Rivera once again pads this fledgling story by devoting today’s panels to repeating the punchline from yesterday’s panels. Rivera has Mark (panel 1) employing a sitcom meme that was old back in the 1960s: “Did you just say that <blah, blah, blah>?” Cue the laugh track. It’s a shame Mark was not at Planet Pancake, where he could do a spit-take with his coffee.
OVERVIEW: Uh, if they know he’s in a house of lions, how come they don’t know where it is?
DISCUSSION: That still needs explaining. But hold on. Let’s accept the premise that there is a house full of lions. This director is in the house. So how come they don’t know where the hosue is? Well, a kidnapper could have informed “them” that they were holding the director in a house of lions until a ransom was paid. It fits the weirdness of this story’s premise.
Now, why would there be a house of lions in the first place? That’s not a practical way to hold a kidnap victim. And where would a person get lions? Perhaps the kidnapping was done so the ransom would be used to pay for the lion purchase! It could be the work of a less-than-scrupulous zoo-keeper, such as Tess Tigress.
Anyway, I think Mark’s original response still holds: Why him? He’s a nature author and photographer, not a lion wrangler, for which several experts already exist throughout this country. Maybe Ellis thinks that Mark’s time on that Tiger Touch Petting Zoo assignment gave him enough hands-on experience to tackle this assignment. (yeah, I know. I’m taking this much too seriously!)
As we await Bill Ellis’s justification, I’m sticking with Mark’s position. And clearly, that position is about to be undone. Otherwise, there may be no story. So, moving on: Will Ellis assign another sidekick to Mark? If so, who?
Okay, I had to get that pun in before I forget. Anyway, I’m glad to see that Mark shows some common sense and honesty (panel 3)! As for Bill Ellis (see panel 2), who else did he expect to take the call on Mark’s phone? Okay, I know that Ellis’s statement is just a commonplace expression and not meant to be taken literally. Maybe Ellis really meant “If anyone could take this call seriously, it would be you.”
Well, I’m intrigued by this story’s opening. Coincidence aside, Ellis leads with a tabloid-style declaration (“click bait” to use modern jargon) sure to grab Mark’s attention. Eventually (we hope), Ellis will explain the more mundane details that will justify Mark’s involvement. For example, the director could have gotten lost while out hiking the Blue Ridge Mountain parkway. Now Mark just confessed he isn’t a modern-day Daniel Boone, but at least the plot is relatable. We’ll see.
Well, this week saw the culmination of both Cherry’s and Mark’s (or Rusty’s) adventures, merged into a week-long epilog. For Cherry, she and Violet were able to launch their “Movies in the Park” night at the same time as Mark met up with Honest Ernest and his “brothers”, who also decided to attend. They immediately formed ranks and started the usual ritualistic chest thumping and evil-eye throwing, until Violet, in an unusual intervention, stopped the impending fight by coming up with a plan to hold a public electronics demolition event on her parking lot, what she referred to as a “Rage Lot” event. Mark seemed puzzled by the reference, but the fight was avoided. The movie played. Later that night on the way home, Bill Ellis called Mark about a crisis: A movie director has gone missing, and he happens to be the director of the movie the citizens of Lost Forest just watched! Coincidence? And why should Mark be called about a “missing person”? We’ll have to await further events.
Interesting topic. Now the size of prehistoric lions (or any animals) cannot be established by cave wall paintings, which were not drawn “to scale” (panel 4). Perhaps Rivera only refers to the color of the prehistoric lion’s coat. Those cave paintings/drawings that Mark mentions exist only in Europe (not in North America), mostly in Spain and Southern France. The most famous “lion cave” is the Chauvet Cave in Southern France, discovered in 1994.
