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Mark runs into another adversary!

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As Mark ponders his anti-A.I. position based on those projects he saw, there are a few questionable issues Mark could hit back on in his presentation: The possible cost to people in terms of employment, the proper citation of original data, and financial compensation when AI absorbs published work of people and spits it out in unattributed format. After all, AI doesn’t do original research on its own, of course. It works with data mined from the Internet.

Is there no end to the opponents Mark keeps running into in this story!? In today’s installment, another one of Mark’s “B Team” heavies shows up: Sid Stump is on Mark’s discussion panel. He was also owner/operator of the fake “STEM mountain resort” used to sucker “Big Money” people to attend and give him funds for his special AI project to spread misinformation around the world. Why? I’m not sure. Power, perhaps. Check out the “Bear Necessities” story (2023).

So now Sid wants to dump some AI technology. Big deal! That’s hardly the doomsday scenario that Rivera sarcastically suggests in panel 4. But exactly what is Sid’s sale going to change, as Rivera implies? Perhaps Mark’s opinion of A.I.? He already knows Sid Stump is a con man. So will Mark assume that along with Cricket Bro, this conference is just a scam, a front for some nefarious plot to make the cost of E-bikes ever more expensive? Guess we might find out in due time.

Mark gets schooled on AI projects

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I kind of like the tug-o-war going on in Mark’s head, as he reluctantly begins to move past his basic AI: Bad! mentality.  These are, in fact, actual AI projects. Putting aside the previous odd “interrogation room” interview sequence and the touristy walkabout, this is the first actual meat in an otherwise, vegan story. In these panels, we see Mark’s growing concern and curiosity, revealed through his shifting eyebrows. The influence of AI on and in the environment has been touched on previously in Mark Trail, as we’ve seen; but here, it becomes more of a personal struggle with Mark’s own ethics.

As much as I like to see something serious pop up in Mark Trail, Rivera’s track record of remaining on point is inconsistent. Once again, I fear that we’ll soon see a sharp disruption to Mark’s self-analysis and a big change in the tone of the story. It would be interesting to see Mark give his presentation and admit that he has been forced to rethink some of his biases. Will that happen?

Is Mark getting misty-eyed?

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Once again, Rivera parodies her own strip by presenting a pigeon and foliage in panel 1 as if they have been pasted from another source. Maybe, maybe not. But reality is not the point, I think. It’s just to make sport of Trail fans. I think the expression would be “Own the Tailheads.” Sounds a bit clumsy, doesn’t it? Perhaps we should shorten “Trailhead” to a simpler contraction, “Tread”, as in “Own the Treads.” Nice!

It’s interesting to see Mark stress over writing HTML, when in his early stories, he seemed to be somewhat ignorant of the Internet. Even Mark can learn, I reckon. So is Mark coding his own web pages for his blogs, rather than taking advantage of the many platforms and blog sites already available? That might help explain his low number of followers. Certainly, he must have enough wits about him to cross-post his articles and blogs across multiple sites, right?

I wonder if, in his talk, he’ll bring up that Salt Lake City adventure (“Horsin’ Around”, 2024) involving a secretive data center run by grifter Tad Crass and a bunch of mustangs that may or may not have gotten disturbed by Crass’s desert complex. Maybe he’ll bring up the NFT grift of Cricket Bro and his brother out in Oregon.

The trivial phone call continues!

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Because Mark Trail is a family comic strip appearing in at least 20 to 30 newspapers, conversations tend to be innocuous or boring. So I rewrote this one for adult readers (meaning this would never happen):

Cherry: “Mark, Duke found mold on the wall behind the water heater. Good thing you took that paying assignment!”
Mark: “Rats! Maybe I can weasel some more money out of that weasel, Cricket Bro. How much more for the repairs?”
Cherry: “Don’t worry, I got it covered, Mark. Oh, I picked up some gold jewelry in town today.”
Mark: “WHAT!? I took this job because I thought we were short on cash, Cherry! And since when did you start wearing jewelry? It’s not like the wildlife care. How much did it all cost?!”
Cherry: “Don’t worry, Sweetie. But Duke likes bling, and you always say it’s important to keep your contractor happy.”
Mark: “Oh, yeah? Well, I’m taking the first flight home. Then it’s Bam! Zoom! To the Moon!”
Cherry: “Uh, well … I’ll have my brother, Dirk, and his hogs, pick you up at the airport.”

