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The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Well, this week saw the culmination of both Cherry’s and Mark’s (or Rusty’s) adventures, merged into a week-long epilog. For Cherry, she and Violet were able to launch their “Movies in the Park” night at the same time as Mark met up with Honest Ernest and his “brothers”, who also decided to attend. They immediately formed ranks and started the usual ritualistic chest thumping and evil-eye throwing, until Violet, in an unusual intervention, stopped the impending fight by coming up with a plan to hold a public electronics demolition event on her parking lot, what she referred to as a “Rage Lot” event. Mark seemed puzzled by the reference, but the fight was avoided. The movie played. Later that night on the way home, Bill Ellis called Mark about a crisis:  A movie director has gone missing, and he happens to be the director of the movie the citizens of Lost Forest just watched! Coincidence? And why should Mark be called about a “missing person”? We’ll have to await further events.

Interesting topic. Now the size of prehistoric lions (or any animals) cannot be established by cave wall paintings, which were not drawn “to scale” (panel 4). Perhaps Rivera only refers to the color of the prehistoric lion’s coat. Those cave paintings/drawings that Mark mentions exist only in Europe (not in North America), mostly in Spain and Southern France. The most famous “lion cave” is the Chauvet Cave in Southern France, discovered in 1994.

I was puzzled by the image of the zebra in panel 5, where Mark discusses the extinction of the “American” lion. It turns out that many fossils of prehistoric horses have been found in Idaho, and are commonly known as the Hagerman Horse, or the American Zebra. (FYI: I’m simply summarizing equus information from several scientific/nature websites.) This animal is known as Equus simplicidens, in the taxonomic genus Equus, which is the ancestor of modern horses, donkeys, and zebras.  Several sources claim it is more closely related to modern zebras, though there is no evidence of what their coats looked like. That is, there is no evidence for stripes. In any event, academic/scientific study and debate continues.

Hey! Down in front! Can we just get back to the movie?

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Warning: Pun Alert! Pun Alert! Secure your pets and children!

Rage lot!? I don’t know that term and haven’t seen it around. So I looked about. There is an AI management tool known as ragebot, but I found nothing specifically for “rage lot.” Perhaps Rivera simply riffed on the pun of rage lot and rage bot.

In any event, this sounds like a silly idea. I read a WebMD article stating that “smash rooms” and “rage rooms” where people go to supposedly work off anger issues only affirm the anger problem, but do not provide alternative solutions or techniques. And people come back for more.

The silliness of Violet’s idea goes beyond a lack of therapeutic support. It could be dangerous, with broken parts flying every which way, to say nothing of possibly dangerous components and chemicals that could accidentally be exposed. Call me a fuddy-duddy, if you wish, but I’d keep the kids at home. Plus, I’d bet that recycling sites would not much care for taking items deliberately smashed.

Say, do you think those three guys are really biological brothers or just “brothers-in-arms”? That idea reminds me of the three brothers in Newhart: “Hi. I’m Larry. This is my brother, Daryl. This is my other brother, Daryl.” A much nicer bunch of guys.

Men with Attitudes. So what’s new?

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One thing you might notice in Rivera’s Mark Trail is that virtually every male is either pissed off about something or auditioning for a Steven Segal movie. And that is not a compliment. An adventure strip usually has to have drama, intrigue, some danger, and a “save the world” for or from something. But there is little drama in constant fighting, Jason Bourne, notwithstanding.

What we have here is a version of a high school gang of bullies movie, where the hall monitor/teacher steps in to stop the fight that ensures the dramatic and humiliating beat down takes place in the Boy’s Room after school. Mark’s calm demeanor (excuse my sarcasm) on display here is the normal reaction Mark pulls out for just about any kind of situation, because that is what Rivera thinks Mark Trail is all about or thinks that’s all that the readers care about. Well, I care about flapjack dinners and talking snakes, too! And those intimate nature walks Cherry and Mark go on, where Rivera omits the best parts.