I was puzzled by the image of the zebra in panel 5, where Mark discusses the extinction of the “American” lion. It turns out that many fossils of prehistoric horses have been found in Idaho, and are commonly known as the Hagerman Horse, or the American Zebra. (FYI: I’m simply summarizing equus information from several scientific/nature websites.) This animal is known as Equus simplicidens, in the taxonomic genus Equus, which is the ancestor of modern horses, donkeys, and zebras. Several sources claim it is more closely related to modern zebras, though there is no evidence of what their coats looked like. That is, there is no evidence for stripes. In any event, academic/scientific study and debate continues.
Okay, the humor in panel 1 is actually normal for once. Very good. Otherwise, it looks as if Mark is finally back on the meter, which Cherry should be happy about. Mark cites the old phrase “Things that go bump in the night”, though it’s not the apt comparison to the movie he thinks, nor was anybody speaking of such things in panel 1.
It is phrase that, for once, does not go back to Shakespearian England. It refers to things like ghosts and spirits or unexplained noises that bungle around for a bit and disappear. This is not a habit usually assigned to vampires, as they seem to be more graceful, being able to morph into a bat to enter or leave a bedroom. Vampires are not stumblers.
Otherwise, we are left with the odd notion that Bill Ellis thinks Mark is now The Finder, a sleuth of missing people. I wonder what happened to “Mark Trail, Defender of Nature and our natural resources”? I mean, geeze, Bill! Hire a private detective, why don’t you!?
Art Dept. One good thing that leaps out to me is a generally improved level of art, especially in the faces, showing more individual expressions. Rivera is clearly taking more time. But I have to admit, I’ve always been puzzled by the blue bands behind Mark’s head. I’m thinking they represent graying hair, perhaps? Or maybe some kind of unusual haircut style.
Warning: Pun Alert! Pun Alert! Secure your pets and children!
Rage lot!? I don’t know that term and haven’t seen it around. So I looked about. There is an AI management tool known as ragebot, but I found nothing specifically for “rage lot.” Perhaps Rivera simply riffed on the pun of rage lot and rage bot.
In any event, this sounds like a silly idea. I read a WebMD article stating that “smash rooms” and “rage rooms” where people go to supposedly work off anger issues only affirm the anger problem, but do not provide alternative solutions or techniques. And people come back for more.
The silliness of Violet’s idea goes beyond a lack of therapeutic support. It could be dangerous, with broken parts flying every which way, to say nothing of possibly dangerous components and chemicals that could accidentally be exposed. Call me a fuddy-duddy, if you wish, but I’d keep the kids at home. Plus, I’d bet that recycling sites would not much care for taking items deliberately smashed.
Say, do you think those three guys are really biological brothers or just “brothers-in-arms”? That idea reminds me of the three brothers in Newhart: “Hi. I’m Larry. This is my brother, Daryl. This is my other brother, Daryl.” A much nicer bunch of guys.
One thing you might notice in Rivera’s Mark Trail is that virtually every male is either pissed off about something or auditioning for a Steven Segal movie. And that is not a compliment. An adventure strip usually has to have drama, intrigue, some danger, and a “save the world” for or from something. But there is little drama in constant fighting, Jason Bourne, notwithstanding.
What we have here is a version of a high school gang of bullies movie, where the hall monitor/teacher steps in to stop the fight that ensures the dramatic and humiliating beat down takes place in the Boy’s Room after school. Mark’s calm demeanor (excuse my sarcasm) on display here is the normal reaction Mark pulls out for just about any kind of situation, because that is what Rivera thinks Mark Trail is all about or thinks that’s all that the readers care about. Well, I care about flapjack dinners and talking snakes, too! And those intimate nature walks Cherry and Mark go on, where Rivera omits the best parts.
I noticed that Mark’s most recent official, paying job was the assignment in Utah, reporting on wild horses. I don’t know what Cherry earns from Violet, but if Mark and his family want to keep eating and paying the rent, shouldn’t he spend more time soliciting paying work? On the other hand, I do appreciate Rivera’s innovation to reveal some of Mark’s “downtime” activities, rather than simply continuing the old Mark Trail routine: “Go on assignment-return home for 3 days-get called to another assignment”, which was the prior modus operandi.
