Home » 2025 (Page 5)

Yearly Archives: 2025

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

Posted on by

Mark’s salon of villains and troublemakers is relatively limited; less than a dozen over the past 5 years. Several have made multiple appearances:  Professor Bee Sharpe, Cricket Bro (and his brother, Jadsen), Senator Smalls, and Chet Chedderson come to mind. Now we can add Tess Tigress to that list with her second appearance.

With the power of a comic strip named after himself, Mark Trail ensured Bill Ellis would give him the assignment that Ellis originally wanted to assign to a female reporter. No complaint was provided from Bill Ellis, suggesting that Mark may have censored that part of the phone conversation. Or Ellis knew what was better for him and remained mum.

Mark began researching his subject: A trio of women on the lookout to kill wild pigs (or boars) destroying private property in Texas. When Mark discovered that the leader of the so-called Texas Hog Hunting Heroines was Tess Tigress—former owner of a fraudulent and abusive tiger petting zoo (also in Texas) and target of an earlier assignment of his—he was taken aback (as we used to say, before gobsmacked became fashionable).

At this point, the remainder of the week was spent with Mark moaning and explaining his reactions to Cherry. Now, she would have already known about Tess Tigress, because of Mark’s earlier assignment. But let’s give Jules Rivera some credit for using this week to review the background on Tess for the benefit of new readers (if any) and old people like me, with failing memories. Or you can call it story padding, as I earlier noted. This background could have been delivered in just a few days, rather than using the entire week. So, maybe it’s a little of both.

As is common for Sunday, Rivera picks a topic that is somehow related to the current storyline. In this case, the Chihuahuan Raven, which can be found in western Texas (as well as New Mexico and Mexico). Rivera provides the usual customized title panel, with the title nicely integrated into the tree. And, unfortunately, we have Rivera’s usual practice of dedicating the concluding panel to a weak joke, rather than giving more information on the raven. For example, the American Birding Association reports that misidentification is common between this bird and the common raven, even by birders. Go figure.

What else? It is found in western Kansas. The Kansas Dept. of Wildlife and Parks reports that they are sometimes killed by humans mistaking them for common crows. Another understandable mistake, I think.

Hooray for Saturday!

Posted on by

I’m surprised that Cherry did not bring up brother Dirk and his sounder of feral hogs, earlier. I’d have thought they would be one of her main reasons for turning down Bill Ellis’ job offer.

Maybe Jules Rivera doesn’t see all of this time spent on Mark’s complaining as story padding, but that’s how it comes off. I mean, two days should be enough, right? Perhaps the explanation for all of this lies in one way I think Rivera handles story development:

Each week is a “chapter”, with one main point that gets promoted, explained, and hashed out by Saturday. Then on to the next chapter the following week. Sure, there is a simplicity and clarity in that approach. And it supports the scant time people spend on reading comic strips, so it pays to simplify. If  a reader misses a day or two, nothing much lost.

Nevertheless, there are parts of any story that do not deserve equal treatment. This is one of them. By Monday we should see Mark flying into a Texas airport, hopefully without the hokey western attire he wore the last time. I wonder if Diana Daggers will pick him up again!?

Did Cherry find a bug in her mug?

Posted on by | 2 Comments

Using one of her standard bilateral layouts, Rivera starts off today’s strip by continuing yesterday’s hand wringing. I find it odd that Mark keeps repeating already-discussed points (“Texan women with guns”), to which Cherry keeps acting as if this is the first time she’s heard it. Mark’s comment in panel 3 doesn’t make sense. The women are out to kill wild pigs (hogs, or whatever). Sure. That Tess killed another animal, even an elephant, is supposed to make her a pariah? I think Cherry’s remark in panel 4 is correct. The other women—based on their avocation, not their location—would not see this as a detriment. In any event, there is no evidence that Tess killed Gemma, so why should Mark say that?

As for hitting on Texas—which happens to be the location of this trio of hog hunters—we could easily interpret today’s statements as Rivera injecting politically-charged comments, but we could just as easily see it as playing on common stereotypes about Texas. Both interpretations could be correct, but I’ll leave it to you to decide whether one takes precedence or if my interpretation is just wrong.

