“’GENTLEMEN’!?Why, these are bloody woodsmen, Mark!”
These panels might make more sense after Happy Hour. Why does Mark want to stop the match? I presume it is so he can reveal Tad Crass’ real estate fight. Which would accomplish what? Are the fighters going to quit and throw away their chance to win a lot of money?! I don’t think so!
I wonder where that large curtain and lectern came from, because it was not part of the setup that we saw when the contest area was first depicted in panel 4 on March 31 (Go ahead and scroll back to look. I’ll wait for you..).
And I know you’re gonna have questions about how to interpret the rink in panel 1 and panel 3, as well as what the heck Mark and Cliff are doing. For some reason, it didn’t occur to them to simply hop out of the rink and walk around it. Poor Tad Crass; he looks like he lost his marbles (panel 2) and doesn’t know what to do. That must have been what made it possible for Mark and Cliff to walk right in front of him without being recognized. I’m not sure I have the skill or patience to interpret the details in panel 3, so I’ll leave that to you all. But even the turkey vulture looks frustrated.
I’d sure like this story to have a sense of real drama and maybe some danger (I reckon the car chase might have offered something if it hadn’t abruptly ended just after it began!). However, we just have this, instead.
Today we see Tad’s free-for-all rumble in action, apparently comprised of little kids and Hobbits, based on Tad’s large size. Well, perhaps Tad’s been taking growth hormones?
Now, I don’t quite get the conversation going on here. “A distraction to keep Mark quiet.” Huh? Are Mark and Cliff somehow under the impression that they must remain in this rink? I think not! But they don’t seem to know any better. Clearly, Mark must not care about winning the contest, so why worry about this sham fight? All Mark has to do is step out of the rink and walk (or run) over to wherever the microphone Mark refers to is located (Note that the “image” in panel 4 shows a lectern with a mounted microphone; something we have not seen). Mark could also walk around to the other side of the rink, pull Tad’s feet out from under him (as happened to Cliff), and grab his microphone!
And just what is Mark going to broadcast to the people watching this competition? “Hey, everybody!Tad Crass is engaged in a land battle with a solar farm business for rights to a particular piece of land!” Nevertheless, the obvious comeback here (one I previously mentioned) is: There is plenty of open land in the area, enough for both sides! This may just be a comic strip, but it would have helped the story to at least include a reason why the two sides are fighting over the same parcel of desert. Did I miss something?
Art Dept. A small observation: Mark and Cliff’s hats were originally colored blue (or a variant tint). Since last week they appear as white with purple shading. Perhaps backup head gear?
First, it’s tag-team; then it’s extreme boxing; and now it’s rumble time. It just seems like the point of this match keeps changing minute by minute! Mark is worried about being overwhelmed; but I think it will be more by the continuous changes rather than the number of contestants.
Speaking of which, I was wondering who all those background (purple) people were, just wandering around the contest area. It seems they are the other contestants. So why does Mark thinks they are all just coming after him and Cliff? The point—if there is one—of a rumble is that everybody fights everybody. I think. Anyway, nobody seems in much of a hurry to start fighting. They’re probably all thinking to themselves “What kind of lunatic is this guy, running the Woodsman Olympics?!”
But, go ahead; I can’t stop you. I know that the pressure to say something has been building in you. You see the increasing insanity going on here: How unrealistic it is, defying the very laws of logic, physics, and content of the Treaty of Versailles. I speak, of course, of the boxing rink drawing in panel 3. So just go post your snarky analyses! At least it will save me the effort of thinking up something to write.
It is Saturday when I write this recap. The weather is not simply dreary, it is unpredictably dreary. Cold and gray, it snows a bit; then stops. After a while it snows a bit more, then stops again. Is that the sun I see trying to peek out of the overcast? Yes, for a moment. Now gone again. As I said, it’s unpredictable. And that is a fair description of the current story.