Howdy! I’m taking the day off, in large part, because Wednesday’s strip offers little to talk about. I’ll pile on with Thursday’s strip and hope for the best. Have a great day and see you all Thursday!
A corny horror B-movie sounds like a good choice for a movie night. Brava, Rivera! I guess Rivera wanted to avoid a direct link to the universally panned 1991 horror flick, “The Malibu Beach Vampires”, a movie that might have ended the night before the first reel ended.
As for this story, we appear to be at the start of the standard “Mark Trail Family Time”, that period in between adventures where we sometimes learn about the aftermath of the just-concluded story.
No doubt, it would likely violate the Comics Common Code of Consistency if Robbie changed his spots and became fast friends with Rusty. That would be as likely as Mark changing his shirt. Come to think of it, Rusty never changes his clothes, either. But Cherry does, a lot. What’s with that?
We’re back to those whacky gals, Cherry and Violet, who are moving on from their successful expulsion of a hungry bear from the newly-installed compost bins. Having enjoyed some modicum of success (so we hear) with their prior summer music festival, they hope to repeat that accomplishment with a summer movie night.
Oh, wait. That’s what the strip just reported, more or less. Never mind, then.
Still, I wonder whether today’s introduction constitutes a new storyline or just a sidebar for the compost bin adventure where Cherry won a bet to attend a composting seminar on a flight paid for by the Sunny Soleil Society. Cherry’s stories do not always have a clear start and end like Mark’s tend to do. I reckon that’s okay. At least we should not have to worry about Honest Ernest showing up for a while.
What exciting events occurred in Mark Trail’s world this past week? Let me look . . .uh, not much. The real action was the week before, when Cherry and Violet faced down a hungry bear rummaging through the new compost bins.
Rivera devoted this past week to closing out the e-waste story with Ranger Shaw and Mark cleaning up the debris in Lost Forest. In reality, the time was largely devoted to Ranger Shaw confessing to his own e-waste offense at this same illegal dump site! The ranger also complained he did not have the manpower to deal with the Grungey Boys, even though he knew of their actions for several weeks. Never mind that he had no problems calling in the local sheriff to haul them away only after Mark had corralled them. Finally, in Saturday’s strip Rusty came home with his A-grade paper on e-waste. Mark got assurances from Rusty that he hadn’t embarrassed Robbie in school. Rivera closed out this story with a pithy moral: “E-waste is not a game.” Get it? “Game”, as in Robbie’s buried game controllers. Yep, those controllers were the story hook that led us to think this adventure was going to be about Rusty and his Revenge Paper. But all that was buried by yet another Mark Trail Storyline Takeover. I wonder what would happen if he crossed strips and took over the current storyline in Mary Worth or Rex Morgan, MD?
This is, from what I can tell, a good summary of the Eastern Kingbird and its behavior. The orange (sometimes red) patch is normally hidden, only being exposed when it is in attack mode or when mating. But who knew Mark was a Shakespeare aficionado? Well, to keep the paraphrase closer to the original, perhaps Mark could have said “Uneven lies the head that wears an orange crown.”
At least Rusty managed to squeak back in at the end of the story to remind us (and Mark) that this adventure was supposed to be his adventure, not Mark’s. Or was it? It sure would have been nice to have Rivera spend a bit more time on Rusty’s paper and presentation where he could have demonstrated some his research to enlighten us. After all, this comic strip is supposed to feature nature and our relationship with it, right? So, how do e-waste toxins affect the environment? No idea so far, but then, maybe Mark will take that over as well and tell us this Sunday.
We’ll give an “Attaboy!” trophy to Rusty, but Mark always gets top billing, and that means Rusty’s primary role is priming the pump for daddy Trail. Mark my words.
Art Dept. I dunno about that seated Mark reading the shrinking book in panel 1. He looks uncomfortable and oddly built, though maybe it’s just Mark’s expression that gets me. But compared to the past several days, today’s drawing presents a better sense of organization and craft.
