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If that’s a golf course, I’m Arnold Palmer.

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Heh!Heh!Heh! Just some good old fashioned father-son camaraderie from daddy Happy, who was the “Mark Trail” before the current Mark Trail, according to current legend. “What legend?”, you ask.

As Rivera outlined in her first Mark Trail adventure, Happy Trail preceded our current Mark. And Happy was preceded by his father, and so on. It was like the dynasty of Walkers who successively donned the purple costume to take their turn as The Phantom, the Ghost Who Walks. Rivera’s visual mythology was actually a clever way to pay homage to the three artists who preceded her:  Jack Elrod/Tom Hill; Ed Dodd; and James Allen. I think Rivera did okay mimicking their styles. Yes, I also realize a lot of readers wish she had continued to pay homage by adopting one of those earlier style(s).

This is not the place to get in yet another talk/screed on styles, but I will say that Rivera adds elements the other artists rarely dreamed off. For example, in panel 1, Rivera does a good job of composing a panel showing Mark looking back over his shoulder at his dad, seen from just below eye-level. It’s a subtle difference from how a similar composition would usually be defined, as seen here in this Jack Elrod submission from 2013.

Regarding the current story, Happy’s advice is wrong (panel 1)! In fact, Mark really needs to get off his routine of nut-ball stories and get back to some actual nature journalism. And Rivera needs to get off of her gag-a-day comic strip kick and focus on building stories, not jokes.

Happy Trail begins to realize he has been bamboozled!

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Okay, one of the less-than-obvious oddities this week is that Mark and Cherry are wearing backpacks. Why are they doing this? After all, they just drove down the road to the resort. Maybe that’s the only kind of luggage they have. However, why are they still carrying their backpacks, since it appears they have already checked in?

How do I know this? How come you don’t?! 😉 Well, Cherry has changed her clothes, as has Rusty. Compare July 19 and July 21. And Mark is looking more casual than normal. Even his arms are looking like they want to be somewhere else (panel 3).

So, Mark is thinking the obvious:  Fertilizer runoff. Apparently, the resort must be pretty near the lake, yet Mark and Cherry failed to notice it when they were down there. However, I reckon there could be a stream feeding into the lake, so the resort could be around the bend. Ranger Shaw’s comment about contamination from wastewater is a general response to any number of possible sources, including the fertilizer runoff that Mark is hypothesizing. How come he wasn’t more specific? Either his analysis was insufficient or, once again, he is hiding information for a reason.

Somebody, please turn off the syrup dispenser!

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[edited] This seems like yet another wasted day with nothing happening except for the same drippy dialog now taking place in front of the golf resort/water park. Rivera lays on the “doting helicopter parents appreciating the granddad-son moment” trope as if the strip has been hijacked by the Hallmark Network.

But behind all of this schmaltz lies a clue to what I believe is really going on. Did you spot it?

Hint #1: Panel 1.
Hint #2:  The Zeeba Mussels adventure (8/12/2021- 2/4/2022)
Hint #3: Duck Duck Goose Shipping
Hint #4: No idea! I don’t even like cheese!

The next question is whether Mark has seen the clue and figured it out.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Sometimes an investigation comes about obliquely. Such is the case of the contaminated swimming hole. This is like a Classic Mark Trail story. After getting shut out of a swimming afternoon, the Trails retired to Ranger Shaw’s backyard for an impromptu party. Some friendly questioning of Ranger Shaw failed to produce anything useful regarding the source of the lake’s contamination. This inspired Mark to take control of the situation and investigate on his own. Good thing, too, else we’d still be reading about Cherry and Violet looking for her mom’s runaway peacock!

Now, did Mark hop on the case immediately? He might have, but Happy Trail just happened to call and tell him about a new golf course opening up near Lost Forest. Mark immediately saw a connection to the lake contamination. Quick thinking like this saves a lot of unnecessary time spent researching and  scouting the area for possible causes. Since complexity and story depth are not a hallmark of most comic strips, including Mark Trail, we can count on the golf resort being the guilty party.