I noticed that Mark’s most recent official, paying job was the assignment in Utah, reporting on wild horses. I don’t know what Cherry earns from Violet, but if Mark and his family want to keep eating and paying the rent, shouldn’t he spend more time soliciting paying work? On the other hand, I do appreciate Rivera’s innovation to reveal some of Mark’s “downtime” activities, rather than simply continuing the old Mark Trail routine: “Go on assignment-return home for 3 days-get called to another assignment”, which was the prior modus operandi.

Ticket, please!

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A corny horror B-movie sounds like a good choice for a movie night. Brava, Rivera! I guess Rivera wanted to avoid a direct link to the universally panned 1991 horror flick, “The Malibu Beach Vampires”, a movie that might have ended the night before the first reel ended.

As for this story, we appear to be at the start of the standard “Mark Trail Family Time”, that period in between adventures where we sometimes learn about the aftermath of the just-concluded story.

No doubt, it would likely violate the Comics Common Code of Consistency if Robbie changed his spots and became fast friends with Rusty. That would be as likely as Mark changing his shirt. Come to think of it, Rusty never changes his clothes, either. But Cherry does, a lot. What’s with that?

Cherry and Violet share a moment

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We’re back to those whacky gals, Cherry and Violet, who are moving on from their successful expulsion of a hungry bear from the newly-installed compost bins. Having enjoyed some modicum of success (so we hear) with their prior summer music festival, they hope to repeat that accomplishment with a summer movie night.

Oh, wait. That’s what the strip just reported, more or less. Never mind, then.

Still, I wonder whether today’s introduction constitutes a new storyline or just a sidebar for the compost bin adventure where Cherry won a bet to attend a composting seminar on a flight paid for by the Sunny Soleil Society. Cherry’s stories do not always have a clear start and end like Mark’s tend to do. I reckon that’s okay. At least we should not have to worry about Honest Ernest showing up for a while.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat 

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This past week started out with the possibility that Cherry and Violet would have a “head-to-head” over Violet’s need to find fault with Cherry’s work at the end of a long work day. Mundane, perhaps, but the possibility of some rethinking of Cherry’s position or employment could have been the focus this week.  

Instead, the compost project resurfaced through the plot device of Violet discovering a bear rummaging through the new compost bins that Cherry just installed. Seems they were not very secure and Violet had secretly dumped her lunchtime chicken bones in the compost. The bear being a bear, it sniffed out the bones and commenced its nighttime snacking.  

While the two gals were standing mere feet away watching the bear, Cherry came up with a from-out-of-nowhere solution of grabbing an airhorn from out of her truck (part of her emergency supplies, she claimed). The sound drove the bear off. Cherry resolved to get better locks for the bins and the two gals resolved that bears were easier to deal with then men. I’m not sure that joke was funny when it used to be told the other way around. 

The lack of any real drama or danger in the storyline was a big disappointment. It is not unique, as Rivera seems to treat every situation as if she is writing for Public Television kid shows. This situation was underscored by some really inconsistent drawing. It was almost a perfect storm of indifference or ineptitude. There is more to this than a mere difference in artistic expression. 

As is common, Jules Rivera links the Sunday nature strip to the current story. But since this topic turned out to be the main draw this week, there is little new. Nevertheless, Rivera did cover some additional bear-discouragement techniques, providing a few more helpful tips.  

Where do we go from here? 

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Since this is my blog and I’m spending the weekend with my wife’s siblings, I’m giving a shoutout to Paul & Lisa, Tom & Diane, John, Sue & Steve, and Mark. 

Okay, back to business. Having scared off the bear with an air horn, Cherry and Violet bond over their mutual frustrations of dealing with the opposite sex, speaking strictly from a conventional, binary point of view, of course. 

Some days there is little to say. This is one of those days. Rivera is just padding out the storyline the same way a TV drama or comedy might have a light-hearted epilog. The overriding question for us all, I’m sure, is whether this story will continue in order to cover Cherry’s Compost Conference. But unless Rivera has something plotted to take place during the conference, it’s likely we’ll only learn about it post factum.  This follows the normal convention found in pre-Rivera Mark Trail.  

