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Looks like Brett was just biding his time to teach Mark a lesson.

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Hoo-boy. I suppose Mark is under contract to solve all problems within his immediate vicinity, regardless of whose problem it is. I don’t see Cherry too bothered by it, and Happy Trail is happy to share in the solution, as well. I’m not sure if this is the “end” of Cherry’s adventure, as she is seen here as a mere background appreciator. However, Honest Ernest happily gloats as he puts the recovered peacock back into his van, somehow parked on the golf course.

And regular reader Daniel Pellissier  pointed out that my theoretical plot twist of trapping the wrong peafowl was full of holes, because a close-up of the captured peacock in Saturday’s strip showed the bird with his male plumage intact. Still, in the real world, that kind of treatment would have to be really bad for the peacock and his tail feathers.

But Cherry’s week in the sun has set (so it seems) and we return to the sturm und drang of Brett Chedderson’s beef with Mark Trail, who broke with the tradition of not insulting your hosts by insulting his hosts. I’m not sure what that yellow traingular design is behind Brett in panel 3, but it can’t be a good sign.

It reminds me of those high-back collars you see on old-school villains (e.g. Ming the Merciless, The Evil Queen of Snow White, and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula). If Mark hasn’t fully exercised his fists o’ justice, this might be a good time to do so, unless a better idea pops up.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Rivera side-slipped us back into Cherry’s Runaway Peacock story, while still on the golf course. As you may recall, she popped up the Saturday before, in the middle of the Trail-Chedderson Slapfest, along with the errant peacock. The fight immediately stopped and the peacock disappeared. Mark volunteered to help Cherry chase it down, the pollution fight, seemingly forgotten.

Then we cut to a scene of Honest Ernest with a butterfly net trying to catch the peacock and failing. Comparisons to “Coyote and Roadrunner” were obvious. At least Rivera showed good taste in what she borrowed from.

When Ernest complained about Mark and Cherry trying to hog credit for catching the bird, they assured him they didn’t care. It didn’t take Mark long to come up with a way to trap the peafowl using sticks, Happy’s golf club, and a granola bar that Cherry happened to have. Exactly how the trap worked is not really explained, but the bird was considerate enough to wander into it. Honest Ernest grabbed the trapped bird and ran off to impress Violet with his capture. Exciting stuff.

The only thing I’ll add is that Rivera may be throwing us a curveball.  The peacock shown and trapped this week did not exhibit the long tail that the (male) peacock originally displayed. Either Rivera forgot that “subtle” distinction when she drew the bird or she is playing off the fact that there are “feral” peacocks loose in this country. So it is possible that they trapped the wrong bird (a female in this case) which will backfire when Honest Ernest returns it and claims credit. This could be the best ending yet for one of Cherry’s stories.

For sure, I thought that Rivera would create her custom title panel using mouse droppings to spell out the title. Seemed obvious to me! Well, I read up on hantavirus and, frankly, I’m pretty bothered, especially as there is no specific treatment (cure) or vaccine against it; and fatality rates go as high as 50%! Uffa! Sure, it may be rare and mostly in western states, but that’s not the same as “non-existent.” We get an occasional mouse, especially in the Winter. I’m doubling the mouse traps this year. Maybe get a cat or two.

I see it now: Mighty Mouse was really a foreign agent, sent here to spread hantavirus under the ruse of “coming to save the day.”

Honest Ernest shocks Cherry by claiming the bird and the credit!

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Well, I don’t know why Mark and Cherry are surprised by Honest Ernest’s actions. After all, they told him that they were not interested in the credit, just capturing the peacock. Yet here they are, dismayed at Ernest taking their word on it.

I was hopeful that Mark would at least explain how his trap worked; you know, just in case a peacock shows up in my backyard one day.

What happened to the tail feathers?

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Okay. This is, uh … well, uh … naïve? Is some kind of time-lapse sequence happening here, where the peafowl eventually (and quite fortuitously, I might add) found its way to the correct spot and discovered the granola bar? It’s possible, though that’s a stretch because these birds don’t have an outstanding sense of smell.

But I’m dying to know how this trap actually worked. I’m thinking there is supposed to be some kind of motion-sensitive mechanism linked to the snack bar or its leafy support that springs the trap. That could explain why the trap is shown off to one side. I’m no hunter or trapper, so I’m hoping that the Saturday strip will get me up to speed. But based on panel 4, I just don’t see how this works.

I’m also hoping this is just a case of my own ignorance of such things and not that Rivera is just making up a bunch of crap.

