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The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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This past week was dedicated to the search-and-recovery summary, which Mark initially tried to downplay. Skipping over several details, Mark told Cherry that they found the lost camper that he had earlier surmised, in a delirious state. Mark put that off to following the bad advice in the guidebook written by former TV comedian and presumed huckster, Tadd Crass. But Mark’s ongoing discussion led to his own disclosure that what the world needs now is not love, sweet love, but a retreat for training men in forest survival techniques, as conducted by a professional. Namely, Mark.

This entire story is thus, a bit perplexing. Did Rivera concoct Rusty’s alien invasion adventure solely for the purpose of jump-starting Mark’s survival course adventure? That would trivialize Rusty’s story, right? In other words, what started out as a “Rusty” story was actually just another Mark Story with Rusty as a plot device. I must remind myself that the name of this comic strip is Mark Trail. I shouldn’t lose focus!

It just seems that every time Rusty gets some story-time thrown his way, he becomes another Charlie Brown, facing failure and disappointment. It would be nice to see things go Rusty’s way once in a while. That’s not too much to ask, is it, Jules?

It took a few moments for me to realize that the title panel is meant to be a large leaf, overlapping smaller leaves that surround it. Sometimes I just miss the pattern, like the hidden images in those autostereogram (aka “stereogram”) patterns popular back in the 1990s. Well, today’s strip looks very decorative, in a 2-D sort of way. The poured leaves are surrounded by a heavy black border, that makes them look more like they were just a big cut out. Even the trees look more like paper cutouts. But this does fit in with what appears to be Rivera’s increasingly flattened, decorative style.

Getting back to the title panel, I don’t think constructing the strip’s title using leaf veins is successful. It’s just too busy and forced. A more successful result might have been made using the stems of leaves, or maybe a combination of leaf stems plus the leaves. Well, it works in my head, anyway.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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This past week saw the possible conclusion of Rusty’s alien crash search adventure as the lad—in company with faithful house pet, Andy—returned to the abandoned campsite in the middle of the night to uncover more evidence of an alien (Rusty’s hope) or a lost camper (Mark’s deduction). Why Rusty thought a midnight search would uncover more evidence than a daytime search is probably more a matter of drama superseding practicality. But it worked! Rusty and Andy were surprised by sounds and a dark form moving within the bushes. Spooky-wooky!

Mark, discovering Rusty’s exit from the house, lost time getting dressed before he could chase after him, but he arrived at the correct time to put himself between Rusty and the mysterious figure who turned out to be some anonymous crazy guy who had been following the bad tips in Tadd Crass’s camping guidebook. But did we hear from this dude? Nope! Rivera just moved us directly to a scene of an ambulance taking the poor guy away for treatment, as Mark and Rusty philosophized their way back home. While this looks like the end of Rusty’s adventure, one has to wonder: Is Rivera going to give us another week in the cabin where Rusty and Mark explain to Cherry what happened? Is this where we find out who this guy is and how he wound up in Lost Forest? Well, don’t you feel lost; just find your way to the strip below and follow along!

A nice tie-in to Rusty’s midnight search with a night-themed firefly topic! When I was growing up fireflies were very common in our yard and neighborhood. I think we called them lightning bugs. I bet some of you also liked to catch them and put them in a jar with a bit of twig-and-leaf, as if they would enjoy it. Up here in the north I rarely see fireflies. They may be more common in the rural area, but as they tend to like temperate zones, their rarity is not surprising. One surprising thing I discovered is that the female of at least one species of fireflies attracts males only to consume them for their toxic defensive chemicals. Oh, if  you are going to follow Mark’s advice about keeping part of your yard “wild”, be sure to avoid using any chemicals in that area.

Art Dept. The customized title panel might have been more effective with a darker background. Nevertheless, this is an interesting topic drawn in Rivera’s usual sparse style.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Summary: We spent the week in bed with Rusty. Sort of. Rusty continued his online research after bedtime, only to come up with more reasons to suggest Mark’s idea of a lost camper might hold more weight than online reports of a crashed alien spacecraft. But Rusty still wasn’t satisfied and thought that a midnight on-site investigation, assisted only by Andy, might reveal more evidence, one way or the other. But as Rusty tried to quietly get out of the house, he was spotted from the kitchen by Mark, who happened to be up getting a glass of water. We ended the week with a sputtering Mark putting on shoes and coat, trying to catch up.

