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Cricket Bro and Sid Stump cry, “AI, AI, Ohhhh!”

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Following long-standing tradition, we get to enjoy the site of Kelly Welly (panel 4) pulling her hair out in frustration at the realization that she once again backed the wrong horse. Jules Rivera actually did quite a good job drawing her! And we can enjoy seeing the schemes of Cricket Bro and Sid Stump come crashing down around their feet.

Rivera has resorted to one of her trademark story-ending memes, having Mark break the fourth wall to offer us readers a TV sitcom style retort. I think Rivera oversold the scene by putting Mark in the foreground. A funnier version would have been to show Mark still sitting at the table behind him and turning to talk to us, as Kelly simultaneously goes crazy. It would be like how Mel Brooks created an in-context fourth wall ending for Blazing Saddles, when Sheriff Bart and the Waco Kid got on their horses and rode out of town, dismounted, then got into a waiting limo to drive off into the sunset. Great scene and great movie!

Well, for those who came in late, this entire story is one of Rivera’s favorite tropes to satirize: The foibles, corruption, and jerks in the high tech industry. Investigating tech industry fraud or corruption (especially where it might have an impact on the environment), has been one of Mark’s most common plot devices since Rivera took over.

How do you compete with “Free”?

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Ah, the perils of comic strip continuity, where deadlines can be tight, especially when the surf’s up. So, maybe Jules Rivera was in a rush and forgot that Cricket Bro wasn’t the one getting the award (panel 1): In fact, he just presented it to Simon Stump two days ago! Was I the only one to catch this!?

But hold on, maybe Mark had a point, after all: This could make a great story about the exposure and downfall of Cricket Bro’s AI scam at the hands of a mysterious “Free AI” vendor. And wouldn’t it be great to have some real drama here, after all?

Now, who could be behind this unexpected crisis? Perhaps the enigmatic, faux professor, Bee Sharp. He and Cricket Bro are hardly pals at this point. Or maybe those two Florida manatee rescuers who discovered that Cricket Bro was behind the attempt to kidnap Max the Manatee as they were trying to save it (you recall the “Manatee Calamity” adventure, yes?).

Cricket Bro’s “AI” project is still nebulous and vague, like an Oort Cloud. In the real world, AI is hardly the one-size-fits-all tool it’s made out to be. People create AI applications for all kinds of fields and industries. Yeah, some of it is “free”, but much of it is not. The free stuff could just be some generic app people use to create cheap composite photos of themselves making out with their favorite movie star (Not that I would know anything about that). But that’s not where big money goes.

No surprise that comic strips usually don’t have the time or the bandwidth to get into the nitty-gritty of real-world tech. Rivera could’ve linked Cricket Bro’s AI product to something more specific, such as sustainability or healthcare, things relevant to this strip’s reason for existing. Yet, all we have at this point is some vague “AI” product.

Mr. Moneybags stands up all angry in panel 3 and demands answers, to which Rivera responded “Good Question” (in case we didn’t get it. I got it.). I can’t wait to see how Cricket Bro and Sid Stump handle this crisis. Maybe they can ask their AI app to produce an answer that will save their bacon and their scheme!

My goodness! The mashed potatoes gave birth to asparagus!

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Well, maybe I was wrong. Mark’s position yesterday was not simply a matter of artistic expression; Mark and Kelly Welly actually did change seats. Maybe Kelly wanted to have a better view of Cricket Bro, her boss. Perhaps she has some kind of idol worship, or she’s playing “His Gal, Friday” to the hilt.

Peevish Kelly Welly is justified for getting angry with Mark about his smartphone etiquette. Why does Rivera continue to make Mark act like a rube? Can the Mark Trail strip influence people to be more concerned about our world, its wildlife, and the environment if Mark can’t demonstrate enough respect for the people around him to mute or turn off his phone during an event?