Why couldn’t Cherry hear Violet? We could!

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Stand back?! Shouldn’t Cherry have said “Violet, let’s both get in the truck before the bear runs out of chicken bones!” Then she could have employed her emergency air horn (maybe it’s for slow drivers in the left lane?). Heck, maybe Cherry could have just flashed her brights and honked several times.

Another chance for real suspense is wasted.

Non compost mentis?

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Okay, Cherry has a point:  Meat sources attract various animals, even bears. Bad news! But Cherry can also be blamed for not taking better measures to reduce animal attacks, such as locking down the bins, fencing them off, or even possibly making more balanced mixes of compost material to minimize smells. Will this point of contention (or one like it) come out in the story this week?

Sure, we can criticize Rivera for not appearing to know about these things, but that might not be the case. We must consider this situation from the viewpoint of plot. It was clear early on that Violet’s unusual fried chicken binging was emphasized for a reason; and that reason was to enable this conflict between the two women and the composting project. Stories need conflict.

This bear-attacks-compost plot device reminds me of Mark’s earlier dealing with a bear snacking in unsecured garbage bins at a mountain retreat site (see the strips for March 17 and 18, 2023 in the “Bear Necessity” adventure).

Otherwise, I’m waiting to see Cherry’s fluency in “Bear-speak.” And that may be a fact, as many of us should recall seeing (in reprint) early strips (April 1946) by Ed Dodd of Cherry Davis playing with her pet bear, only to have Mark arrive on scene thinking she needs to be saved.

Would you call this strip unBearable?

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An advisory notice: I am not a professional comic artist critic, though I play one on the Internet.

Well, just when I thought we would have some decent continuity with Cherry’s story, we get today’s load, uh, upload. Hoo-boy, this is another big disappoint. Go ahead, zoom in on panels 1 and 3 (for example) and tell me what you see. I’ll wait … As much as Rivera has turned out some good art over her nearly 4 years drawing and writing the strip, she has also posted her share of dreck. Like today. Again, I don’t know why, but there it is.

Is Rivera just trying to see how much she can get away with? Does her Syndicate not even care? I’m almost to the point where I’d just as soon put this strip out to pasture and start following Garfield. And you all know how much I just love Garfield.

The Daily Trail is probably the only online daily review of Mark Trail. Well-written sites such as Comics Curmudgeon and Joseph Nebus only cover the strip periodically, if very amusingly. This site’s creator, Dennis Williams, carved out a good niche for himself by focusing on just one strip and maintaining a nearly-daily schedule for some seven years. You can go check out the archives here and enjoy his writing.

Yes, I get discouraged with the strip, as you all do. I wonder how much longer I can keep hoping for improvements. How much longer can I keep thinking of new things to say and avoid becoming just another snarker, like those cats over at Comics Kingdom.  Well, it’s fine and fun to write snarky comments, but focusing solely on that was never my intention.

In my naiveté, I thought Rivera would settle down and take this strip seriously, like her predecessors did; like I do. There is a possibility that Rivera does take this seriously and deliberately writes and draws this strip to make some kind of a point; whatever that is. I know several long-time followers of The Daily Trail moved on after Rivera took over. Shy of something dramatic happening, those former readers aren’t likely coming back. In any event, I’m just trying to work through all of this, while being transparent, as is our current social virtue. This isn’t “good bye and thanks for the fish“, but I am raising a flag. All comments appreciated.

Somebody forgot to lock down the compost bins!

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While Cherry poses for a re-do of “American Gothic”, Violet meets the biggest fan of compost bins. So caught off guard is she that her Inner English slips out. Panel 3 echoes a memory of regular reader “Downpuppy” (you’ll have to look at the June 19th comments for the relevance here). And, as a follow-up to my response to a comment by “be ware of eve hill” yesterday, it looks like Rivera managed to tie this sequence back into the compost story, which is one reason this post is short. Well, that, and I have to prepare for my Italian book club session tomorrow.

