That is certainly one, very long train platform! And if you look closely, there seems to be a train, or trains, wrapping around the far end of the platform. How odd!
It’s unclear exactly what is going on, unless the railroad brought in a 19th century wood-burning steam engine and its boiler exploded. Diesel engines can catch fire and may explode in certain conditions (aside from a crash). Since this is an adventure strip, I’m guessing this was either sabotage or an explosion of chemicals illegally being transported on the train.
Anyway, Mark and Happy are not train inspectors, nor do they presumably have any experience in crash investigations or forensic analysis. But who is going to tell that to Happy Trail, one really pissed off dude missing his father-son fishing trip!?
A week of stops and starts, or at least a stop, then a possible start, then a probable stop. Then a boom. Happy Trail’s ill-thought plan to take Mark on a train north to Ohio for a two-day fishing trip went south when the engine stalled for half a day, somewhere along the route. While they waited, Happy revealed there was to be a surprise ceremony to award a certificate to Mark in honor of his grandfather, Forrest Trail. He was involved in environmental activities back in the 1960s that helped usher in the EPA. For some reason, Mark seemed pretty ignorant of his grandfather’s work. Kind of strange in a family devoted to environmental causes, if you ask me (go head, ask me!). Can you picture Mark trying to give a talk about his grandpa at the ceremony?
Art Note:Speaking of “picture”, check out the Wednesday and Thursday strips. Rivera chose to show Forrest Trail looking something like a pre-Rivera version of Mark Trail. On Thursday, I displayed a gallery of Mark Trail faces over the decades, from the strip’s artists. I think the early and current versions by Rivera are pretty shocking in the amount of change they show over just two years. Check ‘em out!
Anyway, while Mark and Happy were outside of the stopped train (possibly later in the trip) getting in some stretching, a loud explosion took place, revealing that “a train has exploded.” Was it their train or another train? Don’t know, yet. But we do finally have some actual suspense and the chance for some serious drama. Let’s hope Rivera comes through for us. But first, let’s dip into the Sunday Nature Chat.
It seems that “killfish” is a generic term for over 1K different species (in several taxonomic families) of small fish that appear in waters around the world and are also popular (if involuntary) participants in aquariums and fishbowls. Many are picturesque, but long life is not a characteristic of killfish. It may be that their short lifespans allow multiple generations to more quickly evolve, building up their immunity to the toxic pollutions Mark is talking about.
By the way, that’s a well composed and executed last panel! Almost a shame to have a dialog balloon.
The caption in panel 1 suggests that the train got fixed, because it says the train paused at a train stop. That’s not what one says about a train that broke down at some arbitrary location along the tracks. Rivera (or syndicate editors) must have decided to move the story (and the train) along by cutting out the panels dealing with the train’s repairs and travel resumption.
But now we learn that a train exploded, not the train exploded. Is Rivera getting careless with grammar or is that really a different train in the distance? This innocuous story just woke up and took a sharp turn into the Suspense Zone. Reckon we should learn more come Monday.
Mark and Dad are waiting for the train to get fixed, which is probably reason enough for them to take a walk outside, carrying their bags. Meanwhile, Mark seems fixated on the idea that he would not have learned more about his granddad from Dad while the train was actually moving. Perhaps Happy gets motion sickness or movement makes him forgetful.
Speaking of “trading stories”, would somebody remind me what story Mark traded with Happy about Granddad Forrest Trail? Was it the “Wow” remark or the “Sweet 70’s sideburns” comment?
Perhaps Mark might have learned more about his granddad if he had seen him once in a while as he grew up or had asked about him during the 18+ years he presumably lived at home with Dad (and Mom?). I suppose one thing I (as Mark) I would ask Happy is “How come Granddad looks more like a normal person than I do? Why do I look like a character on The Cartoon Network? And just who was my mother, anyway, Dad?”
Note: The regular daily commentary follows below this **** Special Feature! **** Frequent commenter Daniel P made what seems a kind of back-handed compliment on Rivera’s drawing of a traditional Mark Trail image in yesterday’s strip as a “boomer” era version. But it reminded me that in a strip lasting over 70 years, images of characters can modify over time. Here are a few examples:
Making assessments from single images may not be fair, but they are still representative. Tom Hill was Dodd’s uncredited assistant who did lots of dailies from the 1950s on, so I’m giving him recognition. Elrod’s less animated and somewhat wooden model (c 1978-2013) was typical for him, while Allen (who seemed to favor a corner angle pose that made readers think he merely photo-shopped the image) returned to a more Dodd-like model, but gave Mark hair that was glued in place, as well as an expression that also seemed glued in place. Rivera’s original take on Mark Trail had a certain rough naturalism that she ultimately transformed into what we see today. Speaking of which, on to today’s strip!