Analysis: Even though this was a week mostly spent in Rusty’s bedroom, the storyline did not seem to drag like the week before.  In fact, it was an interesting week watching Rusty try to reason through the evidence, matching it against his own bias and that of his father. Readers have commented on Rivera’s often redundant and pointless narration boxes. In her earlier days, Rivera was more creative with narrations and didn’t always feel the need to explain the obvious. What changed? I agree that they are not needed most of the time. The narration box in panel 1 of Saturday’s strip in an exception as it provides an explanation for Mark’s appearance. However, why have a narration box in panel 4 for Saturday stating Mark was chasing after Rusty when the panel shows Mark chasing after Rusty!?

I’ll give Rivera props for coming up with an actually interesting Hallowe’en-themed Sunday nature topic. The title panel is also intriguing. Is the armadillo crossing over a split log, whose wood grain spells out “Mark Trail”? That’s my take, anyway.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Summary: Monday and Tuesday were devoted to Hallmark-style greetings between Mark, Rusty, and Cherry as the duo arrived home from their alien hunt. Cherry did not discuss her own adventure. The rest of the week carried a series of discoveries and conclusions—in between slices of pizza—regarding the horse head mask and pink crystals (Himalayan salt) found at the abandoned campsite. With Rusty’s online discovery of former TV prank star Tad Crass’s dangerous (according to Mark) survival guide, Mark found confirmation for his suspicion that there is somebody in Lost Forest who is not only lost, but in physical distress.

Analysis: The pacing feels rushed, with Rusty’s and Mark’s discoveries and conclusions happening just a tad too quickly. This isn’t a 30-minute TV show. Giving Rusty more time to carry out his research, for example, would be an improvement in tempo and veracity. That research time could partly be filled by having Cherry discussing her Kudzu Crusader problems or having Doc Davis drop in to say  “Howdy!” and grab a slice of pizza before retiring to whatever cell they keep him in. Rivera could even show Rusty going through his Internet searches to ferret out his evidence. After all, that kind of stuff worked well for the “CSI” TV franchise.
But speaking of pacing, we’ve spent enough time on this, so let’s move on to today’s nature post:

Rivera adds a Halloween theme to Mark’s discussion of the hybrid CoyWolf. The “dog” DNA of the Coywolf is hardly surprising, given the domestic dog’s wolf ancestry. My online reading (A-Z-animals.com), states that all wolves, coyotes, and dogs can interbreed because of their DNA similarities, and that such interbreeding has been going on for a long time. According to the site, a coywolf is a coyote with measurable amounts of wolf and dog DNA. Apparently, much of the interbreeding took place to 100 years ago and not so much these days. (For more details and how the term “coywolf” is a nickname for the eastern gray wolf, see: https://a-z-animals.com/blog/coywolf-coyote-wolf-mix-everything-you-need-to-know-about-this-hybrid/.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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After an exciting two weeks devoted to Rusty’s alien invasion hunt, we got to catch up on Cherry’s Kudzu Crusader hunt this past week. For those who don’t recall, Violet Cheshire found a bag of kudzu on her front step with an insulting note chiding her for not weeding it from her garden. It was signed “The Kudzu Crusader.” Violet, being suspicious and vindictive, accused Cherry of being the culprit. Cherry convinced her otherwise and the two of them began their search for the real perpetrator.

As they investigated more, Cherry and Violet discovered that the Kudzu Crusader had repeated the insulting-note-and-bag-of-kudzu action at every house in town where the noxious weed was growing. Noxious Honest Ernest—who happened to be in town—directed Cherry and Violet to talk with Squirrelly Sandy, a new citizen in town and owner of the local bakery. Turns out that more people in town have bought into the rumor that Cherry was behind this prank, but she convinced Sandy she was not the perp. The hunt has only just begun. But for now, it’s time once again for another nature chat.

So I make it a point to avoid most caves, closed or open. I’d make an exception for caves containing Paleolithic wall paintings, but I don’t live in France or Spain. Cheap jokes aside, I was not aware of this bat problem, so I am now better informed and educated. And that’s what can make Mark Trail Sunday pages valuable. Speaking of cheap jokes, I wish Rivera would ditch the final “joke” panel on Sundays and use it to provide additional information. By the way, I discovered that there are lots of YouTube videos devoted to building bat houses. Really! Who knew? I think there is a bat house in my yard’s future, because while I hate mosquitoes, they sure love me.

