“And now, children, let’s watch and listen to this politician as he talks about an impor—wait. What’s going on here!?!” What in tarnation happened to Rusty? For that matter, what the heck happened to Mark’s head in panel 2? It looks like his jaw is physically falling from his head, saved only by his skin!
I don’t know that much about political campaigning, but why would Ohio State Senator Smalls campaign for a seat in the United States Senate while in Washington, D.C.? Does that happen? There can’t be that many visitors from Ohio in D.C. at any given time, can there?
Getting back to poor Rusty (panel 2), I’m concerned by what appears to be a visceral change in his very appearance, to say nothing of his demeanor. And his classmates seem to be falling under the same mysterious miasma. Somebody get those kids some tranquilizers! Frankly, I don’t get it. What 12-year kid is going to get excited by a speech from a middle age dude in a bad suit blathering on about business and NOAA? The guy is not even from their state.
It seems as if Mark just can’t go anywhere without running into one or more of his foes. The story of the Ohio train crash and the senator’s corruption was highlighted in the “Something Fishy” adventure of 2023. At the end of the story, the senator was arrested by local police. In any event, any corruption or bribery charges against the senator were obviously buried, as he is still in office a year later.
But Mark is wrong and the woman is correct: This is a teaching and learning opportunity, so let them hear Senator Smalls! Afterwards, the two adults can review the senator’s speech with the students, pointing out any lies, distortions, or other foibles worth bringing up. Mark can also talk about his role in exposing the senator. Thus, the kids will get a much more thorough understanding, as opposed to simply being told “Don’t listen!” and walking on.
There is also a danger that Mark could once again start heckling the senator, leading to Small’s renewed demands for Mark’s arrest. Would Mark abandon Rusty and the rest of the students as he flees the police? On the other hand, will the senator spot Mark first and decide to just duck and run?
Look how amazingly disciplined these people are; they go from place to place, yet stand in the exact same positions and poses every time. I’m impressed. I think we can assume at this point that the woman is either the teacher or another chaperone. Wonder if we’ll get to hear from her. I don’t see any guides, however; but this is a comic strip, not a documentary.
Nor is it reality. What we see here is more like experiencing images in those old-fashioned View-Masters with their posed, cliché photos: <Click!> View <Click!> View <Click!> View! If you think Rivera actually presents a cynical view of field trips and education, I wouldn’t disagree.
But tell me what you think Rusty is getting at in panel 4.
Art Dept. The panel drawings today are consistently fine, and the clip-art fits reasonably well into the overall style. That’s a plus. I’m not sure why the other students are still colored in Rivera’s standard anonymous background person purple shade, since they all stand together. Surely Rivera can’t believe we’d get confused. If one of my children were purpled out, I’d be upset!
I’m sure glad that Rivera drew that memory balloon of a sheep’s head in panel 2, just in case some readers get the mistaken notion that Mark’s historical note really refers to members of Congress. Otherwise, looks like the students did all fly, after all.
It’s also interesting that Rusty’s first question was not “Huh?Which war was that?” Wilson’s realized sheep cost less than hired help, so he bought the sheep and let go the groundskeepers. And the sheep’s wool was auctioned off to raise money for the Red Cross.
Anyway, it’s a good thing the kids are getting their visit done now, because things are likely to get a bit interesting in our nation’s capital over the next three weeks or so. Say, do you think the woman in panel 1 is a flight attendant, a teacher, a parent-chaperone, or just an innocent bystander about to be caught up in a nexus of impending chaos and absurdity?
Maybe Jules Rivera thinks the soporific dialog and near total lack of movement this past week offer her readers a break from the hard-hitting action of Mark’s latest adventure. Or maybe not. Maybe Rivera is just carrying on her tradition of emphasizing the domestic side of the Trail family, something prior Trail cartoonists usually rushed over. Some of Mark’s newer adventures have been outgrowths of hanging out with Rusty and Cherry. I think that is fine. Mark gets seen as a (somewhat over-the-top) family man, not just an Adventure Hero coming home long enough to wave to Rusty and give Cherry a test drive before heading out to his next assignment.
“But wait!” you say, “those are some of the classic Mark Trail tropes we love to make fun of!” Of course, but Rivera produces her own memes and tropes that we can pillory.
Rivera’s lighter approach to the family-based scenarios (including Cherry’s) should find in Mark’sofficialassignments a balance that emphasizes more mature plots, action, and danger. Unfortunately, those traits have gone wanting for the most part. For example, we’ve seen Mark in car chases, but they usually look more like The Dukes of Hazzard than Mission Impossible or The Transporter. So c’mon, Rivera! Mark can handle the extra weight. If you can’t spend extra time on the art, spend extra time on the stories.
