Okay, so being trapped in a cave is not a really big deal for Mark, huh? We can interprete his behavior in different ways:

1. Mark is a super dad and cares for his own kid above anybody else, even his assignment
2. Mark is an irresponsible dad and thinks it is just fine to bring Rusty into a possibly dangerous environment
3. Mark figures Wingit made his own mess, so feels no great responsibility to save him
4. Since Wingit is no longer in the mansion, Mark’s primary mission is complete, anyway

Who knows which is right and whether another reason will float to the surface of this turgid pool?

Art Dept. Today’s strip displays signs of assembly line drawing, though I might be misreading things. Mark’s face in panel 2 looks like it was put together from stored parts, like an identikit or Mr. Potato Head, especially the mouth, which doesn’t quite fir the angle of the face. By the way, Mark’s watch in panel 1 disappears in panel 3. In fact, panel 1 is the only time Mark’s watch has even appeared.

Less obvious is the “lineup” composition that Rivera likes to use (panel 3) for groups. You can find numerous examples in the strip if you care to go back and review. Of course, part of the reason for this is important: Rivera needs to visually clarify which characters are speaking in a group. One downside is that the composition can sometimes look unnatural and awkward.

Today, Mark and Sammy stand side-by-side in the foreground, talking to Rusty and the surfing instructor standing in the middle ground. This arrangement forces Mark and Sammy to look back over their shoulders.  Clearly, a more realistic and still clear composition would have been to show Mark and Sammy facing Rusty, with their backsides to us. Not a difficult composition, even for Rivera.

Also, how and why did Rusty change his clothes from the relatively short time ago when he began his surfing lesson?

The guys seem so fascinated by director Wingit’s full name that they can’t help but repeat it in-full, every chance they get. Somehow, Mark jumps to the conclusion that, because Wingit would be shooting a scene in a cave, he might now be trapped in it. Why would he think that?

The cave reference Rivera refers to in panel 4 is to a “Journey to the Center of the Earth”-style adventure of a pursuit that took place in a southwest Texas cave. It appeared between Dec 2015-June 2016 when the strip was drawn by prior Mark Trail artist, James Allen (refer to our story category “Arachnid, Ho!”).  The adventure has since become an in-joke for its many cliffhangers, inane dialog, and seemingly unending length (the story and the cave).

It turns out that there really are numerous natural caves on Catalina Island, though most seem to be shallow. On the other hand, there are also several now-inactive mines of greater depth cut into the island rock to retrieve minerals such as silver, lead, and zinc, such as the BlackJack Mine. There is also a shallow “cave” blasted into the mountain below the landmark Holly Hill House. The town of Avalon initiated this to force the original home’s owner to allow public access across his land to the beach. Perhaps one of these will feature in Mark’s search.

What ho! The first thing out of the mouth of a smiling Mark Trail has nothing to do with layabout lions or missing actors, but bragging about his finds like a kid at an Easter Egg Hunt. Useless animal wrangler, Sammy Spotter, is positively giddy that he can discover where Wesley Wingit might have already been (assuming this is really Wingit’s camera).

Now, is Rivera getting philosophic on us? “We have to know the past in order to know the future.” In Panel 3, Mark’s comment completes the second half of that axiom. Nevertheless, it is possible to speculate on future actions based on past events. Except for future investment performance, of course.

Okay, what about that production schedule document? Since Wesley Wingit is the director, surely the producer(s) and studio also have copies of it. So they could have looked it over to check for location shots and send people to scout them out on the specified dates, right? Will the guys finally realize this? Did the producers even think about it?

<Sigh!> One thing we’ve learned for sure:  So far, Sammy Spotter has proven to be about as relevant as “Gadzooks!”

After a week’s hiatus, a reminder strip is not out of line. Interestingly, it is something of a “redo” of the Saturday, September 21 strip as seen from the point of view of Sammy Spotter:

Sammy Spotter’s fear is groundless, given what we know. But since he has been portrayed as a handwringing worrywart the whole time, there is no real drama. And no real suspense, except for the mystery of how and why the lions are allowed to be outside.

I reckon that we are supposed to assume Mark explored a lot of other rooms in this mansion, even though we did not see them. Too bad, as they might have led to some interesting situations.

Thus, Rivera missed another opportunity to build drama and suspense. Wait, I take that back. There is the mystery of the whereabouts of the actors who were supposedly locked inside the house along with the lions and the director. How come neither Mark nor Sammy seem at all concerned about them?

Hmmm, I’ve seen more drama in Scoobie-Doo. It’s a shame when you set up a story with promising elements of absurdity (in the literary sense), satire, and even suspense, only to let it all collapse under the weight of missed opportunities and weak execution. Well, the story is still in progress. Will Mark have to return to the clear danger of going back into that “lion’s den“? Is he going to chase that lion back into the house and lock the door to protect the public? Will Mark tell Sammy that the lions are loose?

It seems to me as if Rivera could have set up this portion of the story like a computer adventure game, where the explorer has to work through a series of mysterious rooms and areas, locating treasures and clues, while avoiding dangers along the way. So this could have been genuinely interesting and suspenseful. Yet, it has not come off that way at all.

But, we have just two very obvious “clues” after a less-than thorough search of this mansion.

The decision to have lions inside and outside of the house make no sense, given that the story was originally based on the concept of lions locked inside a house with a movie director and his actors. Nobody wanted to go into the house, not even the movie’s animal wrangler, Sammy Spotter. So Mark was tasked with making the dangerous foray into the mansion. But all of that is blown away. And given the apparently easy access outside, why would lions not be roaming the island, eating the wildlife and attacking tourists?

