It was too good to be true, a hallucination brought on by an overoptimistic hope that Rivera might have finally attempted to deal with a serious issue in a serious manner. In the immortal words of the late, lamented thinker, John Belushi, “But, NOOOOOOOOOO!”

I reckon that Rivera just couldn’t handle the strain of changing her tune. Or maybe she did not care to. It seems that Mark Trail is destined to remain a simple parody strip of itself, dedicated to playing fast and loose with the strip’s traditional focus on nature, wildlife, and old fashioned values.

Some self-parody or even a bit of satire now and then is good. It shows humility. But here, it is more like a scratched record where the needle gets caught, repeating the same phrase, over, and over, and …. Maybe the paucity of traditional, serious adventure strips these days motivates Rivera and her syndicate to play Mark Trail more for laughs. But Mark Trail is sui generis, a one-of-a-kind strip with a tradition of focusing on nature and humanity’s relationship with it. And we already have a plethora of gag strips.