Anyway, there’s a chance for some drama and danger here. How will Rivera handle it? Get your guesses in early!

Violet’s Guide to Working with the Hired Help, Chapter 3

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As Boss, it’s your job to maintain order with, and dominance over, the hired help. Never let the opportunity pass to remind them that you are more competent than they are. Today’s example shows how Violet casually points out Cherry’s apparent carelessness, only at the end of the work day when the employee is most vulnerable. Excellent tactics! Observe how Violet puts on a guise of studied informality in her pose and expression as she glibly makes her rebuke. “Hah! Hah! Just a small thingy, Cherry. Hah! Hah!” This ensures that your contractor goes home feeling somewhat incompetent and even more subservient the next day. Of course, Violet’s comment could have waited until morning, but a boss must always keep workers in their place.

Well, if you remember, when Rivera began this strip, Cherry had an independent gardening and landscaping business. The Sunny Soleil Society was the company charged with enforcing the HOA rules for a community where Cherry was doing a job. Along the way, Cherry wound up working exclusively for the SSS. Its HOA activities were forgotten as Rivera decided to focus on the interaction between the two women. And there have been notable interactions. But it would be nice to see Cherry get jobs someplace else now and then. Some new characters and plots would freshen up Cherry’s stories.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Having arrived home from school, Rusty found a note from Dad telling him to get the kitchen swept before Cherry gets home. Naturally, Rusty thought he had enough time to go off with Andy and dig up some of Robbie’s broken controllers.  Wait! Didn’t Rusty already dig up the controllers? Pappa Mark said he did, at least to Ranger Shaw. 

Rusty’s adventures—such as they are—seem to transmogrify (to borrow a term from Calvin and Hobbes) into something else; often, something Mark is more concerned about. In this case, it is the discovery of broken electronics dumped on the ground in Lost Forest. And they are now complicating Rusty’s activity.

As Rusty and Andy arrived at the site, Rusty discovered three adults already there, unloading more electronics to smash. They are Honest Ernest, Connor the accident-prone camper, and The Gomer in the Yellow Hat, otherwise collectively known as “The Grungy Boys”, aka “Honest Ernest and the Grungy Boys.”  You’d think they would at least have matching caps.

In spite of his efforts, Rusty and Andy were detected by Honest Ernest, putting Rusty in a tight spot. And that’s where we end this past week’s cliffhanger.  But do hang around for the Sunday nature chat.

Wow, do we need yet another discussion of composting? Didn’t Cherry already lecture Violet and us about it? Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally in favor of composting. Cherry and Mark might want to have a chat with commenter Downpuppy about protecting compost bins from animal attacks.

By the way, Mark (panel 4), personal composting still creates greenhouse gases, just not in the same quantity (and perhaps the same diversity). And food waste that goes into landfills most likely does not exclude meats (panel 4), after it is collected. I don’t know if Rivera got confused between composting and landfilling.  

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat 

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The focus of Mark Trail has traditionally been an environmentally based adventure strip, with adventure as the main draw. That has been one of the main complaints against Rivera’s stories for Mark. Are we to use the same measure for Cherry’s stories? 

Certainly, Cherry’s stories have leaned towards the lighter side. That would be a fair balance to what should be more hard-hitting, dramatic stories from Mark.  

In any event, this past week Cherry showed up at Violet’s with her collected food scraps to start a composting site for the Sunny Soleil Society, as Violet was literally gobbling down a bucket of chicken. Cherry tried to get Violet to remember her pledge to send Cherry to Compost Camp. After a few days of rambling, Violet agreed to fund Cherry’s trip. If Violet was hoping this would stop Cherry’s continuous lecturing, she was wrong. 

Who knew!?! I always thought worms were just normal ground-dwelling creatures found just about everywhere. Good information to know. And I do like the earthworm title panel, though it’s a bit hard to read. 

