Small talk with Bill Ellis has evolved over the pre-Rivera days. Its purpose seems to revolve around pointless chatter. Why does Rivera find this at all interesting? Is it only for a lame attempt at humor?
While we ponder that psychological dead end, we should probably expect to see the rest of the week filled by Mark, Ellis, and maybe Cherry, discussing Mark’s next assignment. Curiously, we have seen very little of those various magazine editors that Ellis once told Mark he would be working with from now on. Did Rivera lose interest in continuing this feature? Frankly, I thought that they would provide new approaches to Mark’s assignments, due to different needs of the various magazines.
Sometimes it just seems as if every innovation and feature that helped make Rivera’s take on Mark Trail at all interesting and different has been, or is being, abandoned.
Hoo boy. Building a shelter is only part of the solution, Cherry! The kittens have to be taken care of, too, beyond having Doc Davis “fix” them. Still, celebrate the accomplishment for what it is.
Cherry’s point about unexpected phone calls (panel 3) is valid. This “unexpected job-related phone call” is a convenient and common story trope in comic strips, books, and movies. And for new readers of Mark Trail, it’s a long-running joke related to the idea of Mark wanting little more than getting back on the road as quickly as possible.
On the other hand, we could entertain the hypothesis that Mark had his phone deliberately turned off during the construction job and having it now turned on, he is getting the alerts. So much for Bill’s sixth sense!
As we learn that Violet is still married, another story reaches its TV sitcom conclusion. That “catio” structure still looks more like an enclosed back door to me. I am going to have to do some research, but Mark’s shirt pocket looks awfully small and practically decorative rather than functional. It just doesn’t figure into Mark’s lifestyle.
I had an idea: In “Mark Trail Confidential”, Mark Trail historian Mark Carlson-Ghost reveals the fact that earlier stories were regularly recycled during the 1980s and 1990s. I’m not sure how obvious this was to regular readers at the time, unless you’ve been reading this strip for the past 50+ years. Furthermore, there are no reprint Mark Trail book collections to reference, as there are for other vintage comic strips.
These recycled stories were presented as a minor scandal, but stories and plots are continually re-harvested in virtually every visual and written medium. I think Rivera could follow suit (if she hasn’t already) and adapt some of those earlier—pre-Rivera — stories, especially for Mark’s adventures. This could free up Rivera to put more time and energy into drawing.
So, the catio did get finished. Honest Ernest helped. But the catio looks nothing like the catios you can buy. Didn’t Rivera at least look for examples online for reference?
And now, the next obvious question: Where are the rest of the townsfolk? That person behind Mark in panel 4 has to be a badly-drawn Cherry, not Larry of the 3 Stooges. There is an anonymous figure behind Cherry in panel 1. Is Lost Forest really this small of a community?
I think not, so it is egregious for Rivera to make that exaggerated claim in panel 1. What is the point? Why not just state that “some of the townsfolk” were helpful? Or even state only that Mark, Cherry, and Honest Ernest completed building the catio and that’s that. Did King Features fire all of their editors?
Art Dept: Well … uh …, oh, what’s the use? Maybe Rivera should remember what she once commented about on another platform and revert to drawing with pen and ink, rather than a digital tablet.
As the story unfolds, consistent thorn-in-the-side Honest Ernest faces up to his carpentry inadequacy and finally asks for help. Frankly, I give Ernest credit for being honest enough to admit it, especially to the two people who consistently show him up.
It also looks like my idea, as supported by regular reader Be Ware Of Eve Hill, of what the catio might look like was wrong. In fact, it appears to be that inept structure to the back of the house that we have been looking at this week. In short, it doesn’t look at all like a catio, but more like some utility extension. Be that as it may, it’s a mess, even though it does match the style of the main house.
Art Dept. The “cat shelter” in panel 1 was drawn to look like an architectural disaster. However, the human figures are drawn to such a small scale that they take on oddly weird shapes and proportions. But it helps explain why starring characters in strips invariably wear the same clothes: so you can identify them. On the other hand, I’ll give Rivera credit for composing the remaining panels, showing Ernest’s transformation. Focusing solely on closeups really gives expression to Ernest’s growing sense of despair. The narration box is unnecessary and detracts from Ernest’s confession. Yes, we can easily complain about the simplistic drawing, lacking any sense of volume, light, and detail. It has been a major distraction, in spite of Rivera’s attempts to define a new style to the strip. Yet Ernest’s expressions have a humanity about them. Am I rationalizing too much?
Finally, a prior query was made about panel background colors and why they changed. One reason is simply for variety. However, it is possible to reflect mood. Today, the green in panel 2 could reflect Ernest’s initial stubbornness and resentment; the blue panel, a calmer color matching his realization of the situation; and the brown panel, the dark acceptance of personal failure and need to seek help.
