There they are, once again. Cherry and Mark dissing the Midwest and doing a Hallmark-approved hug in front of their trendy “tiny log cabin house”, rather than one of those big, family-sized homes that just cry “Boomers Live Here!” Mark appears to have spared Ohio from having to deal with a wildebeest by bringing it home. Maybe it will become friends with Andy. Or gore him.

Art Dept. I’m disappointed. Owing to Rivera’s greater appreciation for wildlife, I would have expected her depiction of a ruby-throated hummingbird to be a bit more “realistic”, at least in the wings department. This should have been an obvious subject for her creativeness. Instead, the hummer looks like the kind of “frozen” image you see on wildlife paintings and hi-speed camera photos. Ho-humming bird.

Mark is being hypocritical with his criticism of movie studio ethics, given his own willingness to indulge in law breaking and fisticuffs with law enforcement (and not just in this story!). Call me old-fashioned, by I don’t see how this characteristic enhances the Mark Trail brand in any positive way.

Movie and production studios do seem intent upon using AI scans of actors for their own purposes, which has also been one of the key complaints in the current actors’ strike. I would not be surprised if some studio put out a film composed entirely of AI-generated actors, selling it to gullible viewers as a new technological breakthrough, rather than the cynical, money-grubbing scam that it would be. Actually, there is a 12-minute “movie” (more of a trial), completely fashioned with AI (though not using images of actual actors). You can view it here. Frankly, it’s rather primitive and looks like computer game imagery from years ago. But I digress.

We have to remember that this is “Mark’s World”, not the Real World. The very idea that a train spilling toxic chemicals would not have caught the attention of the EPA and other federal officials seems unlikely; just as unlikely that, somehow, somebody at the EPA caught Mark’s livestream report. And now we are to believe that there was a media blackout of the event. In the strip, there were several reporters at Mark and Happy’s fight, er, press conference. According to local news sources (in the Real World), there was no news blackout; just initial “indifference” from national news sources. Apparently, the national news services were focused more on the so-called Chinese Spy Weather Balloon.

I should have found this stuff earlier. An article (“TikTok becomes ground zero for toxic Ohio train derailment news as users push against ‘media blackout’”) by Mikael Thalen for “The Daily Dot” reported that national media gave the event short shrift, Tik Tokers were all over it, noting that locals were reporting lots of dead fish. An interesting TikTok video is linked in the story (think Mark). The TikTok user made a point of stating that officials and media sources mostly just repeated the PR line from the railroad. So, it seems clear where Rivera got at least some of her inspiration and material:  https://www.dailydot.com/debug/tiktok-east-palestine-ohio-train-derailment/

Okay, Mark’s World is a terribly weird place where cops look like park employees with guns, senators get bribed with illegally obtained exotic animals, and small-time environmental reporters get into fistfights with cops without getting arrested or sued. But what about the spill, Mark?

What new friends, Mark: The cops who pursued you? The state senator you had arrested? The wildebeest?

And is this going to be a week-long epilog? I hope that Mark updates Cherry on the payoff of his muscle car livestream exposé. Did his site jump to 1,000 followers yet? I never quite figured out how Mark’s livestream was supposed to generate increased viewership, based on his limited reputation and small online presence. I was shocked that Senator Smalls found out about it and listened. Amazing! Did Mark stick around to learn what really happened with the train explosion, rather than depend on the testimony of Rex Scorpius? Well, this was really Happy’s idea in the first place, and Mark was not on assignment. So he can get a pass. This time.

Art Dept: Can’t say that I like that background in panel 1. Rather than a typically smooth gradation from light to dark, it looks like Rivera placed strips of increasingly dark values side by side, as if this was a color theory class assignment. But check out the B&W newspaper version of panel 1:  The striping effect we see in color is less noticeable in black & white. Of course, newsprint has low resolution, which helps smooth the transition. But that is accidental, as Rivera clearly relies on color.

As both stories have concluded, we must endure the reunion of Cherry and Mark once again; it’s likely going to take up the entire week! Stand by for a bunch of “what happened to...?” updates. So exactly how did Mark get home? Did he hire an Uber? Maybe he accidentally “on purpose” left his dad back in Ohio because Happy wanted to take the train back home (assuming it was not flooded out).

Well, those squirrels sure look like giant cutouts to me. Else, why the heavy outlining? In fact, panel 1 looks more like a theater stage set. Just take a look at that mise en scène: Mark and Cherry happen to meet outside, artfully posed. The props (squirrels and green stuff) in front establish a foreground space to offset the middle “stage” space. That “cabin” has to be part of the painted background. It’s too small to be a real cabin. And that background scenery looks too scant to be real! Well, perhaps that log house is just a storage shed or maybe where Rivera stores Rusty and Doc when they’re not needed in the story.