We interrupt this adventure to bring you virtually the same information you saw in yesterday’s strip!
Every now and then Rivera feels the need to repeat content from the prior day, as we see today. About the only thing new is Forrest Trail’s “Elvis” sideburns. Yep, pretty wild, man.
Now, could Ed Dodd, Jack Elrod, or somebody actually named “Forrest Trail” have been involved in research that led to the EPA? I was not able to locate any citations.
Jules Rivera reprises the unusual ancestry of Mark Trail’s family originally presented in her first Mark Trail adventure, wherein several ancestors were shown to all share the same name and general look. I wonder if this also means they all married women named Cherry and adopted a kid they (re)named Rusty? Old “Forrest Trail” has Mark’s traditional double breast-pocket work shirt, and the Ur-Mark look. Good job, Jules.
I’m sorry, but is this the first time Mark has heard about his granddad’s work? How is it he has been following in the family business all this time, yet remained ignorant of grandpa’s achievements? Ain’t like he was some soldier from WWII unwilling to hash over old war stories. Wait! The first Mark Trail was a WWII veteran!
Art Department: How do you like the visual composition in panel 4 where Happy and Mark mentally “look back” at (or look forward at) Grampa Forrest at work?
Oh, the uncertainties of life, love, and transportation. Sure, the train broke down. A plane could have crashed or been waylaid because some stupid person decided to urinate on an attendant or demand her own recliner. Stuff happens. I reckon ol’ Pappy Happy just didn’t plan for uncertainties and thought getting there the night before the event was …uh …what!?
Wait. Stop the presses! In Panel 3, Mark says that the second day of the fishing trip istomorrow. DOH! That makes no sense. They apparently boarded the train earlier in the day, some five hours or so ago (published date June 10). Is Mark delusional or did they think they could take a train all the way up to Ohio and start fishing on the same day? Is Lost Forest in Kentucky!? If so, how do Mark, Cherry, and Happy manage to drive to each other’s homes so quickly? Yeah, I know: It’s China Town, Jake. No, I mean, this is the comics, not a documentary; the natural laws of physics may not apply.
Anyway, WHAT will we learn about that surprise? What could it have been, unless it was a special, one-time event, like viewing the Night-Blooming Cereus (Epiphyllum Oxypetalum), which blooms its flower for a few hours only one night a year. But I digress. And I’m being a smart-aleck.
I just hope Happy Trail at least remembered to book sleeping berths.
So, is the true cost of the scenic route enjoying the big window view or getting stuck in the middle of nowhere for several hours? I’m not sure which is correct. Whatever the response, it seems that, unlike the train, this story is already spinning its wheels. But it’s way, too early to claim the story is <ahem!> off the rails.
On the other hand, this delay could turn out to be an important plot development. For example, the actual story might be what happens when the train gets delayed, and something occurs that sparks the interest or need for Mark to investigate. In a nightmare scenario only a masochist could dream up, we could have an attack of bears led by Sid Stump, riding Millie the bear.
Art Department: A nice overhead view in panel 1 is unfortunately cheapened by that barely sketched-in bird. As a nature/adventure strip, Rivera could put some more time into drawing the flora and fauna.
Time to lay aside the beer, pop, and chocolate malt (oh, no!) and pour yourself a snifter of brandy or scotch, because this has been a somber week in Lost Forest, and you may need serious drink to get through it. For one thing, it was a week without zany actions, goofball characters, and posturing dialog.
The week began as a happy Monday morning when Cherry pulled into Planet Pancake to share coffee and a gabfest with fellow underground gardener, Georgia <no-last-name>. After the requisite lame jokes came a question from Cherry about the status of the bees they rescued a while ago. Georgia was sorry to report that the bees suffered a near total loss due to Colony Collapse Disorder—possibly from varroa mites—which happens now and then for various reasons.
Cherry initially became despondent and looked like she was ready to drink the rest of that bottle of single malt scotch you have your hand around. I’d hide it, quick. But Cherry then rallied and declared herself ready to assist Georgia in saving the remaining bees of Lost Forest. However, I’m not sure if Georgia had that on her mind. (thank you, if you caught this one)
Land bridges for animals is a good enough idea. At the same time, I can’t help but notice Mark’s remarks about animal-train accidents causing rail delays. Seems like we might see this excuse coming up.
Say, is this place a diner or a coffee shop? Georgia and Cherry are just hanging around doing a lot of talking, but not ordering anything.
In any event, it looks like this story line maintains its more serious, sober approach (compared with Mark’s more outrageous adventures). Cherry certainly takes the bees’ bad news badly, but not finally.