Art Dept. Okay, Even Rivera refers to this bird as a male, so where the heck are the long tail feathers? They don’t retract into the body. Now, the female is noted for her lack of long tail features. They are a characteristic of the male peafowl, used both for attracting females and as a kind of self-defense. If you go back to July 12 and August 7, the bird clearly shows the full tail plumage.

Is it possible that Mark, Cherry, and Honest Ernest are chasing the wrong peafowl and wound up catching a female by mistake? After all, there are peafowl in the wild, having escaped from, or been set free by, private owners.

Now, that would really be a really interesting thing to see:  Returning with the wrong bird, only to have Violet’s mother realize their mistake at the big Summer Banquet!

Mark outlines his cunning plan to catch the peacock

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Hoo-boy, here we are again, as Mark “McGyver’s” a trap for the runaway peacock, who is obviously going to hang around the golf course long enough to be enticed. Seems like Honest Ernest isn’t the only one playing Coyote to the peacock’s Roadrunner. I suppose it is supercilious of me to ask questions, such as where you get tree branches on a golf course. But of course, they are on the edge of Lost Forest.

Can Mark can build a big enough trap out of just branches? How will he lash them? Will he build a trap door, as well? These questions, and more, are apt to be ignored in favor of just showing the finished trap, as this is not an episode of Wild Kingdom. A blanket could also be used, so wouldn’t a mother also carry a blanket for ad-hoc picnics and resting?

But why specifically nuts, when peacocks will also eat grains, seeds, fruit, berries, and even leaves? Mark could probably find most of that stuff more easily than having to rely on motherhood to save the day.  Quibble, quibble, quibble. I know. You’re saying “Enough with the obvious questions, George! We get it, already! ” Sure, a trap is likely better than trying to run down a peacock or catch it with a small net. But the peacock has to be near enough to the trap in the first place to be suckered. Well, today is Thursday, so a lot has to happen for that peacock to be caught by Saturday. And thank goodness for that!

Art Dept. I was going to say something about the characters in the middle ground in panel 1, but you probably know what I would be saying. Consider it said. Otherwise, I’ll conclude with criticism for the longer-than-necessary run of boring panel layouts. An inventive, interesting layout can make even a dull or dumb story more interesting.

Mark finds an easier problem to solve

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Frankly, I don’t know why they would want to help Honest Ernest, unless it was to help him sink into a deep hole. But, Cherry still has her job with the Sunny Soleil Society to keep. Maybe she could look for other clients, but I don’t imagine there are too many paying customers in that sleepy little village.

Are you confused by the storyline? Of course! Mark and Cherry have magically transferred into the Cherry and the Runaway Peacock story, leaving the lake pollution story, as well as the probably perplexed golfing party, on the other side of the comics page. I reckon Mark got his “you’re killing my environment” anger out of his system for the time being, as he seems happy to devote some time to this trivial event. But credit to Rivera for continuity: Mark’s facial scrapes from his fight with Brett remain in place.

Art Dept. Sometimes I wonder if Rivera uses marionettes as models for the characters. I mean, check out Mark in panel 3. And there are more of those “lines beyond the borders” today, too. One might think that Syndicate editors would catch that stuff and fix it before publishing. But that might be optimistic. It could be they just slap the strips online and send them out to the newspapers, as is.

Catch the latest news on The Great Peacock Hunt!

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All regular readers of Mark Trail are long familiar with Honest Ernest, who probably started life as the school bully; only now, he is depicted more like an older version of the Class Clown. So it makes sense that Rivera would depict him here in a role reminiscent of the Warner Brothers Coyote with his ACME butterfly net trying to catch the Roadrunner, played by local favorite, the take-no-prisoners wandering Peacock.

Art Dept. I noticed the same kind of pinched-in, distorted face in panels 3 and 4 today that I talked about yesterday. This kind of distortion of facial images in background figures has often plagued the strip, and I believe it might be due to size restrictions on Rivera’s digital (or manual) pen. It’s as if she is trying to cram too much detail where it becomes more noise than information.

PS: I sometimes look at the Comics Kingdom comments, but only after I post. So, I want to let you know that I did not pinch my Roadrunner analogy from Bill F‘s comment. Frankly, I figured most Mark Trail readers would have picked it up, anyway, especially with the pose of the peacock in panel 3.

How about a zesty bowl of potpourri commentary?

