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Is the End in sight?

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Looks like Mark decided to go with the second option I listed:  a human blockade across the river. Hmm… does Cliff mean veteran boat captains or boat captains who were military vets? I’m pretty sure they are not necessarily the same.  And Mark seems confused between land masses and bodies of water (panel 4).

Don’t get me wrong here, but isn’t Mark exceeding his mandate? He was tasked merely with establishing the source of the zebra mussel infestation. But as usual, Mark goes in head first to right another wrong of human interaction with nature. Not that this is a bad thing:  It would be splendid if more of us took a more active role, for example. So, I’m thinking that Mark has already submitted his report to the magazine and now feels free to stage this protest on his own, without implicating the magazine if things go wrong. Just a theory, of course!

One more thing: A big difference from the old incarnation of M.T. is that now, Mark happily works with other people, rather than pretending he can do it all on his own. That’s a good thing, but too bad he did not try to work with Duck Duck Goose Shipping to solve the problem in the first place.

A Moment of Introspection and a Phony Boast

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While Mark meekly whines about his popularity, Diana made one of those drama-based confessions of regret; and Mark quickly stepped on it with a guileless and fabricated statement about himself. Of course, Mark did not come to the fishing lodge to bring people together; he came to escape getting his butt kicked by thugs from the Duck Duck Goose shipping company, theoretically involved with zebra mussel smuggling in Lost Forest waters.

So what’s the plan, Mark? Are you going to raid the next cargo ship you find? Form a human chain across the river to block more cargo ships? Or maybe open up a series of hull-scraping stations to clean mussels off of incoming water craft?

And did Mark actually transmit their report to the magazine so it can be published sometime in the next four to six months? Or is he waiting to see how things pan out? Well, I’m also intrigued how this story will pan out. It certainly looks like we’re headed towards the end. And I wonder if the two thugs went back to their boss and reported they have nothing to worry about, as Mark and Diana are only looking at mussels on the outside of the ships.

The Weekly Recap and Sunday Nature Talk

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This past low action-filled week focused on the consequences of Cherry discovering a marimo ball (or maybe two) in a “decorative aquarium”, newly-purchased by Violet Cheshire. Faced with the prospect of revealing to Violet the potential dangers involved (and explaining why zebra mussels are dangerous) with the possible chance Cherry might upset Violet and lose her job, Cherry first consulted with Mark over the phone. In contrast to Mark’s rather excited expressions, he offered sober, calming advice that the situation was no big deal until Violet wanted to get rid of the marimo ball(s). He provided detailed instructions on safe disposal. Reading the room correctly, Cherry simply told Violet that her business would professionally clean the aquarium for free when it came time. This is fine for the short-term, but Cherry did Violet no favors by not educating her. And therein lies the rub, because Violet is not one for taking advice from a hired hand. As Mark apparently found time to talk with Cherry, he appears to have also found time to write about bobcats, as we see below:

A subject having nothing to do with either story line is getting to be an unusual occurrence in the Sunday strips. And I almost missed the “Mark Trail” logo in the title panel, it was so well constructed. One of Rivera’s better designs. I also liked Rivera’s use of “night cam” panels, both for their design contrast and for their visual reinforcement of information about the bobcat’s hunting time.  These two panels in grays show that Rivera could apply a similar look to her dailies, though she clearly prefers to depend on color. However, since newspapers print the dailies in b/w, going with the grays could add more aesthetic options for Mark Trail and give it a depth and solidity it does not normally show in newspapers.

Is this short storyline finished?

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[transcript of a conversation]

G: Anna, you’ve been looking over my shoulder at this strip for a while. What’s your take on how things stand?

A: Frankly, George, I just don’t get why Jules is slacking off and padding the story with this repetition and irrelevant actions. Is it supposed to be a soap opera? After the bees, Rivera again links Cherry into Mark’s zebra mussel storyline. But it depends upon a very minor issue with no immediate danger. And it seems to be wrapping up today. Yesterday you wrote that Mark was over-acting like a soldier in battle calling for air support, or whatever. Panel two certainly looks like that. Why is he so animated?