The Week in Review (“my blather”) and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Did you miss last week’s strips but don’t want to spend time scrolling down to read them (and my commentary)? Then here is a summary: It was a curious week with little action, more ambiguity, and several incredibly bad puns. Okay, maybe that was a bit too summary. Let me try again:

Mark and the boys continued their examination (from the previous week) of a clearing in the woods during their hike to find an alleged alien crash site. An obscure diagram scratched on the ground led one of this blog’s followers to suggest it might be a pagan pentagram, which would have been an interesting plot development. It turned out to be a diamond-shaped perimeter with an extinguished campfire. Still, why draw any diagram on the ground? With only an abandoned rubber horsehead (which Rusty claimed) and some “pink crystals” discovered by Ernie, the boys were undecided about the alien incursion. Mark was more concerned about the alleged fate of the mysterious campers who had abandoned this “failed campsite.” Instead of moving on to search some more, Mark decided the adventure was over (since he naturally assumed command of the hunt) and took the boys to eat pizza at Planet Pancake. There was pizza to be eaten, but Mark spent his time contemplating the fate of the campers. You’ll have to scroll down and read the actual dailies if you wish to experience Rivera’s puns.

As I noted yesterday, I’m drawn to conclude that Rivera presented this Rusty Adventure mainly for the purpose of launching another story for Mark, so it’s likely that Rusty and his friends will now disappear from the strip until needed in the future. We’ll have to wait and see; it’s possible that Rivera will first turn her attention back to Cherry this week, as she and Violet Cheshire prepare to search for the mysterious Kudzu Crusader. Anyway, since you’re here let’s see what Mark has for us today:

For the longest time I’ve encouraged people to not sweep away spiders because they tend to only hang out where there are other creatures you’ll like even less. And spiders consume them, as Mark describes.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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The age-old conspiracy theory of visitors from a distant planet surfaces in Rusty’s latest adventure. Online sources claimed that an extraterrestrial incursion and crash occurred somewhere in Lost Forest, though the specific crash location was not mentioned. Certainly, an unfortunate oversight by the excited poster, I’m sure. Yet, this omission didn’t matter to Rusty and his friends who still insisted on initiating an expedition to locate the wreckage. And really, who would not be tempted? This could be a fun mystery, even if it isn’t about the environment.

Mark bribed Rusty into letting him come along with the gang. Rusty’s main rival, Robbie, objected, but the other boys overruled him. So off they went, guided by Mark and his trustworthy pocket compass. But here, Mark failed to teach the kids that a compass—on its own—is not a “finder” but merely a “direction locator”, thereby spreading misinformation that could lead to possible problems for the boys in the future. A negative mark for woodsman Mark Trail!

By Wednesday’s strip, the actual hiking began with an abandoned horsehead mask found on the trail in Friday’s strip. It didn’t appear that the gang had hiked very far or very long. In any event, the Saturday strip had Rusty thinking that the alien crash story was fake and he was ready to go home. Yet Mark was not so easily defeated and thought that something funny was going on, which required more investigation. I think Mark has an idea this was a prank and who the prankster might be. Do you? While you ponder this, let’s get in some nature education:

Sharks can be social animals and have BFFs. Okay, that’s nice to know. They’re not always lone killers, lurking just under the surface for female surfers trying to catch a wave.  

Do sharks behave like us? Apparently so, but we sometimes use the term “shark” to refer to seedy characters (e.g., loan sharks) who take advantage of people, usually in dire straits. Or the term can refer to a member of a New York street gang that has a tendency to dance and sing in poor neighborhoods.

But I don’t get Mark’s final comment, other than as a bad pun.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Were you by chance too busy this week to keep up with Jules Rivera’s Mark Trail? Fear not, dear heart, for having taken on the mantle of daily observer, analyst, and reactor, I can—nay, I must—catch you up. Such is my obligation and pleasure.

This past week the strip turned its focus from Mark to Cherry. Working one day (as is all too common) in the garden of the Sunny Soleil Society, Violet Cheshire interrupted Cherry with a handful of kudzu vine and a written note of scorn. Apparently, somebody left that fragment of invasive weed on her home porch with the note blaming Violet for apparently sponsoring its growth in her home garden. It was signed with a comic book nickname: “The Kudzu Crusader.” Of course, Violet assumed Cherry fashioned this presentation as some kind of childish prank. But Cherry denied being either being the author or perpetrator of this action.

I would have thought that this story would move on from the initial interrogation and response. In fact, most of the week’s strips were wasted on repeating this question-and-denial routine, in slightly different revisions. It wasn’t as if the issue was difficult to understand.