Anyway, before Mark could do anything on his own, Happy came up from Florida and showed up at the cabin! He invited (most of) the family to a weekend at the new golf resort, which he had just joined and booked rooms for everybody. Golfers can be a bit crazy, I reckon.

But it’s all very convenient for Mark, who now has a legitimate reason for showing up at the golf resort! And Rusty was thrilled to see Happy and get a chance to play in the resort’s water park. That should set him up really swell with his friends.

There may be a strategic reason to put the Peacock discussion here, in the middle of Mark’s two-week storyline rather than during Cherry’s week. But I don’t know what it is. Maybe just a scheduling issue at the comic syndicate. In any event, the composition and execution of the title panel today is well-conceived. The curious focus on reflection is explained in the strip. It’s an effective top-down view that includes different shading techniques that are rare in Rivera’s work.

I was not aware there were feral peacocks in the US, apparently due to careless pet owners and people of questionable character who deliberately release them into the environment. These feral peafowl seem to predominate in Florida (home to all manner of released exotic animals), Texas, and southern California. So if you live in the Midwest or Eastern Seaboard, you are probably not going to see any peacocks, except in a zoo.

And I’ll give Rivera credit today for not even trying to draw a peacock in full plumage. There are some paintings and drawings that pull it off, but in a comic strip’s limited format, it would be most difficult to try.

Wrapping up the week with some warm beer.

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Recent reader, observantdonutad36129846, made the good observation that, once again, Doc Davis has been left out of the family invitation and this story. Perhaps there is a bit of jealousy between the two granddads? I don’t really know. Far be it for me to spread rumors. But Doc only shows up about once a year, anyway.

Moving on, today is something of a slush day, in that the story doesn’t really progress, but coasts along with casual repetition and padding. Now, working out a storyline to fit 6-day weeks should be common practice for Rivera by now. Instead, we have desultory dialog along with one of Rivera’s favorite tricks: The final panel punch line, which begs which phrase is getting parodied:  Batter up? Butter up? Bulk up?

Leaving that flotsam aside, this whole week has been strange to me, with what seems to be a family parody: We have a clingy wife; a husband standing erect in contrast to his more cursive mate; and the young son, so very eager to spend time with his granddad, er, “pappy.” That’s an odd nickname for a grandparent.  I always thought “Pappy” was reserved for dads. Well, that’s what Popeye called his own dad, after all.

Now that I mention it, I’m trying to figure out when Rusty started calling him “Pappy Happy.” Back in the 2022 story, Oregon Trails, Rusty called him Grampy Happy. In truth, Happy Trails has not been in too many stories, and fewer where he interacted with Rusty. No wonder Rusty is always so excited to see him! Anyway, I’m thinking this week may be the first time Rusty called him Pappy Happy. Maybe Rusty’s having “daddy” issues with Mark? Well, drop a comment if you recall an earlier occurrence of “Pappy Happy.”

One big Happy family?

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Just whose whole family gets invited? That is, are Olive and Peach also invited or just Mark and his family?

Regular viewer Be Ware of Eve Hill made a suggestion that Cricket Bro might have yet another brother, Golf Bro, the implication being that he is connected with this new golf resort. Along with Cricket Bro and his other brother, Crypto Bro, they could be a modern version of the three Marx Bro’s. This could turn out to be a difficult situation for Happy Trail, who was caught in an NFT scam cooked up by Cricket and Crypto Bro a while back(see “Oregon Trails”).

As for now, Happy has turned into a real impromptu, at-the-moment guy; so he thinks everybody else should be like that. But I’m sure you are really wondering about his eyes (panel 2). It’s possible that the little circled pupils are supposed to be the same color as his hair, but they come off as little white pupils, instead. Eerie looking!

Finally, what’s with this breaking the fourth wall business!?

But first, a few words from our sponsor.

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Happy Trail is pretty hot for this new golf resort, delivering an infomercial to Mark worthy of selling non-stick copper-coated cookware. Mark, on  the other hand, seems stupefied and finally, disillusioned by the irony. But thinking back, how is it nobody in Mark’s family knew about this place!? I’d at least have expected Rusty and his friends to hear about it, given his appreciation for water activities!