Meat meets Compost Control

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Okay, consider me reprimanded for my erroneous presumption: Violet was not tossing scraps into the trash, as I misunderstood. All those ginormous bins are for composting. Okay, then. They are still too large and do not appear to be properly vented. So there! 

Cherry makes a very good point about why meat scraps do not normally go into a compost bin. Aside from bears, you must watch out for cats, mice, rats, racoons, foxes. However, compost piles of grass clippings, fruit, vegetables, and even grains can attract herbivores and omnivores, such as possums, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, and birds. And possibly bears, anyway.  

Finally, Rivera could stop with the grade-school puns right now and see a 25% increase in the quality of Mark Trail. They are neither cute nor clever. 

Compost bin very good to ME! 

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Well, the story is finally moving along. Very good. But Cherry’s composting plans have a few issues:

1) All of these “bins” look the same. Not a good thing when you include trash and compost. So why place the trash receptacle next to the compost bins?

2) Are these compost bins properly ventilated? They look like they are cheek-by-jowl. Granted, we cannot see their back views, but what we can see is not promising.

3) They seem a bit large for composting bins, especially non-commercial bins. That’s a lot of stuff to keep turning and a large space for compostable refuse to heat up and cook.

4) And how about removing the compost when it’s ready?

Okay, enough carping over details. This is a comic strip, not a documentary or a how-to video. So, I’ll wait to see what Rivera reveals on Saturday. She could put all my nitpicking to shame. Or maybe you could.

Finger-lickin’ forgetful 

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This is the strip that should have been posted on Wednesday. But now I want to know, as I’m sure all of you do, if Violet really wolfs down an entire bucket of fried chicken at every lunch, or even every other day. 

Two for the price of none

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June 11. Where to begin? From the start we have seen Violet Cheshire presented as a parody of southern society, a person whose personality and actions conflict with her attire. Vain, shallow, and mercurial she may be, image is very important to her.

So how are we to read this portrayal of Violet double-handing a bucket of fried chicken as if she is practicing for an upcoming eating contest? And are we to believe that Violet is either forgetful or the reincarnation of Mrs. Malaprop? Miss-speaking is not the same as forgetting!

June 12. Speaking of vain, that robin once again showed up to show off her feathery décolletage. Meanwhile, Cherry applies the gentle art of sarcasm in panel 2 as she goes with the idea that Violet is suddenly forgetful. Thus, Cherry repeats her original sales pitch. We may have to endure this presentation and its resolution for the remainder of the week.  

Is this a good story telling technique? Rivera could have dispensed with today’s panels and simply noted that Cherry had to repeat her presentation. But repeating her composting spiel in detail is just hitting readers over the head with what’s been said, more than once. Rivera could have dispensed with this sermonizing and instead showed Cherry actually building a compost pile as Violet looks on. And still forgetting their deal!

Violet becomes non compos appetitus.

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Howdy! On Tuesday morning I have to be up before even the Sun can be bothered to turn on. Why? I’m flying down to see my old man (he’s really, really old!) and the plane leaves at 6:30 AM. Ugh! So, the Tuesday strip may wind up getting posted with Wednesday’s. After that, things should be back on a normal track, until a few weeks later, when I have to fly back. You’ve been warned.

We return to Cherry Trail, who has been collecting food waste around town to start composting at the Sunny Soleil Society. Certainly, compositing fits within her mindset and her values, but Cherry is also motivated by the offer of a free trip to a compost convention if she collects enough to get things started.

But Cherry arrived just in time at the SSS HQ to witness Violet Cheshire preparing to chow down on a bucket o’ fried chicken. What could be a more propitious time to discuss food scraps and compositing!?! But based on Violet’s idea of a lunch, I’d have thought Cherry would find enough scraps in the Society’s own garbage cans.

Well. This could have been more interesting if Rivera used this week to have Cherry moving about town, still collecting food scraps. This would provide a simple way to introduce us to a few more citizens of the Lost Forest community, without having to develop complicated plots. I’m thinking slightly off-beat people, such as Squirrely Sally.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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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.