Mark and Cliff seem to spend more time away from the Woodsman Olympics than participating in it. In fact, Mark’s interview with the Solar Project manager the week before took up so much time that they missed the log-cutting event. We began the week with Cherry and Rusty at the log-cutting event, searching in vain to find Mark and Cliff. That’s the last we saw of them this week. When Mark and Cliff finally arrived, it was apparently at another location, and just in time for the Log Camp Boxing Event. Tad Crass was on site as the event moderator. He decided to change the contest on the spot to a “Tag-Team” boxing event, pitting Mark and Cliff against the Grungey Boys. His expectation was clearly to see Mark and Cliff publicly humiliated.
Mark sent Cliff into the ring first, no doubt to test the waters. And the waters proved too deep for Cliff, who was quickly overcome by a tag-team dirty trick. Mark jumped in to take over, facing off against Honest Ernest. But Tad Crass didn’t like the way things were going (that is, Mark was not getting hammered by Ernest), so he immediately changed the event on the fly once again to an “Extreme Boxing” match, involving everybody fighting in the ring at the same time. Just keep throwing things to see what sticks.
I know what you’re thinking. Well, I know what I am thinking, anyway. All of the planning and setup for this Olympics; all of the money spent on resources and bringing in contestants; and here is Tad Crass, turning it into a grudge match of personal retribution. One might think that Rivera is layering in a subtle satire on our political situation. But I can’t expand on that, in large part, because this is not a political blog and will not become one. Wait. I just stepped on my …er, let’s just get some fresh air and explore the Sunday nature topic, shall we?
Mark could be more consistent. Bluebirds are cool! Bluebirds are not cool because they drop down on their prey. Which is it!? I’m nitpicking, because I think these Sunday strips would be better if more space was spent on the subject and less space on Mark and his puns. Not needed, Jules! My unsolicited recommendation is to go with the old standard: Limit Mark’s appearances to only the first information panel and maybe the last panel. Mark delivers only one joke (okay, Mark’s line in the last panel wasn’t bad). Also, keep doing the custom title panels!
Some tag-team boxing event. Just when it gets started, Jules Rivera switches it up. This could have at least been a good opportunity to get in some sharp parody. Instead, it’s a short tease and suddenly everything will change.
Alas, brothers and sisters. There are times when I must agree with the position of reader Mark, the Contrarian Commenter concerning the current handling of this strip, and this is one of those times. It’s one thing to promote a completely different stylized look to this legacy strip, as Rivera has done; but quite another to just lazily draw outlandish anatomy, mismatched proportions, and sloppy lines. Say, is that really Honest Ernest, Plastic Man, or Paul Bunyan fighting Mark in panel 2? As for panel 3, I don’t see Ernest at all. It must be a cartoon stunt double! Have we come to a point where comic strip characters now have stand-ins? Sheesh!
But maybe Jules Rivera got encouraged by enforcers from her syndicate to push this story along a bit faster. Otherwise, what gives with Tad Crass’s sudden panic to change the contest rules?
Art Dept. There is one exception to the otherwise forgettable art today, and that is Mark’s pose in panel 3. It has a more self-assured pose and appearance that stands out from the rest of the strip. Even Mark’s face looks different, more like the pre-RiveraMark Trail. I can almost believe that Rivera happened to see an earlier strip and borrowed the pose for today’s installment. I’m probably wrong, but if I’m right, I’d love to find the source. However, I don’t happen to have a Mark Trail comic strip library to draw on. Of course, it would be great if KFS published all of the old strips in book form, like we’ve seen for many other vintage strips. However, that is probably not practical or economic at this time.
When we last saw Cherry and Rusty, they were hoping to see Mark compete in the wood chopping contest, but were left wondering why he wasn’t there. Instead, Mark chose to skip his favorite event, only making it back in the nick of time for the boxing competition.
It’s possible Cherry and Rusty are still at that event area, rather than here. But maybe they’ll make it over here in time for Saturday’s strip. It could act as both a cliffhanger for Mark and Cliff and a transition back to a week with Cherry and Rusty.
