Go ahead if you wish, and comment on the changing map topography in the first two panels. Maybe it’s a two-sided map. I don’t know. Or comment, if you desire, on how Mark aged between Panel 2 and Panel 4.

Well, will Mark and Happy start with the waterway alongside the resort for the first test? Could save a lot of time. Run several tests. If they come back negative, Mark owes the Cheddersons an apology. Then he’ll have to investigate the other sources. It would be a hoot for Mark to discover the pollution source was the Sunny Soleil Society! How would Cherry take that result!?

Speaking of maps, it would be kind of cool if Rivera produced an “official” map of Lost Forest, kind of like A.A. Milne’s map of the Hundred Acre Woods or Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Why not? None of the prior artists every produced one that I’m aware of. There is, as some of you know, an official “Mark Trail Wilderness” area along the Appalachian Trail in northeastern Georgia. It’s quite extensive, though I’ve never visited it. We don’t need a map quite that big, however; just the area around the Lost Forest community and its surroundings. Too bad E. H. Shephard is no longer around.

What was it that Ralph Kramdam used to wail after messing up once again on The Honeymooners? “Me and my biiig mouth!” Fine. I misread the tea leaves. I thought for sure that Saturday was the end of the story when Mark mentioned writing up an article with Happy. Reckon I should have waited for the dust-up to settle down.

It looks like we are moving into Part 3, in which actual work gets done. If that’s what happens, I’ll need to rejigger the story’s grade.

In any event, I’m anxious to see this investigative journalism get into gear.  Will they be checking online for filed paperwork and inspection reports? Will they wade into the river to take water samples by the resort to get analyzed by a proper lab (as opposed to going to Doc Davis)? Will they have to face off against the gator while they sneak around the resort grounds? Or does all of this palaver really just mean “Let’s write that article“, after all?

I’ve never seen an alligator yawn before. It’s an interesting sight, isn’t it? Well, he isn’t the only one …

But, wait! What’s all this father-son relationship jazz? Wasn’t there an entire family here? Or is that why the gator looks fatter than he did a few days ago? Yesterday I posited three possible reasons for this story. It seems that it really was about father-son bonding; or at least, that is what is turned into. Blech!

So now, Happy and Mark are going home, arm in arm, to write an article together. About their trip. If Kelly Welly was here, she’d probably throw golf balls at them for wasting this opportunity.

“You’re a nature journalist”, says Happy. Aren’t they the ones that write those Sunday newspaper articles about fishing for bigmouth bass with Gadabout Gaddis, hunting squirrels in the Big Woods, and taking Ol’ Blue duck hunting? But they leave actual investigative work to trained professionals.

Art Dept. You might think the giant speech balloon in panel 1 is another kind of narration box. But, no. The balloon’s tail runs up Happy Trail’s shirt, but was accidentally colored in. At first I thought Jules Rivera was satirizing the misplaced speech dialog trope of pre-Rivera Mark Trail.

What started out as an informal (that is, unpaid) investigation into local water contamination has turned into a contest of rivals to see who swings the biggest golf club. From here, it certainly looks like Rivera either lost track of the plot or simply jumped the tracks and went into a different direction. I’m only surprised (well, okay: disappointed) that the dads didn’t join in with the boys to have a more interesting and enjoyable four-way slugfest. Now that would have been an interesting sight. I think Rivera missed an opportunity for some real fun!

This being Thursday, there are still two days left in the week. What to do? That’s not really time enough to resolve this story, so there will be at least one more week. Will Rivera turn Mark back into an investigative reporter, skulking around the resort at night to get hard evidence? Will Happy Trail want to go along and relive his younger days of activist nature journalism? I’ve always wondered about Happy’s “been there, done that!” attitude, as if he simply got burned out from chasing poachers, kidnappers, arsonists, and weirdos and now wants to live out his life like a normal person, indifferent to the environment.

But maybe the Trails will just head back home and forget the whole thing, which may be what a lot of readers are doing, already. I really want to see some suspense and drama. Even for a little bit.

If I remain “in story mode”, then I blame Mark for creating this mess through his ham-fisted investigation, such as it was. Instead of going covert or at least subtle, Mark decided to confront the Cheddersons, head-on, without solid evidence.

If I look at this from an outside position, I have to wonder what Rivera had in mind moving the story in this direction. Is it getting us closer to uncovering the source of the pollution or has that already been “established” merely through Mark’s biased assumption? If Mark is satisfied the golf course is the source, shouldn’t either try to get them to clean it up or report them to the “proper authorities”?

Well, I might be asking too much. Maybe Mark will turn over his “evidence” to Ranger Shaw, who will once again hem and haw and hesitate, until Mark browbeats him into confessing that he got a free lifetime membership for looking the other way.

Mark Trail demonstrates another one of his well-known techniques on how to successfully investigate wrongdoing and solve a problem. Or maybe not.

As much as I don’t want to make this a pure snark-filled diatribe, I have to say this is pretty lame plotting; to say little of the dialog. There are a number of issues we can pick on, just today. I’m not sure I have the energy for all of it. So, I’ll pick one or two.

For one thing, it seems to be that, even now, Chet Chedderson has not made a single comment about his prior entanglements with Mark; and there have been two: the Zeeba Mussels story and the Bear Necessity story, where Chet had only a walk-on cameo at the start of the story. I’m wondering if he even remembers who Mark Trail is, and if that is a deliberate decision on Rivera’s part. That is to say, why would Rivera want to cause Chedderson to not recall Mark? Readers with better minds than mine may recall that the Bear Necessity story was when Jules Rivera made the unfortunate decision to change Mark’s face from sporting his stubbled beard to the tramp-like five o’clock shadow he now has.

The strip today reads more like comments on social media. Hey! Maybe that’s deliberate, since it’s become the standard for interpersonal communication, especially among the age group this rebooted strip is supposed to be aimed at.

Art Dept. Rivera continues to play on the “Like Father Like Son” trope, coming off like the parody she likely has in mind. And I think this is the first time we’ve actually seen a golf bag (panel 2). But more important than any of this (to me) is that I think Rivera drew this manually with pen and ink, rather than a her digital tablet. The lightness and variety of lines, and the unusual hatching on Brett’s face and especially in the tree behind Mark in panel 3 lead me to this conclusion. I’m not saying she’s using old Speedball or Gillotte nibs; it’s probably a set of technical pens with different line widths. Sorry, I’m just getting a bit too geeky here. But I’d like to see her stick to using these pens, as it might loosen up her drawing and make it more interesting. Again, I could be totally wrong. Digital tablets have come a long way since I last used them.