– Well, I think I’m allowed a bit of fantasy, now and then!

We return to Mark’s action-filled adventure in New York City … (Yawn!)

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One of the things I had early on complimented Rivera for is expanding the home life of Mark and Cherry, giving us more than just pancake dinners, front porch discussions, and tearful goodbyes. However, it can swing too far the other way, as exhibited here. And this is not a singular occurrence. But I don’t think breaking a storyline to indulge in insignificant small talk is a good idea. Coming back to Mark’s adventure after a week with Olive and Rusty, we should expect to see something going on with Mark and the AI Conference. Tempo! Tempo! Tempo!

Today offers us nothing of value. It’s mediocre filler, at best. I am bothered by the notion that the entire week might be like this, since Rivera likes to spend an entire week working with one idea or scenario. You might recall the week-long nature walk these two love birds took back in late February, following their vocal beat-down of the incarcerated Rick the Poacher.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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If you missed last week, your faithful MT blogger suffered in your place, but he’s happy to catch you up. Are you ready?

Our dogged duo (Olive and Rusty) wanted to gather more evidence against the Grungey Boys for their alleged damage to Lost Forest land by their covert lawnmower races. You might recall that our two good deed doers ran across the “Boys” while on a nature walk. The two were discovered by Honest Ernest (the ringleader), who tried to snatch a phone Olive was using to capture their surreptitious activity. Ernest tried to get rough with Olive and demanded the camera, only to wind up on the ground after a sharp right to the face. Zoom to this week.

Operating under a warning from Mark to not escalate the situation (that is, to not act like him), Olive and Rusty came up with another plan to get more evidence. They purchased a “trail cam” and installed it where the Grungey Boys play. When Olive and Rusty showed the video evidence they captured to Ranger Shaw, he responded that (for some reason) he had no enforcement powers in the unincorporated portions of Lost Forest. Personally, I found this surprising, as unincorporated land is usually protected by the county sheriff. Ranger Shaw could have brought him in, but did not. But why didn’t Shaw have jurisdiction if Lost Forest is some kind of preserve? Oh, the complexities of government jurisdictions!

Custom title panels are a hallmark of Rivera’s Sunday Mark Trail strips. The conception of today’s title is very good, though the execution is a bit slack. Anyway, it’s nice to see that Rivera can draw or copy realistic trees when called upon (panel 4). Would be nice if she could draw them in the regular panels, too.

Planting trees in downtowns is a good idea, if thoughtfully done. My city tried it a few time and failed. At one time they even created portable “parks” complete with shrubbery and seating that could be moved around downtown to give workers and customers a respite from the concrete.

Olive and Rusty face their first setback

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The Grungey Boys story continues. Apparently, Ranger Shaw claims to have no authority in Lost Forest because it is mostly unincorporated land. Okay, then. Where does his ranger’s authority extend? I won’t pretend to have special knowledge, though I used to watch Yogi Bear tangle with Ranger Smith a lot.

Normally, the county sheriff has jurisdiction in an unincorporated area. Why doesn’t Ranger Shaw get the sheriff and detain the Grungey Boys, as he did when we first met the “Boys” destroying and abandoning office equipment in Lost Forest. Ranger Shaw could at least advise Olive to contact the county sheriff. But since that would logically end the story, it seems that Olive might go “vigilante” on the Grungy Boys, like Mark did.

Keep this episode in mind, as we’re likely to return to Mark’s adventure, come Monday. In the meantime, we’ll have the weekly nature chat tomorrow.

Rusty gets excited over a photo of a deer.

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Even if you grow up in a forest where you will likely see lots of deer, you can still appreciate an interesting photograph.