Mark has already convinced himself that this golf resort, or its construction, is the culprit. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. But Mark isn’t bothered much by nuance or possibilities. That would take too much time and space to process! Not that Mark would go after an innocent party, of course. I think Mark and Jules Rivera have an understanding: Whoever Mark picks to go after will be the guilty party!  Still, it’s always great when Mark faces down a new culprit, rather than one of the usual clowns who seem to always find ways to avoid jail sentences. I bet Mark has seen the inside of more jail cells than Cricket Bro or Professor Bee Sharp, combined.

Happy drops the other shoe

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And why would Mark know about this new golf course, since he supposedly spends so much time on assignments? And why didn’t Cherry know about it? Anyway, it turns out that Happy Trail is not only a golfer, but a member in good standing at a local country club. This new golf course must be a lollapalooza of a course if a bunch of dudes down in Florida are talking about it.

And why build around Lost Forest? Why not? The Lost Forest area is mostly (I presume) a picturesque tableau of mountains, waterways, and wildlife abundant. What better place to put an 18-hole golf course that needs about 200 acres of land and requires lots of specialized chemicals to convert the land into a golfing paradise? Let’s remember that Ranger Shaw said the lake contamination problem was from wastewater! Maybe Ranger Shaw was gaslighting Mark once again.

Happy’s holding back

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So, Mark has no idea what’s going on? Perhaps I’m jumping the gun about that golf course connection. Happy doesn’t say which resort he is in, but there must be several. Being a fisherman, maybe he’s at the De-Bait Fishing Lodge, home to Mark’s friend, Cliff. Or maybe at a golfing resort. In any event, this story is moving along pretty slowly, about the rate of your standard soap opera strip.

Art Dept. Well, what can we say about it? The drawing looks simplistic and rushed. Composition is not a term has much bearing on today’s strip. I’m curious about how Rivera draws shirt pockets. As we see in panel 3, Happy’s pockets are really small, not practical. But his pockets in panel 2 look much more plausible. Sure, it’s a minor detail, but sometimes that’s where the fun is.

Woody Woodpecker meets Mark Trail

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As happens once in a while, both Mark’s and Cherry’s storylines take place in Lost Forest. But are they simultaneous? In the past, that was the case. But today, I’m not so sure. See the problem?

How is it that Cherry is hanging around with Mark and Rusty at their (too-tiny) log cabin to welcome Happy Trail, when she is supposed to be helping Violet find her mother’s lost peacock and get ready for the Summer Banquet? Cherry doesn’t even have her work clothes on!

And in a rare event, Jules Rivera has drawn the expected “animal of the day”—a pileated woodpecker in this case—not staring at you and me! And it looks like Rivera spent more time on drawing it, as opposed to just pasting in an image from the web. One thing I discovered: Those are really big birds! Look them up. They have a magnificent wingspan in flight, when seen from below.

Panel 3 suggests Mark didn’t update Cherry on the phone call from Dad while they were at Ranger Shaw’s house. But did he know whether Happy was really coming to visit or was he just feigning surprise?

And yes, the blog’s title today is not just click-bait (for the most part). The image of the Woody Woodpecker cartoon character (who first appeared in the 1940 animated cartoon, Knock Knock) was inspired by the pileated woodpecker. Woody even has his own Wikipedia page.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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It’s hard to be tough on Cherry and her stories. I believe they are deliberately designed to be minimally consequential, such as human interest stories you might find in any B or C section of your local newspaper or any episode from an unlamented sitcom rerun on ME TV.

At first, this seems ironic, given Jules Rivera’s personal belief in strong, independent women. Why isn’t Cherry out there, rooting out real substantive problems and spending less time holding Violet Cheshire’s hand all the time, or foiling Honest Ernest’s incompetence? One possibility could be that Rivera thought it might be a bridge too far to turn Cherry from the homebound “waiting for Mark to return” wife and mother into a mirror image of her husband, Mark.

So Rivera took a middle course, giving Cherry something to do outside of the home, but with manageable hours, less risk, and time to be a mom. At least, there is still an element of nature or wildlife involved in her stories.

Cherry’s current adventure began—where else?—at the Sunny Soleil Society, helping Violet get ready for a Summer Banquet, possibly that same evening. The time was never specifically mentioned, but the storyline suggests it.