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Welcome back to the Third Annual National High School “Draw Mark Trail” exhibition, where the excitement level is hovering around the “Our son drew that one!” level.

We were all impressed with an entry from yesterday (Sunday), drawn by 10th grader Zigmodo R. Pettyfogger of Zuni, Ohio with a “Walking Dead” interpretation of our favorite wildlife journalist. Gotta say, Zigmo, you nailed that one!  Okay, we hope to return to this exhibition, but for now, let’s get back to the current story…

“Segues!? We don’t need no stinkin’ segues!” The Mark-Brett confrontation has been pushed aside for the moment as Rivera makes a giant pivot at a moment’s notice, continuity be damned. At least her appearance on the greenway did stop the playground altercation going on, so there is that. But how is it that Cherry can’t seem to see the peacock she is looking for, as it continues to fly all around her? Or is that a depiction of her mental state?

And what will Mark do from here on, now that he’s blown his cover and killed whatever cooperation he might have been able to inveigle out of the Cheddersons?

What are we to make of this odd intrusion? In the past, Rivera has, on occasion, put Mark or Cherry into each other’s storyline, usually for a short time to help the other out. But this time around, it isn’t just Mark and Cherry doing cameos; we have a convergence of their two separate stories, to the point where it becomes a question as to whose plot we are currently following. Is this a bit of cinéma vérité, perhaps? Or am I just making stuff up because I wanted to use the term cinéma vérité ?

In other news: I just paid my yearly dues to renew the domain name (thytrailbedone.com) and storage space on WordPress for my daily scribbling. So I’m committed to another 365.25 days of following the misadventures of the Trail Family. Also, I was just daydreaming about what might happen if Jules Rivera turned the entire Trail family into a team of environmental journalists/advocates, going on assignments and saving the planet. You know, like in The Incredibles movies. Well, the Trails would probably lose the cabin for lack of a second income; and they could get arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor for keeping Rusty out of school and putting him into harm’s way.

A case of fowl play: Did the peacock chase off Honest Ernest?

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I’ve been watching peacock (more accurately, peafowl) videos to hear what they sound like and act like. They appear to have several different calls: one like a cat, one like a chicken, one like a trumpet trying to sound like a car horn, and yet another like a kind of crow sound. Overall, have some 11 different calls and yells. Check them out on YouTube.

I found a few videos of peacocks screeching out something along the lines of what is depicted in panel 4. As varied as their calls are, it’s quite a sight to see them when they raise their tail feathers (or train).

Well, if this isn’t going to be a variant on the Banjo Cat and the Harpist cat hunt story, I wonder if they really resolved that problem of Banjo Cat running free and chasing down birds? A matchup may not go too well for ol’ Banjo Cat!

We may have just seen the Main Hook to this story.

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Regular reader, be ware of eve hill, commented on Violet’s “Groucho” eyelashes a few days ago. They are difficult to miss.  Groucho Marx famously applied his exaggerated eyebrows and moustache using theater “grease paint.” Is Violet doing something similar? I made a quick survey of her appearances over the years and here are my findings:

Perhaps there is a hormonal change going on with Violet, since she seems to display a continuous thickening of her cilia. However, I’ll step back a bit. We already know that Rivera is not consistent with her depictions, so there is going to be variation. However, this seems to be a generally accurate visual chronology. So, Violet’s current over-the-top (so to speak) eyebrows are not just accidents.

Getting back to the “story”, it’s interesting to see how informal and personal Violet becomes when talking about her mother. And any time Honest Ernest is involved, we know that incompetence and failure quickly follow. I wonder if this is going to be a revision of the hunt for Banjo Cat story? Or maybe the peacock inhaled pest control chemical fumes from inside the van and Honest Ernest is rushing it over to Doc Davis for resuscitation.

This looks like a job for Yippy, the noisy peacock herd dog!

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I suppose we all deserve a break now and then from the intense, almost nonstop action and intrigue we usually find in Mark Trail storylines. Jules Rivera kindly helps us cool down with innocuous mini-adventures like this one, free from danger and virtually any hint of engagement.

It’s like the wall in panel 1, which appears at first to be a single plane going straight across, until we look closer (if you are up for it). How come the window on the left is shown on an angle while the bookcase is shown face on? (Be mad at me, because now, you can’t ignore seeing it!) But doesn’t that suggest two walls meeting at a corner? Yet no corner line is defined. “It’s a real mystery!” If you really want to push it, pretend the room is a continuously curving space with no sharp changes of direction.  