Anyway, it is problematic that Rivera just cannot decide whether Mark Trail should be a continuity strip or a joke-a-day strip, so she tries to merge both concepts. And usually fails. I’m sure there are ways to put humor into an otherwise “serious” adventure strip without resorting to a standard 3-panel joke format as Rivera often does. This isn’t Pearls Before Swine and Rivera doesn’t have Stephen Pastis’s chops for puns (good or bad).

I’m not sure this event qualifies as an actual story yet, though the general “plot” seems to be “The Grungey Boys are discovered messing around in Lost Forest on a riding lawnmower. Rusty and Olive take steps to report them to the forest rangers for further investigation and law enforcement.” If so, the story is almost already over.

Art Dept. It seems as if Rivera wants to at least give the impression that her animals are cut-and-pasted, as I’ve even stated, yesterday. But is it really just part of a possible “stick it to the Trailheads” agenda? If we examine that deer in panel 3, the uneven black border lines suggest a rather awkward cut-and-paste job. But check out the line under the belly of the deer and you’ll see it continues over top of the hind leg. So what’s the real purpose of these oddly shaped, heavy contours, if not part of a gag? Also, just whose cabin is that behind the deer? Is there a guest house that’s been hiding out of view at the Trail cabin all these years?

In other news: There was a lively discussion in the comments section yesterday about a possible future for Mark Trail; not that we have any control over that, of course. It was more a matter of what might be possible or desirable.

But first, a word from fuzzy-wuzzy footwear.

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I take back most of what I wrote to Mark the Contrarian Commenter in a comment on yesterday’s strip. This is troubling, from the cut-and-pasted Bunny in panel 1, to the simplistic compositions, to the suddenly ten-years-younger-looking Olive, whose head changes in every panel and whose Mohawk keeps switching sides (kudos to Be Ware of Eve Hill) every day. Maybe it’s the wind?

And what has Olive Pitt turned into? From an edgy, in-your-face, take-no-prisoners gal, she is now somebody who wears bunny slippers and thinks the Grungey Boys may really be a menace. This reminds me of the transformation of Diana Daggers, from impulsive and threatening bodyguard persona for Professor Bee Sharp to the hapless and ineffective nobody she has become.

What is going on!? It certainly does not even qualify as satire or parody. You would be forgiven for thinking that a guy was handling this strip.

Does Rivera think that Mark must be the only person in the strip capable of solving problems and facing down bullies, thugs, and cons? Does everybody here have to look weak to make Mark look strong? And does Rivera have to keep trying to own the Trailheads?

Oh, and the storyline? We’ll get back to it if and when it shows up.

I think a storyline is bubbling up to the surface.

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So it seems that the Grungey Boys’ lawn mower incident isn’t quite the one-off that I was thinking, and therein hangs this tale. Rusty is going to somehow solve what seems to be a non-problem by using just one animal cam to maybe catch some nocturnal lawnmower races. Okay. Every kid should have a hobby.

Now, I’m a bit surprised by Peach Pitt’s change in demeanor. Her normally positive image seems to have morphed into a more caustic personality. But that aside, what’s with Peach’s revisionist history? As we recently read, she and Olive came up to Lost Forest to get away from her bipolar boyfriend, Rick.

Is anybody the least bit curious where the extra bedrooms are for Peach and Olive? The Trail cabin never looked big enough to have four (or five) bedrooms, along with living room, dining room, and kitchen. Sure, this is the comic strip world, where houses expand, as needed. Like Dr. Who’s Tardis. Did Doc Davis move out of the cabin to live at his vet practice? So many unknowns!

Much ado about nothing

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Well! Well! Well. We didn’t get introduced to the local postmaster, after all. So much for meeting more characters in Lost Forest. Harumph!

So far, we don’t really have any kind of story going on. Sure, there was the incident with the Grungy Boys and the riding lawnmower in the woods several weeks ago, but nothing has come of that so far. Instead, we see the kind of desultory activity and dialog that can be found in Mary Worth, Judge Parker, Sally Forth, or even Hi and Lois. So why do we need any more of that!? This is supposed to be a nature-based adventure strip, right? This doesn’t even look like Rivera’s normal version of Mark Trail. Maybe Rivera could look at spinning these sisters out into their own strip where she can indulge these whimsies in greater detail and length.