Back to the review: This past week was mostly about Cherry feeling guilty for not having time to take Rusty on a school trip to Washington, D.C. and having to once again depend on Mark. I think we can understand that concern! At the same time, did we really need to see so much of Cherry’s self-recrimination? Rivera couldn’t find a better way to pad out the week? Anyway, we ended with Mark and Rusty flying off to our nation’s capital. What could go wrong?
Yikes! More information on how gosh-darned weird and dangerous the world is to all living things.
Rivera again pays tribute to Tom Hill, one of the original and possibly best of the Mark Trail artists in panel 1. Nice. But I have to subtract major points for the lousy signage. At least make it look professional, Rivera!
Still, I don’t get this setup. Did the rest of the class already go to Washington by the time Mark and Rusty returned, so Rusty has to catch up? Or did the entire class actually fly, as opposed to going on a <shudder!> chartered bus? Just how wealthy is this Lost Forest community, anyway?
I’m still snoozing, but I did notice that the Trail family seems to be shrinking, compared to their sizes yesterday (scroll down to compare). In fact, the sofa also seems to be getting narrower and squeezing them closer, reminiscent of the refuse compactor that Luke, Leia, Chewbaka, and Hans Solo were trapped in.
No need to look for drama, suspense, or action today, people. Mark is done with his assignment and Cherry’s only real issue is finding temporary lodging for kittens. No doubt, we’ll have two more days for this apparent pilot for “Leave it to Rusty.”
No wonder Cherry feels bad. She knows that spending time with Mark is certain to lead to chaos.
Ah, Mark. You want to ensure that when Rusty goes to Washington D.C., he learns about how our government works and the importance of the rule of law we live under. Yes, that legal and ethical code of conduct you seem to break with increasing regularity and indifference, while condemning others for doing so. But wait, you say, “They break the law in order to harm others or to enrich themselves!” Sure. You only skirt the letter of the law or break it to stop them from harming others or enriching themselves. I get it. You are a descendant of the Monkey Wrench Gang.
The actions of an environmental justice vigilante are not always clear or defensible. But that’s the calling you answered, Mark. Your mandate has expanded beyond writing stories about fish poachers, forest fires, cave chases with bank robbers, and human-traffickers chasing you through a cave. It now includes combating NFT fraud; exposing environmental damage involving railroads and politicians; manhandling guys working out their job complaints by breaking electronics and leaving the debris in the forest; and navigating a house filled with free-roaming lions so you could then rescue a person stuck in yet another cave. It is truly a darker world you now work in, Mark Trail.
Boy, am I confused. It must be a time warp or I’m warped. Let me see if I can figure this out: Cherry and Violet have 24 hours to resolve the homeless kitten situation. Let’s assume that the deadline began a few hours before Cherry called Mark, who was still on the island. Mark had to wait for the next ferry back to the mainland, get a ride to LAX, wait for the next flight out, land, then take a taxi, Uber, or horse & buggy to get back home. That has to be at least ten hours of travel time. With Cherry’s own delay, there couldn’t be more than 12 hours left. Probably less.
But wait! It was night when Mark finished his assignment, so it would have to be the next morning when he got home. That would mean the 24 hours is nearly up, right? Oh, my head. Must. Stop. Thinking. Logically!
When Cherry talks about “these kittens” she appears to point to her mental image of the kittens, as if Mark can actually see them. But you know, when I look at Mark’s and Rusty’s staring faces, that just might be the case. I reckon you have to be careful with what you are thinking in the Trailverse. No wonder Mark avoids other women like the plague!
It’s nice to see that Rivera wants to make sure (panel 1) that we know that the person welcoming Mark and Rusty inside that “Lincoln Log” cabin is Cherry, though one could be forgiven for thinking they might have stepped into the wrong cabin, seeing as how it is much smaller and different than other illustrations.
In fact, here is what the cabin looked like when Rivera started, back in October 2020. The resolution here is a bit poor, due to this being a copy of a copy of a digital copy. If you look through the strips since Rivera started, you will see that the Trail home changed several times to handle whatever the visual need was at that time.
According to the official history, the cabin actually belongs to Doc Davis (and maybe Cherry), not Mark. Mark just married into it. Did Doc sell his share in the home to Mark? I don’t know. But over time, Mark has managed to become Master of the Cabin, sidelining Doc Davis to his bedroom and occasional screen time.
Rusty exuberantly reacting like a real kid in panel 3 instead of like his socially deprived presentation in the pre-Rivera strips adds the only bit of reality and humor to this otherwise traditional hokey homecoming (which is closer to the pre-Rivera spirit).
Art Dept. My Lincoln Log joke is unfortunately reinforced by the really cartoony landscape, where Rivera didn’t even try to provide any semblance of reality. No wonder the cabin looks different: Maybe this is just a symbolic representation, like a dream or a kid’s play set. Well, at least Lost Forest escaped the hurricanes and floods.
