Why is Mark yelling at Ranger Shaw? It’s not as if Ranger Shaw wouldn’t be knowledgeable on this topic (much less guilty). But for some reason, Rivera chooses to depict our finger-pointing Mark as some kind of Sunday Service “Elmer Gantry”, laying into the laity for their sins, while simultaneously stroking their guilty consciences for larger tithes. In any event, Mark not only speaks melodramatically, but he looks a bit overly dramatic, as well.
Art Dept. And speaking of dramatic, it’s nice to see that Rivera still remembers how to move beyond the all-to-common “tv screen” viewpoint in her panels to give us a bird’s eye look from above (panel 3). At least from that angle, the objects Rivera scatters across the grass look more “normal” than their appearances in the other panels. But, maybe that’s not the point at all.
Some primitive graphics today, though that is nothing new. It is difficult to not agree with others that Rivera is just dashing this stuff off in between surfing outings. Wait, I have done that! One exception is Mark’s depiction in panel 3. That is actually well drawn and defined, though it makes Ranger Shaw’s image look even more unfinished. Rivera has a background in storyboarding—that is, a sequential graphic layout for a story in its design stage. So it strikes me as odd that we have seen several dialog and event revisions in this adventure.
Today, we have Mark in panel 3 harshly questioning Ranger Shaw about his awareness of activity in this part of Lost Forest. Yet, Mark has been acting this week as if Ranger Shaw was not aware of this junk. Why isn’t Ranger Shaw taking control here? He is the one with authority to investigate, not Mark.
To emphasize Mark’s environmental psychic ability to ferret out wrongdoing, Rivera has put Ranger Shaw into the harsh lights (notice the bright background in panel 4) with his self-incriminating response and clammy face. Rivera’s overtly finger-pointing comment does nothing to expand on what has already been shown. And anyway, shouldn’t that have been Mark’s response?
Hold the phone! You can’t change the story mid-stream, Rivera. This flashback does not resemble anything published to date. So fine, Mister Smug casually admits to Rusty’s active involvement with Robbie, as a fake news flashback shows Mark lording it over his kid, actually shoveling. What’s the point of this apparent revisionism?
Finally, what else should Rusty have learned? Keep your dad out of your business.
Ranger Shaw responds to Mark’s statement in panel 3: “Really, Mark? Well, where are these controllers? What’s that you say, you were too stupefied by finding these other electronics lying on the ground to remember to dig them up? In short, Mark, you have no real evidence, other than Rusty’s testimony, which was clearly motivated by his need to seek revenge against Robbie for his classroom prank. Golly, Mark, is this how you conduct research for your articles!?!”
Yikes! Indeed. Rivera must have a low opinion of her readers’ capacity to remember simple plots if she has to rehash yesterday’s installment in the first two panels of today’s strip. Talk about unnecessary story padding. See anything else kind of odd?
Rivera also continues to indulge her fascination for alliteration with that “trash trove” label Mark bellows out to Ranger Shaw in panel 3. So Shaw now thinks somebody is stealing and storing “trash” in the Lost Forest, albeit in a very haphazard manner. I think he’s way off base.
Art Dept. The mouths keep getting weirder. What can you say about Mark’s yapper in panel 3? Is he, perhaps, now singing his dialog? And is Ranger Shaw so shocked in panel 4 that he has to yell? I don’t know what to tell you. The very close staging of the two dudes in panel 2 suggests to me Shaw delivers his clunky dialog in some kind of flat, monotone voice, as if there was a period between words.
What can we say about the layout of the scene in panel 1?
Ranger Shaw on the scene. Is he surprised by the junk on the ground or the site of a raccoon milling about in the daytime? After all, there is no food here to attract its attention. Still, it isn’t unheard of. But I wonder if Mark considers Ranger Shaw a little slow on the uptake. In panel 2, Mark points out the obvious: “Rusty and I came uponthis dumping ground in the woods.” Well, of course it’s in the woods! That’s where they are! Maybe the problem is with Mark, and that would explain the dubious look on Ranger Shaw’s face. At least the story is progressing.
Art Dept. Yes, it must be Flat Day in Lost Forest. But it’s not quite as severe as Edwin Abbott’s book, Flatland, where everybody and thing is a 2D geometric shape. Here, everything and everyone is depicted as if they are either paper cutouts or were pressed with a hot clothes iron. Even the raccoon suffers: Its very heavy outline suggests a “cutout” that belies any volume in its body. In fact, there is virtually no attempt at giving volume to anything else. Why? The only obvious answer is not incompetence so much as stylistic choice. It’s not a unique approach, but it can be jarring. And it conflicts with Rivera’s drawings of the same location in last week’s strips. This visual discomfort is compounded by other oddities, such as Mark’s sideways mouth in panel 3.