G: Hmm, I get that. Maybe the connection is bad and he has to yell?

A: I think Cherry is clearly smart enough to keep her knuckle-dragging husband at phone length so she can communicate directly with Violet in a way only women can comprehend. Mark would probably show up with a shovel.

G: Hey, no fair! And Mark’s arms don’t go that far down. He’s just passionate and highly engaged in his work, as you know.

A: Sure. If it was the other way around, you’d write that Cherry was being excitable and hyperbolic.

G: Okay, okay. So what about the art? Why does Violet’s face keep changing? Why is the hat yellow in panel 1 and purple again in panel 4?

A: Why ask me? I’m not Jules Rivera and I’m not someone vain enough to post personal reactions on a comic strip, as if you were composing essays for Harper’s. Do other people really read this stuff?

G: Oh, look at the time! The NewsHour is almost on, so I’ll let you go. Thanks for your input, Anna.

You’d think Violet would be concerned about goose poop!

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Why would Violet have to get rid of the ball, Mark? Does it come with an expiration date? Anyway, at least Mark showed a modicum of common sense by calming the situation with the fact that this is not an immediate problem. Sigh! Crisis averted as Mark again saves the day.

Still, you are entitled to think there is a bit of disconnect between the relatively calm advice Mark is giving Cherry (note the absence of !!!) and his expression in panel 4, where he looks more like a sergeant in a WWII movie desperately calling in artillery to blow up approaching German Panzers topping the ridge. Remember, dear readers: Mark just got done talking to Cricket Bro, and he’s short on sleep, too. Yet Mark was able to master his emotions and frayed nerves.

Now Cherry can finish up the week this Saturday in a stronger position with Violet, right?

Just call Orkin!

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If I had a poll tool readily available on this site (or if I was not too lazy to look for one and learn to use it), I would see how many readers think Mark is overreacting, Cherry is overreacting, or both are.

What should you do, Cherry? First, slap Violet in the face and reach in the aquarium and take the marimo ball. Then run home, put it in a microwave and nuke it until it burns up. Then go back to Violet and tell her it was a good thing you were there to save her once again. I’m sure she’ll thank you properly. Or you can convince Violet to hire Honest Ernest to torch it. Just a thought.

Say, do you think there is a hidden clue to the reference balloon in panel 3 pointing to Mark’s phone, and showing twin mountain peaks? Why not show them directly on the phone’s screen?

Look, I appreciate what Rivera is trying to do, linking storylines and adding more complexity. But if she wanted to make the masimo balls more of an actual threat, couldn’t Rivera have created a larger-scale problem? For example, the Sunny Soleil Society decided to distribute decorative aquariums with masimo balls to all public buildings throughout the county in celebration of the historical statue’s restoration.

Take a breath, Cherry

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I think it is fair to ask whether Rivera really thinks this is a big deal or if she is merely having Cherry go overboard, out of her obvious ignorance.

  • Just because marimo balls can host zebra mussels does not mean they always do.
  • There seems to be only one ball (or maybe two?) in this small aquarium to begin with.
  • Marimo balls spread zebra mussels if you dispose of them directly into an external water source (e.g. the toilet or a lake). There is no immediate threat, Cherry!
  • There are thousands of people in Florida, alone, who have aquariums and no doubt also have marimo balls.
  • There are safe methods of disposal that Cherry could tell Violet about in a non-agitated voice so that she does not upset or anger Violet.

Please, somebody tell Violet to quit posing and put down that blasted aquarium!

Eeny, Meeny, Marimo

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Making the Marimo Connection is not my best jedi trick, even if the notion of buying a “decorative aquarium” as a self-gift is a bit of a stretch. But the aquarium does provide yet another way for Rivera to connect Mark’s and Cherry’s storylines. Must have been pillow talk when Mark informed Cherry about the marimos and his zebra mussels project. Now, since marimo balls are very popular aquarium decorations, I hope that Cherry is not going to imagine some nefarious plot involving Violet and the Duck Duck Goose shipping company.