Art Dept. In spite of the textured coats of the sphinxlike lions, they are not very convincing, especially as they so clearly jar with the flat imagery around them, like a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling of a plain, concrete room.  The artwork seems to get even more illogical. For example, in panel 1, the wall of the house extends below Mark’s right leg, suggesting that Mark is about 12 feet tall. Clearly, that was not intended, but is just careless. The small bush between Mark’s legs is just a too-cute joke.

I’m sorry, Jules, but this is pretty rank stuff, visually and textually.I went over the implausibility of the wind blowing papers from inside the house to the outside when there is no cross-current. Rivera could have just had Mark move to the window in order to better read the paper and then have a gust of wind blow it out of his hands. That would at least be plausible.

And just how do we know that this production schedule is an important clue to the whereabouts of Wingit? In panel 3, the narration box states that Mark has caught up to the paper, yet he is still inside of the house, looking out the window. In panel 4, a recumbent lioness has somehow managed to snag the schedule. How did lions get outside of the house and why are they just hanging around the yard? The notion that police would not get involved in a situation like this is totally unrealistic.

Art Dept. There isn’t much to be said on the positive side and I do not think I need to belabor the obvious. The real question is why Rivera puts out this kind of stuff when it is clear she can do much better. Sure, her syndicate is probably not paying her much money. I get that. Mark Trail is not pulling in the kind of readership and earnings that Garfield or even Luann does, nor even the endless reprints of Peanuts. So, is the lack of quality meant to be some kind of protest by Rivera? Or maybe just her indifference? That seems self-destructive.

Perhaps there is no financial incentive for her to spend more time on the strip. That depends on her contract, of course. It might even be that the syndicate, itself, doesn’t care one way or the other, for its own reasons. I certainly don’t know. It’s a shame, because there are many good ideas and approaches that Rivera has already initiated or could implement.

I’m not sure how much bravery is required to walk through a house filled with docile lions, though the basic idea is certainly unsettling. Anyway, as the story unfolds, Mark looks for more evidence of Wingit’s location. But speaking of evidence, what was on the video camera and where is it?

Mark finds another possible piece of the puzzle: a production schedule, which just happens to suddenly fly out of a surprisingly open window! OMG!! A disaster! Go figure.

Funny though, I hadn’t noticed any strong air currents inside the house that would cause this. Was Mark holding the document outside of the window to read it? Couldn’t he just turn on the room lights or use the flashlight!?

Okay, so the schedule flew out of the window. Big deal. Mark or Sammy Spotter can just go retrieve it, right? Or does there just happen to be a swimming pool that the document just happened to fly into and then just happened to turn into a soggy pile of unreadable paper mush? What will Mark do, then?

At least the house hasn’t caught fire, yet.

Art Dept. Looks like Rivera wasn’t ready to continue employing hatching to suggest darkness, volume, or strike a mood. A lost opportunity!

Well, how interesting! The lions have not only learned how to operate a chest freezer, but they have learned to eat frozen meat. If I was Mark, I’d check if that meat looks like actors. And what happened to the video camera he was looking at yesterday?

Art Dept. The artwork for the lions seems to get more questionable. However, I’m impressed by Mark’s depiction in panel 1, which has some darn good line work and a well-defined expression. Too bad that does not carry through. If only all of the artwork looked that good. However, I am very intrigued that Rivera finally decided to try her hand at introducing shadows on Mark in panel 3. They are not very well integrated into the anatomy, and the effect is too heavy-handed. But, it’s a good start, so I hope she keeps at it and uses it more to define atmosphere, volume, and drama. But don’t ask me about that left hand.

WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON IN THIS STORY?

It is easy for me to  fantasize that this entire story is some kind of con game like Punk’d, where Trail is the designated mark. Allow me to post some observations and hypotheses:

1. Bill Ellis gave Mark a dodgy assignment to find a missing movie director last seen in a house filled with lions. Nobody else is available to do the job. Police can’t handle it. No professional lion tamer or private detective need apply. The assignment specifically requires Mark Trail’s participation, even though he has no qualifications for the assignment and admits to it
2. The location is a “mansion” on an exotic and picturesque island
3. Mark’s contact is a “professional” animal wrangler too afraid to deal with the lions, but declares the untrained Mark Trail can do it. Gullible Mark laps it up
4. There is supposed to be a group of actors sequestered inside the mansion with the lions by the movie director, for the sake of a movie in production, but they are nowhere to be found
5. Mark enters the house and discovers it is filled with inactive lions. He doesn’t seem disturbed by their presence, nor by the lack of actors. Maybe the lions are drugged or just senile.
6. Mark conveniently finds a video camera near the front door, reminiscent of finding the brass lamp in the well house of that great early text adventure game, Colossal Cave
7. Will the video camera provide a series of hints to help Mark locate the movie director? Or maybe it will provide a confession that this entire enterprise is a prank for a new Reality TV show, and Mark is its surprise first guest star!

Rivera takes the easy road to spot Mark for the ongoing bad puns. Well, why not? He’s done it before. I suppose it is logical to think this is director Wesley’s video camera that was left on the floor, as opposed to one of the likewise-missing actors in the house. But did Wingit record himself? Or was he just filming miscellaneous sequences for future use? At least Mark takes the next logical step to view the recording.

Well, I have to say that those lions certainly do look pretty relaxed; the kind of relaxation that comes after a good meal, that is!

Art Dept. One thing that has always puzzled me since Rivera took over the strip is why portions of Mark’s hair (and Cherry’s for that matter) are blue. Is blue the new gray? Does Mark color his hair? This does not resemble any kind of normal highlighting. I do recall seeing this hair convention before in some comic books here and there. Post a comment if you have some information.