Throwing chairs and overturning tables? Really!? Didn’t take much. Sure, such things can happen, but it looks a bit extreme. These people could not have that much invested in these guys, right? I’d expect this kind of panic would be more likely if people were reacting to the Nasdaq Composite suddenly dropping 20%.
On the other hand, I could definitely see this reaction coming from amateur investors conned into sinking their savings into Cricket Bro’s AI project and seeing their retirement funds evaporate. In any event, it’s quite the drama going on at Cricket Bro’s digital soiree! Woo-hoo!
What will fill out the rest of the week? Will the crowd rush the Crypto Bros? Will they burn down the convention hall? Will they come after Mark, thinking he’s part of the scam?
Well, bust my buttons! Is Mark still in New York?! I thought for sure that the story had come to an end. The last we saw of this debacle (May 31st), the audience was on foot and heading to the exits after learning that a competitor’s AI was being given away for free. Yet, panel 4 shows a relaxed crowd of people (we presume) sitting around the table, as if nothing was going on.
But what’s with Sid stump sneaking away in panel 1, like some kind of animated sprite? His expression—from what we can tell—does not appear at a loss or in shock. Instead, he looks as if he is enjoying the chaos of the Crypto Bros as they see their project tank. Could he be secretly behind this “Free AI” announcement as a trick to ruin the Crypto Bros?
Art Dept. What’s with that head of Mark? His sharp, rectangular face has given way to a kind of middle-aged puffiness; unless he has stuffed his mouth with dinner. But his entire profile just does not look right; it lacks the straight, linearity that has characterized his profile. But this is not unique. There are so many fluctuations in his expressions and the shape of his head that it’s almost impossible to generalize.
What a week this was for Lost Forest race fans! The Grungey Boys Nighttime Lawn Mower Race was once again in progress. Hidden behind some bushes, Rusty, Olive, and family muscle, Dirk, were on hand to view the action. But they did not come as fans. This was the night Rusty would put an end to the destructive actions of the Grungey Boys in Lost Forest! You might say it was a race against slime. Or you might not. Just make up your mind.
Why it’s called a race is unclear, since there was always just one riding lawn mower, always ridden by Honest Ernest. And just how fast does a riding lawn mower go, anyway: 8 mph!?Woo! Do you get the impression that artist Jules Rivera may not be taking this adventure strip—or its readers—seriously?
Still, the race had to be stopped! Being a family strip, rest assured that nobody got hurt, unlike in the old Mark Trail days before Rivera took over. Back then, people really did get hurt and some died. They had a different notion of “family viewing.”
Anyway, Rusty came with a large barrel of water. When the time was right, the three tipped the barrel, pouring the water down the slope. Even though much of the water had to have gotten soaked up by the ground on the way down, apparently enough made it onto the forest floor where Ernest was racing. At first, the water just splashed as Ernest zipped along at 8 mph. But thanks to the scientific process of combining water, silt, and clay particles, the forest floor become saturated and squishy, creating mud. And that’s all it took to stop the races. Really! Honest Ernest and his friends were stymied by the mud and couldn’t figure out what to do. Not real sharp tools, those guys. We ended the week and this “Nickelodeon“-level adventure with Rusty celebrating the scientific success of his cause-and-effect plan. Keep in mind that, in the past, most of Rusty’s plans did not work out, so it’s noteworthy that this one did. But it was a low bar.
Up here in the big city, feral hogs chase away the rabbits and raccoons that keep eating up our garden…so they can eat it up, instead. Okay. Not really. But unless that is feral hog scat spelling Mark Trail in panel 1, it is not one of Rivera’s more creative custom titles. Had to be a tough challenge, though.
Okay, the miracle of the mud occurred, after all. Enough to ruin the evening for the Grungey Boys.
Moving on, I am amazed to see in panel 1 what looks like another misdirected dialog balloon. It shows Honest Ernest berating his companions for doing something only he has been doing! The content of the dialog balloon suggests that one of the other two dudes should be berating Ernest. I don’t get it.
Furthermore, how does grabbing your cap or covering your mouth help extricate this lawn mower from the mud, as Rivera states? We’ve seen text boxes in the past that describe actions that do not appear to be happening. I might be overthinking this or Rivera under-thought it.