Then again, Mark and Cherry live in a small community in a forest, presumably somewhere in northern Georgia, based on the Old Trailverse Standard. In such a community, neither guns nor hunting would be strange. This would make Cherry’s comment disingenuous.

Mark curses Gemma the Elephant!

Posted on by

I wish Rivera would quit doing that! Yesterday, I made a perfectly fine observation about Tess being shown online in her former Tigress outfit, instead of her current hunting attire. And today, Tess is shown in both costumes. I just can’t win!

Well, are we going to suffer Mark’s whining about Tess Tigress the rest of the week, too? Sure, some of you are likely going to counter with “Well, we already have to suffer Rivera’s relentless regurgitation of pointless boat explosion jokes!” And I will have to re-respond with “… uh … well, yeah.” And back-and-forth this will go. Okay, I’m calling it all off, as of now. Thank you.

Panel 2 suggests Mark has a short memory about Tess. I recalled the story about Tess and her Tiger Touch Center from three years ago, as I’m sure most of you do. Here is a snippet from November 29, 2022. Apparently, Mark forgot this after-action phone call with Bill Ellis, who caught him up on Tess’s whereabouts.

I think three years in Real Life is probably only a year to a year and a half, tops, in the Trailverse. Still, there is always the hope that this might at least be a fun story.

Mark’s world continues to shrink

Posted on by

I’m shocked, shocked to see Tess Tigress back in the country, apparently unburdened by legal technicalities. But as we’ve seen in this rebooted strip, nobody gets killed, hurt badly, or truly punished. Poor Mark! No matter what he chooses to do, he keeps running into the same gasbags, cons, double-dealers, crooks, and troublemakers. Maybe he just needs to get out more and meet a better class of criminals.

Okay, we knew where this was going. It is interesting to see that Tess’s former identity and costume was  used in her online photo, rather than the recent group photo with hunting garb. Perhaps Rivera wants to ensure that her readers make the right connection. But what other connection could there be?

In other news, is Cherry turning into a real Suzie Homemaker? I wonder how long it will be before she starts sporting a pearl necklace.

Art Dept. Rivera does some decent staging today. The overriding principle here is the alternation between Mark and Cherry, as they take turns being the visual focus in each panel (cM-Cm-M-C). What also makes a bit interesting is the variety of layouts Rivera uses in the panels.

And now for something completely irrelevant.

Posted on by | 10 Comments

It is a happy day, indeed, to see Jules Rivera revisit the old Mark Trail trope of the ambiguously misplaced dialog balloon. Hah-Hah. Look at that bird (is it a European Robin!?) shouting “ARGH!” So funny. Okay, it might be a little cute. But fortunately, Rivera doesn’t do this very often. Moving on…

Today’s strip is a filler, certainly not moving the story along, even though we’re only in the prologue stage. But let’s give Cherry (or Rivera) her due for keeping a popular southern oath (panel 1) in the public domain, where some readers might assume Cherry’s statement is the result of having spent the prior evening binge-watching The Beverly Hillbillies.

But I’m still a bit disappointed that Rivera chose to not have Cherry participate in this assignment. It would have been a nice change from her usual Sunny Soleil Society stories. That is, Bill Ellis could have given both Mark and Cherry their own, separate assignments. Instead, Rivera kept it conventional. Looks like we’ll have Cherry once again cleaning Violet Cheshire’s boots and putting up with Honest Ernest.

So much for the “lady’s point of view.”

Posted on by

I reckon Bill Ellis will never know how lucky he was that Cherry did not recommend her brother, Dirk, as a better replacement than Mark! He would certainly provide a special touch to that group.

We also see a more sinister-looking, less personable Ralph the Rat Snake (maybe?), who has nothing to say to Mark. And I’m not surprised, given how little time Mark has spent with him. Hissssss!

Okay, gang! After reading today’s strip, is there anybody here who has figured out the group’s leader? It sure isn’t Diana Daggers. The one illustration we saw of the group certainly does not lend itself to close identification of anybody in particular. As the group is based in Texas from a preexisting book club, we can safely rule out Kelly Welly, who doesn’t fit the look, anyway.

So who does that leave? Clearly, this isn’t anybody new.