I’m disappointed. It’s not that I expect to see gunfights and fisticuffs at every turn, but where is any sense of adventure? I certainly hope something appears before the week is over that provides even a touch of excitement. I know I’ve talked in the past about how the Lost Forest stories tend to be more light-hearted and comedic, but a week of this is going to really test my resolve.

Would this look better in a large circular panel?

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I’m hoping that this week sees us return to the happy glades of Lost Forest with its gentle folk, homespun wisdom, and simple ways. Like many of you, I yearn for those halcyon days of animal and fish poaching, arson, and the occasional kidnapping. Yes, simpler times for simpler . . . uh, hold on.

I don’t know who that kid is in panel 1, but it sure doesn’t look like the kid in panel 2. When we were last at Lost Forest, Mark was chewing out Olive Pitt for doing what he would have done, had he been there:  Putting a sock in Honest Ernest’s face for his provocations and bullying behavior.

And once again, Olive and Rusty go out on another walk. Apparently, having a post office in Lost Forest means you come and collect the mail. However, this gives Rivera the opportunity to introduce another character and story arc from the Lost Forest population. Well, the more the merrier, I say! These Lost Forest stories need fresh meat. But will this new story abide by the nature/environment focus of the strip’s raison d’être? Peach Pitt’s recent story about her macho hunter-turned-psycho ex-boyfriend pushed the boundaries of the focus on nature.

So, okay. Rivera got her joke strip out today. And it was a gentle, innocuous Family Circus kind of humor, too. But no more! No more joke strips this week!

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Hall shall I refer to this past week: The attempted humiliation of Mark Trail? Kelly gets her oats? Message a trois? As we discovered the week before, long-time rival Kelly Welly got herself hired as Cricket Bro’s environmental advisor and Mark’s presentation preparer. Mark was led into a large, scarcely-furnished room, a bit reminiscent of the office of “Number Two” in the English TV series, The Prisoner. Only Mark was the one sitting in the imposing single chair, while Kelly and Cricket Bro hovered above him, on foot.

Kelly enjoyed putting Mark under her thumb as she defiantly touted her new-found independence and position of authority. She was no longer the second banana to Mark. Nothing wrong with that, of course, though throwing in with Cricket Bro may more likely tarnish than burnish her reputation.

Kelly’s position mutated from long-time journalistic rival to new vengeful nemesis. For his part, Cricket Bro had a good time this week showing off his new weight-lifter’s physique that he used to primp, preen, and otherwise disparage Mark’s alleged physical inferiority. Yet, Mark was not impressed.

Finally, Kelly enjoyed informing Mark that the conference was filled with pro-AI people who would not care what Mark had to say, that he would be humiliated. To his credit, Mark sluffed it all off.

A concrete-molded title panel graces this weighty discussion. Okay, enough with the puns. The topic has serious points to make. As panel 2 suggests, concrete explains a lot of why urban centers are almost always hot spots. While cities demand that science develops less harmful concrete, they could look more closely at the Romans. The ancient Romans developed a recipe for their building material that is often more durable, self-healing, and less harmful to the environment (not something they would have been aware of or cared much about).

For one thing, Roman concrete does not require the high temperatures needed to produce modern Portland cement, which helps create environmental problems. Roman concrete structures (e.g. the Pantheon, the Colosseum, various bridges, etc.), have lasted millennia, whereas modern concrete can start deteriorating within 50 years! Can this Roman construction material be used in large-scale projects? Sure! The famous Colosseum (half of which was lost from earthquakes and later plundering of its materials) held up to 50,000 people. The Imperial public baths of Rome were huge expanses of concrete, marble, and sculptures. The largest bath enclosed a space of over 10 acres.

Cricket Bro and Kelly’s trash talk continues

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The week has been focused on Mark’s in-person, “preflight check” for the big AI panel. It seems that most of this prep consisted of insults, childish boasts, and a dose of self-righteous anger from Kelly Welly. On the other hand, I’m more convinced than I was on Monday that Cricket Bro’s physique is faked. In Panel 1, “BRING YOU A GAME” should have been written as “BRING YOUR ‘A’ GAME” or “BRING YOU’RE A–GAME”. Sometimes I get a bit nerdy.