Georgia’s fatalistic frustration sets up Cherry’s sudden, energized decision in panel 4 to flex her mental and physical muscles and start doing … what? Clearly, Cherry has more “get-up-and-go” than “I-know-where-to-go”, since she is not a bee expert. Perhaps she has another family member who is. Still, we cannot deny her commitment. And let’s hope that commitment is resilient, because Rivera will likely resume Mark’s fishing trip adventure on Monday and not return to Cherry’s story for another two or three weeks.
Other than an unusual perspective in panel 4 that makes a table for four look like it might fit the Partridge Family, Rivera has decided to play it straight this week and avoid outlandish dialog and actions.
Commenter “Be ware of eve hill” picked up on Georgia’s apparent lackadaisical care & treatment for the bees. Another reason they should have called on the services of a professional beekeeper.
But it looks like we might not get The Adventures of Cherry Brockovich (as commenter Daniel dubbed Cherry) after all, unless something unusual turns up in the Saturday strip. As we keep seeing images of Honest Ernest’s rash-provoking lawn-treatment bottle, I’ve a feeling we’ll be seeing him again.
Actually, I think Ernest is a pretty good character. He has a kind of goofy malevolence layered over a simple-minded self-assurance. His braggadocio also helps make him a classic old-school villain. It fits into the way this strip is slanted along a lighter, outrageous “alternate universe” version of Mark Trail. For example, Honest Ernest is like the whacky version of The Joker (Cesare Romero) on the 1960s Batman TV show, as opposed to the more serious and sadistic versions of The Joker seen in more recent movies (e.g. Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, and Joaquin Phoenix). Honest Ernest doesn’t think he is doing anything wrong and continues to get frustrated by Cherry’s actions, while he’s simply trying to make a living.
A mystery, then? How and/or why did the bees disappear? Several known reasons exist for colony collapses, but I’m wondering, if not hoping, that Georgia’s response will provide something new. After all, there is not much of a mystery if Georgia simply pulls out a list of the usual causes and points to “Reason 3”. But I sure hope that Honest Ernest is not connected with this mystery.
Cherry has another mystery to solve. Her last one involved the case of neighborhood pets getting an unknown rash, eventually shown to be caused by Honest Ernest’s new grass growth fertilizer (see “Rash Decisions”). This new mystery suggests a possible career reboot for Cherry: Cherry Trail: Private Nature Detective & Landscaper. It pays to diversify!
It seems that TV-style humor has become the coin of the realm in Mark Trail. Over time, Rivera has taken what was once an occasional opportunity for a chuckle or smile and moved the strip further into this turgid low-end. Rivera’s reboot of MT started as a semi-dramatic strip with strong satirical overtones and interesting embellishments (e.g. Mark’s communicating with animals). The strip quickly shed most of its seriousness and focused on satire with outlandish plots and characters (starting with “LA Confidential”).
The satirical element (which requires more thought and ingenuity) has been all but surpassed by Rivera’s fascination for simplistic gags. They don’t help. If writing satire takes too much effort, I’d love to see Rivera come back to more serious drama and let the occasional bit of satire or humor bubble up where it makes sense. What do you think?
The Planet Pancake diner reminds me a bit of Dr. Who’s Tardis: Small on the outside and larger-than-expected on the inside. Well, today may not be the best proof, and maybe it’s no big deal. It seems clear to me that this diner must have its own laws of physics. You can check out the “Can’t Spell WHOA without HOA” story for more interesting interior views. Anyway…
For those coming in late, the reference to bees goes back to Cherry’s “Sunny and the Bees” story, when a “forest pioneer” statue in the garden of the Sunny Soleil Society wound up with a beehive around its head, leading to a big fight over the bees’ future. A nighttime commando raid was led by Cherry and the Underground Black Rose Garden Club to liberate the beehive and its bees for safekeeping before Honest Ernest could gas them with his customized bee insecticide.
I just wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page going forward.
If old readers are dying off, try to attract younger readers, such as primary school-age kids, with puns.
Meeting up with friends at Planet Pancake—where everybody knows your order—is the kind of repetitious activity that seems reasonable, unlike Mark going on different assignments to different places in the country, but still dealing with the same oddballs.
We haven’t seen Georgia and her “Underground Black Rose Garden Club” members for about a year and a half, so it will be interesting to see what comes out of this reunion. I just hope it does not involve anybody connected with the Sunny Soleil Society, or Honest Ernest. They are Cherry’s version of Mark’s constant nemeses, the Crypto Bros and “Professor” Bee Sharp.
As my mentor and predecessor, Dennis Williams has told me more than once, I tend to go on when I write. Guilty as charged. I do, in fact, edit my work, but still …. If you think I have gotten something wrong or just babble on too much, feel free to say so. But I try to leave things unsaid and let you discover them. As a former reader, posting observations, criticism, and questions was a part of the fun.
