

Daggers presents her position.

Posted on by

So, what’s going on here? Mark is called in by Bill Ellis to investigate and report on rampaging feral horses, considered by the BLM to be an invasive species. Mark was shocked. But Mark has actually been hired by Diana Daggers, who seems to present a “wild horses are native to the US” position. Why, it’s a government conspiracy!

Mark wants to know who to fight. This brings up the issue of just what kind of journalist Mark is. Clearly, we must acknowledge that Mark Trail practices a hands-on version of advocacy journalism, not content to simply tell both sides of the issue, but to take a position and push it. Instead of asking who to fight, Mark should probably first figure out who is right.