I have the feeling that Jules Rivera used Hot Wheels models as her sources. They just look like it to me, even the van (which looks out of scale in panel 3). But that’s fine. A reference is a reference. Speaking of which, the allusion to the Roadrunner & Coyote cartoons is also obvious, along with the expected crash; though in good Roadrunner form, the van should have hit a mountain side. Like the Roadrunner, I suppose that Mark’s car can just make 90º turns at speed without swerving or running off the road. Of course, most car chases we see in movies are a time-honored way to stretch out the story.
There are few films where a car chase is an integral, effective story element: Vanishing Point is a classic example. The Italian Job is another. I reckon we have to include the Fast & Furious franchise, as well. But for the most part, car chases are gratuitous adrenaline fixes that action movies are just expected to include.
But I don’t understand how Cliff’s cap stays on his head when it is stuck out in the open like we see in panel 2. It would have to be so screwed down on his head that his hair would be sticking out sideways. I was also puzzled by Mark’s quip in panel 3. I looked back and didn’t see any advice Mark gave out on safe driving. Gosh, maybe he was just fibbing!? Anyway, I was hoping this chase would last a few more strips. It barely even deserves to be called a car chase.
The Daily Trail 
They’re no fun, they fell right over. I haven’t seen a car chase scene this exciting since Joe Don Baker’s thrill a minute action flick Mitchell!
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I get the sarcasm. Never heard of the film, so I looked it up. Another second-rate copy-without-rules action flick with a lot of “car” stuff, though not exclusively car chases. I read they made a cleaned up version for TV that had to be even more dull. I appreciate your sacrifice watching it, but I’m going to give it a pass.
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My, my, my … MY GOD! Mitchell is a terrible movie but the MST3K version is hilarious. My only complaint is they cut the scene where John Saxon’s character is killed off so it’s a little confusing but with a movie this bad it’s not a major glitch.
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I used to watch MST with Joel back in its original format, when it was a local program here in the Twin Cities. Glad it went national and became a hit.
Fun “fact”: According to wikipedia, Joel Hodgson left the series directly after the Mitchell episode over control issues with the producer.
Another fun fact: I was in a theater at the Univ of MN (1976) watching two movies that wouldn’t be allowed there today. But in the front row were two or three guys doing the MST3K shtick. I never saw who they were and it wouldn’t have meant anything to me at that time. But Hodgson was already in the Twin Cities by then, so who knows…?!
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That the goons are chasing Our Heroes, who are going back to the event run by the goons, and is where they were supposedly going to take them*, and we still don’t know what the point of the entire absurd competition is, has taken this whole mess to a level of confusion only heretofore reached by the current war IRL.
*Yes, I realized the overuse of they & them is confusing. But it was too late – I was already lost.
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Yesterday the van was pretty competently rendered as a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. Today it is a blob that I can’t identify beyond saying it doesn’t look like a Sprinter. Maybe a very early (1984?) Dodge Caravan with a raised roof camper conversion. Rather like the scene in “Smokey and the Bandit” where the truck driver gets beat up in a biker bar. There’s a line of big custom Harleys out front of the bar… until the scene where the trucker gets revenge by driving his rig over the bikes, at which point they mysteriously morph into cheap Japanese dirt bikes.
At least the film directors had a reason for the sudden switcheroo. Harleys cost a lot of money. Jules, on the other hand… last time I checked, ink and paint (or pixels on a computer screen) are pretty cheap.
Well, nobody expected Jules to be consistent in her art. If Mark looks like he’s been played by a dozen different actors during her time running the strip, I shouldn’t expect anything else to look the same two strips in a row.
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While we’re on the subject of Roadrunner and Coyote, look up the 1975 Roger Corman flick Death Race 2000 (not the 2008 big-budget remake). There is a great scene in it where a racer actually drives into a “tunnel” that is painted on a huge canvas perched on the edge of a cliff. It is hilarious.
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Death Race 2000 is on Tubi. Way too much like our reality, but worth it to see Grasshopper beating up Stallone. The Death Proof half of Tarantino’s Grindhouse is a pretty good example of a chase scene that more or less is the entire plot.
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I watched that movie a long time ago. Also dreadful, but I rember Carradine driving over the mechanic of the female driver, whose name I forget.
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Why did Cliff change his sparkly cowboy hat to a baseball cap? And what’s the deal with the fish? Is this some early Christian thing?
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Points for historical references! Anyway, like Gilligan’s Island, changes of clothing (always clean and pressed) are always available, when and as needed.
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