Maybe that ship has sailed. I was in a public library today when I heard a phone ring across the way, breaking the silence. A woman carried on a conversation for several minutes, not bothering to talk softly, walk outside, or tell the caller to call back in an hour. And I wonder what fascinated Mark about a free AI engine, given his disdain for AI, block chains, crypto, etc. Perhaps his amazement is a realization that even more people will now play with AI, using ever more energy and creating ever more pollution. What Mark may not realize is that there are already several free AI programs available, even if they are limited versions of the full, paid products.

Cricket Bro gives Simon Stump a pointy piece of acrylic!

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Looking like a 1980’s toy superhero doll (panel 3), Cricket Bro hands out his phony AI awards at his fundraising event. Why Mark thought this was worth a story is unclear. Looks like Mark is thinking the same thing.

I noticed that neither Mark nor Kelly bothered to eat their pork chop and mashed potatoes. In fact, neither did Sid Stump! (panel 2) That food must be really bad, which is a crime. Anybody that ruins a good pork chop should be made to eat a bag of raw chia seeds.

To be transparent: I put that stuff about pork chops and chia in for my wife, who likes to use chia seeds but has little use for pork chops. Yet, I married her.

Art Dept. You’re probably looking at panel 4 and thinking “Did Mark and Kelly change seats?” It’s possible, but I think this is just another example of artistic license. It had to be difficult to pass up a strong composition like this, with Mark leaning on the dinner table, cynically bored. Mark’s pose is well designed to emphasize his mood.

Since Rivera likes to try putting jokes into these dailies and making Mark look like a goof, I’m surprised she passed up the obvious slapstick of having Mark accidentally lean his elbow in the mashed potatoes.

Addendum to May 27 2025: The B&W World of Mark Trail

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I posted this discussion separately, in order to focus on one visual aspect of Mark Trail: Jules Rivera’s increasing use of grays.

My regular post for 5/27/25 follows below. I’ve been noticing more and more the use of grays in the black & white newspaper version of Mark Trail. From a visual standpoint, this is a worthwhile improvement, as these mid-tones can help define volume, lighting, and even mood. Here is today’s strip as published in the usual “black & white” format of the newspaper. Compare it to the colorized version:

Do take into account that I’m photographing the strip with my phone, so there may be a certain loss of fidelity. Nevertheless, there shoujld be enough to clearly notice that Rivera is using grays to indicate basic contrasts between objects. In panel 1 a graduated gray pattern in the background helps establish the table lighting from the overall, darkened room. It is a mundane technique, of course, but given the stylized imagery that Rivera uses, adding mid-tones provides an improvement in the strip’s presentation.

Many strips today avoid shading, altogether, especially the majority of joke strips, where features such as tonality, volume, and mood may not be important.

However, even some continuity (dramatic) strips, where mood and lighting would seem more important, avoid tonality: Judge Parker is one example (click the images to see expanded versions):

On the other hand, For Better or For Worse will use overlapping blacks, whites, hatching and grayscale patterns to evoke a more sophisticated setting of light and mood:

The avoidance of “shading” is often justified because of the reduced size of the strips when published in newspapers and the fear that scenes and figures will blur together, giving a less inviting appearance to the readers. There is some merit to that position. Like grays, I think there is a middle ground that can be staked out, and we should be glad to see Mark Trail making inroads in this direction.

Is all this just BS? Pretentious academic-speak wasted on mere comic strips? Let me know.

The measure of greatness?

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Mark discovers that inventors, innovators, and charlatans do, indeed, hold fundraising events under different guises.

We humans are often easily fooled by tricks, trinkets, and glitz, meant to define greatness: a piece of parchment on the wall, a hulk throwing a designated bad guy out of the wrestling rink, or somebody waving a hat and declaring themselves to be great. Or maybe it’s the concept and promise of greatness, itself, a vague aspirational statement that could be taken in different ways, but never clearly explained.

The cartoonish notion of self-aggrandizement is on full display here, not that it is anything new. Kelly Welly, Cricket Bro’s designated sycophant, provides the usual cover for his phony status the same way we’ve seen in other places, both real or fictional. It is odd, given that Kelly is supposed to be a professional reporter. I suppose money talks big when it has to.