Come to think of it, that would make a great storyline for the strip, where the characters have to deal with the dangers and after-effects of a large-scale natural disaster. It would be a great time to finally show a serious side of the strip, dealing with real physical, emotional, and social problems. How about it, Rivera?
Was this a week or what?! Let’s recap: Following Wingit’s rescue the prior week, this past week gave us the story’s epilog, as Mark delivered it on the phone to Bill Ellis. Ellis called Mark a hero. Debatable. Mark said that Wesley Wingit survived several days in the cave on crickets. Unconfirmed. We also discovered that Wesley had actually broken his hip. Not mentioned earlier! And we also learned that Sammy Spotter got a large enough bonus from the movie studio to quit the business and become an international bird watcher. Then Cherry called and interrupted Mark’s debrief to ask him to take Rusty to Washington DC for a school trip. That’s a bit strange, since school trips are usually conducted by the school.
Now, what did we not learn from Mark’s after-action report? 1. How did the Studio know Wingit disappeared if nobody went in the mansion earlier? 2. Why were the lions so pacified? 3. Where did the actors go who were also supposed to be inside the mansion with the lions? 4. How did Wingit get trapped in the cave in the first place? 5. How did he break his hip? 6. How did they get Wingit out of the cave with his broken hip? 7. What happened to the envelope that was lying on the ground beside Wingit in the cave? While you view today’s nature topic, feel free to think up some answers and post them in a comment.
Okay, drawing webs is not one of Rivera’s strengths. She could have easily “woven” the strip’s name in the actual webbing in panel 1, if she had taken the time. I think the Joro-spider looks like a bee with eight legs and no wings. If you are interested, look up the Japanese legend of Jorogumo, the shape-shifting, fire-breathing female spider.
I’m sure glad that Rivera saw fit to put in that helpful circular graphic in panel 1 so we ignorant boobs can understand the technical complexities of putting somebody on hold while switching lines. Yes, I’m taking notes, Jules. On the other hand, there is so much visual clutter in panel 1 that it looks like an attack of the Bubble Monsters. Run, Mark, Run!
Rivera is apparently setting us up for Cherry’s story to resume on Monday. But I have to ask: How complicated is this “box-o’-kittens” situation, anyway? Cherry needs to dedicate another whole week to the kittens!? She already has several people involved, including Violet and Doc Davis. And now, there is Victoria Vex, Violet’s mother and “owner” of the Sunny Soleil Society. Vex gave them 24 hours to get those kittens out of the building. This should be entertaining. Well, there’s hope.
Bill Ellis is a crudely-drawn example of how trivially the word “hero” gets employed these days. A hero puts their life on the line to save others or end an existential threat. That cave rescue did not measure up to either situation. If anything, Mark could be accused of reckless endangerment and child abuse for taking Sammy Spotter and Rusty into a dark, strange cave where he suspected Wesley Wingit had gotten trapped. That plotline could have been framed as a dramatic and danger-filled scene. Instead, Rivera presented it like an amusement park water ride.
If there was any situation where Mark could be called heroic, it was when he decided to enter a house known to contain freely roaming lions in search of a person possibly trapped or hiding inside. As it turned out, housecats could have posed more of a danger to Mark, but that doesn’t change Mark’s initial action. Of course, we never found out why those lions were so docile or why they ignored Mark’s wanderings. Will we learn anything more in Saturday’s closing strip?
Yesterday’s Hidden-in-Plain-Sight Laugh: The thing that caught my eye yesterday was the eagle, which looks like it is sporting a pair of spectacles. Tell me I’m wrong.
I think we can at least admit that Rivera goes the extra mile in putting closure to Mark’s adventures, something that her predecessors rarely bothered with. Interestingly, Mark and Company haven’t even left the island yet, and the Studio has already responded to Sammy. Never mind that the concept of keeping this rescue quiet from the public seems to me to run counter to any studio’s desire for free publicity.
By the way, I think Rivera has indulged in a little visual humor, unless my eyes deceive me. Did you spot it, too? Let me know. I enjoyed it. I’ll post the answer in tomorrow’s blog, if I remember.
Rivera has at least one thing correct (panel 1): As usual, crumbum Mark claims all the credit for the successful completion of his assignment. In panel 4, Mark boasts about his superior values and magnanimity.
Here we might take issue with Mark’s grammar in panel 4. “A lesser man than me”, or should it be “A lesser man than I”? The choice of which example is correct can raise the hackles of many readers, writers, and know-it-alls. Walls of rectitude protect each position. I grew up having been taught the “hidden verb” rationale, so I lean towards “A lesser man than I (am).” Nevertheless, current usage is current usage and from what I can tell, either choice is considered acceptable, except by people who don’t accept it. A lesser blogger than I might criticize Rivera, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll just move on.