Cherry should at least do her due diligence and inform Violet of the potential harm that can come from them and point her to online sites that tell how to safely dispose of them. Or she can get her cloak-and-trowel gang and conduct another midnight raid.

Cherry falls for Violet’s act once again

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Cherry is such an optimist! She thinks good deeds and a cheery disposition will win over narcissistic bullies like Violet. But Violet continues to prove her wrong. If you want to keep your job, it seems you might sometimes have to subordinate yourself, even suborn yourself, especially working for a roach like Violet Cheshire. Of course, Cherry could simply quit and look for a contract elsewhere. But then, there is the danger of getting a bad reference. The money must be good enough for Cherry to stick it out.

But a “decorative aquarium”? Isn’t that something they used to sell in tacky mall gift shops? It just seems kind of a bourgeois item. But in a timely association with Sunday’s commentary, I wonder if this aquarium’s decorations include marimo balls infested with zebra mussels?

The Weekly Recap and Sunday Nature Chat

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If you missed the strips this past week because you were too busy trying to solve the Asimov Quiz in the newspaper, consider your time well spent. Perhaps. We are undecided whether this was a silly side-trip, a repeated bit of satire, or a hint of further problems down the road. In any event, this past week portrayed a telephone conversation in which Cricket Bro, while on some kind of “dawn surf patrol”, woke Mark up (at some ambiguous part of the morning) to motivate him into joining up to promote and sell NFTs. Mark went into auto-lecture mode explaining his climate change reasons for refusing to buy into the scam, which, unsurprisingly, went over Cricket Bro’s head. CB finally hung up. Now, wasn’t that something? Okay, then here is a follow-up: Sunday’s nature chat.

And not a moment too soon! For those who might have come to this story a bit late, Rivera expands on her original Sunday zebra mussels chat from August 8, where they were described as hidden travelers on imported “marimo” balls, a popular fish tank accessory that apparently get periodically dumped into toilets and flushed into rivers, enabling their spread. A fair point, by the way. Rivera expanded on this topic over time to highlight the main distribution method of zebra mussels: ships. As others have pointed out, these invasive mollusks also existed in the ballast that ocean-going ships pumped into the Great Lakes (for some reason, Rivera fails to mention ballast in her discussions). And it is also true that private boat owners are also partly responsible for helping to spread zebra mussels by not cleaning their boats between trips. However, since the current story focuses on zebra mussels, why devote another Sunday strip to this topic? I mean, Mark’s point about personal responsibility could easily be worked into the daily strips. I’m guessing this Sunday panel was done several months ago and only now published.

NFT=Not For Trail?

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Okay, so Rivera reveals this is going nowhere and spares us poor readers any more of this silly sidebar. I hope. However, I don’t think either Mark or we are going to get off so easily. Based on past experience, Cricket Bro might cook up some revenge.

[CAUTION: THEORIZING AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.]

On a different topic, I wonder why Rivera gave up her original style for Mark Trail, as seen in her early strips, such as this one from October 2020:

Rivera is often criticized for her art, as it either does not conform to the traditional Mark Trail style, or just “looks bad.” But her style is clearly a choice, not a limitation. As you may be able to see, the overall look of the October strip is certainly more fluid, refined, even more naturalistic. The coloring is less saturated (again, not discernable in b&w strips). The overall look has a lighter touch, with a definite feel for volume.

So, why the style shift? It might have been a matter of time and effort. The October panels would have to have taken much longer to produce than today’s. Or it could be that this earlier style didn’t lend itself to the kinds of stories and personalities Rivera decided to continue with. But Rivera continues to use interesting and unusual compositions (October panel 2) not normally seen in Mark Trail strips of yore, though not in today’s panels.

So now what?