Continuity is once again a minor issue, as yesterday’s strip shows Cherry’s truck pulling up alongside the catio-to-be. Today, the truck is farther along, pointed in the opposite direction. And there is Ernest, crouching on the ground. We didn’t see him yesterday. Maybe with his yellow work suit he blended into the mass of plywood and supplies.
Well, Lost Forest is truly the Town that Competence Forgot. And it’s not just in the current story. Virtually every story we’ve seen involving this quaint rural village has involved shoddy work, lack of skills, corruption, stupidity, arrogance, and bad luck.
Nevertheless, Cherry’s story has moved along in a predictable, if comic manner. Honest Ernest continues to play his part as the doofus bully who does everything wrong. And Mark is the reluctant hero, drafted into the role of Mr. Fixit.
With your knowledge of Mark: 1. Will he complete the catio? 2. Will Ernest get to fetch tools for Mark or once again skulk away in a huff? 3. Assuming Q1 is Yes, will the completed catio look like it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Home Depot, or Homer Simpson?
I admit it; I’m almost totally confused. I don’t mean by the usual Rivera parody of animals in the dailies (panel 1) that are posed like hunting decoys and outlined in heavy magic marker. That’s just the standard and juvenile “Rivera spit-in-your-eye” insult to those readers she apparently believes are a bunch of fat, white male “sportsmen.” Goodness, I do seem to be getting more acidic in my commentary. I’ll try and write with a bit more decorum, or at least dress it up more acceptably. Next time.
Catios do exist, I discovered, and are relatively inexpensive. So, I don’t see what the big deal is. Just have the Sunny Soleil Society pull out their credit card and order the biggest one they can get from Home Depot. Ernest can put it together, if he wants to be helpful. But how is it Cherry thinks Mark has any carpenter cred? What has he ever built?
Panel 4 shows a bunch of panel lumber propped up against a building. But a catio is composed mostly of 2x4s and screening. This certainly supports Cherry’s assessment that nothing good is coming out of that deal with Honest Ernest.
Finally, “Holy Winchester Mansion!” Okay, what does a Victorian period house in California have to do with this story, except to act as the object of a hipster Batman trope? There’s certainly nothing about haunted houses or ghosts in this story, so far. I may be taking this comment too seriously.
That’s it!? This is how the Washington DC school trip story ends? I apologize for even referring to it as a story, because there was no plot and no point. If we were to rank Rivera’s stories, I think this rambling mess would be right at the bottom. And it appears that Honest Ernest’s pledge to build a place for the kittens must have fallen through, based on Cherry’s comment in panel 3. As before, a communication between Mark and Cherry serves to transition back to Cherry’s adventure.
Okay, maybe they will spend this week hashing over the school trip and filling in some of the blanks.
Well, there are fewgood things I can point out:
The foreground grass in panel 1 is quite well done for a change.
Rivera seems to have more or less free-handed the truck in panel 1, rather than just relying on photoshopping the image. However, I don’t believe that rear truck windows curve across the top edge, as they do on cars (panel 2).
The Washington DC Student Trip fiasco is over without Mark destroying anything or getting chased by the police.
At times I wonder if Rivera is actually drawing this strip or whether there is a “ghost artist” behind the scenes. Sure, we have criticized Rivera many times for her artwork and storylines. Frankly, her stories are not much sillier than James Allen’s were, when it comes down to comparisons.
And I must wonder whether Rivera is just seeing how far she can go in this strip as far as absurd drawing is concerned. In today’s strip, every panel is an exhibit.
Panel 1: In addition to the slap-dash drawing, the composition of two children in profile framing the central figure as if this were some Renaissance painting of the Virgin Mary adored by the painting’s donors is corny.
Panel 2: The speaker appears to have aged about 10 years. The background composition is poorly thought out. Half-length figures would have worked more effectively. The children look like stiff, badly made puppets or dolls. Without the color, Mark and Miss Mavis seem to be missing their lower torsos.
Panel 3: The most successful of the four panels today, insofar as drawing goes. Drawing a foreshortened arm can be tricky for any artist, and I’ve seen worse. Rivera has done this better in the past (sorry, I don’t have the time to find an example. Maybe you can!), but it is enough for us to understand. As for the dialog and behavior, it is egregious, making Mark act as if he is an impulsive jerk. This is not new; Rivera often has Mark react impulsively and foolishly. It is one thing to show Mark over his head in new environments (which is fine, because it shows Mark is not the heroic archetype he has traditionally been portrayed as); but it is another thing to show him lording it over school children as if he has no control.
Panel 4: As Mark is properly chastised by the docent, we face yet more perplexing and frustrating artwork. We have seen many times before that Rivera cannot draw human figures in the background with any degree of authenticity. Deliberate or not, I cannot say. I noticed that Teacher Mavis has suddenly shrunk, whereas she has been drawn as nearly the same height as Mark. This is careless and insulting to Rivera’s readers as if she draws these figures with so little regard.