Other than my observation that Violet—surprisingly—expressed no knowledge of kudzu, this story started to languish. By Friday, Violet was finally ready to believe Cherry might be innocent, and now came to think that Cherry was being framed. If somebody wanted to frame Cherry, wouldn’t they have signed her name to the note?  But even Cherry began to accept Violet’s illogical “frame Cherry” theory. In Saturday’s strip, Violet was overtaken with Sherlockian zeal, ready to go on the hunt with Cherry as her Watson and find the real Kudzu Crusader.

At last, the story’s excitement level rises to a measurable level! It would be a shame to interrupt the plot at this point and chuck its momentum in the freezer, just to get back to Mark’s ambiguous storyline.

Now it’s good to use more plastic!? As happened last week, Rivera is once again linking the Sunday topic to the current storyline(s), which is a good idea. And as usual, her customized title panel is spot on. Rivera ingeniously takes advantage of the lanternfly’s wing markings to pick out the strip’s name. I would only add that the spotted lanternfly was first observed on the eastern seaboard but seems to be moving westward.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Having some down time, Mark wanted to experience some warm, fuzzy family time, but Cherry had a gardening job and Rusty was setting off with his friends to investigate something mysterious in the forest. Mark really wanted more time with Rusty, so he chased him down, getting him to reveal that he and friends are going to inspect a possible “E.T.” sighting. Mark bribed Rusty with the use of his digital camera and a pizza lunch so that he could tag along.

The last time Mark tried to bond with Rusty was when he took him and his friends out on a borrowed boat at night to hunt for the “Bassigator” cryptid but grounded the boat on an island of unusually docile alligators. While Mark fretted, the kids loved it.

For those not in the know, kudzu really is a big problem. There are places, mostly in the south, where it looks like the land is just one big growth of kudzu, shaped like whatever it is growing over. You’re gonna need a hell of a lot of goats to control this stuff.

I thought it was interesting to see that Rivera, who usually likes to have a pun in the final panel, blew this one: “Goats are really the greatest of all time!” Of course Rivera was spelling out the acronym, but that’s like explaining a joke. If you have to spell it out, it isn’t a joke. She should have written “Goats are really the GOAT!” Just my opinion.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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This week blew by fast. Well, I had a bad cold for several days, so I might have misinterpreted the passage of time. But once the first breezes of fall start blowing, time just seems to take wing (yeah, I know the days get shorter, but don’t rain on my clichés). Mark held a week-long review with Cherry of what happened after his train adventure suddenly ended. I am overall fine with a more detailed look at consequences, since the pre-Rivera MT period tended to give them short shrift. What do you think? Speaking of things moving fast, it’s amazing how quickly these events resolved, unless it was due to the fact that Mark took four weeks to hike home from Columbus, Ohio. What happened?

  • Mark was officially cleared of wrongdoing by law enforcement.
  • Sally Scorpius is shacking up with Happy Trail down in Florida.
  • Law enforcement discovered Senator Small’s many years of bribes and corruption more quickly than any episode “Law & Order.”
  • It suddenly dawned on people that, those laws Senator Small pushed through the state senate were designed to undermine, overwork, and endanger train employees.
  • Somehow, Mark’s livestream rant caught the attention of the EPA, which is going to have the Duck Duck Goose transportation company pay for all of the cleanup costs.
  • Rex Scorpius is providing personal motivational therapy to “faux professor” Bee Sharp, who is very distraught over his face being used by DDG without his permission. It seems the idea of being the victim (instead of the perpetrator) of fraud was just too much for Sharp.
  • Mark came home with the wildebeest.
  • Mark and Cherry’s log cabin house seems to have shrunk (could be optical illusion).

Panel 1 is quite calligraphic, but I have no idea what the underlying figure is. Wait, I see. It’s the Leafy Sea Dragon shown later in the strip.  A bit of mixed and unsupported messaging: Why should we always reach for the stars? In fact, in panel 5, Mark argues against going into space in order to segue to the mysteries of terran life forms. Rivera makes a good point about the diversity of interesting life forms on Earth, at least. And looking at enlarged images of tiny creatures is sometimes like seeing extra-terrestrials.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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This week produced a relatively positive morality play in which Cherry helps one person that results in helping another. After a short phone conversation with Mark, who relayed the results of his Ohio fishing trip, Cherry’s day of reflecting on friend Georgia and the lost bees is interrupted by Violet Cheshire. She needed help removing hibiscus plants because they could cause an allergic reaction in the Sunny Soleil Society’s president. What to do with all of those flowers? Not a problem for Cherry who suddenly gets inspired to take them to Georgia’s place where they can attract bees to repopulate the empty bee hives. Voila! Like Rick and Capt. Renault in “Casablanca” walking off into the distance and talking about the start of a new friendship, Cherry and Georgia walked off into the distance talking about the start of something good for the bees. Okay, it’s not a perfect analogy, but it’s in a similar spirit of friendship. And it’s Bogart! Mentioning Humphrey Bogart in a post is always a great way to make your writing seem more thoughtful.

