Home » 2024 » March (Page 2)

Monthly Archives: March 2024

…Doc Davis joins the story.

Posted on by

So, we are getting a bit of Banjo Cat’s backstory, who so far doesn’t seem to have much history.

New friend or not, I’m not sure today’s daily is worth a three-panel layout, given that the format is often used for dramatic action or panoramic displays. Neither is the case today.

Since we just saw Cherry’s memory replay the harp destruction in yesterday’s strip, today’s repeated flashback seems pointless. Yesterday’s flashback makes sense as a catch-up, since Cherry’s story was interrupted to catch up with Mark’s horse adventure.

Anyway, I’d have thought a 4-panel layout would serve better today:  Cherry could voice her reply in panel 3, but without the flashback imagery. Rivera could have used panel 4 to move the story along a bit further. This story does not need any padding.

Did I just write the word “story”? Frankly, I’m not even sure what the story is just yet. Do you know? Is it just about Banjo Cat? Will the story lead to Doc and Violet reconciling over the talent show? Or will it evolve into a reminiscence by Doc Davis about some related event in his own past?

Meanwhile, back in Lost Forest….

Posted on by | 1 Comment

Where is Cherry going to put Banjo Cat if she catches it? Does Doc Davis’ appearance (and his recent on-stage performance) imply that Banjo Cat is a house cat in the Trail compound? I suppose it is possible. Cats are normally solitary and like to hang out in quiet places. Perhaps Banjo Cat and Doc prefer to hang out in Doc’s bedroom, since we rarely see him, as well. Will we get Banjo’s backstory this week?

Art Dept. Speaking of “atmosphere” as I did last week, I really like panel 1. The color and shading impart a real impression of a heavily forested area.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

Posted on by | 1 Comment

For some reason, Rivera chose to portray Mark this week as some kind of urban fanboy from the 1950s getting to meet Trigger for the first time. This Mark Trail is a Jules Rivera reboot, of course, so Mark’s pre-Rivera experience with horses means bupkis here (There, I got to use that word again!).

Diana Daggers drove Mark to the Happy Hoovez horse sanctuary, an organization set up to rescue mustangs from possible slaughter or government oversight. Weird spelling aside, this organization is concerned with seeing that mustangs get a safe home, along with a dose of birth control (owing to the rapid increase in mustang populations). Or so it claims. Meanwhile, Diana just stood around.

While Clayton (the program’s caretaker) delivered his “what we’re about” speech, Mark spent his time slobbering with excitement over the horses. When Clayton said Mark could offer an apple to one of the horses, Mark almost wet his pants. Hmm, I suppose that could have happened as well, given Mark’s rear-facing final appearance this week.

So, my initial reaction this week was that Rivera was treating this story more seriously than normal, which is good! But that feeling dissipated with her depiction of Mark. Hoo boy.

I read that crows and ravens do not get along. Anyway, it’s a well-drawn and informative Sunday sequence, along with a clever “Mark Trail” bird call title panel.  Heck, even the normally cornball joke in the last panel seems to be more relevant and less obnoxious than normal. But I still prefer Mark’s original beard.

A Day of Infancy!

Posted on by

Recent reader comments (you can go back and actually read them, folks!) question the alternative spelling (and even the pronunciation) of the horse rescue organization’s name (“Happy Hoovez”). Is Rivera attempting to be too cute? Is she attempting to suggest that the rescue staff is illiterate? Or does she want to suggest that maybe the owner(s) are foreigners and not sure of the spelling? I’ll make an executive decision and claim that that last idea is just bupkis. Still, I left it in so I could use the word bupkis.

I’m not a conspiracy nut, but maybe Rivera has embedded a tell-tale in the spelling, itself: That is, the misspelling (“Hoovez”) warns that something about the organization—like the spelling—is not quite right. That would be a clever plot device, as you might find in a murder mystery.

But I wrote the paragraphs above on Friday. Today’s strip is leading me to think differently.

BLECH! Maybe Rivera really dislikes Mark Trail. Or its readers. I can’t recall a more disparaging, demeaning sequence.

Clayton moralizes on his mission.

Posted on by | 2 Comments

Clayton, Caretaker and apparent head wrangler of Happy Hoovez, defines his NPO’s mission, which coincides with BLM’s (no, not that BLM!). I hesitate to suggest at this point that Rivera implies that the Bureau of Land Management is not about protecting mustangs as well as the land. But is Clayton all talk and no hat (like Tess Tigress and her faux tiger petting zoo)? Is he fronting a fraudulent organization secretly selling horses for slaughter, in violation of BLM regulations? It’s too early in the story to start making these presumptions, but innuendo sells, right?

And while the artwork is not terrible at this point, it is rather bland. We could discuss the depiction of Mark’s overly-starched kerchief or the ever-changing size of Artemis. But again, innuendo is so much easier and saves me from having to actually think.

Mark gets schooled on mustangs

Posted on by

Mark has been strategically placed in panel 1 to keep this strip family-friendly. It is just an oversight, I’m sure, that led Rivera to focus more on Artemis, herself, and less on the proportional relationship of the horse to Clayton in panel 1. No matter, as Rivera straightened out the visual ambiguities in panel 3.

[Edit] Mark expresses his ignorance of horses in general or maybe just the mustangs. I suppose that with Rivera’s reboot, Mark’s pre-Rivera past experience with horses (as noted by a comment from Downpuppy a few days ago) has been wiped clean for the sake of this story. Otherwise, Rivera seems to be maintaining a more serious approach than has been usual in past adventures. That’s good, but how long will this last?