I’ve mentioned this “feature” before, and it just looks wrong: In addition to the facing of the mouth, which almost looks like it is in profile (compare with panel 2), its vertical alignment is also off-centered. You could propose that Mark is expressing a different emotion that requires the new mouth shape, but the rest of the head doesn’t seem to conform. As for Mark’s beard, don’t get me started.
This was mostly a week of exclamations, excuses, and e-waste. We returned to Rusty’s e-waste revenge adventure where he led Mark to the not-so-secret location in Lost Forest where he and Robbie buried the broken controllers. That Rusty, himself, was also a participant in burying the game controllers that he wanted to use as a way of getting back at Robbie was certainly a surprise! The irony escaped Mark and Rusty, but not this Trailblazer.
Upon arriving at the location, Rusty and Mark discovered the area was full of discarded monitors, controllers, chairs, and other knickknacks that Jules Rivera casually pasted on top of the grass. I reckon this secret location became well known to people who like to dump electronics in the woods. That’s really not so unusual: As a kid, I came across stoves, refrigerators, and mattresses dumped in the woods where I lived.
Although many references were made to things “buried,” everything was lying on the surface and no digging seems to have taken place. Maybe Rusty and Mark were too distracted by the debris. A pissed-off Mark figured it was time to have a talk with Robbie’s father. In another surprise (Gosh, two surprises in one week is a record!), Robbie’s dad turns out to be Ranger Shaw, one of the three hapless participants in Mark’s fishing survival camp episode. Small world, huh?
Art Dept. Nobody commented on the giant spider in Wednesday’s strip. I thought one of you might notice its unrealistic size. Well, considering the tree its web is attached to, it sure looked big to me! Also, Rivera drew a chipmunk on Saturday that didn’t look like a statue or cardboard cutout. Well done, in fact. Will we say the same thing for today’s nature talk?
What a coincidence! Rusty tells Mark about his e-waste project for the school science fair, and all of a sudden, Mark has his own show-and-tell about e-waste. I like today’s title panel, though I’d have wanted to see the “Mark Trail” logo appear like actual text on circuit boards. Perhaps, Rivera thought it would be too small? Well, everybody knows the name of this strip, right?
I’m puzzled why Rivera cites statistics from 2019. Perhaps she could have compared that number to a more recent statistic: The UN reported some 68 million tons of global e-waste for 2022, alone. Another issue is that electronic waste contains billions of dollars’ worth of rare earth resources, such as gold, silver, copper, and iron. Yet our country has no national standards, policies, or programs for safe reclamation and disposal. Seems that “recycle” and “reclaim” never made it into the manufacturers’ thinking.
Well, just how bad was the site, Rusty? We’ve seen six days of strips so far, and you haven’t dug a lick of dirt. For all we know, Robbie’s broken controllers are still underground.
But a bombshell drops as Mark clues us to the fact that mild-mannered Ranger Shaw is Robbie’s father! We met him last November in the deBait fishing lodge where Mark tried to run a survival program for clueless husbands (cf “For Men Only”). At that time, mild-mannered and largely insignificant Ranger Shaw seemed distraught at how to fill his days while his wife was on vacation. And no, I’m not going there, except to say that I found her to be a nicely mannered, largely insignificant person.
Thus, Rusty’s “e-waste reclamation visit” scene comes to an end. Whether Rusty actually accumulated any e-waste, much less Robbie’s, may take a backseat to Mark’s overriding concern with the fact of toxic solid waste abandoned in Lost Forest. Is Mark once again taking over Rusty’s story? Buckle your seatbelts, people; it might get rough.
Yeah, robot cloning technology! Now that is a cool plot device. Too bad it won’t be used; but heck, this is a comic strip. If Rivera allows Mark to avoid responsibility for breaking the law time and time again, I think we can get behind some robot cloning technology once in a while.
Art Dept. I think we have seen that image of Mark in panel 2 before. Does anybody recall when?
Addendum: I found this example from April 12, 2023. It’s close, but not exact. Don’t these people ever change their clothes!?!
Yes, Rusty apparently didn’t have to actually dig anything up. Did Mark’s heavy-handed “lecturing” cause everything that was ever buried in the immediate vicinity to automatically ooze to the surface? I dunno. Anyway, Rusty already knows something about e-waste, or should. After all, it’s his topic which he picked out. Some glaring inconsistencies! BTW, I noticed they didn’t bring any trash bags to carry stuff back.
