Is Mark talking for our benefit (as opposed to using standard thought balloons) or is he recording this for his blog site? Let’s give Mark some points for deciding to blend in a bit by wearing a summer jacket. At least we know that Mark actually is capable of modifying his attire when needed. Oh, there was that time when he sported cowboy boots, a kerchief, and Stetson hat to trick out his lumberjack attire.
So, Mark discovered The High Line elevated walkway in West Manhattan. Good for him! We can see in panel 2 and panel 3 that Mark must be very impressed by the walkway, given those elaborate triple emenata lines extending above his head. I wonder how he’ll react if he goes far enough north and discovers Central Park?
Action a-plenty this past week! Mark flew into the Big Apple, impressed and overwhelmed by the city’s size and activity. Mark took on a kind of “country cousin goes to the Big City” persona. Strange.
In the airport, Mark continued to be amazed and dismayed by the crowds and the noise. His anxiety cleared up upon hearing a callout: “Someone help! Is there a nature expert in the house?” The words were music to Mark’s strained ears. He navigated around the milling crowd of passengers to make his way to the caller. There he saw a raccoon hanging on a cord from the airport’s ceiling!
It’s a bit confusing at this point regarding the number of people involved. Hair colors kept changing, as did clothing. It’s possible these were airport skycaps, as regular reader Daniel P. suggested; or maybe animal control staff; or maybe a mix of “security” people and others. Take your pick. Also, one person was holding a cage!
As Mark approached, the raccoon fell to the floor and started running towards the cage. Along the way, the raccoon jumped up and snatched some airline peanuts that Mark apparently was holding. Then he ran into the cage. Mark was no actual help, but he also spent no time finding out what actually was going on. He just walked on! Seems odd behavior to me. Regular reader, Mark “the Contrarian Commenter”, testified that “…it appears the past 3 days the dialog and artwork is more legible,” and thought maybe a ghost artist was filling in for Rivera. That’s quite a positive comment from Mark! So, what do you think? There is certainly a brighter tone and mood, perhaps contrasting with Mark’s earlier dark mood and the darker hues seen in the first several strips this past week.
Rivera sneaks in a subtle comment on immigration into today’s nature strip dealing with pigeons. I’m afraid I’m too dense to figure out the point or significance of the special typography of the title in panel 1. Any ideas? But as she often does, Rivera links the nature subject to the locality of Mark’s current story. From what I’ve read, pigeons use a variety of navigation techniques, in addition to sensing magnetic fields. But I have no idea what “Bungle the air” means (panel 5). Do you?
Well, I reckon regular reader Daniel P. and I were both wrong. Those uniformed individuals look to be animal control officers. At least, that’s what I’m going with, since who else would have a cage on hand? On the other hand, why would two—presumably trained—animal control officers need assistance? Some questions just can’t be answered, like some punchlines (panel 4) shouldn’t be delivered.
Art Dept. Well, today has to be a first. Has anybody ever seen a full-face image of Mark? I certainly don’t mean the common three-quarter faces we usually see, but an actual look-in-the-mirror face (panel 2). Let me know when and where, if you recall. I also don’t mean background occurrences, either. It has to be a foreground, “portrait”-sized image.
Mark’s full-face is a bit dodgy, as the mouth slants while the jaw remains centered. Still, this face breaks new ground in another way, as Mark “breaks the fourth wall” and appears to interact directly with us, his readers. This fourth wall narrative technique goes back at least to ancient Greek tragedy, with its Chorus being the narrator to the audience. The technique has been used ever since, in theater, movies, and animated cartoons.
But I think one of the most inventive uses of this “break the fourth wall” narration technique was in the early seasons of The Burns and Allen TV show (1950 on). George Burns would sometimes literally step out of the set (or stand in front of it) and talk to the live audience about the episode in progress. Then he would walk back into the show. You can find episodes on YouTube. If you are lucky, you might find an episode or two where Burns goes upstairs in his garage to turn on his TV and watch some of the very show he is in. Genius! It was just surreal.