Unless Rivera is looking back down the Trail Timeline to one of those earlier female opponents, I’m guessing this will turn out to be Tess Tigress. After all, her phony “Tiger Touch Center” was located in Texas. She also has a background in using rifles (or shotguns). And even though she had reportedly fled the country to avoid prosecution, there’s no reason she wouldn’t come back, even under a different name.

But, that’s just a guess. And my track record has been pretty poor, lately.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

Posted on by

A “Woman’s Touch” was the theme of the week when Bill Ellis made his usual phone call during Mark and Cherry’s nature walk and love affirmation session. But it turned out that he wanted Cherry’s participation instead of Mark’s. This was a highly unusual idea, using Cherry as the lead in a Bill Ellis assignment. Ellis specifically wanted a female reporter to accompany a trio of female book club members in their mission to eliminate feral hogs from people’s yards.

Somehow, Cherry got the impression that she was expected to also take part in the actual hunting instead of simply reporting on the group’s activities, and Bill Ellis did nothing to dissuade her. Maybe he did infer that. I dunno. But Cherry is no hunter and even got a bit panicky at the thought of hunting feral hogs. So she turned him down. Instead, she suggested Mark would be the person to take on the job. Seeing as how Bill was interested in a woman’s point of view, I’m not sure what Cherry was thinking at that point, but Mark was on board. However, we have yet to hear what Bill Ellis has to say on this last-minute substitution.

Thus, within one week, Jules Rivera tempted us with the novelty of Cherry going on an official assignment instead of Mark, only to pull it away by having Cherry refuse the job. It could have been nice to see Cherry operate in a situation that did not include the Sunny Soleil Society. Still, as I noted, we have not heard the last from Bill Ellis, who may reshape the job to get Cherry on board. We’ll see. But until then, let’s see what aspect of Nature Mark is expounding on today:

Well, yippee yi yo ki yay! We’re back in Texas once again and once again talking about bats. You would not be chastised for thinking that Mark might even own some property out there. Or maybe a bat sanctuary.

Too bad that Rivera didn’t have to mention a particularly popular event down in Austin:
“Texas is home to the largest urban bat colony in the world, consisting of [up to] 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats under the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas.”

Apparently, these bats collectively leave the dark underside of the bridge every evening from around mid-March to early November and create a spectacular cloud of flying mammals looking for their evening meal. It’s quite the attraction, online sources say.

Is Rivera wimping out or is she still pranking?

Posted on by | 4 Comments

Well, is this turning out to be a joke, after all (as I feared)? What could have been an interesting plot has turned on itself and appears to be going back to the Same Ol’ Same Ol’. But in spite of Cherry’s handoff and Mark’s self-assurance, Bill Ellis is running the show and wants a female’s point of view. I’m pretty certain that ability is not in Mark’s backpack. And this leads us back to Kelly Welly, unless Ellis comes up with a different solution.

Cherry takes a stand.

Posted on by | 2 Comments

Something is tragically—or stupidly—mixed up. As I stated yesterday, reporters are observers and recorders, as we all know. So why is Jules Rivera putting out this obviously preposterous proposition of Cherry having to hunt feral hogs as part of the assignment? Is Rivera setting us up for some kind of a joke at the end of the week? Is Bill going to clarify: “I was just kidding, Cherry! Of course you don’t have to hunt feral hogs. You just have to tag along with three women who do!”

I know some of you are going to think about that final narration box. No, not the fact that it is again present, but its contents: “Yep. That’s canon.” It seems to be a loose application of the term “canon”, which normally refers to an accepted, recognized body of work in literature or music. There are also different applications of the term that refer to laws and rules that do not apply here.

This different, personal use of the term seems to be popular on social media, where a speaker feels something is a “significant event”, “official”, or just true. As cultural outsiders, the rest of us would have probably just written, “Yep. That’s a fact.”

Art Dept. Try to ignore (or block out) Cherry and Mark in panel 1. Those are some wickedly stylized trees and landscape in panel 1. They could belong to a completely different comic strip. In fact, I think they are better than the flora Rivera has been drawing recently. Now, I’m not saying they are more realistic or representational, not in the least. Rather, their surreal appearance suggest a wholly different vision. If Rivera were to apply that aesthetic consistently to the strip, we could see a remarkably different version of Mark Trail.