But for now, we’re here at the start of the tag-team log camp boxing competition. Now, it’s kind of odd, don’t you think, that this competition seems to have been specially put together just for these two teams? Certainly Tad Crass wouldn’t go to the expense of erecting a rink solely for this fight!? Perhaps it is only a special tag-team grudge match inserted into the normal schedule of boxing events. If nothing else, it is clear evidence that I’m spending more time on this than it deserves!
<CLANG!> goes the non-existent bell to start the fight, watched over by the so-far non-existent referee. Cliff goes first, because Mark has to be the one to finish off the opposition. The Grungey Boys start right in with a popular tag-team wrestling trick, as Cliff is maneuvered over by the ropes (I keep wondering how that small cap remains on top of Connor’s Ten-Gallon haircut). Of course, Mark is convenientlysomeplace else at this exact moment, perhaps looking for Cherry and Rusty or getting sidelined by Tad Crass. It’s all classic wrestling theater. Perhaps we’ll get to see Mark hit Connor across the back with a folding chair. It’s fun! Fun! Fun!
Through Jules Rivera, Tad Crass is using the pro-wrestling gimmick of “tag-team boxing” to provide an excuse to wash his dirty laundry in public and go after Mark Trail. Since Tad invited Mark to participate in these Olympics, we’d have to conclude that he also knew Mark would snoop around in his real estate scheme. That could explain how Tad’s security team found Mark and Cliff so quickly. Still, it begs the question of why he invited Mark to come at all? Perhaps it’s a weakness of amateur villains that they often invite their nemesis to the intended scene of the crime, just to gloat…before getting taken down by the Good Guy.
So, Tad’s Plan A—using the two Security Dudes to sideline Mark—has failed. Now it’s time for Plan B: Using the Grungey Boys to humiliate Mark in public. “Surely, this time it will work!” I think we’d all like to see that happen once in a while. You know, for the sake of “reality.”
Speaking of the Grungey Boys, can we ignore Connor’s high school trashing of English grammar? More largely, I think we are witnessing Connor’s growing confidence and arrogance, compared to his earlier days when he was just a naïve, inexperienced, and quick-tempered jerk (“<Sniff!> How quickly our little boy has grown up!”). Just as surprising, Honest Ernest seems happy to let him take the spotlight, which is also noteworthy.
Art Dept. What’s with Tad’s mouth in panel 4? Can’t say I’ve seen anything like that. It doesn’t even look human. Could Tad Crass be an alien from the secret planet, Tralfamadore?
You heard it here, second, for sure: Jules Rivera just posted a panel from a not-yet-published daily on her BlueSky channel, showing Mark sitting in an office. He’s in conference with Tad Crass, while the two MMA fighters/security guards stand by, looking on in defeat. But Mark’s confrontational repose, refusing to shake Tad’s hand, is one of his best depictions. I’m anxious to see it in published form.
Now, let’s move on to today’s unfortunate installment:
For Pete’s sake! We already know this so-called Woodsman Olympics competition is bonkers, and there’s no credit to me for predicting the obvious lineup for this “tag-team” boxing event. It seems that tag-team boxing is a real thing, though it is presented more as entertainment (“a fun sideshow”) than as professional, serious boxing. So it fits right in!
By the way, which Grungey Boy in panel 4 is Honest Ernest? I’m thinking it is the dude beside the door, behind Connor, though I really can’t tell. I don’t know whether Jules Rivera’s hijacking the nickname of traditional Mark Trail readers to use as Mark and Cliff’s “team name” is an homage or just part of this parody. What do you think?
Art Dept. More despair and frustration comes from Jules Rivera letting that same 12-year old kid who scribbled panel 1 in yesterday’s submission do the entire set of panels today. Do I need to go into detail? I think panel 4 is the worst, where a vague higher viewpoint has all of the guys almost stacked on top of each other, as if they were posing for some ancient Egyptian tomb painting. Never mind the disregard for relative proportions between the players. Never mind the sketchy drawing, overall. Never mind the clumsy composition.
The Daily Trail 