Art Dept. I want to have something more positive to say about the drawing and compositions. I truly do. Rivera has drawn much more inventive panels in the past, though much of her current compositional output is humdrum. By the way, do you think Cricket Bro’s somewhat deflated or lumpy physique in panel 3 is just more drawing inconsistency or a clue about his phony inflated physique (and ego)?

Well, there is the question of why Rivera moved from the sweeping view of a large room to more close-up compositions like we see today. Panel1 and Panel 2 could have been combined into a large panel, for example. Otherwise, why bother showing the wide views at all? Wasn’t the intent, with the single chair in the large room, to make Mark feel isolated, small, and vulnerable?

So, what’s on your mind? Any thoughts or observations to share? While I try to calibrate and limit my out-and-out snarkiness, feel free to indulge in your own, as you wish.

I don’t get the punchline!

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Okay, so today is just another round of insulting and dissing Mark. Can we please move on?

You can call me dense, but I just don’t get Mark’s comment in panel 3. Is he talking about himself? It can’t be Cricket Bro, who is not a writer. I’m open to explanations! I don’t even get it what it means.

Although I indicated a bit ago that this would be another foray into silliness and outright tomfoolery, there are also unintended follies along the way. Cricket Bro’s fantasy “action figure” pose (like those cheap toys from the 1980s) and anatomy in panel 1 is one of them. It doesn’t even look like him. The more I look at it, the creepier it looks. Rivera might want to study comic book action heroes for better inspiration. Poor Cricket Bro’s anatomy (panel 2) looks like it was made up; even the lines are just a haphazard hash. Not sure why!

Rivera’s constant need to present this strip in a gag format (even when the gags don’t work) does little to improve the storyline. In fact, it’s a real distraction!

Mark discovers he sits on a hot seat.

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So, it isn’t that Mark Trail gets the weird jobs while Kelly gets the meat-and-potatoes assignments. We get it, Kelly. The Men’s Club still wants to enforce the old rules. Perhaps that is why Cricket Bro and Kelly Welly arranged to have Mark sit in this singular, make-a-statement chair (or throne?) stuck in the middle of the room, to give him a false sense of importance as they start cutting him down.  It’s a tag-team double whammy, as Cricket Bro dropkicks Mark on his masculinity while Kelly body slams his professional standing.

Kelly Welly has moved on from a mere journalist rival to nemesis status. I’m confused, though. Is nature journalism the ‘sad little industry’ Kelly references in panel 1 or the ‘environmental’ industry?

Panel 3 is interesting for its background, which loses most of its meaning in the black & white world of newspaper publishing. I don’t reckon it takes a lot of imagination to figure out the symbolism here, and my sense of decorum restricts me from having to state the obvious. It’s a rather bold statement , all the same.

Art Dept. This room reminds me more and more of the rooms in the German Expressionist movie, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Kelly steps up and stakes her claim

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Who knows!? Maybe Kelly is a better nature journalist, which is why Mark gets the weird and silly assignments. Of course, this sets up a real conundrum for Rivera. Can Kelly Welly be as good—or better—than Mark, in his own comic strip? Or is Bill Ellis a secretive, conniving SOB for sending both Mark and Kelly on the same assignment to see who submits the better story?

But maybe Kelly will once again be doomed by her delusions and lack of a brand name, bound for another humiliating return to the Mark Trail Phantom Zone. Of course, given the stakes here and the serious nature of the subject, we should not expect Rivera to turn this story into a farrago of nonsense and superficialities. Right?

Wait, sorry. I already predicted that that is going to be the case, though that is hardly a revelation.

Mark doesn’t take Cricket Bro’s bait.

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Okay, go with the flow? Cricket Bro’s new persona reminds me of a couple of people:  one person is the fictional character “Flash” (Lord Flasheart) in the BlackAdder series IV (“Blackadder goes forth”), a pompous, vain figure and womanizer. Cricket Bro’s pose in panel 1 could be right out of that sitcom. The second person is an infamous, equally self-centered, contemporary character, who is unfortunately not fictional. I can’t speak for Rivera on whether Cricket Bro’s current persona is based on either person, but I would not be surprised either way.