Sometimes you read a story so amazing you just have to sit down (or stand up), take a deep breath, and ask somebody to slap you upside the head to see if you are dreaming. Then again, in this episode we are supposed to accept the fact that a raccoon supposedly found its way into an airport, located an opening in the drop-ceiling, and decided to swing on some of the electrical wiring. Until it fell.
Then the raccoon illogically decided to run towards a cage that just happened to be available, while at the same time stealing some airline peanuts from the hand of Mark, en passant. Well of course, Mark just happened to have them (Never mind that airlines have not served peanuts on flights since 2011 because of peanut allergies and the fear of massive lawsuits). And then the raccoon continued towards the cage trap, rather than skedaddling away.
Sounds incredible? Ludicrous? Far-fetched? Well, let’s remember that Jules Rivera’s Mark Trail strip is more absurdist comedy than drama; more Crocodile Dundee than Steve Irwin: Crocodile Hunter.
Well sure, this could turn out to be a raccoon that escaped from this very cage. But would that be just too conventional? Too predictable? Too “Ed Dodd”?
Art Dept. And furthermore, I think that Rivera’s art is not designed this way because of her inability to mimic Ed Dodd; but rather, to support the absurdist comedy of her writing (whatever we think of it). It seems to me that Rivera’s irreverent tone is designed to attract younger people to better help spread an appreciation of nature in a way that the Original Style can no longer do.
Hoo-boy, don’t we have a chestful of fun today!? Continuing from yesterday, a shout for a Nature Expert brings Mark out of his stupor and off to the rescue. Of a raccoon. I find it terribly interesting that Rivera chooses to show Mark simultaneously in different places. In panel 1 Mark is just a few feet away from the raccoon, or aroughcun,as the Powhatan tribe used to call it. Yet in panel 3, Mark is in full running form to reach the hanging mammal.
Of course, this is one of those curious coincidences that almost always occurs on TV shows and movies, where a character gets to (or has to) use a special set of skills to resolve the immediate situation. You know what I mean, like when a loser bursts into the corner grocery to rob it while a police detective happens to be checking out the Charmin in aisle 2.
Yet,I am confused: Just which direction is the raccoon? Is he to the left of Mark (panel 1), the right (panel 2), or across the terminal (panel 3)? Could just be me, as I’m still gobsmacked by Mark’s curious use of antique phrases.
No, wait. Really! I’m sure there’s a perfectly valid reason that somebody in a blue uniform (a cop?) in Manhattan would suddenly yell out to the crowd for a “nature expert.” It must have happened at one time or another, right? Well, here is one possible scenario:
Perhaps a fellow traveler spotted a wounded monarch butterfly on the pavement and prepared to step on it, but a policeman intervened and stopped the stomp. Wanting to be sure of his actions, the cop calls for a nature expert to advise whether the butterfly is a Federally Protected Species.
So, we have an out-of-town country woodsman in the Big Apple rendering assistance to unenlightened city folk. Maybe Mark could get a movie deal or TV series out of this!
Well, Mark, you might feel more comfortable if you were not dressed like a lumberjack. Perhaps normal “city clothes” would help you fit in.
In your pre-Rivera days, Mark, you used to wear a jacket and tie when the situation warranted. Now, you always look like a walking advertisement for L.L. Bean.
I suppose we should take Rivera’s occasional hints more seriously and consider that these stories are from the early days of Mark’s journalistic career, before he became a seasoned world traveler and world-famous nature reporter. That might also account for a lot of the poor humor.
Wow! Mark actually flies into New York City! Gawrsh! That’s some dramatic opening narrative you wrote there, Rivera. You betcha! There are so many exclamation points today that it gave me flashbacks to the writing in the former Mark Trail!
Also, please notice that I’m taking the high road in my post and avoiding the bad jokes and questionable references that are probably floating around in your heads. And mine.