It’s one thing for Jules Rivera to let Kelly lord it over Mark once in a while, especially as she almost always came up short in the pre-Rivera incarnation of the strip. Yet it’s another thing to portray Kelly as some kind true believer, stifling any opposition to Cricket Bro with empty accolades.

Art Dept. If you have been looking closely, have you noticed strange distortions of scale between figures in the panels? Or even next to each other? For example, Kelly’s figure in panel 1 looks positively childlike in size compared to Mark. The mannequins in panel 3, between Mark and Cricket Bro, also seem out of proportion to the rest of the people in the scene.

Anybody want to hazard a guess who the old gent in panel 1 resembles? May not be the same person, but a brother or close cousin. The first fifty correct responders will be accorded the status of “Great in your own mind!”

Mark demonstrates how to be a bore!

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It would have been fun to see Mark grovel before Kelly Welly. I wonder what he had to do or give in order for her to agree? From the looks of things, she still doesn’t look terribly happy. It’s understandable.

Well, few people can send others running for the exits like Mark can. It’s a good thing Mark was not trying to make time with Vera or Kelly Welly. Who could resist a man in a sports coat, lumberjack shirt, and bow tie, talking about shark eggs, and holding onto his lapels as if he thinks it makes him look sophisticated? No ego, there, I’m sure (panel 2).

I wonder if he’s wearing hiking boots.  Mark certainly looks like the country cousin in the big city in panel 1. Was this a deliberate action by Jules Rivera to poke fun at Trail? She does like to make him look out of place or silly. Rivera has employed this trick more than once (e.g. 4/20/21-4/21/21, 8/8/22).

I might be stretching a bit (and it hurts), but it looks like Cricket Bro brought along as his “plus-one” Holly Folly, the “lifestyle influencer” and Professor Bee Sharp’s companion at the faux STEM Retreat of Simon Stump (“Bear Necessity”, 2023).

Art Dept. The decorative images of people painted on the rear wall (panel 1) build an illusion of more attendees. Nice! … Wait. Are they actually supposed to be real people at the event?

Note: I forgot to publish the May 13, 2025 blog, so you can all scroll back there and fill in the missing space of your Mark Trail Awareness!

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Have we learned anything substantive about AI and the environment in this story? Not much, but like many of Mark’s adventures, environmental education takes second place to the story.

After Mark’s participation in a stacked panel discussion on the merits of AI and the environment, Mark placed a short catchup call with Cherry. Outside of a local Manhattan coffee shop, Mark introduced himself to a woman named Vera, who offered him her unwanted Cricket Protein bar (Don’t get ahead of me!). In any other story, this could have been the opening shot of a seduction attempt. But not in this strip! Turns out Vera is the “handler” for Simon Stump, as in keeping him in line.

It didn’t take much to get Vera to start dissing the “tech gurus” for their shallowness and greed. She didn’t mind dishing the dirt on Simon. Vera might be clearheaded and organized, but probably not the person to hire for a position dealing with confidential information.

As Mark and Vera sat around chatting, she told Mark about an upcoming awards ceremony, which was really a vanity showcase and fundraising event. Thinking that there might be a story to be found there, Mark asked how to get in. Vera suggested hitting up Kelly Welly. This left Mark conflicted, given their rivalry and her position on Cricket Bro’s staff. Of course, this will not likely stop Mark from asking. And that’s the week!

An interesting topic, with a not-so-interesting finale. Is Mark is hinting at some kind of shark pup song in the last panel? In fact, there is a well-known (to parents and toddlers), if repetitive ditty unsurprisingly called “Baby Shark”. I’ll leave it to you to look up.

Oh, here are some other interesting facts about mommy sharks and baby sharks: Some mommy sharks have gestation periods over a year, such as Dogfish sharks (2 yrs) and Frilled sharks (3 yrs). Blue sharks and Whale sharks can give birth to more than 100 live pups at a time. Many sharks only birth a few at a time.  Sand Tiger sharks hatch the eggs of their pups while still inside their uterus. For nourishment, the hatchling pups feast on any unfertilized eggs as well as not-yet-hatched fertilized eggs! So, sleeping in late can have fatal consequences!

Mark won’t admit that he likes staying in Manhattan.

