Yeah, I’m with Mark on this one. We can stop (at least for a year) with “Mark blows up boats” jokes. How about replacing them with “Mark never takes photos on assignments, even though he’s a photo-journalist” jokes?

So, the dialog moves from being somewhat serious to being something of a parody. And shouldn’t one of the guys be at least a little concerned about the fate of, well, any humans that might have gotten hurt or blown up? I realize that people are a bit out of the Trail wheelhouse, but still.

I also wonder if Happy Trail is going to start beating on firefighters and railroad inspectors who might try to block his access.  Happy Trail should be careful these days, as law enforcement takes a dim view of agitated individuals with backpacks wearing masks and hanging around disasters.

That is certainly one, very long train platform!  And if you look closely, there seems to be a train, or trains, wrapping around the far end of the platform. How odd!

It’s unclear exactly what is going on, unless the railroad brought in a 19^th century wood-burning steam engine and its boiler exploded.  Diesel engines can catch fire and may explode in certain conditions (aside from a crash). Since this is an adventure strip, I’m guessing this was either sabotage or an explosion of chemicals illegally being transported on the train.

Anyway, Mark and Happy are not train inspectors, nor do they presumably have any experience in crash investigations or forensic analysis. But who is going to tell that to Happy Trail, one really pissed off dude missing his father-son fishing trip!?

The caption in panel 1 suggests that the train got fixed, because it says the train paused at a train stop. That’s not what one says about a train that broke down at some arbitrary location along the tracks. Rivera (or syndicate editors) must have decided to move the story (and the train) along by cutting out the panels dealing with the train’s repairs and travel resumption.

But now we learn that a train exploded, not the train exploded. Is Rivera getting careless with grammar or is that really a different train in the distance? This innocuous story just woke up and took a sharp turn into the Suspense Zone. Reckon we should learn more come Monday.

Mark and Dad are waiting for the train to get fixed, which is probably reason enough for them to take a walk outside, carrying their bags. Meanwhile, Mark seems fixated on the idea that he would not have learned more about his granddad from Dad while the train was actually moving. Perhaps Happy gets motion sickness or movement makes him forgetful.

Speaking of “trading stories”, would somebody remind me what story Mark traded with Happy about Granddad Forrest Trail? Was it the “Wow” remark or the “Sweet 70’s sideburns” comment?

Perhaps Mark might have learned more about his granddad if he had seen him once in a while as he grew up or had asked about him during the 18+ years he presumably lived at home with Dad (and Mom?). I suppose one thing I (as Mark) I would ask Happy is “How come Granddad looks more like a normal person than I do? Why do I look like a character on The Cartoon Network? And just who was my mother, anyway, Dad?”

Note: The regular daily commentary follows below this **** Special Feature! ****
Frequent commenter Daniel P made what seems a kind of back-handed compliment on Rivera’s drawing of a traditional Mark Trail image in yesterday’s strip as a “boomer” era version. But it reminded me that in a strip lasting over 70 years, images of characters can modify over time. Here are a few examples:

Making assessments from single images may not be fair, but they are still representative. Tom Hill was Dodd’s uncredited assistant who did lots of dailies from the 1950s on, so I’m giving him recognition. Elrod’s less animated and somewhat wooden model (c 1978-2013) was typical for him, while Allen (who seemed to favor a corner angle pose that made readers think he merely photo-shopped the image) returned to a more Dodd-like model, but gave Mark hair that was glued in place, as well as an expression that also seemed glued in place. Rivera’s original take on Mark Trail had a certain rough naturalism that she ultimately transformed into what we see today. Speaking of which, on to today’s strip!

We interrupt this adventure to bring you virtually the same information you saw in yesterday’s strip!

Every now and then Rivera feels the need to repeat content from the prior day, as we see today. About the only thing new is Forrest Trail’s “Elvis” sideburns. Yep, pretty wild, man.

Now, could Ed Dodd, Jack Elrod, or somebody actually named “Forrest Trail” have been involved in research that led to the EPA? I was not able to locate any citations.

Jules Rivera reprises the unusual ancestry of Mark Trail’s family originally presented in her first Mark Trail adventure, wherein several ancestors were shown to all share the same name and general look. I wonder if this also means they all married women named Cherry and adopted a kid they (re)named Rusty? Old “Forrest Trail” has Mark’s traditional double breast-pocket work shirt, and the Ur-Mark look. Good job, Jules.

I’m sorry, but is this the first time Mark has heard about his granddad’s work? How is it he has been following in the family business all this time, yet remained ignorant of grandpa’s achievements? Ain’t like he was some soldier from WWII unwilling to hash over old war stories. Wait! The first Mark Trail was a WWII veteran!