But gee whiz! How much of a hillbilly can Rivera make Mark appear to be? It’s like he’s never traveled to any place where people stay up after 10:00 PM. Next thing we’ll learn is how amazed Mark is to find indoor plumbing in his hotel room.
But let’s face it: This is really just more time-killing, mind-numbingfiller. What’s the point, anyway? Is Rivera paid by the word, like Dickens? Or is she paid by the strip, so she keeps throwing in pointless submissions instead of developing a better storyline?
Art Dept. Okay, who can figure out the logic of the weirdly changing altitudes of the plane? The anatomically-challenged picture of Mark in panel 2 offers nothing new but might be worth a few words.
Olive and Rusty returned from their successful altercation with the Grungy Boys, only to get a tongue-lashing from Mark and Cherry, who don’t like other people infringing on their right to give beat-downs to local bums and bastards. After that, Duke the Plumber arrived and told them to prepare to sign over their retirement accounts to pay for a new water heater. While all of this was taking place, Mark was preparing to head out to New York for that AI conference he reluctantly agreed to speak at.
It took eight panels for Mark and Cherry to get their Goodbyes done so he could fly out. Regular reader Daniel Pellissier noticed a squirrel in the last panel, apparently holding a stick or club. Daniel’s comment was that the squirrel would use it on Mark and Cherry if they didn’t finally break it up so the story could take off, so to speak. That’s how I took his comment, anyway. And that was the week.
Raccoons certainly are a bloody nuisance. Even some of my family members seem to think it is okay to leave food for them. I finally got my dad, at least, to quit leaving food scraps for them down by the ditch. It was starting to look like a raccoon convention!
The last panel is, alas, another attempt at humor, wasting a panel for what could have been additional helpful information. Besides, it’s a non-sequitur. Any visit by a raccoon is unwelcome, regardless of the length of stay.
Sometimes I get the feeling that Rivera is parodying the saccharin “bon voyages” that Mark and Cherry exhibited in the pre-Rivera era, such as in this James Allen contribution:
But I’m not here today to compare the artistic approaches, though I’ll agree that Jules Rivera’s version of a kiss is certainly more of a cartoony smooch like you’d see in an episode of The Flintstones. Okay, maybe it’s not limited to just the kiss, either. The contrast is startling.
But cartoonist James Allen and his predecessors didn’t think it was necessary to spend/waste so much time on the usual Mark Trail’s Departure Scene as Rivera does. On the other hand, Cherry was certainly more of an old school, wifely worrywort before Rivera invigorated her.
Pre-Rivera, it used to be the case that Mark would say goodbye to Cherry on their porch, so getting driven to the airport these days at least gives us a bit more of what was most likely kept “behind the scenes.” Other than that, it’s kind of the same ol’ thing, except for Rivera’s humor.
Speaking of airports, for those of you coming in late: The “Tom Hill Airport” name is a reference to one of the earliest and best Mark Trail artists, who not only handled the earlier Sunday nature strips but also ghosted a lot of the dailies that had Jack Elrod’s name on them.
Anyway, I’m kind of surprised. This is the usual set of panels that I would expect to see published on a Saturday, as Rivera wraps up the prologue for the week. So, what will we see tomorrow? It occurred to me that it would be very interesting if Rivera would include a sequence of Mark trying to get through TSA Security. If there was ever a situation where humor and bad luck was called for, that would be it.
Four panels it takes for Mark to just say “Ok. You two handle it. I’m outta here!” And that is because Rivera again sacrifices plot for her distracting humor. At least Duke had the decency to actually inspect the water heater up close to confirm his initial long-range analysis!
Art Dept. I wonder if Rivera uses a “model sheet” for reference? That’s a page of images, poses, and expressions for each main character, referenced to ensure consistency. Panel 3, for example, gives the impression that Mark must be almost 7 feet tall, based on his arm. Or Cherry must have shrunk to 5 feet. Either way, it’s a bit disturbing. Even the figures seem awkward, as if standing around and posing.