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Vera sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders. And if she had an invitation that allows a guest, she’s clearly wise enough to not let Mark know about it. Mark, on the other hand…. As for this awards show being an opportunity for another article, perhaps what Mark just smells is his Cricket Protein Bar.

Like the other female bit players that show up in this rebooted series from time to time, Very does not try to seduce Mark the way women did in the pre-Rivera days. The “pre-Rivera Mark Trail” was not only immune to these advances, but openly hostile to them. The current Mark Trail shares the same disinterest, and it seems the feeling is mutual.

I don’t wish to get political here, but I wonder what Mark meant when he said to himself “…I have to ask Kelly Welly to be their plus-one?” Was this a slip of the pen or an indication that Kelly has adopted third person personal pronouns? If so, they hasn’t said anything about it.

Mark gets sidetracked once again

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Wait. Vera said that AI doesn’t make money by itself. But then continued on about raising “investor cash”, which we all know means R&D.  But that is different from AI generating income. Which is it, then? That could help explain why she isn’t one of the tech moguls.

So why would Mark (channeling a character in Dickens’ Nicholas Nickelby by exclaiming “Gadzooks!”) want to stick around for an AI award show? He doesn’t even like AI! Furthermore, his assignment is over.

“Don’t move, Rocky! Just keep those paws where I can see them!”

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Okay, we have more clarification. This Vera character is some kind of go-between or minder for Simon Stump to keep him out of trouble, one assumes. Or does she mean “handler” as in Fixer? So who would Vera report to?  It would have to be Cricket Bro. If Stump is also part of Cricket Bro’s company, what is his role? Perhaps this current assignment is not over at all, but has entered a second phase. Then well done, Rivera, for the misdirection!

Exactly where is this coffee shop in New York? With all of the flora in the area, it doesn’t seem to match the real location of the shop in lower Manhattan.

Art Dept. That bear in Mark’s mental flashback (panel 3) looks a lot more menacing and naturalistic than the cartoony bear that actually appeared two years ago in the story that introduced Sid Stump (“Bear Necessities”). Evidently, Rivera has access to better reference images these days.

Breaking news:  Cricket Bro uses steroids. Mark Trail is gobsmacked!

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I’m not sure what is more cringeworthy: Mark with his nose bent out of shape as he stands on his moral high ground sputtering on about steroids, or Rivera with her attempt to reach Millennials and Gen Z’ers by involving this hipster who apparently works for Cricket Bro’s organization and talks the talk.

Anyway, I’m surprised Mark accepted her gift. I’d have thought Mark would eat crickets in their normal state, not pulverized into an energy bar.

The storyline still isn’t going anywhere. Is Mark going to get dragged back into Cricket Bro’s business? Or will Kelly Welly show up in the next few minutes to commit Mark to some other foolish action?

The post-assignment consolation

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Clearly, it seems more and more that Rivera is drawing the wrong strip. She is so fascinated with the “comic” element of comic strips that she can hardly resist the daily gag format, which would be fine in a comic strip that is supposed to be comical; not when it is unintentionally comical, like when Mark’s smartphone changes size from panel 2 to panel 4. Or with Cherry apparently talking to the squirrel. Or when the cabin keeps changing dimensions and adding new features never before seen, like the balcony in panel 1. Where did that come from? Is there a new second floor? And finally, we get the common Rivera pun in panel 4. If Rivera is going to keep doing this Pearls Before Swine pun gimmick, there needs to be somebody in panel 4 waving a club in Mark’s direction.

In any event, we seem to be in the usual week-long, post-story autopsy that follows on the end of an adventure (and I use that term loosely). Since Mark was on an official assignment, we should expect Mark to check in with Bill Ellis before this week ends.

Perish forbid that you would think like I do, but I hope we’d agree that Rivera has dropped the ball on one of her more interesting contributions to the Mark Trail reboot:  The magazine empire that Bill Ellis now works for, with a variety of different magazines having different editors. They provided the assignments for Mark, rather than just Bill. The diversity of magazines with different reader interests should have made for some interesting assignments. Rivera tried this for a few years, but seems to have dropped it. Now we’re back to Bill Ellis handing out assignments <yawn!>. I’d like to be wrong on that.