Clayton explains! Mark records!

Posted on by

Nice to get those comments! I’m back home, so my posts should appear more regularly. In a touch of irony, regular reader Downpuppy made a pithy comment regarding Mark’s missing cowboy hat that I poked fun of. Apparently not wearing a hat in Utah can lead to a bad end. Consider me educated on that topic!

Clayton the Wild Horse Caretaker (who wisely wears a hat!) lays out his case for Mark. For possibly the first time, we have evidence of Mark Trail actually working as a journalist, recording Clayton’s testimony! I’m willing to give Mark a pass today regarding his response in panel 4. It’s not necessarily a pun, nor an obvious joke. It could be a sincere reaction.

It seems that Jake is less concerned about the issue of the wild horses’ geographic ancestry or the BLM’s periodic roundup of the horses than he is about the horses’ ultimate care.

Art Dept. After five days, the black bar between the panels has disappeared. A shame; its appearance held promise and the hope of millions that Mark would finally get to wallop the living #(@! out of some malefactor.

At least Mark didn’t wear his cowboy hat!

Posted on by | 5 Comments

So today we have Mark being made to act like a school kid on his first field trip, playing dress-up and spouting inanities. Rivera’s apparent predisposition to using punch-line panels like normal gag-a-day strips is disappointing. It suggests that Rivera just cannot maintain any kind of serious position, even within the panels of a single day. When you take a serious adventure strip and convert it into a semi-serious, absurdist adventure strip, it just seems unnecessary to obstruct continuity with corniness. It’s like putting sugar in a bowl of frosted flakes. 

Tuesday’s strip does not improve things. Mark is still made to act the clown, once again upsetting any notion of seriousness with schoolyard puns. Of course, it doesn’t help that the artwork appears slipshod. Even Clayton’s body seems to expand (panel 2) and contract (panel 3) for no reason. I could say more, but I’d rather you do that.

Art Dept. Did anybody else notice the thick black vertical line appearing between the panels? I looked back and they started in every daily strip starting February 29. I have no idea why they are present. Anybody have a guess?

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

Posted on by

I know; I just belatedly posted last week’s Sunday blog, and here I am posting the next one! Well, it’s been a somewhat chaotic time these past few weeks. As I’m back once again on the road Monday morning to return home, things may likely get a bit chaotic for a few more days. Please excuse the mess and try to stay with me! 😀 It might be easier for me to again collate several days into one post. We’ll see how things go.

Anyway, this past week Mark was picked up and driven to his assignment by Diana Daggers, who turns out to be the owner of the magazine that hired him for this job. Daggers admitted that she needed a “loose cannon” and Mark came immediately to mind. Frankly, that was my impression of her at one time. Dagger’s position on the wild horse controversy is clearly on the side of “wild horses” being as American as apple pie, and that corrupt businesses and government officials are deliberately mistreating and misrepresenting the horses for personal and commercial gain. Daggers wants Mark to push that angle in his investigation and subsequent article. This coincides with Mark’s own feelings, so these two should get along, right?

Here you are again with the jokes, Mark? You should stick to what you are good at. Er, I’ll get back to you on that. But I hear you write pretty good nature articles. Never seen one, though.

The 17-year cycle is not for all species of cicadas, and not all cicadas follow that exact pattern, as some of them appear annually. But a swarm of the periodic cicadas is probably something you want to avoid, especially walking or in a car.

Can’t say much about the title panel this week. I would have expected to see swarms of cicadas in the sky, spelling out Mark Trail. Today’s panel looks rather bland, compared to many of Rivera’s Sunday panels.

Mark learns why he was chosen for this assignment!

Posted on by

I’m looking forward to getting back home over the next several days. It’s been great spending time with my Dad (98) and my siblings, but I need to return to my normal, lazy lifestyle, where my younger sibs won’t make me feel like I’m Dad!  But for now, it’s time to get back to Mark and his dealings with Diana Dagger and the wild (or feral) horses of Salt Lake City.

I’m not sure Mark (or Rivera) has this figured out correctly, but I’m willing to take the hit if it’s me. Drop a comment if you think I’m wrong. What is the three-way deal here? According to Diana and Mark’s reasoning, the developers are working hand-in-hand with corrupt government agents of the Bureau of Land Management, not against each other. So, Mark’s participation would make it essentially a 2:1 fight, right? Or do we include the horses as the third leg of this wobbly stool? That interpretation would tie in with the three encircled images in panel 1.

Okay. Daggers figures Mark is unpredictable and reactive enough to “get the story” on the horses and their unethical treatment. I suppose Mark’s actions in the Ohio train wreck, alone, provide plenty of evidence for that conclusion. Mark now seems a bit uncertain and uncomfortable getting tagged this way. Does Mark not recognize his own work ethos? 

As usual, Rivera’s closing comment in panel 4 unfortunately seems misplaced. Should Mark spend time now self-assessing his career choice (not his “life” choice)? Of course not! Why should Mark worry about Diana’s “loose cannon” description, when it is clearly correct? Mark should own it and be proud of his fixated determination to get the story and get it published, no matter what. Advocacy journalists don’t stand around (very long) waiting to interview hack press agents and spokespersons. That passive technique isn’t going to accomplish anything. 

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.