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Perhaps Cricket Bro is such a narcissistic bully that he has never admitted to himself that Mark helped defeat him. Perhaps he thinks Mark is naive enough to be fooled into this scam, whereby he gets his revenge.

And Mark feels the need to respond to any idea with a prepared lecture. All he had to do was point Cricket Bro to some the earlier strips that already went over this stuff!

Are you wondering what the point is here?

Are you wondering where this is leading?

Are you wondering who will hang up first?

Are you even wondering what’s going on back at Duck Duck Goose shipping? Well, Rivera is weaving a tapestry of story threads, so we’ll have to see how it all comes together.

C’mon, Mark. At least the suckers will be rich suckers!

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I have to admit that I like the effect of Rob leaning over the jagged line representing the telephone connection between him and Mark. Not a new invention, but it is effective. I also like the fact that there is enough text in the strip to make you slow down to read it, rather than doing the typical quick scan of many strips.

Less effective is this load of BS that Cricket Bro is handing to Mark. I suppose Rob must be a sociopath, which might explain his behavior and actions. At least Mark seems resistant to this big deal. But again, why is he even listening? Because he has to in order to build up the premise for further action down the road, I think.

Why are they talking to each other?

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Lots of narration lately. Wait. If it is the crack of dawn for Mark, it has to be about 3 AM for Rob. But if it is dawn for Rob (the dawn patrol, yes?) it has to be at least 8 AM for Mark. That should be a bit late for a woodsman like Mark to still be sleeping.

Anyway, while Rob talks on his humanoid telephone, Mark obligingly continues to listen. Why?

Rob appears to believe if hardcase Diana Daggers could get suckered into the NFT scam, so can Mark. Scamming seems to be Cricket Bro’s go-to technique.

Where have we heard this before?

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Mark must have one heck of a hangover to look as bad as he does. Well, one thing I think is pretty interesting: and that is that Rivera does not seem to be content with limiting herself to a strictly linear storytelling technique. Instead, she seems to be interested in weaving various and ongoing storylines all together, kind of like how things work in real life. Or soap operas.

So once again, Cricket Bro gets involved in Mark’s life. Both he and professor Sharp have already made brief appearances during the current zebra muscle story, but they we’re linked more to Diana then to Mark. We don’t know if they are connected in some way with the zebra mussels, but there seems to be no connection so far. So, yes what is this great idea? And given their past relationship, why would Cricket Bro want to pass on anything positive to Mark and why would Mark believe anything Cricket Bro has to say?

Revenge of the land shrimp

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Oh, do we really wanna go there? I’m sure Jules had fun with today’s strip. By the way, some of you will rejoice, because writing on a smartphone really sucks! So there won’t be much here.

Considering how Mark and Rob parted in Palm Springs, I suppose we should be surprised at Rob’s animated greeting. Well, I am as unsure as Mark must be. The obvious answer would be he is laying some kind of elaborate trap for Mark.

On the other hand, Professor Sharp walked off with Mark’s phone the first time they met.

I’m surprised Mark didn’t change his number! This is what Mark gets for listening to Rusty and submitting the video that started this whole thing.

Here is the Weekly Recap and Sunday Nature Talk

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We left Mark the previous week planning Operation Poinsettia. This past week, we watched Caroline and hubby Honest Ernest complain to Violet Cheshire about Cherry’s interference with their attempt to eradicate the hive of bees. Through guileless honesty or naïve ignorance, instead of just letting Cherry move the bees and then waiting for the check in the mail, the couple blamed Cherry for their failure, provoking Violet to revoke the contract and withhold their pay. Cherry, who happened to stumble into this ad-hoc anger management session, was easily suborned by Violet (with an unspoken agreement to overlook Cherry’s actions) into offering false testimony to support Violet’s underhanded reasoning. This exposed a willingness in Cherry to put her job over her integrity. But this collusion now lays her open to extortion, if not dismissal, for being corrupt.