Here we go again, with Rivera padding out the week by reiterating the script from the previous days. Does she think this strip is only published once a week? Anyway, pity the poor schlepp, Ranger Shaw, an unqualified warden of the forest who can’t seem to find the wherewithal to call on his fellow rangers for assistance; who can’t find the ability to even call his district supervisor for help. No wonder he’s afraid his wife will leave him. No wonder his son is a jerk.
Like so many TV and movie writers, Rivera seems to make every other “good person” in the strip appear less than or not equal to Mark Trail. So, Diana Daggers was a formidable and deliberate badass when she originally appeared, when opposing Mark. But ever since she more or less came over to his side, she has been weak, ineffective, and mostly invisible. Rex Scorpius, former stuntman and Internet animal tamer, is only good enough to drive a getaway car for Mark. Debait Team member Cliff certainly had little to do with actually helping Mark’s fishing retreat succeed. And now we have Ranger Shaw, who has been a weak character from Day One. In fact, even his face is weak; a flattened pancake of a face without depth.
Why do writers feel the need to make other people look dumber or weaker, just to prop up their Main Character? It’s such a simplistic and patronizing attitude. Rivera is not the first or only person to do this, of course; but it would be nice to see her break away from this cheap meme. For example, a really strong and smart Diana Daggers working alongside Mark and actually accomplishing things on her own or in tandem would make a great team and likely increase the popularity of this strip. In truth, we had some of that in the Zeeba Mussels story. Let’s have more!
So, this is not the first time that Mark reacts as if hearing something for the first time, when he already responded to it in a previous strip. In fact, from a normal reaction sequence, today’s panel 1 text would—should—precede yesterday’s panel 4. That is: First the reaction, then the moral teaching moment. But in the context of moving the story, it seems necessary to walk backwards a bit. I’m not so sure.
But speaking of sleeping on the couch, it’s clear that his conjugal issues go a lot deeper than Vampire Romance movies or what his mother-in-law thinks.
Finally, that “DVD” box in panel 3 suggests that either Ranger Shaw had to label it so he wouldn’t forget what he was abandoning in the woods or Jules Rivera thinks her readers are as clueless as Ranger Shaw and the Grungey Boys. Well, indeed! We certainly wouldn’t want to think that the box was just some random box of crap that happened to be in that clearing where Ranger Shaw is losing his mind. No siree Bob!
This is wrong on so many levels. Dang, I think I’ve written that before. Is this Groundhog Day?
Ranger Shaw now confesses to being an unofficial Grungey Boy, dumping e-waste in Lost Forest as a way to work off his own aggressions!?! Talk about a compromised investigation, I’m hoping to learn whether Shaw resigns from the service or just turns himself in.
And Ranger Shaw has never heard of recycling or selling DVDs? Donating them to friends, people he doesn’t like, public libraries, nursing homes, or even state prisons? How did he ever become a Ranger? How would you get the idea that dumping DVDs in the forest is good? At the very least, you would dump them into the river, where they would be harder to spot!
It seems to me that Rivera continues to make every male figure in this strip a loser, an incompetent, a wack job, a vigilante, or a crook. To be fair, women do not always come off much better, though Cherry does provide a positive presence, maybe more than Mark does.
The entire Trailverse must be filled with disparaging examples of humanity, only some even pretending to be good. Of course, Mark makes the attempt. So I reckon it’s Mark And Cherry Against The World. That’s a bit long for a comic strip’s title.
Today’s dialog presents some problems for the story and Shaw’s position. I’m certainly not an aficionado of park and forestry law enforcement, but the US Forestry Service does have their own law enforcement, both uniformed and ununiformed. Even the national park service has law enforcement. So, this presentation of Ranger Shaw as weak, insecure, and ineffective makes little sense. He could have called on fellow federal law enforcement officers or even the local law, as he plainly did in the July 6 strip when he took the three Grungey Boys to the local sheriff. But then, how would Mark get involved!? Ay, there lies the rub.