Note: Closing out the “Something Fishy” story, which really turned out to be about other things.

(Mon) Saturday’s strip had that feeling for this adventure coming to a quick, “get out of town” ending. Mark delivers his epilogue today. Maybe Mark intuitively knew that local cops would do almost anything to gain the publicity and bragging rights of arresting a state senator. And maybe Klingons caused the train derailment. Or perhaps the story just got away from Rivera, so she brought it to a quick termination. Was this story about a fishing trip? Faulty trains? Toxic spills? Corrupt officials? Mark’s disregard for the law? Or all of the above?

Some critics have complained that Rivera is bad-mouthing Ohio. I don’t see it that way. Cherry simply wants Mark to get away from the toxic chemicals in Ohio, something she has recently had experience with, firsthand. Mark, on the other hand, mistook her comment for a slight against Ohio, itself. But he quickly corrected her. Of course, husbands and wives never misunderstand each other!

Editor’s Note:  My wife and I are going on a “short break”, as they say in England. That is, I’ll be on a brief vacation between today (Saturday) and Wednesday. Whether I will get time to post during this trip is unknown. She would prefer I leave all of my electronics at home, but I’ll see what I can sneak into my backpack. At worst, I’ll post a catchup after I get back.

Wait. Hold the phone! Stop the presses!  Just hold on there, Babba Louie! This ain’t how things are done. None of this makes sense. Anyone seeing today’s strip could assemble a list of errors, non sequiturs, and buffoonery. So I won’t bore you going through an obvious parade of absurdities.

More importantly, though, what is Rivera trying to accomplish here? Why does she lay out this series of improbable and outrageous events? Granted that many, if not most, of Rivera’s Mark Trail stories have been outrageous, goofy, or absurd. But this week’s strips take the proverbial cake.

Is this what the story was actually designed to lead us to:  The downfall of a politician who was bought by the big, bad transportation company in order to cover up major accidents that shine a light on corporate mismanagement and corruption? If so, it’s the fastest damn arrest of a state government official I’ve heard of, without the need for documented investigation, evidence, subpoenas, legal search warrants, or due process. It must be a proof of concept that Mark’s nighttime ride and livestream (echoing Paul Revere) really did make a difference.

And what’s with those red and blue geometric backgrounds in panels 3 and 4? Unreal! But that makes me still think this is some kind of nightmare dream that Mark is having on his train ride to Ohio. Else, Rivera has been getting into the mushrooms.

The suspense builds as drama unfolds. It looks like a very tense moment for everyone. Frankly, I’m on tenterhooks, as I think you are! Will Sam bend to Pavel’s implied threats against his family, or will he . . . oops, sorry! I was viewing Judge Parker. Let me get over to Mark Trail . . . ah, here we are. Oh . . .

Relocate a wildebeest? Does Mark think the cops are going to carry it to South Africa!? Wait. Is Mark concerned about proving corruption of an elected official or indulging in some animal rescue? And what happened to his overriding concern for the safety of all people in the world? Poor Mark, he is plagued by competing transactional priorities.

Art Dept:

I’ve noticed before that Thursdays can feature some of the most questionable art, especially human figures. (Commenter Daniel P. spotted my calendar gaff (this, being Friday, not Thursday), making my “Thursday bad art day” hypothesis obviously invalid. This mistake likely came from my habit of writing most of my posts the night before.)

The figure of Mark in panel 2 is one of the most awkwardly depicted figures I’ve seen outside of grade school. In panel 3, Mark must have shrunk, or Rex’s car turned into a giant SUV. Finally, how come all of Rivera’s cops look more like mall security?

Gee, Mark. Since you are blathering online about your surprise visit to the senator’s house, why don’t you also livestream the route you are taking? That way, the police can locate the yacht Rex is piloting and arrest all of you! Then while you are in jail, Sally will have time to tell some more of her “glory days” stories.

I’m entertaining the hypothesis that the problem isn’t that the wildebeest is such a stupid bribe as much as it is a senator who has some perversely strange hobbies.

From the volume of responses to my closing questions yesterday, it looks like I am either right or I am wrong in my interpretation from yesterday. Perhaps I’ll leave it to History to make that judgement. But for now, I’m going with being right.

Exactly how does Mark know that this senator has actually been “soft” on DDG? And in what ways? I could probably have just copied yesterday’s text and pasted it here. This is all totally absurd, including Rex’s Tardis model of a Trans Am/Firebird.

Anyway, if this is such a serious situation as the first three panels suggest, why does Rivera insist upon concluding with Mark smugly delivering one of his usual, bad Sunday jokes and changing the mood?