Do war correspondents throw grenades and shoot people? Some confusion today about the duties of a reporter.

Posted on by

To ask the question she did, Cherry must have strange ideas about what Mark does on assignments. And I don’t know why Ellis fumbled his response by implying she actually might have to shoot hogs. Heck, if Cherry was like that, we probably wouldn’t be seeing Honest Ernest around anymore.

Taking both statements together, I don’t get the point Rivera is trying to push here, other than Cherry doesn’t like hunting animals. And we already learned that. Maybe two more days for Q&A before Bill throws in the towel and moves on to Kelly Welly.

No, I won’t ask you to rewrite today’s narration box!

Posted on by

Well, snark was the popular choice in my informal survey. Thanks to all who played along.  And any of those entries would have worked out better than the original comment. As for me, I voted for “We don’t need no stinkin’ narration boxes!” I had seriously thought of coming up with a dramatic comment, such as “Is Cherry walking into a trap?” or “Watch out, Cherry! Ellis likes to use hunting decoys!” But in the end, I thought Cherry’s response was about as much of a cliffhanger as we’re likely to see. So let’s see what’s hanging today …

Once again, Rivera has come up with an interesting, if goofy, storyline that could have some depth to it, as well as an off-the-wall group of characters. Okay, the premise seems absurd: Members of a female book club need to start hunting feral hogs. And once again, Ellis is shilling for Teen Girl Sparkle, one of the few rags in his publishing empire for which Ellis believes Mark (or Cherry) is suitably matched. That doesn’t say much for Mark’s credibility as a serious nature journalist, does it? 

I also believe you are already ahead of me on what Cherry’s hesitation is all about. Will she or won’t she inform her brother? And will she take the assignment, knowing that if she turns it down, Bill will just move on to another call, with Cherry losing a paycheck. There is another question that I wonder if Rivera has put into this story: What about her job with the Sunny Soleil Society:  Will Violet Cheshire give her the time off?

Art Dept. I can’t, in good faith, give a passing grade to the drawing found in today’s strip, or other recent ones. I mean, panel 2 is, frankly, an embarrassment. Not that panel 3 is much better. But I also don’t see any signs of a garden there, either.

Cherry’s assignment slowly gets revealed …

Posted on by | 3 Comments

A writing assignment!? Did Cherry sign up for the Bill Ellis Correspondence Course, “Make money by writing at home, in your spare time!”? And Mark’s “in a while” comment (panel 1) sounds like Cherry had done this before. Anybody recall that earlier time?

But I’m not sure Jules Rivera’s snarky comment in panel 4 is really appropriate. Cherry’s response wasn’t an overlay dramatic answer, so the sarcasm was uncalled for. I’d have thought Rivera could have come up with something more useful or clever; or maybe not say anything at all.

So, here is that fourth panel again, but with an empty narration box. Let’s have a class project of our own: Assume Jules got called away because of a report of good surfing waves. But the deadline looms and it’s up to you to finish today’s strip in time!

If you think a narration box is unnecessary, just report “We don’t need it!” If you think the narration box could have a better snark or maybe a comment that might move the story along, what would it be? 

Meanwhile, I’m still wondering what happened with the peacock and that dinner. Aren’t you?

In case you missed Saturday, we’ll go through it again.

Posted on by

After putting all of that writing in front of you yesterday, I’ll take it easier on you today. I hope.

So here’s another popular Rivera practice: Wasting Monday’s strip to reiterate what happened on Saturday. Some people call this “padding the story,” though Rivera is not the only Mark Trail artist to do that. Other people might label this “Rivera assumes the readers have the attention span of 6 year olds.” But a few might be more charitable and claim “Rivera is just being considerate! Weekends can be tough on people who are just trying to relax and get themselves ready for another workweek at the plastics injection factory.”

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

Posted on by | 4 Comments

The Wheel of Fate spins, and having spun, sometimes goes sideways. This past week saw our happy, giddy, love-smitten Mark & Cherry take one of their post-story nature walks (which have largely replaced the post-story flapjack dinners), where they expressed their near equal devotion to the enjoyment of nature’s bounty and to each other. And that’s fine as far as it goes.  But doing this for an entire week gets a bit much. If the strip ever gets dropped by King Features, maybe the STARS Network can buy it, make it live action, and give it a more hip, racy title: “Cherry & Mark get off on Nature.”