Well, it’s your choice whether this is worth considering. It’s okay to just sit back, have another sip of your beverage of choice, scan the panels, and let your gray matter have the morning off.

Oh, I know. You want me to riff on the point that Violet’s mother should already have a cage for her prized peacock!? My goodness! Haven’t we been over this point before? Many stories usually involve some kind of crisis or task that has to be overcome by a given deadline. In many cases, these are totally invented things, cleverly woven into the fabric of a book or movie where it isn’t so obvious. That’s much harder to do in comic strips. Violet might as easily have mentioned “building a reviewing stand for her mother and her friends” or “making sure that the party balloons come in three different colors and are evenly distributed.”

Day 3 and . . . <yawn!> . . . counting.

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Okay, let’s just admit the basis for this story is wanting. Violet throws her upscale cultured persona around like an Olympic athlete throwing the javelin. She wears what passes for fashionable clothes, seems to affect an English accent or maybe just a few words here and there, and has a mother with fancy friends. Maybe Violet lives with Mom and maybe she doesn’t, but Mom can’t live too far away. From Violet’s remarks, we have to assume her Mom and friends get themselves fancied-up for various events.

Yet, in spite of all this, Violet has no idea where to find a salon!? Is Lost Forest located in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp? For that matter, should we assume that Cherry manage her own hair?

Or is this just Violet’s technique for negotiating a reduced price?

Grating Expectations!

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Frankly, the concept of socialites in Lost Forest seems absurd, given the people we tend to see. It may be that Violet and her mother actually live in a more affluent community near Lost Forest, such as Cold River, which featured in a story way back in 1974. How do I know that? It’s not that my mind is a mental treasure house, but I’ve been reading some of the vintage strips on Comics Kingdom. Anyway, if Violet needs the services of a stylist in Lost Forest, wherever she lives can’t be any better.

Life has certainly changed for Violet Cheshire, the Sunny Soleil Society manager. She’s transformed from her original icy, domineering and arrogant presence to this over-emotional, beat-down, hapless person with “mother” issues. Ok, to be fair, Cherry didn’t get along with her mom, either. Still…

But I got a kick out of Violet’s remark about finding the fanciest stylist in Lost Forest! That would normally be the town barber in a place like this, but Cherry has Peach Pitt on hand. So, what is the point of this story? So far, it seems to be:  Violet must host a successful “summer bash” in order to make her mum (another English word!) look good for her high-falutin socialite friends. Not exactly a strong beginning for a story unless Rivera wants to compete against Mary Worth.

Art Dept. If spending more time on drawing figures is too much, it would at least be more visually interesting for Rivera to focus on designing more interesting compositions and perspectives like she used to do, instead of relying on static, simplistic arrangements like these panels. Of course, I’m just whistling in the dark. Even if—by chance—Rivera read this blog and agreed with me, no results would begin to show up for at least a month or two.

Is Violet a British agent?

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[A followup to yesterday’s Week in Review] Maybe it’s the fewer hours I’ve been sleeping lately, but I seem to be overlooking details. Thankfully, I have readers who are keeping my on my toes. Regular reader, Downpuppy, likened Cherry’s hideous facial image in Saturday’s panel 1 to that of a mask from the Mexican Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebration. His claim has a visual possibility, though the purpose for Cherry to be wearing it is unclear.

Also, a reader on Comics Kingdom pointed out that in Sunday’s strip, Mark talked about the California Condor’s 10-foot wing span, while showing an example with a 9-foot wingspan! Woo! I don’t know how I missed that one, but it does justify my prior observation that this was likely a hurry-up project for her. But now, on to the current episode!

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What’s with this “blimey!” talk? Is Violet actually British or just affecting the lingo? While it’s possible she’s been watching the British soap opera, EastEnders, for a long time, there is prior evidence of her “British” association. Back in April 2021 when Cherry first met Violet, our “Southern Belle” offered up a plate of scones to Cherry, who declined the offer.

Scones are now standard offerings in American bakeries and coffee houses, but they have an English heritage. In spite of this, we rarely detect any British accent or vocabulary from Violet. Oh, and you with your sharper-than-my eyes have no doubt noticed the changes between the original depiction of the Sunny Soleil Society’s headquarters and today’s version. It’s in keeping with the always-changing footprint of the Trail cabin.

Well, what’s with this “bear” thing again? And why is that black-eyed Cherry pushing around a statue of a bear? I’d have thought Violet had had enough of them. I hope we’re not in line for more bear jokes!

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