Home » Uncategorized » Rusty gets excited over a photo of a deer.

Rusty gets excited over a photo of a deer.

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Even if you grow up in a forest where you will likely see lots of deer, you can still appreciate an interesting photograph.

Anyway, it is problematic that Rivera just cannot decide whether Mark Trail should be a continuity strip or a joke-a-day strip, so she tries to merge both concepts. And usually fails. I’m sure there are ways to put humor into an otherwise “serious” adventure strip without resorting to a standard 3-panel joke format as Rivera often does. This isn’t Pearls Before Swine and Rivera doesn’t have Stephen Pastis’s chops for puns (good or bad).

I’m not sure this event qualifies as an actual story yet, though the general “plot” seems to be “The Grungey Boys are discovered messing around in Lost Forest on a riding lawnmower. Rusty and Olive take steps to report them to the forest rangers for further investigation and law enforcement.” If so, the story is almost already over.

Art Dept. It seems as if Rivera wants to at least give the impression that her animals are cut-and-pasted, as I’ve even stated, yesterday. But is it really just part of a possible “stick it to the Trailheads” agenda? If we examine that deer in panel 3, the uneven black border lines suggest a rather awkward cut-and-paste job. But check out the line under the belly of the deer and you’ll see it continues over top of the hind leg. So what’s the real purpose of these oddly shaped, heavy contours, if not part of a gag? Also, just whose cabin is that behind the deer? Is there a guest house that’s been hiding out of view at the Trail cabin all these years?

In other news: There was a lively discussion in the comments section yesterday about a possible future for Mark Trail; not that we have any control over that, of course. It was more a matter of what might be possible or desirable.

4 thoughts on “Rusty gets excited over a photo of a deer.”

  1. Doesn’t Olive already have video evidence against the Grungy Boys on her phone? How is gathering video evidence off a trail cam better?

    Rivera’s awkward cut-and-paste placement of the animals, like in the third panel, reminds me of the Colorforms™ toys I played with as a child. The toy featured vinyl cutouts of characters and shapes that you could stick on a board with a scene on its surface.

    At least Olive’s hair is consistently on the same side of her head today.

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    • The logic in the plot is wanting, to be sure. There can be a good reason, though I hesitate to fill in the gaps for Rivera, as that is her responsibility.

      Yeah, those colorforms were fun. And bravo for sticking in the ™ symbol! Just curious: Did you do it the “old school” (Alt key) or find an example to copy?

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      • Predicting a Rivera story arc seems to be an act of futility. I like what you and the others were discussing yesterday. Have Rivera create a spin-off covering the tales of Cherry and Rusty. That way, Rivera can stop besmirching the legacy of classic Mark Trail.

        Colorforms were fun. Too bad I can’t even remember what our Colorforms were. Superheroes like Batman and/or Superman? Winnie the Pooh? Mickey Mouse? Peanuts? As we age, the memory fades.😔

        ™ The old school method. I used Alt and 0153 on the number keypad.

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        • “The old school method. I used Alt and 0153 on the number keypad” Brava! Brava! (note that I use the Italian form, since you are female).

          The only colorforms I had were abstract geometric shapes. I think my younger siblings got some colorforms with actual figures, as you noted.

          Otherwise, I can’t recall if my memory has faded, alas.

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