Violet was overwrought with planning for the banquet, since her Mother (who actually runs the Society) has high expectations and demands. Since this drama is unfolding the day of the event, Violet’s mother may have a point. Violet is not a young gal by any means, but still has no idea where to find a beauty salon for herself. Cherry brought in her sister, make-up nerd Peach Pitt, to give her the works. Violet remained dubious. Meanwhile, Cherry learned she was expected to build a special cage for the prized peacock (peafowl) belonging to Violet’s mother. But when Cherry went outside to see the bird, the travel cage that Honest Ernest brought over was empty, and the peacock was gone. So was Honest Ernest. We’ll have to wait three weeks to see what happens next.

Yeah, I know. It would have made sense for Rivera to do a peacock topic for the Sunday page. Maybe she is saving it up for another Sunday. Anyway, for you Mark Trail History aficionados, Mark discussed gila monsters at least twice in the past: Once on February 2, 1969 (Tom Hill) and then again on September 2, 2018 (James Allen). A few points from the older Sundays: Gilas are very sluggish and can go for months without capturing and eating prey, because it stores its food as fat in its stubby tail. Its bite and venom are considered to be extremely painful, though not usually fatal to humans.

You can find Allen’s Sunday page on this site by its date. Hill’s Sunday watercolor is harder to track down. I found it in a Google search using the criterion “Mark Trail comic gila monster”, then clicking on the Images category and scanning the results.

A case of fowl play: Did the peacock chase off Honest Ernest?

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I’ve been watching peacock (more accurately, peafowl) videos to hear what they sound like and act like. They appear to have several different calls: one like a cat, one like a chicken, one like a trumpet trying to sound like a car horn, and yet another like a kind of crow sound. Overall, have some 11 different calls and yells. Check them out on YouTube.

I found a few videos of peacocks screeching out something along the lines of what is depicted in panel 4. As varied as their calls are, it’s quite a sight to see them when they raise their tail feathers (or train).

Well, if this isn’t going to be a variant on the Banjo Cat and the Harpist cat hunt story, I wonder if they really resolved that problem of Banjo Cat running free and chasing down birds? A matchup may not go too well for ol’ Banjo Cat!

We may have just seen the Main Hook to this story.

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Regular reader, be ware of eve hill, commented on Violet’s “Groucho” eyelashes a few days ago. They are difficult to miss.  Groucho Marx famously applied his exaggerated eyebrows and moustache using theater “grease paint.” Is Violet doing something similar? I made a quick survey of her appearances over the years and here are my findings:

Perhaps there is a hormonal change going on with Violet, since she seems to display a continuous thickening of her cilia. However, I’ll step back a bit. We already know that Rivera is not consistent with her depictions, so there is going to be variation. However, this seems to be a generally accurate visual chronology. So, Violet’s current over-the-top (so to speak) eyebrows are not just accidents.

Getting back to the “story”, it’s interesting to see how informal and personal Violet becomes when talking about her mother. And any time Honest Ernest is involved, we know that incompetence and failure quickly follow. I wonder if this is going to be a revision of the hunt for Banjo Cat story? Or maybe the peacock inhaled pest control chemical fumes from inside the van and Honest Ernest is rushing it over to Doc Davis for resuscitation.

This looks like a job for Yippy, the noisy peacock herd dog!

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I suppose we all deserve a break now and then from the intense, almost nonstop action and intrigue we usually find in Mark Trail storylines. Jules Rivera kindly helps us cool down with innocuous mini-adventures like this one, free from danger and virtually any hint of engagement.

It’s like the wall in panel 1, which appears at first to be a single plane going straight across, until we look closer (if you are up for it). How come the window on the left is shown on an angle while the bookcase is shown face on? (Be mad at me, because now, you can’t ignore seeing it!) But doesn’t that suggest two walls meeting at a corner? Yet no corner line is defined. “It’s a real mystery!” If you really want to push it, pretend the room is a continuously curving space with no sharp changes of direction.  

