Oh my. I wasn’t around in 1946, but what I saw of early Mark Trail (and summarized on Mark Trail Confidential) was that the bear in question was, in fact, Cherry’s “pet” bear that Mark mistook for an attacking bear. And they weren’t bonding too much at first, until Mark handed over a pile of cash he got from winning a nature photo contest.

Now, is Cherry seriously pushing to have Rusty tag along with Mark to search a house filled with lions!? That sounds like grounds for a child endangerment rap.

And how could Mark justify taking Rusty along as his partner/backup? Sure, he could suggest to Bill Ellis that Rusty would function as a staked goat to lure the lions out of the way, perhaps. That puts both Cherry and Mark in the pokey for child endangerment, and Rusty in the hospital. Or the ground.

I dunno. It all sounds so weird. Maybe Mark and Cherry want to break free from their restrictive lifestyle and start anew, on their own…and in another country that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Long-time readers of this blog know that I try hard to give Rivera an even break, even promoting this strip whenever possible. I’ve invested a lot of time and thought into analyzing, describing, and commenting on various aspects of this strip; from writing, to visual composition, to drawing, to characterizations, and more.

So, when I tell you that this story makes less and less sense by the day, I’m not just trying out snarky comments for Comics Kingdom (in fact, I don’t post on the Mark Trail page. I leave that to Bill F. and his compatriots). For one thing, I’ve noticed a change in tempo and temperature coming from Bill Ellis through today. Starting with his initial near-hyperbolic presentation at the start of this phone call (last Saturday), it has softened to a casual, bantering phone play during this week, as if this was all just sending Mark out on a normal assignment reporting on Japanese Knotweed. No hurry, no big deal.

We have today’s strip closing out the week and filling the space on your screen or your newspaper page without furthering the story. Presumably, Jules Rivera is writing her own stories, so she can pace them as she pleases. But can she develop a plot that does not require wasting days with empty blather? We’ve seen this happen over and over. To be fair, Rivera is not unique. Prior artist James Allen did this, as well.

A traditional approach in adventure strips was to use Monday’s strip (if Sunday was not part of the continuity) to summarize the prior week’s progress. This helps relieve the cartoonist from having to keep inserting time-wasting strips into the storyline. But Rivera likes to do both.

Since Rivera claims to be science– and nature-oriented, she has ample room to make those concerns more integral to this strip. It would be much more appreciated by the readers (I’m sure) than wasting dailies with endless bad jokes, bad puns, and an apparent low regard for the readers.

Oh boy! Maybe we will see Mark team up with his good buddy, former animal wrangler/trainer, Rex Scorpius. Otherwise, I think we can all admit that the foundation and justification for this story is one of the most absurd story setups we’ve seen.

Personally, I don’t know what the problem here is. Nobody in their right mind would stay in a house filled with, presumably, free-roaming lions. I’d get the hell out of there, immediately. I’d also be questioning the sanity of any actors who remained. Get those scared cops to check nearby motels and brothels.

There is a plethora of flaws in this entire setup, and I’ve mentioned a few; but since that is the basis of this adventure, let’s just take it on its own terms:
1) How does Ellis know the director is still in the house?
2) Did the actors check for hidden doors and passages? The attic? The basement? Kitchen cabinets? Maybe Rivera, by chance, recently read Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story, The Norwood Builder.
3) Did anybody check to see if the director is hiding in plain sight, say in a lion costume, to see how the actors react to the situation? He could be resting with the felines, just lion on the floor.
4) Finally, how long has Bill Ellis been on Crack?

Rivera once again pads this fledgling story by devoting today’s panels to repeating the punchline from yesterday’s panels. Rivera has Mark (panel 1) employing a sitcom meme that was old back in the 1960s:  “Did you just say that <blah, blah, blah>?” Cue the laugh track. It’s a shame Mark was not at Planet Pancake, where he could do a spit-take with his coffee.

OVERVIEW: Uh, if they know he’s in a house of lions, how come they don’t know where it is?

DISCUSSION: That still needs explaining. But hold on. Let’s accept the premise that there is a house full of lions. This director is in the house. So how come they don’t know where the hosue is? Well, a kidnapper could have informed “them” that they were holding the director in a house of lions until a ransom was paid. It fits the weirdness of this story’s premise.

Now, why would there be a house of lions in the first place? That’s not a practical way to hold a kidnap victim. And where would a person get lions? Perhaps the kidnapping was done so the ransom would be used to pay for the lion purchase! It could be the work of a less-than-scrupulous zoo-keeper, such as Tess Tigress.

Anyway,  I think Mark’s original response still holds: Why him? He’s a nature author and photographer, not a lion wrangler, for which several experts already exist throughout this country. Maybe Ellis thinks that Mark’s time on that Tiger Touch Petting Zoo assignment gave him enough hands-on experience to tackle this assignment. (yeah, I know. I’m taking this much too seriously!)

As we await Bill Ellis’s justification, I’m sticking with Mark’s position. And clearly, that position is about to be undone. Otherwise, there may be no story. So, moving on: Will Ellis assign another sidekick to Mark? If so, who?

Okay, I had to get that pun in before I forget. Anyway, I’m glad to see that Mark shows some common sense and honesty (panel 3)! As for Bill Ellis (see panel 2), who else did he expect to take the call on Mark’s phone? Okay, I know that Ellis’s statement is just a commonplace expression and not meant to be taken literally. Maybe Ellis really meant “If anyone could take this call seriously, it would be you.”

Well, I’m intrigued by this story’s opening. Coincidence aside, Ellis leads with a tabloid-style declaration (“click bait” to use modern jargon) sure to grab Mark’s attention. Eventually (we hope), Ellis will explain the more mundane details that will justify Mark’s involvement. For example, the director could have gotten lost while out hiking the Blue Ridge Mountain parkway. Now Mark just confessed he isn’t a modern-day Daniel Boone, but at least the plot is relatable. We’ll see.

Okay, the humor in panel 1 is actually normal for once. Very good. Otherwise, it looks as if Mark is finally back on the meter, which Cherry should be happy about. Mark cites the old phrase “Things that go bump in the night”, though it’s not the apt comparison to the movie he thinks, nor was anybody speaking of such things in panel 1.

It is phrase that, for once, does not go back to Shakespearian England. It refers to things like ghosts and spirits or unexplained noises that bungle around for a bit and disappear. This is not a habit usually assigned to vampires, as they seem to be more graceful, being able to morph into a bat to enter or leave a bedroom. Vampires are not stumblers.

Otherwise, we are left with the odd notion that Bill Ellis thinks Mark is now The Finder, a sleuth of missing people. I wonder what happened to “Mark Trail, Defender of Nature and our natural resources”? I mean, geeze, Bill! Hire a private detective, why don’t you!?

Art Dept. One good thing that leaps out to me is a generally improved level of art, especially in the faces, showing more individual expressions. Rivera is clearly taking more time. But I have to admit, I’ve always been puzzled by the blue bands behind Mark’s head. I’m thinking they represent graying hair, perhaps? Or maybe some kind of unusual haircut style.