Just when we thought these two might melt into a blob of organically-certified orgasm, Cherry’s phone started ringing. It was Bill Ellis calling, not for Mark, but for her! Bill has an assignment that really needs “a woman’s perspective.” We’ll find out what that means when the story resumes.

But this is quite the novelty. I can find no instance where Cherry has gone on any kind of assignment for Bill Ellis. Of course, there is the chance that this is just another practical joke by Jules Rivera, as we might discover that Bill called to get advice on a wedding present or help with some relationship issue. So, I’m hoping this call is legit. It will be another innovation to the Mark Trail strip, of which there have been several. For those who came in late, let’s review some:

  • Expanded frequency of stories centered on other family members. There have been stories by previous cartoonists that featured Cherry, Rusty, Doc, and even Andy. But Rivera promoted Cherry to co-star status, rather than her former “and featuring” credit.
  • Expanded or reshaped family personalities. As new blog follower Doghouse Reilly noted, Rusty is more like a real kid and less like an introverted, zombie-sock puppet pining to go fishing with Pop. In fact, this Rusty hates fishing! Rivera’s Cherry started as a feisty, elbows-up owner of her own business, with three siblings: a welcome change from the “I’m waiting for Mark” version. Doc shows up infrequently as a reactivated veterinarian and banjo player.
  • A “closed set” of opponents, rivals, and knuckleheads. Rivera has developed a rotating cast of largely incompetent troublemakers for Mark and Cherry. Like villains in the 1960s Batman, not much happens to them when they are disarmed, defeated, or arrested.
  • Parody. At first, Rivera took delight in poking fun at Mark and other traditions of the strip. It was refreshing to see Mark out of his depth or lose a fight. Rivera took the ubiquitous daily animal, and stuck it awkwardly in a corner like a statue, looking at us. However, this has all become normalized and annoying.
  • A dramatic change in the artwork. Aside from complaints about stories, this gets the most bad press. Rivera’s earliest work was edgy, like a graphic novel, with creative perspectives, layouts, and a more representational style. Even a talking snake! The art soon morphed into a more flat, sketchy, and feckless style. There are several likely reasons for the change in artwork. But now is not the time or place for that discussion.

Another contribution from Rivera is the customized title panels on Sundays. Today’s panel is a good, if expected, design. The webbing is heavy-handed and not convincing. The pun is better than average.

Turnabout is fair play

Posted on by | 1 Comment

Wow! I certainly didn’t see this call coming! I’m not sure whether to be excited or fearful. Will Mark be the one this time to see off Cherry as she goes on assignment? Will this be a Mr. Mom story? And why wouldn’t Bill Ellis call Mark’s rival, Kelly Welly, who also fits the female profile? There’s a lot that could happen as a result of this phone call, so it may be best for me to just shut up and wait for the dailies to resume on Monday.  Looks like we’re moving into uncharted territory!

Art Dept. After all this time, I can’t get over how Mark’s facial anatomy changes so easily from frame to frame. Not sure why. Rivera recently posted on BlueSky “It’s been five years since I took over Mark Trail and my cartoon son has never looked better.” I’d beg to differ, and I’d have to ask, which image did you have in mind?

And so “The Call” finally comes in!

Posted on by

From the appearance of Mark’s hair in panel 4, I’m going to guess they actually found that big bush I suggested yesterday. As far as things go, it’s a bit late in the week for Mark to get a call from Bill Ellis. Normally, a Bill Ellis conversation consumes at least two days of strips. Oh, I just realized:  Rivera could dedicate most of next week to Ellis’s phone call!  

Maybe Mark and Cherry wouldn’t get interrupted so often if a) they left their phones back at the cabin (which they’ve done before); or b) they didn’t spend so much time on nature walks.

Art Dept. The art today is disappointing, not only with regard to odd human proportions here and there, and the inclusion of another flattened cutout animal image, but also the persistent use of those vague, autumn-colored trees. But golly gee willikers, Rivera could at least take the trouble to make the foliage look more naturalistic. On the other hand, from a purely design point of view, I think the drawing of Cherry’s hair in panel 3 is a nicely stylized arrangement of black and red contrasts, enlivened by the curves and pointy shapes in the hair. But it kind of sticks out from the rest of the drawing, which could not keep up.