Art Department: How do you like the visual composition in panel 4 where Happy and Mark mentally “look back” at (or look forward at) Grampa Forrest at work?

Oh, the uncertainties of life, love, and transportation. Sure, the train broke down. A plane could have crashed or been waylaid because some stupid person decided to urinate on an attendant or demand her own recliner. Stuff happens. I reckon ol’ Pappy Happy just didn’t plan for uncertainties and thought getting there the night before the event was …uh …what!?

Wait. Stop the presses! In Panel 3, Mark says that the second day of the fishing trip is tomorrow. DOH! That makes no sense. They apparently boarded the train earlier in the day, some five hours or so ago (published date June 10). Is Mark delusional or did they think they could take a train all the way up to Ohio and start fishing on the same day? Is Lost Forest in Kentucky!? If so, how do Mark, Cherry, and Happy manage to drive to each other’s homes so quickly? Yeah, I know: It’s China Town, Jake. No, I mean, this is the comics, not a documentary; the natural laws of physics may not apply.

Anyway, WHAT will we learn about that surprise? What could it have been, unless it was a special, one-time event, like viewing the Night-Blooming Cereus (Epiphyllum Oxypetalum), which blooms its flower for a few hours only one night a year. But I digress. And I’m being a smart-aleck.

I just hope Happy Trail at least remembered to book sleeping berths.

So, is the true cost of the scenic route enjoying the big window view or getting stuck in the middle of nowhere for several hours? I’m not sure which is correct. Whatever the response, it seems that, unlike the train, this story is already spinning its wheels. But it’s way, too early to claim the story is <ahem!> off the rails.

On the other hand, this delay could turn out to be an important plot development. For example, the actual story might be what happens when the train gets delayed, and something occurs that sparks the interest or need for Mark to investigate. In a nightmare scenario only a masochist could dream up, we could have an attack of bears led by Sid Stump, riding Millie the bear.

Art Department: A nice overhead view in panel 1 is unfortunately cheapened by that barely sketched-in bird. As a nature/adventure strip, Rivera could put some more time into drawing the flora and fauna.

Jules Rivera has outdone herself. I don’t mean the panoramic view of the train station, which is reasonably good, even though it looks like an architect’s rendering. I mean the sudden change of time and location. Many of us recall how the pre-Rivera Mark Trail could instantly jump from home to some faraway land, whether it be Nepal or some Pacific Island. Are we now in Florida (where Happy lives) or wherever the hell Lost Forest is located?

Now, is riding a train the adventure of a lifetime!? Maybe, if you’re 8 years old or have been secluded in a basement for 30 years. Or does Rivera refer to the fishing trip as the big adventure? I shouldn’t think so for Happy or Mark. So, is Rivera being sarcastic or mocking the story?

Finally—and I don’t mean to nitpick every detail, but I have to do this one:  Five hours on a train (dead engine or not) is not horrendous, unless your destination is only 1 hour away. But I admit that Happy finally does look like an old codger (panel 3)!

Really though, Mark and Happy are on a train going north to Ohio. Now, we don’t know specifically where Lost Forest is located, though it has to be close to Florida. Creator Ed Dodd’s own real Lost Forest was in an Atlanta suburb. But this leads me to an alarming finding:

Average travel times from Atlanta to Cleveland (to pick a location in Ohio): 

Ride the train: About 27 1/2 hours.
Drive your car: 10 1/2 hours.
Fly: Less than 2 hours. Okay, this last estimate may be optimistic.

Maybe Mark was correct to be suspicious. Did we find the small hitch?

The drawing of Mark’s expression in panel 1 (minus the cheap beard) is quite well done and above Rivera’s current standard of comic expressions and minimal shapes. On the other hand, Rivera seems to have not figured out how to draw a senior citizen with authenticity. Old people have more than gray hair, unless Happy has had a face lift.

One another technical note: Rivera has taken the usual curved background shape she often favors for highlighting individuals and continued it behind both Mark and Happy, creating a visual connectivity of the conversation, as if they were adjacent to each other. It is a clever, visual technique that helps put these two into their own conversational space. (This is just another example of the kind of in-depth, hard-hitting analysis I like to present that tries to provide you, dear reader, with more useful context and understanding. Or not.)

The Big “Small Hitch” Reveal didn’t reveal much and suggested more:  A train trip and Mark’s “working laptop.” I don’t believe Mark usually takes his laptop or camera with him on jobs, just like the old Mark Trail. Odd, for a photojournalist. What if Happy Trail doesn’t mean “fishing” in a traditional sense? What do you think?