I received some really good answers to the quiz, all correct. So, thanks for playing! Commenter Daniel plugged in the answer first, with a possible reason for the discrepancy. Commenter Be Ware was second and posted the “Bakery” lettering in the original ƧᗡЯAWꓘƆAᗺ (mirrored) script. Maybe she has a font that mirrors typed letters or found a web site that does it (like I did). Very cool.
But no extra credit for missing Tuesday’s strip, where the door has no lettering at all on the window! Oh, did I neglect to mention Tuesday? Shucks! Well, what happened to curiosity and good old suspicion (of me)? Anyway, this was fun, so let’s do it again sometime! But now it’s time to get to today’s episode:
Is Cherry just being catty or does she have a valid point? (See how I slipped that pun in there, without resorting to a contrived phrase or any grammatical jiu-jitsu?) I agree that Doc has the more positive position here, though he doesn’t have the history with Honest Ernest that Cherry does. Will Rivera let Honest Ernest actually accomplish something positive and helpful for once, or is he destined to once again fail? That is, can a comic strip character evolve or occasionally act in a different way?
One of the longstanding sources of artistic humor in Mark Trail is the dialog balloon that seems to point to the wrong speaker. Often, this turned out to be an animal or tree. In this case, we have an extreme example in panel 3. It’s difficult to call it” ambiguous”, because the tail of the top dialog balloon deliberately points to Honest Ernest, instead of Violet. It would be interesting to know if this was truly deliberate or if there was some editing going on at the syndicate. Or, it could have been the case that the top balloon had different dialog that Ernest actually said, but it was later changed without redirecting the balloon tail to Violet.
Otherwise, Rivera finally moves the story along by throwing in a plot twist of a sort with Honest Ernest’s dramatically clumsy entrance, most likely in an attempt to get back into Violet’s good graces and welcoming arms.
Art Dept. The composition of the group in the background in panel 1 provides a good symbolic purpose, as it supports the narrative by focusing on the group as a whole, rather than the individual participants. However, the squirrel is too big and obscures the effect. Ernest’s clumsy dramatic entrance in panel 2 is also a good effort, though his anatomy is just not right. And once again, the included squirrel is spurious and detracts from the mood. Rivera cannot seem to stop herself from continuing to parody the pre-Rivera Mark Trail tradition of including animals irrelevant to the storyline.
Quiz: How close are you observing details? Check out Wednesday’s strip (“In case you missed yesterday, let’s review.”), then compare it to panel 2 and panel 4 today.
Yes, it is clear to me from today’s strip that this story is a metaphor. It isn’t really just about the kittens needing a home. The key is panel 4. Figured it out? You probably got it a few days ago. This is about homelessness, of course, but homeless people. We have NIMBY responses and temporary camp proposals. Cherry’s lament of ”We need something more permanent. What if other kittens come to town…?” nails it for me.
Of course, there are precedents for using animals as stand-ins for human actions and problems, be it Aesop, the ancient Egyptians, or George Orwell. There are significant differences, too. These animals are not anthropomorphic. Perhaps Rivera is simply making a point that communities need to, and can, come together to help resolve the problem of homelessness.
Am I over-interpreting this story? Let me if you think differently.
But my main concern is Rivera’s inability to avoid trivializing story continuity and importance with her need to insert irrelevant and base humor.
I’m thinking that ”Mom” must have given the group another 24 hours to come up with a solution. They don’t seem in that much of a hurry. In any event, I found Cherry’s remark in panel 4 flippant, even though it was set up in panel 2. It is as if Rivera has been reading Pearls Before Swine.
So, was any progress made today? Even though Cherry set the agenda yesterday, today is essentially just a paraphrase of yesterday. Which is to say, a day wasted for the sake of a pointless pun. Rivera should be more cautious about self-congratulations. At least Stephen Pastis has the good sense to make himself the butt of the joke.
Art Dept. This must be Rag on Rivera Day. Her drawing looks really slapdash. It is apparent that drawing figures in the background is a greater challenge. Poor ol’ Doc looks like he is on something possibly illegal. And he sure has lost some weight. Good for him, of course.
Wow, just how long is 24 hours in Lost Forest? Or how much activity can Cherry cram into one day? This is like that popular crime series, 24, where you just have to suspend reality to accept all of the stuff that happened to Agent Bauer in one full day.
Anyway, I am otherwise glad to see that the phone call was the transition I had hoped for. I have to say that this is not much of a collection of neighbors, given that there are only four people, and two of them share the same house, er, cabin.
I’m glad to see that Squirrelly Sandy changed from her previous red shirt, unlike most of the other characters who always wear the same clothes. Maybe that points to her transactional status in the strip. Maybe Squirrelly Sandy remembers what happens to Away Team members in StarTrek who wore red shirts (usually security).