Maybe these two should just go find a big bush for a while.

Posted on by | 2 Comments

You remember what I wrote on Monday about the relationship of Nature to humans and vice-versa? Well, maybe we need to put that thought aside for a while. And for the record: No. I cannot explain the anatomy of that yellow tree in panel 1.

Art Dept. As we know, consistency is not part of the Mark Trail aesthetic. For example, various aspects of Mark’s head and face can change from day to day, panel to panel. Take Mark’s eyebrows. Please! I can’t figure out if Rivera is using Mark to channel Groucho Marx, Eugene Levy, or Ayushmann Khurrana. I’m leaning towards Groucho, who infamously painted on his moustache and thick eyebrows. Just check out panel 2, where Mark’s left eyebrow wraps around the head, but is completely flat. This is repeated in panel 4, where the eyebrows are also almost 50% taller.

The itsy, bitsy spider

Posted on by

Jules Rivera continues her campaign to move Cherry Trail away from the one-time self-reliant, “put up your dukes”, creative thinker that she once was. Instead, we see total panic take over today. Now, I admit that arachnophobia is a real condition. But, living in the forest as she has been doing for many years, Cherry should already know that the venomous brown recluse usually builds nests in darker, isolated locations, not out in exposed, open areas. She’s more likely to run across that spider in a closet of her cabin, in a work shed, or a woodpile. 

There are several reasons this phobia has persisted through the centuries. One leading hypothesis is that it is based on longstanding reinforced cultural and social influences. Many people also seem to have a general dislike of spiders and get rid of them, perhaps because they think of them as insects, in spite of the fact that spiders are not insects, but help control insect populations, even in the home. But there are positives to keep in mind!

Less than 1% of the 43000 spider species around the world are venomous. Also, the spider is a popular subject in literature and storytelling. Anansi is a spider of great importance in African folklore and storytelling, often used to teach life lessons or just entertain. The spider as trickster and instructor is also found in various Native American cultures. We have the modern superhero, Spiderman, whose powers originated from the bite of a radioactive spider. Oh, I don’t want to forget to mention the 1930s pulp-era vigilante, The Spider, a more violent version of The Shadow. Certainly, his name was chosen to reinforce fear in the criminal underworld he worked against. He did not dress as a spider, however.

Rivera managed to work in a reference to bears and we wind up talking about Chinese painting

Posted on by

Wow, Cherry’s exclamation in panel 4 was really unexpected, right!?  I mean, who would expect that after all of this nature talk, something ironic would occur? 

One might be given to thinking that, after so many years being married and living in Lost Forest (even ignoring the pre-Rivera years), Mark and Cherry would have long run out of platitudes and affirmations about nature by now. However, one high note is that we can hope Mark admonishes Cherry for her destruction of a spider’s (temporary) domicile and meal factory. Mark can’t play favorites, can he?

Art Dept. I’m glad to see, at long last, a bit more variety in panel layouts. We get a bird’s eye view in panel 1 (complete with the required bird) and a worm’s eye view in panel 2 (minus the worm, because it must have been consumed by the cardinal). 

But there is more to this than just adding different viewpoints! 

The first two panels visually emphasize Mark and Cherry as figures within nature, as they rhapsodize over its many splendors. This reminds me of classic Chinese landscape painting, where nature predominates and people are just very small travelers and nature lovers. 

The last two panels zoom in on Mark and Cherry to deliver the unneeded joke. The focus shifts to Cherry’s personal interaction with, and reaction to, the spider web. So, the position of Nature moves from the macro to the micro. And very importantly, it is in the service of reinforcing the dialog. Now, that is good design!

Nerdy Art History Note: Am I saying that Rivera was influenced by Chinese art or philosophy? I have no idea. It is a rather grandiose comparison, after all. It may be nothing more than the commonality of ideas that transcend time, place, and ethnicity. If you are not familiar with Chinese landscape painting, do an online search for “Travelers Among Mountains and Streams” by Fan Kuan, a painter of the Northern Song dynasty. Find some good images. You’ll likely need to view separate detailed images to find the travelers.