Okay, on to the matter at hand: This week Rivera finally got the “Something Fishy” adventure (as I am calling it) under way, when Mark agreed to Happy’s father-and-son fishing trip. It took about two weeks of comic strip postings this to get this sorted out. Saturday was the start. Happy had lined up a 2-day train ride that would have taken only a few hours on a plane. Mr. Cheapskate Trail believed that saving about $100.00 was worth a 27-hour train ride that ultimate broke down after 5 hours. So, while they wait for the repairs, Mark can go over today’s topic with Dad. Enjoy!
As usual, Rivera crafted a custom title panel for the Sunday strip. It’s a nice tradition that requires more creativity and work, though cartoonists normally omit the title panel or just use a stock image. One reason for this common omission is that newspapers sometimes delete Sunday title panels in order to squeeze and orient the strips to fit other material on the page.
Today’s topic is a well-known issue, the plight of the bees. Rivera takes a more personal view, focusing more on what we can do, if we are lucky enough to have a home with a yard and not have some dictatorial HOA getting in the way.
Jules Rivera has outdone herself. I don’t mean the panoramic view of the train station, which is reasonably good, even though it looks like an architect’s rendering. I mean the sudden change of time and location. Many of us recall how the pre-RiveraMark Trail could instantly jump from home to some faraway land, whether it be Nepal or some Pacific Island. Are we now in Florida (where Happy lives) or wherever the hell Lost Forest is located?
Now, is riding a train the adventure of a lifetime!? Maybe, if you’re 8 years old or have been secluded in a basement for 30 years. Or does Rivera refer to the fishing trip as the big adventure? I shouldn’t think so for Happy or Mark. So, is Rivera being sarcastic or mocking the story?
Finally—and I don’t mean to nitpick every detail, but I have to do this one: Five hours on a train (dead engine or not) is nothorrendous, unless your destination is only 1 hour away. But I admit that Happy finally does look like an old codger (panel 3)!
Really though, Mark and Happy are on a train going north to Ohio. Now, we don’t know specifically where Lost Forest is located, though it has to be close to Florida. Creator Ed Dodd’s own realLost Forest was in an Atlanta suburb. But this leads me to an alarming finding:
Average travel times fromAtlanta to Cleveland (to pick a location in Ohio):
Ride the train: About 27 1/2 hours. Drive your car: 10 1/2 hours. Fly: Less than 2 hours. Okay, this last estimate may be optimistic.
Maybe Mark was correct to be suspicious. Did we find the small hitch?
The drawing of Mark’s expression in panel 1 (minus the cheap beard) is quite well done and above Rivera’s current standard of comic expressions and minimal shapes. On the other hand, Rivera seems to have not figured out how to draw a senior citizen with authenticity. Old people have more than gray hair, unless Happy has had a face lift.
One another technical note: Rivera has taken the usual curved background shape she often favors for highlighting individuals and continued it behind both Mark and Happy, creating a visual connectivity of the conversation, as if they were adjacent to each other. It is a clever, visual technique that helps put these two into their own conversational space. (This is just another example of the kind of in-depth, hard-hitting analysis I like to present that tries to provide you, dear reader, with more useful context and understanding. Or not.)
The Big “Small Hitch” Reveal didn’t reveal much and suggested more: A train trip and Mark’s “working laptop.” I don’t believe Mark usually takes his laptop or camera with him on jobs, just like the old Mark Trail. Odd, for a photojournalist. What if Happy Trail doesn’t mean “fishing” in a traditional sense? What do you think?
Ah, tension and drama continue to rise as we see our hero facing down the …no, wait. Sorry, I drifted off and started daydreaming about the old Rip Kirby adventure strip, because now that I’m alert, I realize I’m supposed to be writing about Mark and Cherry talking and talking about Daddy’s fishing trip, wrecked boats, and hidden agendas. Okay, got it.
Well, of course there will be a tiny little hitch, as Happy concedes. After all, this is supposed to be an adventure strip, too. I’m not sure what this hitch is, but I’m guessing it won’t be an opportunity for Mark to serve another hitch in the army.
Knowing Rivera’s tendency to rely upon a small cast of goons and grifters, I can’t stop from predicting that this trip will involve some of the same people we’ve seen before. And before. We should learn more by Saturday. Until then, enjoy your own daydreaming.
Yeah, time to milk this old cow once again. The “Mark Trail Destroys Another Boat” meme gives a nostalgic chuckle to old Trailheads reading this strip and helps train-in younger readers to carry the torch of appreciation for, and support for, this already unfunny and tired joke, especially when the strip does the jesting. Along with other self-parodic elements that are a mainstay, perhaps Rivera should rename this strip to something more appropriate, such as “Mock Trail”. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Speaking of “ring”, who is Mark talking to in panel 4?
The Daily Trail 