Well, it’s your choice whether this is worth considering. It’s okay to just sit back, have another sip of your beverage of choice, scan the panels, and let your gray matter have the morning off.

Oh, I know. You want me to riff on the point that Violet’s mother should already have a cage for her prized peacock!? My goodness! Haven’t we been over this point before? Many stories usually involve some kind of crisis or task that has to be overcome by a given deadline. In many cases, these are totally invented things, cleverly woven into the fabric of a book or movie where it isn’t so obvious. That’s much harder to do in comic strips. Violet might as easily have mentioned “building a reviewing stand for her mother and her friends” or “making sure that the party balloons come in three different colors and are evenly distributed.”

Day 3 and . . . <yawn!> . . . counting.

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Okay, let’s just admit the basis for this story is wanting. Violet throws her upscale cultured persona around like an Olympic athlete throwing the javelin. She wears what passes for fashionable clothes, seems to affect an English accent or maybe just a few words here and there, and has a mother with fancy friends. Maybe Violet lives with Mom and maybe she doesn’t, but Mom can’t live too far away. From Violet’s remarks, we have to assume her Mom and friends get themselves fancied-up for various events.

Yet, in spite of all this, Violet has no idea where to find a salon!? Is Lost Forest located in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp? For that matter, should we assume that Cherry manage her own hair?

Or is this just Violet’s technique for negotiating a reduced price?

Grating Expectations!

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Frankly, the concept of socialites in Lost Forest seems absurd, given the people we tend to see. It may be that Violet and her mother actually live in a more affluent community near Lost Forest, such as Cold River, which featured in a story way back in 1974. How do I know that? It’s not that my mind is a mental treasure house, but I’ve been reading some of the vintage strips on Comics Kingdom. Anyway, if Violet needs the services of a stylist in Lost Forest, wherever she lives can’t be any better.

Life has certainly changed for Violet Cheshire, the Sunny Soleil Society manager. She’s transformed from her original icy, domineering and arrogant presence to this over-emotional, beat-down, hapless person with “mother” issues. Ok, to be fair, Cherry didn’t get along with her mom, either. Still…

But I got a kick out of Violet’s remark about finding the fanciest stylist in Lost Forest! That would normally be the town barber in a place like this, but Cherry has Peach Pitt on hand. So, what is the point of this story? So far, it seems to be:  Violet must host a successful “summer bash” in order to make her mum (another English word!) look good for her high-falutin socialite friends. Not exactly a strong beginning for a story unless Rivera wants to compete against Mary Worth.

Art Dept. If spending more time on drawing figures is too much, it would at least be more visually interesting for Rivera to focus on designing more interesting compositions and perspectives like she used to do, instead of relying on static, simplistic arrangements like these panels. Of course, I’m just whistling in the dark. Even if—by chance—Rivera read this blog and agreed with me, no results would begin to show up for at least a month or two.

Is Violet a British agent?

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[A followup to yesterday’s Week in Review] Maybe it’s the fewer hours I’ve been sleeping lately, but I seem to be overlooking details. Thankfully, I have readers who are keeping my on my toes. Regular reader, Downpuppy, likened Cherry’s hideous facial image in Saturday’s panel 1 to that of a mask from the Mexican Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebration. His claim has a visual possibility, though the purpose for Cherry to be wearing it is unclear.

Also, a reader on Comics Kingdom pointed out that in Sunday’s strip, Mark talked about the California Condor’s 10-foot wing span, while showing an example with a 9-foot wingspan! Woo! I don’t know how I missed that one, but it does justify my prior observation that this was likely a hurry-up project for her. But now, on to the current episode!

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What’s with this “blimey!” talk? Is Violet actually British or just affecting the lingo? While it’s possible she’s been watching the British soap opera, EastEnders, for a long time, there is prior evidence of her “British” association. Back in April 2021 when Cherry first met Violet, our “Southern Belle” offered up a plate of scones to Cherry, who declined the offer.

Scones are now standard offerings in American bakeries and coffee houses, but they have an English heritage. In spite of this, we rarely detect any British accent or vocabulary from Violet. Oh, and you with your sharper-than-my eyes have no doubt noticed the changes between the original depiction of the Sunny Soleil Society’s headquarters and today’s version. It’s in keeping with the always-changing footprint of the Trail cabin.