Anyway, it’s Saturday, so it looks like this story has reached its climax. The Grungey Boys are no doubt too unsettled to realize they could simply make a new path or go some other place. But it’s a major win for Rusty Trail, even if his understanding of science is wrong. This victory will certainly help improve his otherwise poor win-loss record. By the way, say good-bye to Dirk. He’ll disappear like free beer at a ballpark. Such is his mysterious way.
Art. Dept Addition: Here is today’s installment, as it appears in the newspaper. Again, much appreciated increase in the use of actual tonal contrast over Rivera’s previous habit of just raw lines.
Olive comes through with a scientific solution. Good on her! It also helps that this “lawn mower” (of course, we’ve all noticed it never seems to have a blade beneath it) runs over the track more than once to help accelerate the mud production. So sure. Somehow enough of that water made it down through the grass and into the dirt to produce enough mud to bog down the mower. Well … why not. Let’s give Rusty a break for once. Will this really work? Wouldn’t Ernest just cut a new path around it? Wait, too much logical thinking here.
Art Dept. I do think the wet tracks forming in panel 1 are quite naturalistically presented. Not so much the ambiguous and sketchy scene in panel 3. At the same time, I’m continually amazed at how objects can get bigger or smaller for no apparent reason. The mower that Honest Ernest rides today is about half the size it was from yesterday (panel 1 for June 5). Perhaps an optical illusion based on the point of view, you think?
As for that panel 1 in yesterday’s strip, the overall concept is good, but the execution doesn’t match up. Look closely at Olive. I’ll wait …………… And are those three actually above Ernest? Or are they looking up from a hole or gully? That’s one of the challenges in drawing a bird’s eye scene like this: elevations are tricky. But some more line work or hatching might have helped better suggest the elevation.
Well, a lot of artistic license (andour expected imagination) went into today’s strip. As I feared, Rivera shows the trio taking the lazy and guaranteed-to-fail approach of pouring water from the top of the rise, down the slope, and into the path of the oncoming riding lawn mower. Instant mud bath? Forget it!
What a shock it must have been for them to see this pathetic and incompetent attempt produce nonegativeeffect on Honest Ernest at all. They’d have been better off pouring the water on Honest Ernest!
Art Dept. Very disappointed to see Rivera once again revert to her technique of drawing completely flat flora like that of a high-school play. I can hear you say: “At night, forms lose volume and definition!” To which I respond: “So what!?” Those sketchy lines barely resemble bushes and trees! Rivera could use a bit more of her artistic expression and add more definition so it at least looks like she cared.
And what do you think of the improbable sequencing of time and events going on here among the panels? Does it bother you?
The riding lawnmower is decently illustrated, even if it looks more like a riding lawn tractor to me. As if I’m an expert on lawn care.
Rusty’s devilish plan is revealed … to nobody’s surprise. I hope they brought along a lot of water barrels, because they’ll need a lot if they want to muddy enough ground to discourage the Grungey Boys’ hijinks. Maybe that’s why they got Dirk to come along, to carry those heavy barrels. Being the Family Muscle seems to be Dirk’s major role in the strip.
How long do they think this mud will last? I mean, it just rained a day or two ago, right? But the ground is just fine, now. So this doesn’t seem like the killer plan Rusty imagines. I’d have expected one of the adults in the room to pull Rusty aside and say something like “Rusty, you know all that mud you saw the other night? That was from a big rain storm. You think we can do the same thing with just a few barrels of water? Nah! We’d probably get better results by stretching a muddy clothesline across the path, about chest-high. Better yet, we come back during the day, dig a big hole, fill it with mud, then cover it with sticks, leaves, and dirt. At night, they might not notice it until they are falling in.”
A tip of the grungy cap to regular reader Be Ware of Eve Hill for her rapid, multiple-post catchup. Unlike other blog lords, I do not demand constant and unconditional obeisance. I recognize that—for some reason or another—there are occasionally more important priorities than your daily dose of The Daily Trail. “As long as you return.” (Read that statement in the low, dramatic voice of James Earl Jones.)
I’m still confused how this is a “race”, unless they are doing individual time trials. On the other hand, it sure doesn’t take much to entertain these dudes, does it!? Their motivation still eludes me.