No need to look for drama, suspense, or action today, people. Mark is done with his assignment and Cherry’s only real issue is finding temporary lodging for kittens. No doubt, we’ll have two more days for this apparent pilot for “Leave it to Rusty.”
No wonder Cherry feels bad. She knows that spending time with Mark is certain to lead to chaos.
Ah, Mark. You want to ensure that when Rusty goes to Washington D.C., he learns about how our government works and the importance of the rule of law we live under. Yes, that legal and ethical code of conduct you seem to break with increasing regularity and indifference, while condemning others for doing so. But wait, you say, “They break the law in order to harm others or to enrich themselves!” Sure. You only skirt the letter of the law or break it to stop them from harming others or enriching themselves. I get it. You are a descendant of the Monkey Wrench Gang.
The actions of an environmental justice vigilante are not always clear or defensible. But that’s the calling you answered, Mark. Your mandate has expanded beyond writing stories about fish poachers, forest fires, cave chases with bank robbers, and human-traffickers chasing you through a cave. It now includes combating NFT fraud; exposing environmental damage involving railroads and politicians; manhandling guys working out their job complaints by breaking electronics and leaving the debris in the forest; and navigating a house filled with free-roaming lions so you could then rescue a person stuck in yet another cave. It is truly a darker world you now work in, Mark Trail.
Boy, am I confused. It must be a time warp or I’m warped. Let me see if I can figure this out: Cherry and Violet have 24 hours to resolve the homeless kitten situation. Let’s assume that the deadline began a few hours before Cherry called Mark, who was still on the island. Mark had to wait for the next ferry back to the mainland, get a ride to LAX, wait for the next flight out, land, then take a taxi, Uber, or horse & buggy to get back home. That has to be at least ten hours of travel time. With Cherry’s own delay, there couldn’t be more than 12 hours left. Probably less.
But wait! It was night when Mark finished his assignment, so it would have to be the next morning when he got home. That would mean the 24 hours is nearly up, right? Oh, my head. Must. Stop. Thinking. Logically!
When Cherry talks about “these kittens” she appears to point to her mental image of the kittens, as if Mark can actually see them. But you know, when I look at Mark’s and Rusty’s staring faces, that just might be the case. I reckon you have to be careful with what you are thinking in the Trailverse. No wonder Mark avoids other women like the plague!
Well, Violet did mention her mother in Monday’s strip; but it is something of a surprise to learn this crank is her mom. Here I was thinking that purple is just the company’s official color. But it does clarify the company’s ownership: The Sunny Soleil Society is a family affair.
Perhaps that might also explain the mysterious, solitary appearance of an old man during Cherry’s first meeting with Violet (4/29/21).
In this sequence, Violet had a flashback where she was seated next to an older man reading Mark’s email. Note his clever reference to Mark’s “two fists o’ justice.” I didn’t know for sure who this man was, but it now makes sense that it is her father. Maybe we’ll find out for certain when Cherry’s adventure resumes. But, I have to give credit to Rivera for dishing out her own two days o’ drama. About time!
Art Dept. A big “Yuck!” for panel 1 in today’s strip. It’s as if Rivera is deliberatelytrying to destroy the drama she has finally been able to create with this obnoxious, cloying composition.
Wednesday. Somebody get Violet some nasal spray! Is this a reverse of the Stockholm Syndrome, where Violet identifies with her captives? Does she think a fox or another cat-eating varmint will mistake her for a kitten? Well, at least Doc Davis appears to be doing his part by volunteering to fix the kittens. They won’t be able to breed if they are returned to the wild, but they will still be predator bait, right? Okay, so this story has less suspense, drama, and action than a Hallmark movie, but at least it makes sense.
Thursday. I see a parallel with Mark’s ongoing story: Cherry wants to find a home for the kittens and Mark has vowed to find “homes” for the lions.
This is the kind of insightful analysis that people pay real money for, but you get it here, for free.
Cherry shows her concern for Violet’s discomfort and health by bringing the kittens to her house (a building which seems to change size from one day to the next). Cherry’s dad, Doc Davis, is doing his job as Mr. Deal Closer to ensure that Cherry and Violet don’t realize he is the one best qualified to care for the kitties!
I know what you are thinking … actually, I really don’t, but I’m just using this opening line as an excuse to slip in some specious blather that I’m passing off as inspired analysis. Anyway, as I was saying, you’re probably thinking “Rivera gives Mark Big Lions to tangle with, while Cherry winds up with a bunch of helpless little furballs.” But as we’ve seen, the lionesses have so far proven to be docile and harmless; while the kittens are more active and (innocently) harming Violet. No idea if that observation leads us anywhere.
But I’m also trying to figure out where this story is heading. I could speculate, but that requires a modicum of thought and imagination. At the moment, I have none, so I’m just going to ride along
The Daily Trail 