Art Dept. If you look closely at those unburied items, you’ll see numerous things lying around in all sorts of weird angles, as well as items clearly out of proportion with neighboring items. Perhaps Rusty and Robbie also buried some furniture from their Barbie Playhouse. It looks like Rivera simply took a bunch of clip-art images and pasted them onto the panel, rotating them every which way. Hardly convincing, Rivera. Maybe the surf was up and she couldn’t wait.
Well now, why would Rusty and Robbie want to mark where they illicitly buried broken game controllers? Why would Rusty want Mark to tag along while he went to retrieve them? Rusty doesn’t strike me as a scaredy-cat or somebody incapable of digging holes.
Rivera has Rusty actually admit his complicity in burying the very items he wants to use in a science project to humiliate Robbie. Again, why? Rusty is showing himself to not be a very clearheaded thinker, even for a 12-year-old kid.
Thus, we see Rusty hoisted with his own petard (to paraphrase Shakespeare) as Mark prepares the dreaded “Dad Lecture.” I’m not looking forward to it, myself.
So, Rusty helped Robbie bury the broken game controllers in the woods!?! Now I’m confused. If Rusty fulfills his plan to get revenge against Robbie in the science fair, he also exposes his own complicity in the deed, right? I reckon he hasn’t thought this through. Let’s see if Mark figures it out. You remember Mark; he’s the guy with the big head (or the petite torso) in panel 1.
Well, of course a bear is going to make a random appearance in Lost Forest, unaware of Mark and Rusty walking along a trail. And of course, Mark and Rusty are going to saunter by, unaware of the bear. Another case of Rivera poking the bear or poking fun at the Mark Trail bear trope?
Wait, you mean to say that Robbie actually buried his broken game components in the woods!?! That seems like a lot of trouble. Why wouldn’t he just dump them in the garbage, like most people? I don’t know if Lost Forest supports hazardous waste management, but if they are not big on composting, then hazardous waste may not even be on their radar.
Art Dept. Close examination of Mark in panel 2 might help explain how those ubiquitous raised arms with pointing fingers often look disconnected. Also, I’ve been getting distracted by these strange sideways mouths (panel 3) I’m seeing. I’m not sure what this oddly drawn depiction means, but it’s been showing up a lot, lately (e.g. Jeanette on 5/21 and 5/22; Violet on 5/24). I also spotted this sideways mouth as far back as January 30, 2023 on Mark, while he experienced a moment of frustration. It could go back further, but I was too lazy to look. Feel free to do it, yourself. All I know is that it isn’t the usual way Rivera draws mouths. Maybe Rivera is experimenting with her drawing style.
Cherry is really into composting, which should not be a surprise, given that her primary avocation (other than raising a revenge-driven adolescent) is gardening and landscaping. This week she showed up at Planet Pancake to beg food scraps from proprietor Jeanette. This included a mini-lecture to Jeanette on composting. Jeanette managed to make it through the talk without falling over, unconscious.
Cherry then admitted that her real purpose was to satisfy a requirement from Violet Cheshire and the Sunny Soleil Society. That was to gather a quota of organic matter for composting in order to obtain their financial backing for Cherry to attend a composting convention (say, can you dig it?!?). But then Cherry spilled the beans to Jeanette that the Society was also getting a tax break for the support, which she was not supposed to reveal to anybody.
Frankly, I don’t know what the big deal is; tax breaks are as common as tax cheats. Nevertheless, Cherry did break the trust, which is certainly going to come back and cause trouble. What a family the Trails are: Mark will break the law when he thinks it helpful; Rusty wants to take revenge against a classmate for duping him; and Cherry can’t keep a trust.
An interesting, if slightly oversold topic on spider ballooning. What Mark talks about (flying on electro-magnetic currents in the air) is still a hypothesis in the scientific community, but it has been demonstrated in the lab. It’s still being tested and evaluated. The reasons for why certain species of spiders (mostly, but not exclusively, young) wind up ballooning are varied.
Survival is one big reason, for sure. It’s important to realize that spiders have virtually no control over where or how far they will go. Most flights do not seem to be very long. Interestingly, back on October 31, 1832, Charles Darwin spotted and captured spiders that had ballooned onto the HMS Beagle some 60 miles from shore. He called them Aeronaut spiders.
I know there are over 3000 species of spiders. I’m not sure what this one is, but I’m glad that, for once, the “animal of the day” isn’t staring or smirking at us. That can’t be said for Cherry, who seems to have taken on the cynical smugness of Garfield.
So, a week is over and we’re off to a rousing mundane start (oh, I can be cynical, as well). But we’ll have to wait. Unless Rivera has changed up her priorities, it means that we return to Mark on Monday, as he gets involved in Rusty’s revenge school science project.