Mark may be wrong about abusing animals and treating them like movie extras (panel 2). Movies use animals in different roles all the time. But frankly, unless the lions were tranquilized, they didn’t appear too bad off. They had room to roam, food to eat (whatever happened to those actors supposedly locked in the house with the lions?), and no kids throwing popcorn at them.
Okay, I understand. Rivera moved some portions of the events from real time to this epilog summary. We find out details just as Bill Ellis does, although the only legitimately new information is in panel 4.
There was no rock “pillow” in the original rescue panels (October 11), as we see today in panel 4. Also, the broken hip wasn’t brought up before, but it explains Wingit’s being carted away by EMTs on a stretcher. I’m really anxious to see Mark explain how they got him out of that cave!
I would bet that some of you are wondering how Wesley wound up on the other side of the cave wall in the first place. But more than likely, you’ve already figured it out.
I reckon I stepped in it again, as this story is not over. We have another week to get through. That happens. Most of the time, we get two weeks of Mark and one week of Cherry. Rinse and repeat. Sometimes, Mark’s story goes longer, as it is doing now.
But once again, we have Rivera exhibiting her sarcasm for all to see (panel 1). There was really nothing daring about that rescue. In fact, it was pretty painless, from what we could tell. As for eating crickets, I’m at a loss to figure that out. Mark made the first claim even before seeing Wingit, and here he is repeating this odd statement. One other thing: It sure got dark pretty fast, based on the color of the sky, something that newspaper readers will possibly find confusing.
We have a winner in the Saturday Quiz! In case you missed the comments, regular reader Be Ware of Eve Hill figured out what was different about Mark’s appearance in panel 1: It was that his watch magically reappeared. This time it is on his left arm, even though it was originally on shown his right arm before it went missing for several days.
It seems we reached the end of another unfulfilling story. We had a few weeks of strips showing Mark prowling through a mansion filled with indolent, senile lions in search of clues, followed by Mark and Sammy Spotter prowling around a nearby stream to locate a cave where they believed director what’s-his-full-name might be trapped. But first they retrieved Rusty, to give him something to do and brag about back home.
This past week we saw our Gang of Three paddling kayaks into the cave, where they survived a freak wave designed to create some faux drama. At this point, Rusty finally earned his stripes. In this remarkably well-lit cave, Rusty spotted an opening in a cave wall. Using his vaunted tree-climbing expertise, Rusty looked over the cave wall and spotted a man lying in the next chamber. Lo and behold, it was missing movie director, what’s-his-full-name! Somehow, they got him out of the cave and onto dry land where an EMT squad appeared and prepared him for the hospital. Exactly how he was trapped or whether he had any kind of physical injury was never mentioned. Finally, a real mystery!
Mark told director what’s-his-full-name that he was not the only one getting rescued today. Mark condemned his harmful lion exploitation, so he was taking control of the animals. Mark will turn them over to animal rescue services, much to the consternation of director what’s-his-full-name. Still, I’m sad to discover that Sammy Spotter was not a criminal mastermind after all.
Looking ahead, I reckon 24 hours must be up by now, so we’ll soon find out what Cherry and Violet have done with the kittens before Mother Cheshire returns! Until then, lean back and enjoy some nature.
Mark invokes his inner “Batman” in this Rivera Revisit of bats. It seems Jules just can’t get enough of them. Was today’s strip inspired by Mark’s recent Catalina Island foray into a cave, or a homage to his earlier cave adventure under the pen of James Allen? Hard to say, but there’s a whole lot of other animals, plant life, and environmental issues out there to cover. There shouldn’t be any need to recycle Sunday topics at this point, given Rivera’s short turn at bat (did you catch my Rivera-inspired pun?).
Exactly how was Winget trapped? Couldn’t he have just climbed that wall and swim out? I reckon that if he had a broken limb (which was not suggested), the rescue team would have taken care of it. But they don’t look like they are wet, suggesting Mark somehow got Wingit out of the cave. Since they did not bring along any special equipment, Wingit must have avoided broken bones. Too bad Rivera did not illustrate that part of the rescue. But that falls in line with Rivera doing her best to avoid any scintilla of drama and suspense.
Next, were those lions really being exploited? After all, they seemed to be in good shape, had plenty of food, and the run of the mansion and its grounds. Doesn’t sound much different than a zoo.
Exactly how did Mark assume authority to commandeer the lions and decide their fate? For all we know, Wingit leased these lions from a local preserve, and they are going to want them back.
Finally, what about that envelope?
BONUS QUIZ! What’s “different” about Mark in panel 1? If you have the time, look closely!
The Daily Trail 