Feel free to comment on my analysis or on the strip, itself.
Let me see if I understand this scenario: Duke the plumber (with his now-trimmed beard) arrives from the now-named De-Bait Team Fishing Club (formerly the De-Bait Team Fishing Lodge) and announces he brought along his plumbing supplies, as requested by Mark.
Why would Mark have to specifically request plumbing supplies? Did Duke bring his fishing equipment on a prior plumbing job?
But isn’t Duke just one of the in-house fishermen over at the Lodge, er, Club? Sure, but he’s not just a weekend plumber. He has his own business truck, as seen in the background, with the leaky shock absorber. Perhaps that is why Mark and Cherry are going to get stuck with a big bill.
Well, hypocrisy lives on in Lost Forest, and Cherry’s patronizing scold flies out of her mouth in panel 2. Apparently, only Mark has the proper moral authority and power to lay fist-to-face against any troublemaker in Lost Forest. That is, Mark’s and Cherry’s disapproving rebuke in panel 1 is ironic, given Mark’s penchant for getting into fights at the drop of a hat. As if Mark has never been arrested, either.
Cherry seems to treat Olive as a child. Clearly, Cherry’s opinion of her sisters is somewhat low: Danger! Danger! The woods are dangerous! And a short while ago, Cherry feared that Peach might have a problem locating the trash bin at the foot of the stairs. Seems to me that Olive handled herself quite well and put the Grungy Boys in their place. Is Mark jealous?
So, exactly how will Mark sort out any troublemakers? Five will get you ten that it involves some amount of physical argumentation. I don’t get this entire sequence. Since Olive was defending herself and Rusty, why should she fear getting arrested? Why are Mark and Cherry so uptight? Help me out here, people!
There was a book written in 1884 called Flatland, a satirical story where all life forms were geometric shapes. Today’s strip reminds me of the conceptual framework of that story, as the figures and landscape here look like overlapping flat planes. Panel 1 is the principal example, with Rivera’s common “stage prop” flora and weirdly formed figure of Mark. More on that, shortly.
So it is Monday as Rusty and Olive share their story with Mark. How will the rest of the week shape up? Mark’s own adventure will almost certainly not begin until next Monday. I’m not even sure I remember what it’s supposed to be. Wait … oh, yeah. Mark gives a talk to a tech conference in New York about the influence of AI on the environment. But will Rusty’s mention of the Grungy Boys throw a monkey wrench into Mark’s plans? Can he resist getting in a few more punches for old time’s sake? Can he ever think of another method of behavior modification?
Art Dept. Now, the image of Mark in panel 1 presents a common technique of “Starring Role overrules Nature.” For example, in movies where most of the characters would have to wear a hat, mask, or other facial obstruction because of a local condition, almost invariably the movie star’s head or face would be unobstructed, so as to be seen very clearly. Here, a “flattened” Mark greets Olive and Rusty, who are physically behind Mark; yet Mark faces us, while his eyes look sideways to suggest he is really facing them. Of course, in the real world, Mark would likely be facing the two arrivals, so we would see the back or 3/4 view of Mark. Why not just draw it that way, then? At the very least, Rivera could have drawn a more realistic image of Mark twisting his head back over his shoulder.
Sure, this is a nerdy bit of trivia that many readers may not notice or care about one way or the other. At least I’m not hitting Rivera for the disappearing ground behind the cabin.
A peaceful, bucolic day in Lost Forest revealed Rusty Trail and Olive (of the Florida Pitts) taking a peaceful, bucolic walk. But are they bird watching? Looking for Spring flowers? Taking soil samples to test for changes in soil nutrients? Uh, no. They are on another cryptid hunt.
Olive, an aunt who genuinely likes Rusty, played along until they heard a buzzing sound. When they went to investigate, they spied The Grungy Boys fooling around with a riding lawnmower in a clearing. Olive began recording their antics on her phone.