My snarky comment about Cherry’s discussion resembling a student presentation in yesterday’s strip encouraged regular reader Downpuppy to again promote his hypothesis that Mark Trail is transforming into a strip directed towards children, or at least written at that level. That is a real possibility. I originally thought that the idea of “attracting a younger audience,” as was once claimed by Rivera, referred to newer readers under 60, for example. But I think Downpuppy refers to pre-adolescent children. On the other hand, a lot of children in that age range already like adventure and action stories with a lot more danger and a lot more action.
As for today’s installment, the idea that Violet Cheshire would send Cherry to a convention for collecting organic trash for composting is silly (but I do think panel 3 with its burnt-orange background and spot-on narration box is an effective flashback). Since when did Violet become a conservationist, anyway? What would make more sense for this story is for Violet to offer an award (or free trip) to whichever person or family in the community does the most composting over the summer. Yeah, it still sounds boring, but it would at least make more sense. Just think of the intrigue and drama between the contestants!
In any event, it’s not going to go that way. In fact, like Mark’s adventure of the wild horses that had little to do with wild horses, I think composting will also be a sidebar. Instead, this story may be another morality play about keeping confidences, rumors, and Cherry’s continued regression from spirited, self-confident, problem-solving female to TV sitcom, blabby-mouthed bore.
Airhead Jeanette (well, that’s how she is presented here, so don’t blame me!) will almost certainly be spreading the word about those secret tax credits around Lost Forest faster than Rusty can consume a plate of flapjacks! Woohoo, boys and girls! What will happen next? Will Violet get visited by the Income Tax Boogey Man? Tune in again tomorrow for another thrilling chapter of “Lost. Forest. Adventure. Theater!”
Okay, I get it: Cherry wants her own “Sunday Nature Chat”, like Mark. There’s only one Sunday a week and it belongs to Mark, so Cherry must have decided to create her own version by spending almost the entire week discussing the benefits of composting. Too bad Cherry goes on like a kid delivering her science project in school. No wonder Jeanette was fading fast. Luckily, Cherry finally got the point in panel 4. If this story doesn’t pick up soon, lots of eyes are going to start glazing over.
Whoa, some of these faces look like somebody was playing around with a police identikit and wasn’t too careful about matching up the features. Although I thought composting was fairly well known, apparently most of the inhabitants of Lost Forest are not aware. So it looks like we’re going to have a composting morality tale, after all.
How will Cherry encourage more (if any) composting by the denizens of Lost Forest? Maybe the citizens can meet at the local landfill and grab a bunch of organic matter to start their compositing at home. That would help lighten the landfill load, as Cherry put it. But more importantly, it could help reduce the manufacture of methane gas caused by the landfill.
I’m almost certain we’ll see Honest Ernest show up again, possibly as the owner of the local trash collection business, who will resent having citizens save their organic trash, thus robbing him of business.
So, Cherry wants to score some free chum for her composter, eh? But why does she think composting is “a little weird”? It’s been around for about as long as humans have been farming. And, along with recycling, it’s commonplace these days. I hope this isn’t Cherry’s latest crusade <yawn!>.
From the first, I had high hopes for Cherry’s promotion in the Trailverse to “alternate story protagonist.” Her increased facetime is a significant addition to the Mark Trail strip. In the past, Cherry has (literally) fought for the protection and promotion of honey bees, pressured people to stop using harmful chemicals on lawns, warned against the environmental effects of the overuse of concrete pavement, and even gone to bat for bats.
But it seems her stories continue to get sillier and less meaningful. This is ironic, given Rivera’s own socio-political leanings. But Cherry’s last “adventure” was chasing a cat. Ah well, let’s hope something interesting happens in this story.
[edited] Special Order!?! That brings back memories:
Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce Special orders don’t upset us All we ask is that you let us serve it your way
Well, the moving finger points, and having pointed, moves on. Or something like that. That pointing finger has been a popular motif in the Trailverse. Sometimes the forearm looks like it’s actually attached to the intended person.
Anyway, Planet Pancake has once again shape-shifted into a smaller venue. No matter, as it serves its purpose as a point of reference. The name of the business is certainly catchy, as is the sign’s design.
But food scraps? Is Cherry referring to what we would otherwise call “the garbage”, or perhaps, “organic recycle”? I think the Planet Pancake Space Cake Special sounds more appealing. Mounds of syrupy half-eaten pancakes, greasy bacon, and crappy sausage links don’t sound like any kind of meal that even a four-legged animal would want. I admit, I’m stumped where this story is going. So far, so good!
Otherwise, it might be pot luck night at the Trail cabin once again.
The Daily Trail 