Hmm, more story padding. I was going to entitle this post “Nothing to see here, people. Move along”, but I noticed we have used variations of that phrase many times in the past. You know, Obi Wan Kenobi liked that phrase as well, now that I think about it. Not sure why I thought about it, though.
So, what’s the point of provoking a fight? Why does Diana need Mark to knock heads? Wouldn’t some sharp investigators do better? I reckon I’m waiting to hear what Diana’s game plan is, as this week has so far just been walking in place.
I wonder why Rivera likes to put these 2-D animal cutouts in the foreground of her strips. Is it some kind of code-speak for “This is all fake”? I dunno, it’s just a thought.
But the meetup at a picnic table reminds me of a similar meetup they shared a while back, during the Zeeba Mussels adventure. Mark was meeting Diana to apologize for leaving her boat after a fight. So here we are again, with Mark ready to apologize for another bad decision.
One thing to be thankful for today is that Rivera is not blasting the “Two Fists o’ Justice!” phrase. It’s hard to not think that she is overdoing it, as some kind of put-down.
By the way, I’ve been intrigued by the hamburger joint in the strip. It’s kooky enough to have been based on a real roadside joint. Has anybody seen anything like that? I did a bit of online searching and didn’t come up with anything definitive.
Poor, deluded Mark. So provoking, yet so clueless. There he sits, a reporter without a story, trying to convince himself that, while he got kicked out of an interview because of his aggressive approach, at least he could save face and fight his way past some rent-a-cops.
Aside from not concentrating on his assignment, Mark can’t keep his memory straight either. On the way to this burger pit, he already talked on the phone with Diana and she gave him a pass on the interview debacle. So there’s no reason for him to be feeling sorry for himself.
A question thus arises, is Rivera deliberately making Mark act forgetful, or is she just not too concerned with story continuity?
Back-seat driver Dept: Could Rivera have written a more concise narration box in panel 1: “Mark dreads meeting with his boss after the interview went sideways.” There are just too many “his”, as is!
Another story skedaddled to a conclusion. Cherry and Doc Davis continued their hunt for Banjo Cat, finally locating the feline by accident, in spite of Doc’s futile attempts to lure the cat out with his banjo playing. But Banjo Cat wasn’t done playing them, as it showed itself in the open before taking a run across fields and busy road traffic. Of course Cherry and the Doc pursued. How elderly Doc gets around with a banjo strapped across his back is a wonder. Anyway, wouldn’t you know it, Banjo Cat somehow made its way into the office of the Sunny Soleil Society, where it interrupted Violet playing her now-repaired harp. Would Banjo Cat finally face Violet’s violent wrath?
Of course not! In Rivera’s Trailverse, villains are truly cartoon stereotypes manifestly incompetent or mushy inside. Rivera is the latter type. Perhaps in gratitude for their détente, Banjo Cat went up on its hind legs and plucked feline arpeggios on Violet’s harp. Violet, Cherry, and Doc Davis looked on and all had a nice TV episode-ending laugh.
There is a moral to this story, as Cherry kept repeating: Cats kill birds, so keep your cats inside! But there is also another moral: Weak stories and sketchy art chase away readers, so try harder.
I’m sure most of you have heard or read the discussions about the failure of plastic recycling and the dangers of plastic pollution in the seas. So this is a decent-enough summary for a Sunday strip. If we are clever enough to create so many useful materials out of petroleum we sure should be able to figure out how to clean this stuff up and begin manufacturing plastics that do not become “forever pollution.”
As for Mark, if he is going to stand on his track record of using the “fists o’ justice” for solving problems, the petroleum industry can rest easy. Maybe Rivera can write a story for Mark about going after a local company illegally dumping plastic waste into Lost Forest river (or whatever it’s called). For once, maybe there could even be some actual dangers for Mark to overcome, rather than goofy confrontations with the usual cast of clowns and bunglers.
This is a sad ending to a short, pointless story. Comic relief, no doubt. Still, I am left wondering just how the cat broke into the house. I am also confused by Violet’s sudden turnabout with Banjo Cat, given that her harp was supposedly wrecked a few hours earlier in the day. On the other hand, I have to give Violet credit for so quickly repairing and restringing her wrecked instrument!