As far as story is concerned, I’m holding judgment a bit. Today’s strip does not appear to provide much relevance to the story’s development. Even if Ranger Shaw only just found out about the trash, so what? Will there be some kind of consequence for Ranger Shaw as a result of his inability to do the job for which he was hired? Again, so what?
Anyway, wasn’t this story supposed to be about Rusty and Robbie’s rivalry? Rusty is probably back at home, swearing up a storm about how Mark once again sidelined him out of another one of his own adventures.
Hmm, as we saw on July 6, it was Ranger Shaw and his partner who arrived to take care of the Grungey Boys. All Mark did was confront them (for good reason) and had a short knock-fest. They demonstrated either an unwillingness to use their weapons or an ineptitude in their application. In any event, the rangers took the Grungey Boys into custody and turned them over to the cops.
Shouldn’t Ranger Shaw be concerned about Mark taking the law into his own hands, especially as Mark boasts about his ethical confession in panel 4? Well, this has actually been Mark’s status for pretty much his entire comic strip existence, as it has been for most heroic personalities in our various media over the millennia. Throughout human history we have looked to heroes and avengers to settle the score and right the wrongs that we cannot, but wish we could. That belief makes for great books and movies.
But maybe I’m being too hard on Mark Trail. He could simply be indulging in a case of self-congratulations and boasting. That’s not too bad. Some people give to charities, others do volunteer work. And people like Mark just look for wrongs to right.
This past week started out with the possibility that Cherry and Violet would have a “head-to-head” over Violet’s need to find fault with Cherry’s work at the end of a long work day. Mundane, perhaps, but the possibility of some rethinking of Cherry’s position or employment could have been the focus this week.
Instead, the compost project resurfaced through the plot device of Violet discovering a bear rummaging through the new compost bins that Cherry just installed. Seems they were not very secure and Violet had secretly dumped her lunchtime chicken bones in the compost. The bear being a bear, it sniffed out the bones and commenced its nighttime snacking.
While the two gals were standing mere feet away watching the bear, Cherry came up with a from-out-of-nowhere solution of grabbing an airhorn from out of her truck (part of her emergency supplies, she claimed). The sound drove the bear off. Cherry resolved to get better locks for the bins and the two gals resolved that bears were easier to deal with then men. I’m not sure that joke was funny when it used to be told the other way around.
The lack of any real drama or danger in the storyline was a big disappointment. It is not unique, as Rivera seems to treat every situation as if she is writing for Public Television kid shows. This situation was underscored by some really inconsistent drawing. It was almost a perfect storm of indifference or ineptitude. There is more to this than a mere difference in artistic expression.
As is common, Jules Rivera links the Sunday nature strip to the current story. But since this topic turned out to be the main draw this week, there is little new. Nevertheless, Rivera did cover some additional bear-discouragement techniques, providing a few more helpful tips.
Since this is my blog and I’m spending the weekend with my wife’s siblings, I’m giving a shoutout to Paul & Lisa, Tom & Diane, John, Sue & Steve, and Mark.
Okay, back to business. Having scared off the bear with an air horn, Cherry and Violet bond over their mutual frustrations of dealing with the opposite sex, speaking strictly from a conventional, binary point of view, of course.
Some days there is little to say. This is one of those days. Rivera is just padding out the storyline the same way a TV drama or comedy might have a light-hearted epilog. The overriding question for us all, I’m sure, is whether this story will continue in order to cover Cherry’s Compost Conference. But unless Rivera has something plotted to take place during the conference, it’s likely we’ll only learn about it post factum. This follows the normal convention found in pre-Rivera Mark Trail.
Stand back?! Shouldn’t Cherry have said “Violet, let’s both get in the truck before the bear runs out of chicken bones!” Then she could have employed her emergency air horn (maybe it’s for slow drivers in the left lane?). Heck, maybe Cherry could have just flashed her brights and honked several times.
Another chance for real suspense is wasted.
The Daily Trail 