Well, what’s with this “bear” thing again? And why is that black-eyed Cherry pushing around a statue of a bear? I’d have thought Violet had had enough of them. I hope we’re not in line for more bear jokes!

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The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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The ol’ swimming hole is contaminated with wastewater, much to the Trails’ consternation. What to do? The ongoing story this past week saw the Trails move from the closed lake to an impromptu backyard slip n’ slide party and barbeque at the home of Ranger Shaw, the father of Rusty’s sometimes-friend, Robbie. In the backyard sipping iced tea and eating hotdogs, Mark tried to get information from Ranger Shaw about the contamination, only to find out that he claimed to know nothing about its source. This made Mark suspicious, given the weeks he and his colleagues have had to investigate. Mark is right to be suspicious, with Range Shaw’s questionable actions in the past and his seeming inability or unwillingness to help out (e.g. the Grungey Boys’ so-called lawnmower races in Lost Forest).

And wouldn’t you know it, just at this point in time, Mark gets a call from his dad, Happy Trail. Always nice to hear from family, right? Well, there was no discussion of weather, no “How’s Rusty?”, or “When are you all coming down to visit?” Nope, Happy Trail jumped right to the point: “There’s a golf course opening just north of you!” Since Mark has no history of playing golf, we have to wonder why Happy Trail even knew about it or bothered to tell Mark. My guess is that Happy is financially involved in the course and it will wind up being another scam.

Finally, there was some noteworthy art: A nicely drawn foreshortened view of Rusty sliding on Robbie’s slip n’ slide toward the reader; and a less-than-complimentary image of Cherry, seen from the back, in profile (shudder!).

Today’s Title Panel is a clever, well-drawn take on the stereotypical vacation post card. And I’m glad to see fewer images of Mark filling the Sunday strip. Celebrate biodiversity, okay. Fine! But the execution of today’s “biodiversity” doesn’t live up to the definition. In fact, two of the animals here each take up two panels! What about flora? Sea life? And keep in mind that the main purpose of the Mark Trail Sunday strip is already meant to show and educate us on the diversity of wildlife and nature! Call me cynical, but today’s strip smells like deadline pressure.

The Eagle has landed

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Yes, Mark is rightfully suspicious of Ranger Shaw, as he should be. The last time, Shaw misled Mark regarding the Grungey Boys destroying office equipment in Lost Forest and his own participation. Will we eventually discover that he was given a free golf membership to not look too closely at how those greens are managed?

Of course, this coincidental phone call is a transparently weak gimmick to move the plot along. Why would Happy Trail call Mark about a golf course? I don’t think we’ve ever seen Mark golf. At least, I have no recollection. If you do, let me know. Perhaps this is a device to insert Happy Trail into this story?

And would anybody like to comment on Rivera’s use of the golf term “bogey” in panel 4? Anyway, this might give you a clue to understanding my own golf pun in today’s title.

Art Dept. Maybe Rivera should skip drawing profiles, especially for figures in the distance. Cherry looks like she is wearing a large, grotesque mask. Frankly, it’s one of the most difficult images to look at that I’ve seen.

It’s been a few years (“Something Fishy”, 2023) since we’ve seen Happy Trail. So he is back, though looking a bit ragged and less like his earlier self. Well, the 2023 Happy Trail also looks a bit different from his 2020 debut. You can go back and hunt that one out, if you wish. In any event, all of the principle Mark Trail characters have had their images change over the past several years. Rivera isn’t trying to suggest that they are all getting older (e.g. Gasoline Alley, Doonesbury); she is just changing her style as she goes. You can apply your own value judgement. But I’ll say (again) that I’m not a fan of her current presentation.

Family Fun for the Fourth

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Aside from the fact that lightning bugs (fireflies) don’t look anything like floating donuts or snail shells, Rivera has decided to actually acknowledge the holiday today, and that’s about all that can be said. Except that the Fourth of July is not necessarily a Day of Independence celebrated by all, especially those whose ancestors in America who were not independent or made “free” on that July 4th day in 1776, and for many decades after.