Things can move fast in Lost Forest. Last time we saw Mark, he was talking up his plans for the big retreat. Not only did Mark con the De-Bait Team into letting him use their lodge, they already have their first group of … only three paying customers. Holy Cow! How is Mark going to make this retreat idea pay off?

Anyway, where’s the joke here? Did Rivera (or Mark) forget the punchline? Usually, the joke goes something like this: “Teach a man to fish … and he’ll have another way to waste time and money.” Maybe it’s just me. Help me out, people!

Art Dept. It sure looks like Rivera was itchin’ to get out to the beach early, as the artwork in these three panels grows progressively less refined. I’ll leave you with this visual puzzle: What do you think is behind the windows in panel 2?

When I start to wonder whether the self-parody theory of Mark Trail is just overblown babbling, Rivera publishes something like this. Where to even start? I’ll assume you are all at least as observant and perspicacious as I am (though maybe falling a bit behind my natural wit and talent for irrelevance, as is to be expected).

But just in case there are a few outliers, why in @)#! would Duke assume a nature retreat is the solution for relationship issues? Does Duke know anything about interpersonal issues that “lots of guys like Connor” have with their significant others? What the @)#! do issues with females even have to do with camping, anyway? (“So, I had a fight with Janet, right? I heard that the best way to cope was to go camping in Lost Forest. Ain’t never done that, but Billy gave me his survival guide. It’s printed on toilet paper. ‘Read it as you use it’, it says. Ain’t that a hoot!? So I went camping. Next thing I know, I woke up in a psycho ward! But Janet and me, we’re a pair once again!”)

Really, Rivera? Just what are you trying to accomplish with this line of sexist absurdity, other than to continue to make Mark look like a gullible bonehead?

Okay, in the Trailverse there appears to be an untold number of men who live in and around Lost Forest who nevertheless seem to have little or no knowledge of woods or camping. Yet, having no knowledge, they might still get inspired by a phony survival book to go camping. This might then result in them winding up in a hospital or morgue, like soon-to-be poster boy, Connor (“this could be you!”).

So fine: If Mark wants to create a training camp to help these dudes, I hope he can find enough clients with the time and ability to pay the costs. But guys who purchase $25 survival books probably don’t have the funds to pay for in-person survival training. Heck, if Mark has any business sense, he’ll call Bill Ellis to get his publishing company to help underwrite the project for the PR and Mark’s articles (Ed. note: “Why am I fantasizing about this, since the strips were already written weeks ago?!“)

Well, it’s too bad that former lost camper and current hospital patient Connor didn’t learn anything from his outdoorsmen friends, Duke and Cliff. Maybe Mark should keep that in mind if he has any plans on using them in his project.

Mark continues his rant. But how many dead campers have actually been found with Tadd’s book in their backpacks? How many lost or injured survivalists were rescued while clutching his survival guide? Has Mark done any actual research before going on this holy quest of his?

I’m starting to think this storyline is a Mark Trail parody. The whole “male dominant” nature of the comic strip comes under the microscope. Although the de-Bait Team has a female member, she is left out of virtually all interactions with Mark, in favor of the guys. Then there is Mark continually referring to only male campers. Where women do shine is in Cherry’s stories. Kelly Welly, one-time rival reporter, seems to have checked out. Nobody knows what happened to Diana Daggers. This gender bifurcation seems odd coming from a female artist/writer working to modernize this old strip.

But wait, there’s more:  In addition to his ongoing rant, Rivera offers up some sarcastic commentary in panel 4 about Mark and his “big jobs,” reading like a jab at his maturity, with an implied notion that Mark’s quest is overblown. Okay, perhaps I’m projecting here. I’m not a sociologist. Help me out, people! Am I guilty of making mountains out of mole hills? Should we take this at face value?

Tad (or Tadd) Crass sure must have been pretty popular back in the day. And like Mark, Cliff seems to think that having one career makes you unable to have a second one. Does being a former combat vet make you ineligible to be a fishing guide? Clearly, the members of the De-Bait Team don’t think so.

Well, keeping up with the times, “AI” is the bogeyman to this version of Mark Trail that the Internet was to the prior version of Mark Trail. (from February 2020)

Anyway, if Mark wants to crush Tadd’s AI-based survival guide, he might consider publishing a better one! That would give him a better chance to counter Crass’s book than starting up another boutique survival camp that only a few people can afford to attend. But where would be the story in that?

Art Dept: I won’t spend time on it, but you scan the posts from October 2021 to see what Mark, Cliff, and Duke originally looked like and draw your own conclusions.

When it comes to drawing beards, Rivera may not be your go-to artist. Her attempts at men’s facial fashion usually look like pasted-on comedy beards, and I don’t mean just Duke’s own fuzzy-wuzzy. Lost-camper-finally-with-a-name Connor (in panel 2) has a beard that looks more like a sloppy Covid mask.

I’ve commented in the past on Mark’s disaster of a five o’clock shadow. His original stubble beard was good, but possibly got too boring for Rivera. Maybe Rivera is trying to give Mark the kind of beard we see on the sweaty face of Humphrey Bogart (as Fred C. Dobbs) in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Mark doesn’t have that kind of personality, which is to the good; but I think it takes that kind of person to wear that kind of beard with any authenticity.

As for how this story is shaping up, I can’t tell. It seems like a diversion. More to the point, it feels like a sly criticism of Mark’s male-centered universe. In panel 3, Duke holds his hand beside his face in a kind of “gossip sharing” gesture with which women are often stereotypically portrayed in mass media. This is reinforced by Rivera’s comment in panel 4.

On to the next adventure! Mark offers a very effusive greeting to his friends. I was afraid that Mark might start groveling in gratitude.

So that no-name camper dude Mark and Rusty rescued is a friend of the De-Bait team!? Hoo-boy.

Anyway, it sure looks like Mark is going to try and follow through on his plans to create a survival retreat and get his “good buddies” to volunteer some of their time. Or money.

But credit where credit’s due:  That drawing of Mark in panel 3 is one of the best panels Rivera has drawn. The perspective and proportions are very good and there’s nothing of the cartoony, whacko, sketchy style Rivera often uses. It would be great if Rivera repeated that quality throughout the strip.