Okay. I think I’m moving into the circle of critics who claim that Rivera has deliberately debased the main characters (being Mark and his family) and the focus of the Mark Trail comic strip just to see how far she can push absurdity. Many hardliners will claim this happened a long time ago. Perhaps. But when the characters react to the bribe of a wildebeest in a senator’s backyard with an intensity equal to that of discovering your uncle’s 10-year government travel assignment is actually a 10-year sentence in a federal pen for bank robbery, then I think it is clear something is very, very wrong.

The wildebeest is not even an endangered animal! State senators have little to no control over how federally regulated railroads function. So what’s the point of bribing them? By this logic, DDG would have to own politicians wherever trains run. Very expensive and inefficient! You do these things the Good ol’ American Way:  Fund enough members of Congress to pass laws that hamstring federal safety investigators and regulations.

But even then, Mark and Company are looking in the wrong direction. It isn’t the questionable tactics of a local politician that’s important, but the shenanigans of a national (or international) transportation company (DDG) ignoring safety measures and trying to make a bad incident go away. Mark and Happy (remember him?) should know this. Why does Rivera make them act naïve and foolish?

So, am I wrong? Am I missing something?

A wildebeest? Fine. BFD. I’d actually be more concerned if DDG bribed Senator Smalls with something more practical . . . such as money, expensive cars, or available women. What’s Smalls going to do with this creature, start an illegal wildebeest breeding farm? Sell photos of frightened children sitting on it to doting parents?

I’m guessing Sharp told Rex where the senator lives, but how does this side trip move the story forward? There must be something pretty important about this animal that’s not apparent to us rubes.

Finally, why does Mark care what happens to Bee Sharp? Perhaps Mark suffers from a psychological disorder where he finds affirmation through identifying with criminals. Or he is just a sucker, so he continually excuses the crooks and cons that keep ripping him off and trying to kill him. Ugh. This story is like trying to pick up cooked spaghetti with your hands:  It just keeps slipping out and going every which way.

Gotta give some credit to Rivera for weaving current social and political issues into the strip. Anyway, this is an interesting turn of events. Bee Sharp claims he has been “deep faked”! This ironic excuse comes from a person already exposed as a phony professor giving out phony information.

However, based on his past history, I have doubts about Sharp’s admission of being victimized. In fact, his statement in panel 2 contradicts his conversation with Chet Chedderson back on May 25. Is Rivera being contradictory here or is she laying the groundwork for Sharp to be found out and then publicly exposed (again)?

By the way, does anybody know if “Wildebeest” is some sort of slang? I thought it might be a term for money, but I’ve not found any reference. Otherwise, who in hell would want a gnu?

I really have to wonder what the motivation for this whole story arc is. Okay, Mark plays the “renegade reporter” on the run from agents trying to stop him from getting The Truth out to the American Public. Fine, we get the symbolism. But it isn’t exactly “The Pentagon Papers.”

This sort of conspiratorial humbuggery is not new and is still popular in political and social circles. Yet, it just doesn’t seem to fit Mark’s profile. So why is he putting himself out in the Public Eye like this?

If Mark wanted to impress lots of people that what he has to say is worth breaking the law for, he probably should have spent a few minutes up front letting people know who he is (other than his name), what is background is, and how he came to these conclusions.

Instead, through the miracle of comic strip technology, out of all the people viewing Mark, only one person has managed to somehow inject himself into Mark’s live stream. This should work out well.

I don’t know:  Do you think Rivera is deliberately trying to make Mark look like a bona fide clown? We all know that Mark is talking out of his ass here, since he has done virtually no research or investigation, other than take photos of dead fish.

Now, if Rivera wanted to parody self-declared “online journalists” posting their nonsense and misinformation on the Internet, she could have created a character to do that while having Mark criticize that person’s lack of professionalism. This would also reinforce Mark’s own standing. Instead, Rivera has made Mark the online half-baked potato.

So, is this what Mark’s vaunted journalism really amounts to? Who knows, maybe in this story the accident really was caused by careless railroad workers not doing their best. But Mark didn’t take the time to actually do an investigation, did he?!

Art Dept:  Since when does the back seat of a muscle car (panel 2) suddenly have the space of a Mercedes Maybach? It’s usually just the opposite. I reckon it’s just another case of “artistic license” so Rivera could fit in Mark, the phone, and the text balloons. I think it could have been resolved in a more realistic manner, such as showing Mark a lot closer, like Happy in panel 3.

An adult with a dumb idea? Now, this is what I call journalism! By “journalism”, I mean something a kid would write for a high school paper, such as a gossip column or a profile of the basketball coach.

And why the need to drive? What kind of video can Mark produce sitting inside a car? Does Mark want to broadcast a minute-by-minute report on their flight to avoid arrest by the highway patrol? Maybe he thinks they’ll spot the Senator’s car on the road and pull alongside him to ask those “tough questions” reporters and politicians always like to brag about. And avoid.