It would be easy to nitpick various contradictions in today’s strip. The Bigger Picture, however is that Dirkis here! He’s becoming increasingly pulled out of his self-imposed isolationist/survivalist compound to get involved in family affairs. He’s getting more face time than Doc Davis!
If you manage to remember when Rivera last focused on this adventure, Rusty had come up with an idea to discourage the Grungey Boy’s races and save the forest. I’m not exactly sure how it will be done, and I don’t want to muddy the waters with a lot of tomfool guesses, so tune in tomorrow.
Art Dept. Although I often find heavy outlining of characters distracting, I admit that Rivera’s use of outlining in panel 3 greatly reinforces the naturalism and enjoyment of the foreground figures. In some ways, the trio has the look of a woodcut, through their bold lines, straight-line hatching, and solid forms. Compare them to the images in panel 4 or even panel 1.
Panel 4, with its raised point of view, has a totally different feel to it. Perhaps the raised position of the three not only projects a commanding overview, but also implies their assurance of success. Then again, maybe I’m getting flashbacks to the Wizard of Oz film scene where Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion are spying on the guards at the Wicked Witch’s castle.
For those coming in late, the “Grungy Boys” are middle-age delinquents with a fascination for causing destruction in Lost Forest. Head Grungey Boy in yellow, Honest Ernest, has fallen in stature over the years, from an optimistic ne’er-do-well with a business and a wife, to a divorced loser with a revenge chip on his shoulder against the entire Trail family. The guy with the Richard Simmons haircut is Connor, a whiny incompetent who got into trouble after following a fake survival book by fraudster Tad Sass. Connor was rescued by Mark and Rusty, but became a major headache in Mark’s doomed fishing survival class. The third member (panel 1) is an anonymous goof with a funny mouth and cap.
For some reason, Jules Rivera calls this action a demolition derby. It was originally explained as a race. Yet in neither case is there ever more than one riding lawn mower present. Yeah, don’t look for the logic.
We can expect some action coming up from Rusty and his aunt, Olive Pitt, who have been trying to find a way to stop the Grungey Boys from damaging Lost Forest.
In case you missed some or most of the past week, I’m here to catch you up. Such is my mandate for Sundays.
Mark managed to get an invite from Kelly Welly to Cricket Bro’s phony AI awards event to drum up donor participation, even though we missed the details of how Mark managed the invite, given Kelly’s rival nature. It would have been fun to see, and I can only imagine what transpired. Wait: This is a family strip, right? Then I have no idea. For some reason, Jules Rivera kept those details sub rosa. That should have been worth an entire week of strips!
Throughout the week, Mark was cynical and snarky. Kelly fumed and tried to shush Mark.
As Cricket Bro gave Sid Stump his “surprise” award for Best in Show, a donor guest stood up and blurted out somebody texted that another company was giving away a free AI platform. Bro and Stump froze like proverbial deer in headlights, because this unexpected announcement undercut their scam for donor contributions. They couldn’t stop everybody from leaving with their money intact and no doubt downloading the free AI on the way home. Mark laughed and Kelly Welly—in one of her better performances—started tearing out her hair in shock and frustration. That was on Saturday, and worth your time to view.
Mark gave out with one of his glib snarks, which should mark the end of this adventure. One thing is for sure: We learned next to nothing about AI and the environment.
First of all, the “Crickets are land shrimp” statement is an in-joke. This phrase originated in Jules Rivera’s lead-up to her second Mark Trail adventure (“LA Confidential”), when Mark told Rusty that Crickets were Land Shrimp (March 2021). In the story, Mark’s comment was put in a “BikBok” post by Rusty, which gave Mark 15 minutes of notoriety and an assignment in Palm Springs. Since then, “crickets are land shrimp” has become something of an in-strip meme.
Second point: I’m not a biologist. I did not do well in my college bio class, either, especially when I had to dissect a frog and discovered it was the brother of my pet frog, Oscar. Taxonomy is more complex than before, and still debated. The old Linnaean taxonomy tree has been recut and remade so many times, it makes Japanese bonsai trees look drab. Don’t take my word for this. Look it up!
Shrimp and crickets are certainly both crustaceans, and from what I’ve read, are considered more related to each other than earlier thought, but not siblings. That is, they have common ancestry, but exist in different taxonomic groups. Still, for poetic license, why not?
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