Regarding the story development, I’m feeling a bit optimistic here, based on the hypothesis that this story is going to be a real cross-eyed, absurd tale without the pretense of actual danger or suspense. The very room these people are in, for example, remains mysterious. What is it all about? There is that unusual chair; the mirror on the wall behind a pedestal holding a plant (?); and the way Kelly Welly silently stands, as if mirroring the pedestal and plant.

Was I caught in a late April Fool’s joke?

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Okay, Rivera got me! I took her seriously that the “To be continued” message was meant to signal the change to Cherry’s ongoing life. Instead, we get another week of Mark. So, is that what the message box was for, to let us know Mark’s story was continuing now?

Anyway, when I saw panel 1, I immediately thought Rivera is riffing off of The Phantom.  I mean, what’s with that big, white chair? And why is Mark sitting in it? Why are there no other chairs? What a bizarre scene, like some cheapo science fiction show.

Taking all this at face value, it is hardly surprising that Cricket Bro uses this opportunity to ham it up and indulge in the kind of schoolyard insults we normally associate with politicians. Well, one or two of them. But all of this is non sequitur blather. What does it have to do with the conference? Was that just a sham, too? Or is it that Cricket Bro is such a narcissist that he can’t resist rubbing it in. Actually, I’m wondering whether this is all charade and that Cricket Bro’s “hot bod” is really only fake prosthetics or the result of steroid injections. Or maybe, just maybe … this is some kind of AI prank. Maybe the image of Cricket Bro is a faked and jazzed up AI image. So why not? This is a comic strip, right?

Art Dept. Getting back to panel 1, we are left with a mystery: Why is Rivera showing us this large, sparsely furnished room, with the characters drawn in the background? Was it to fit in the message box and dialog balloons? I can’t believe it is for to showcase the room, as the drawing is rather slapdash.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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After blithely and indifferently assisting with the capture of a raccoon in LaGuardia Airport, Mark took the air and toured parts of Manhattan before going on to his pre-convention meeting. Mark has a penchant for verbal self-reflection and saw fit to voice his impressions along the way, apparently talking to himself. And for some unknown reason, Rivera decided to alter Mark’s personality and portray him as a clichéd Gomer Pyle visits the big city. “Shazam!” Not sure what the purpose of that change was. Mark may be a lot of things, but he was never a country bumpkin. Snuffy Smith has that role locked up.

When Mark arrived at the location for his meeting, he ran into long-time (but rarely seen during Rivera’s tenure) rival, Kelly Welly. The last time they had any significant dialog was in Rivera’s first Mark Trail adventure. Welly’s resentment for Mark has grown over time, and she somehow found out about Cricket Bro and his convention, so she attached herself to his company. She is now Mark’s official contact for the AI convention. He’s just thrilled.

If you are thinking this whole affair is some kind of elaborate “James Bond” setup for Mark, I agree. Revenge is the most likely cause because of Mark’s interference in the manatee abduction attempt. But we’ll have to wait another week to learn more, as Rivera has signaled she is turning the space over to Cherry (or maybe, Doc Davis). Well, perhaps Cherry is getting tired of her never-ending problems with Violet and will strike out in a different direction this time.

Mark wants to honor rats!? Egad, has Mark been eating the cheese again? Well, Rivera already covered pigeons, so I suppose these rats (known by various nicknames) are the next popular animal life form people think about when it comes to New York City.

Talk about wanting to get rid of illegal immigrants, this would be a better place for all of us to focus. The idea of rats running around cities, homes, and apartments does not make for fond memories. They are crawling laboratories of pathogens. They have also long been thought to be the spreaders of bubonic plague during the Black Death in the Middle Ages. But more recent research says no, it is rat fleas. Those are parasites hitching rides on the rats.

So, do these city rats have a positive purpose? Not as far as humanity is concerned. There is a lot of truce to the old insult, “You dirty rat!” I’ll laugh at lions, alligators, and black mambas (from a distance). As for flies, tics, and rats, send them all to the Antarctic.