Honest Ernest, the chief Grungy, saw Olive and Rusty and became irritated. He approached the interlopers, demanding Olive’s phone so he could presumably erase the video. Honest Ernest claimed their activity was in protest of being arrested for breaking up office equipment in Lost Forest and leaving the debris behind.
Unfortunately, as Ernest tried to grab the phone, Olive, who has a long history of scrapping, planted a solid right cross that knocked Ernest off his feet. The hapless Stooges looked on in disbelief as she read to them from the Book of Olive.
I’m guessing this is a draft of Mark’s AI talk for the upcoming Cricket Bro Tech Convention in NYC. It’s a good start, at least. It has the added virtue of avoiding bad puns and jokes, and I think we can all appreciate that!
Not that I would promote violence for the sake of violence or even for the sake of ratings, but who can resist enjoying the sight of Honest Ernest taking a strong right to the face? I think we have to give Rivera “artistic license” for a right cross knocking Ernest’s head to the right instead of the left. Well, we just gotta see that face!
I’m glad to see that Olive has maintained her hard edge and isn’t afraid to stand up for herself. Of course, Rivera plays up Honest Ernest’s bullying and patronizing behavior for effect. With Olive and Peach now living in Lost Forest, this certainly changes the dynamics of the local cast. I hope.
As Honest Ernest implied, this situation certainly is something of a repeat performance of the situation illustrated in the adventure labeled as “Thanks-alotl for the E-Waste.” But there is some logic to this, as Ernest, himself, admits when he says they are just reacting to what happened to them before. In other words, this isn’t just a case of Rivera being too lazy to think up a new plot.
But to play Devil’s Advocate, are the Grungy Boys actually breaking any laws? Are they illegally destroying natural habitat? Or are they just horsing around on a riding lawnmower, like kids on ATVs? They don’t appear to be littering, in spite of Olive’s assertions in panel 4 of Friday’s strip.
Once again, I’m breaking tradition and will combine today’s strip with tomorrow’s into a single, hopefully more cohesive, post. Enjoy your day (or night) and see you tomorrow!
A recent display of Mark’s much vaunted Fists O’ Justice!
Hoo-boy! I didn’t see this one coming. I was prepared to dismiss the Wednesday strip as just more of the same. For the most part it is. But what was that BZZZ?
Well we found out today. It seems that the so-called Grungy Boys must be riding electric lawnmowers in Lost Forest. After all, gas-powered mowers don’t buzz, right!? Does this make the dudes green? Well, it’s hard to call this a race when only one person is riding.
Now, what’s with putting in the incompetent Grungy Boys once again as the vilains du jour? C’mon, Rivera! They are just wannabe 3 Stooges. Perhaps they are sufficiently “bad” for somebody of Rusty’s age and may just become the stock bad guys for his adventures.
Art Dept. When I first looked at Panel 1, I thought Rusty and Olive were looking down at elves because of the ridiculous disparity in proportions between them and the Grungy Boys. Ouch! Rivera could have chosen the viewpoint she employed in panel 3, where the same figures could have been depicted without the problematic proportional distortions.
But then I was amazed at how boneless the Grungy Boys are depicted! They look like the rubberized progeny of Gumby. It doesn’t help when they are also depicted as flat figures with no apparent volume.
Howdy Trailheads and other people who think that what was good in 1956 is still good enough for today Sorry, I have no commentary today because today’s strip is largely a repeat (continuation) of yesterday, but without any new information.
I’ll publish Wednesday’s and Thursday’s strips together. That will leave Friday and Saturday to close out the week, so I’ll likely post both of those days together, as well, unless something changes in the content.
Meanwhile, you can use your extra time wisely to read through as many earlier postings of mine as you can tolerate. Take notes if you wish, as I respect carefulness in others, though I have little of my own. Feel free to post your own comments (find the link) and put in your two-bits worth of your own on virtually any aspect of the comic strip or my writing. I don’t ask you to be kind, but I do ask you to be respectful, apolitical, and without words that would get your mouth washed out with soap by your parents.
The Daily Trail 