Ah, tension and drama continue to rise as we see our hero facing down the …no, wait. Sorry, I drifted off and started daydreaming about the old Rip Kirby adventure strip, because now that I’m alert, I realize I’m supposed to be writing about Mark and Cherry talking and talking about Daddy’s fishing trip, wrecked boats, and hidden agendas. Okay, got it.

Well, of course there will be a tiny little hitch, as Happy concedes. After all, this is supposed to be an adventure strip, too.  I’m not sure what this hitch is, but I’m guessing it won’t be an opportunity for Mark to serve another hitch in the army.

Knowing Rivera’s tendency to rely upon a small cast of goons and grifters, I can’t stop from predicting that this trip will involve some of the same people we’ve seen before. And before. We should learn more by Saturday. Until then, enjoy your own daydreaming.

Yeah, time to milk this old cow once again. The “Mark Trail Destroys Another Boat” meme gives a nostalgic chuckle to old Trailheads reading this strip and helps train-in younger readers to carry the torch of appreciation for, and support for, this already unfunny and tired joke, especially when the strip does the jesting. Along with other self-parodic elements that are a mainstay, perhaps Rivera should rename this strip to something more appropriate, such as “Mock Trail”. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Speaking of “ring”, who is Mark talking to in panel 4?

A father-son fishing trip is certainly a fond, traditional bonding rite for parents and children.  Well, sometimes it’s not so fond a thing, as we saw earlier with Mark and Rusty. However, in this particular situation, it’s “the old man” and Mark is the boy now grown up (more or less). Mark could imagine himself being Oppie to Happy Trail’s Andy Taylor.  I mean, how could you not get a bit wistful watching the opening credits to The Andy Griffith Show with Sheriff Andy walking down a country lane with his son, Oppie, to go cane fishing along the creek? Pure nostalgia. But I digress. I wonder how many days Rivera will use up before we discover whether Mark agrees to the trip.

Anyway, the question of the moment is:  Will this trip actually take place or will Mark get a call from Bill Ellis that might upend the fishing trip?

Side Note and Cheap Solicitation: From this blog’s statistics page, it appears we have around 10-20 viewers on any given day. Okay, that’s not very much; certainly not enough to impress anybody, but it’s enough to make me wonder why more people are not commenting, other than the usual cast (for which I am very grateful). Perhaps it’s my haircut. Or maybe it’s my uncanny ability to miss obvious points, such as not being boring. Whatever, I cordially invite other viewers to also participate and leave a comment, be it about the strip, my writing about the strip, or both. No high-level math or a degree in popular culture required. You don’t even have to like the strip, as most of the regular commenters will attest.

Gah! More story-padding! I thought we had enough of this last week. I think the mallard agrees. So, when will the story move on to Florida, already!? And who gets to come along?
Last Friday, I mentioned the police notices and likely warrants for stuff Mark did down there a few years ago. This occurred in Jules Rivera’s first Mark Trail adventure. I bet you long-time sufferers, er, readers, may not remember what the strip looked like back then. It really was different in several ways, and for the better, in my opinion. Rivera clearly put her mind and time into the strip, delivering inventive layouts, impactful action, and some serious storytelling. Check out these two submissions from January 20th and 23rd, 2021:

I’m not going to go into the story, as you can pick it up on your own. Just study this a bit. It is really good storytelling art! And definitely not the pedestrian layouts and silly characters we usually see these days. I mean, “screwball” is fine once in a while, right? In fact, in several ways, this first story was sometimes screwy, but presented in a more creative and dramatic style! This even beats anything her predecessors did. I just don’t understand, from today’s standpoint, why Rivera turned from this approach to what we see today. Wouldn’t you rather see this kind of work? I don’t mean the violence, per se. This stuff just drips of adventure.

OOPS! I forgot to post the strip last night when I wrote this. Guess I was more sleepy than I thought!

Huh? Uh, okay. Is Mark going to throw Cherry under the bus (or back in the cabin) and run for all he’s worth down to Florida, Daddy, and fishing!?

Wait! Is that old Florida warrant for destruction of private property and evading the police that occurred in Rivera’s first Mark Trail story still in effect? It might make Mark wonder about Dad’s motives. Then again, maybe Happy is going to come up to Lost Forest for fishing and checking out the ol’ log house. If none of this makes sense to you, I recommend you check out the story catalogued under the category “Happy Trails”; scroll to the bottom (it might take a while); then start reading, starting on the October 27, 2020 date.

In any event, Mark has plenty of time till Daddy shows up, so I hope Mark doesn’t disappoint Cherry. It won’t be very long before she just isn’t up for long walks in the forest anymore.