Ironically, it is Caroline and Ernest who have the moral high ground here, however contemptable they personally are. They had a (presumably) legal contract and attempted to fulfill it, only to be stymied (on possibly illegal grounds) by Cherry and Mark. Instead of accepting payment for something they did not do, they sought redress with Violet. They wind losing out, but getting a half-hearted hint for more jobs. And Cherry thinks she has saved her job. My question to all this is whether Jules Rivera had this in mind. While you ponder that, check this out:

okay, not the usual “let’s talk about pandas” routine, but a replay of the blockchain-nft connection to climate change, brought up several weeks ago when Diana was fretting over the misuse of her salary by her so-called friend and employer, Professor Bee Sharp. It’s quite right and fine to bring up the subject, one that I think most of us truly were not aware of. And that’s good. But it would also have been helpful for some suggestions for what we can do about it.

Are we finally done with the bee story?

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I’m visiting my dad down in Virginia for the next two weeks, but I’ll do my best to keep posting. If I miss a day or post late, at least you know why. Otherwise, Happy New Year!

Well, the scam worked. Caroline and Honest Ernest have been humiliated and bamboozled. Cherry believes she found a kink in Violet’s personality that she can manipulate, whereas Violet must certainly know she has found a chink in Cherry’s ethical armor she can twist.

If Caroline and Ernest were not such grasping clods, it would be easy to feel sorry for them. As for the renewed relationship of Cherry and Violet, I’m not seeing anything to be proud of. “Saved budgets“? How about “Ripped off client“? Cherry should understand that, as she was also ripped off by Violet.

“Sure, contracts are void if one side backs out…because I said so!”

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Perhaps this is not a symbolic court of law after all, but a court of royal decree, as Violet rules, ex cathedra. But as I thought, there is either some deliberate hanky-panky going on, or Victoria is simply acting like some politicians we know who start on one side, but jump to the other when money or power is on the line. Still, I’m surprised and disappointed that Rivera provided Cherry with morals as ambiguous and flexible as Mark’s. I figured at least one of those two would be a touchstone of integrity. And we’ve seen Mark cross that line more than once, already. Who’s left, Doc Davis!?

But there is something wrong here. What is the actual motivation for Violet’s change? I think Violet quickly got the lay of the land and decided to reshape it to her own benefit by pretending to side with Cherry in order to sucker her into helping scam Caroline and Ernest. If Honest Ernest and Caroline can get stiffed, so can you, Cherry!

Finishing up, bonus points to Rivera for once again adding some variety—compositionally speaking—to the strip by placing the viewer in panel one down at floor level. From this angular, off-center point, the drama between Violet and Caroline is visually enhanced. But in panel two, Caroline and Ernest are reduced to silent chairs (i.e. the drama is over) flanking Violet who sits in the dominant central location to issue her decree. To conclude this royal farce, we hear from the court jester.

Moot Court is now in session

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Oh, here is Cherry attempting her “Perry Mason” routine to try and scuttle this impromptu investigation. It’s a transparently silly argument to make, given that Cherry is admitting—in front of Violet—to being present, along with Ernest and Caroline. The only way this makes sense is if Cherry knows Violet would just as soon not want to deal with this situation in the first place, or that Violet already secretly approved of Cherry’s rescue plans and is now put into this embarrassing position because Caroline and Ernest are too dense to realize they could have pocketed the fee for doing nothing. But we have already covered that ground. In other words, what does Jules Rivera have up her sleeve?

But aside from the tacky wallpaper and equally tacky antagonists, what struck me immediately today is the hatching on Violet’s dress. Is Rivera experimenting with old-school b/w techniques to model shading and volume? This is not common in her work, where it usually comes off stark and sketchy in b/w newspapers. In truth, many cartoonists avoid shading. Shading can make strips look darker and crowded because of their small size. That means they could be harder to see or read, making them less attractive to editors and readers. This is nothing new, of course. Back in the 1960s, Chester Gould, in his Dick Tracy comic strip, made known his displeasure at shrinking comic strip sizes by having one of his characters periodically draw a comic strip called Sawdust, whose characters were simply dots.