But Panel 2 is a slap in the face. Are we to believe a cat decided to stand on its hind legs in order to play the harp? Fiddlesticks! Banjo Cat Apologist Cherry offers up a ridiculous rationale, while Violet is somehow clued-in enough to repeat the “keep cats inside!” mantra that Cherry has been beating us over the head with all week long. All I can say is thank goodness that Doc Davis was able to come up with such a clever and original quip to close out this otherwise lackluster story, even though it contradicts his libertarian sentiments about Banjo Cat earlier in the story.
Cherry deserves better! Jules, please get Cherry away from these people for a while and into a new situation with new (or different) characters. Come to think of it, we also deserve better.
Howdy, folks! Well, my first reaction today was that I had accidentally called up some kind of grade school education project on “taking care of your pet cat.” It just has that simplistic grade-school look about it…as does Monday’s strip. There are those damned badly-drawn trees again: Note the oddly leaning firs in front and the “hatching” in the rear trees, like cheap props in a school play. Go compare the Monday and Tuesday strips.
I’m trying to account for today’s strip. I think I suggested on Monday that maybe Rivera had somebody ghost that day’s strip, though my logic was not well substantiated. But something is not right, something egregious. This all sounds so ominous, doesn’t it? And let’s face it: This is not the most engaging story Rivera has presented.
Definite story padding going on today, as the first two panels reiterate yesterday’s strip. That means Jules Rivera could have created a single-panel panorama today to spread out the distance between Banjo Cat, Cherry, and Doc Davis, while leaving room for a nice looking landscape. That wouldhave been much better than the cramped view we are getting in panel 3!
However, placing Banjo Cat in the foreground with Cherry and Doc in the background is a common artistic technique to emphasize “what was located” (Banjo Cat), while also showing the distance back to the searchers.
This looks like a reworking of yesterday’s strip! And like biking uphill, the pacing of this story has slowed considerably. I wonder if Cherry and Doc will even make it back to his office before Saturday!
<Sigh!> It can get soooo tiring: I don’t know why Cherry keeps repeating the same PSAMantra to her dad: “Outdoor cats kill wild birds!” I think we got it, Jules.
I forget, what is the point of this story, anyway? Is it really just about securing Banjo Cat in order to protect the birds? That seems a rather pedestrian plot, considering several of Cherry’s earlier adventures. But what about Violet’s broken harp? Does she get to do another cameo in the epilog?
Can we at least just move the story along a bit faster?
Yes, so dreadfully sorry. Cherry, who may have the most potential in this weird family, is stuck. In this family! But she isn’t the only thing stuck here. So is time, I think. Why is it, after seeing Doc strike up “My darling Clementine” in panel 2, that the narration box in panel 3 tells us that Doc has been playing several songs, while he is still singing Clementine!? Is he looping back through his song list for a second go-round? Sometimes, time-and-space baffle me.
Say, if you look closely at the musical notes in panels 2 and 3, you’ll see that the connected notes are always on the same “line”, meaning that these songs are all monotone. No wonder Banjo Cat has apparently run away!
Okay, that’s it for today. I can’t call padding the story on Rivera, as this situation is a central plot device. But it has clearly run its course, so I hope we don’t see it on Wednesday. Until then, I’ll be pickin’ and grinnin’!
Art Dept. I have to wonder whether Rivera actually drew this strip or if somebody filled in as an April Fool’s joke. The drawing is hurky-jerky (as it has been), but at the same time, it is different: more angular and cruder than normal, if that’s possible.
The trees in panel 1, for example, are drawn with all of the subtlety and skill of a person who has never seen trees. One can argue that Rivera’s woods and forests often look flat and simplified, but that has no bearing on what we see here. Go back and see if you can find anything this clumsy and crude.
Banjo Cat also is different: more angular than normal, with a different style and coloring. Here is one example from February. Sure, there could be a different colorist at work, but I think Rivera would notice that. Compare the two heads. Notice how much fuller the head and neck are in Rivera’s example from February. Check out the tails and fur. Different.
Then there are the figure drawings. Doc Davis is not only slimmer than normal, he keeps looking different. In panel 2 Doc’s wide-eyed expression looks like something Stephan Pastis might draw if he was poking fun of this strip. And the less said about that banjo in panel 3, the better.
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