Mark is feeling down and out in NYC.

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There is—or was—actually a place called the Green Room Café in Midtown East, Manhattan, but data says it is permanently closed. There are several other places in the City that have “Green Room” as part of their name, but I’m not sure if they are connected with each other. If anybody can clear this up, feel free to share that information in a comment.

Wait! The caption in panel 1 says that Mark is inside the Green Room Café. If that is the case, then is all of that greenery just a wall mural?

Yet, Mark is desperate for the outdoors. He finished his roundtable talk and should be free to fly home. Why isn’t he?

We get to watch Mark manually dislocate his head in panel 1. And I’m struck by the irony of his plea in panel 2. Mark moans over concrete, but the building behind him is brick. And there seems to be a good bit of greenery right beside where he is standing, with a big (gray?) squirrel checking him out. Unless that is just a mural, as I noted above.

As for asking Cherry to turn her phone camera around? Is Mark really interested in trees now or whether any water heater dudes are just hanging around? I suspect that this phone call is just an excuse to check up on Cherry to see if she is still deeply involved with the water heater project.

<AAGH! I must resist having these disreputable thoughts. That’s what comes from staying up too late.> In any event, we are glad to see that Cherry knows how to get her snark on, as she gently needles Mark. That’s a pun, folks. Get it? Pine Tree, pine needles, needle. HAH! Rivera missed that one!

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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You say you didn’t get to the strips this past week but want to catch up by spending your Sunday reading about them? Well, sit back, because I’m your huckleberry!

In the fast-paced world of Mark Trail, we have occasion to find solace in the bucolic, casual pace of life in Lost Forest. As has been the habit in Mark Trail stories for decades, as Mark’s adventure (in New York City, the own that never sleeps) came to an end, we immediately jumped back to Lost Forest (the town that never wakes up). The loose storyline of Rusty and Cherry’s sister, Olive Pitt, getting involved in stopping the hijinks of the Grungey Boys latest outrage continued. They have been holding riding lawnmower races in the woods. Rusty is upset at the possible damage to the forest and wildlife.

Because Cherry was heavily involved in overseeing the installation of a new water heater (as if this should take days!), she had no time to fix a proper dinner. So she whipped up some “pizza bites.” At the dinner table, Rusty was preoccupied with how to stop the Grungey Boys, but Mother Cherry tried to redirect his attention to “kids activities.” Typical mom.

Later that night a rainfall turned the ground muddy and gave Rusty an idea. Rusty brought up the idea of mud with Aunt Olive the following morning. So, what is this muddy plan to stop the Grungey Boys’ races? Alas, we may have to wait a fortnight to find out, in case we jump right back to Mark for a few weeks. Well, don’t look at me: This is Mark’s strip!

As usual, Rivera created a customized title panel that works pretty well this week. On the other hand, the content is nice, but simple. I don’t know why the duck in panel 4 has a heavy outline. Is it to reinforce the spatial separation from the mother duck and chicks in the background? Well, it makes the male duck look flat.

I’m not sure if it is worth noting, but the colorful plumage of wood ducks is limited to the males, as it is for many other bird species. That’s for mating purposes, of course. It’s curious that we humans turned that around and made women the traditional “attracting” gender. Although the wood duck population has increased over recent years, it is the second most hunted duck species, after mallards.

“I got an idea, Olive! Let’s turn Lost Forest into a swamp!”

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Ah, another one of Rivera’s “To be continued” signs in panel 4. You might normally think this signals a break in the continuity. The standard Mark Trail Mix is one week for the Second String (Cherry, Rusty, or Doc) and then at least two weeks for Mark. The times I recall her using this sign, the same storyline continued the following Monday. But this is a secondary storyline, so maybe we’ll see Mark on Monday.

As for this current storyline, at least we have some movement. Since both Olive and Rusty have backpacks on, it seems likely they are going on another forest walkabout, which fits in with Rusty’s plan.

If we switch back to Mark, we’ll also have a week of Mark and Cherry hiking around the forest or yakking before he gets involved in another assignment or story. Hey, maybe Mark will get involved in Rusty’s scheme, just like he did with the Grungey Boy’s first appearance (“Thanks-alotl for the E-Waste”).

Rusty finds a natural ally!

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Okay, maybe I was too optimistic when I saw that “The Forest needs a hero!” oath roaring out of Rusty’s mouth a few days ago. Alas, Rusty is not Robin, the Boy Wonder or Bilbo Baggins; just an 11 year-old kid with a vivid imagination and a developing sense of right and wrong. It’s not a bad combination to have. But he doesn’t have the experience or maturity to know what to do with it. It’s not a fault. He’s trying.

But I don’t think we can look forward to Rusty creating clever traps in the forest like Macaulay Culkin did in Home Alone, playing the incredibly inventive kid, Kevin, who could put together funny traps and pratfalls faster than Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland could assemble a fully decked out stage show from items found in a barn. Over the weekend.

One question on somebody’s mind out there is likely to be “Will the Grungey boys act even stupider than Rusty thinks, and try to hold their lawnmower races on wet, sloppy ground?” My response would be “Have you ever seen a demolition derby?”

Extra: Have you been “following” or “enduring” the on-again, off-again, on-again adventure strip “Mara Llave: Keeper of Time“? Well, seems like Mara ran out of time, as the strip has disappeared from the Comics Kingdom web site, after 3 years of erratic submissions, dropped storylines, and ever-changing art styles. Too bad, as the premise was interesting, though a clear offshoot of Dr. Who.

The ground outside isn’t the only thing getting dampened!

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Alas, Rusty’s fighting spirit has already begun to wither. So sad. But not to worry. Mother Cherry steps in to soothe Rusty’s despair with her patronizing remarks and foolish fibs, like Parson Weems’ made up morality stories about George Washington.

Maybe if Rusty eats some more pizza bites…? Naw, he doesn’t need more pizzas, he needs more pizazz!

Rusty gets his moxie going. Cherry apparently watched too much “Leave it to Beaver.”

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This is another “one of those days” when you have to wonder who is drawing the strip. Rivera’s style is already pretty stylized and expressionistic. However, what we see here is a different order, a different style in some respects.

Even some of our popular critics will have to admit the drawings of Cherry look like somebody trying to draw like Jules Rivera and not pulling it off. Each attempt at Cherry is more garish than the previous one. About the only thing that comes off looking normal is Rusty in panels 3 and 4. However, I don’t think we’ve seen such a highly motivated, aggressive Rusty before.

Rusty may sound like a cheap action movie trailer in panel 4, but I’m okay with that, if he can deliver the goods. So far, he hasn’t shown much ability in that department, but I’m going to give him the benefit of a doubt. Maybe Rusty has found his calling and will try to do what the hapless and hopeless Ranger Shaw cannot do.

That’s some balanced meal there, Cherry!

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OOPS! I found this blog for 5/13/25 in my draft folder. Not sure how it got there; I was sure I published it. So much for being sure.

Cherry’s been busy with the water heater drama? Doing what!?  Unlike the “Snarkey Boys” (the commenters) over on CK, I’ll resist the obvious double-entendres. Yet the question remains. Duke has his own crew there, and unless she is fixing meals and running to the hardware store for parts, I don’t get it. Maybe she is one of those home owners who feel they need to supervise the hired help to ensure they don’t steal the family silver or take 3-hour lunches on the clock.

Do you suppose the yellow stuff on those bites is meant to be cheese? Hmm. That might help explain why we don’t see Doc Davis around the dinner table very often. Well, I’m hoping that this story gets off the dinner table real soon and back on the road!

Art Dept. Once again, Rivera employs a “Here’s looking at you, Trailheads!” posed animal. Readers have long argued over the purpose of these staged poses: Is the animal surprised by us “intruding” into its comfort zone? Is the animal somehow communicating a cynical comment about the strip or about us readers? Or is it possible that Rivera is just messing with us for no particular reason? I see a college paper in the works here.