The well-drawn trail marker in today’s title panel is based on a long-recognized pun. Similar text was very likely the basis for the name of Ed Dodd’s hero. There is, for example, the “High Water Mark Trail” in the Ozarks. I always wondered if Mark’s name was based on some distinctive, functional purpose, like the “mark twain” phrase, being a boatman’s call for a specific water depth. But I don’t know.

In any event, today Rivera breaks her tradition a bit by posting a subject sharing nothing specifically relevant with either Mark’s or Cherry’s storylines or locations. No big deal. As usual, the wildlife is drawn in a more detailed and representational form (i.e., shading/volume), whereas Mark is shown in his standard flat, cartoonish style that rarely displays shading.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Still on vacation, but I had some down time to do the Sunday post. I may wait until Wednesday to post the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday strips.

To say this story went off the rails would be a fitting punishment. What began as a father-son fishing trip in Ohio got interrupted by a breakdown of Happy and Mark’s train (a portent of things to come). Then an explosion at a train station connected with the derailment of another train carrying toxic chemicals influenced Happy and Mark to investigate the incident. This led to reconnecting with Rex Scorpius and his mother, who happened to be living nearby. Mark’s aggressive questioning of a state senator at a press conference led to assumptions of a coverup, the senator’s call for Mark’s arrest, a fist fight with cops, and Mark and Happy’s escape. Whew!

They were spirited away by Rex and his mom with police in pursuit. Later discussions among the four at a remote location led Mark to come up with the goofy idea of livestreaming a report inside Rex’s car, speeding down a highway.  He predicted this scheme would somehow attract more listeners and help expose the chemical spill coverup and the senator’s corruption.

In fact, “Professor” Bee Sharp came online to spill the beans that the state senator was bribed by the Duck Duck Goose transportation company (that owned the train) to cover up any malfeasance. Sharp, who had been hired by DDG to be their official PR face, revealed to Mark that DDG bribed the senator with a wildebeest that he kept in his backyard. An absurd idea, especially if we take this story seriously, which we tend to do, despite Rivera’s tradition of writing goofy stories. This brings us to this past week.

Mark and company sped to the senator’s house. Surprisingly, the senator was also listening to Mark’s livestream report (how he knew this is never explained) and sent the cops to arrest him. The cops, the senator, and Mark all arrived at the house same time, of course. Mark told the police that the wildebeest was a bribe. So, on the say-so of Mark Trail (virtually unknown in Ohio) and the presence of a wildebeest on the senator’s property, the local police arrested their own state senator. Surprisingly, they did not arrest Mark, Happy, Rex, or his mother! Well, let’s take a rest and view today’s nature chat.

Okay, that’s a cute title panel. Today’s topic is not likely known by many people who are not into surfing, though Rivera, herself, is a surfer. Nevertheless, I found it interesting and informative. Well, I found several articles about aggressive sea otters and surfers, but none mentioned the algae connection. On the other hand, I found an informative page on “Environmental Health News” about sea otters and algae blooms. Turns out sea otters often envelope themselves in algae for various reasons, but infected algae are infecting and killing sea otters and sea lions. (https://www.ehn.org/algal-blooms-sea-otters-2651321061.html). But there was no link between the poisoning and the aggressive behavior noted. Still, Rivera may have access to better resources than I do. I do not even play a biologist on TV.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Miss this week’s strips? As the Fugitive Four stood around their campfire, Mark Trail continued to agitate about his failed attempt to get to the bottom of the train explosion and make sure people knew what was really going on. I’m not convinced Mark knows, either. There was a lot of talk about having to “get the truth out to the world”, or “It’s a smear campaign”, and “We got way too close”; all sounding overly conspiratorial, like what you would hear at a fraudulent election symposium. Realizing he had virtually no online presence, Mark came up with a completely weird idea to stream a live report while sitting in the back of Rex Scorpius’ car, speeding down a highway in the night. That was the hook:  Speeding car = massive online curiosity = opportunity to get the word out.

While they were underway, Mark made his presentation, while Happy kept Mark updated on viewer counts. Surely, if it wasn’t for Mark Trail’s online oratory, nobody would know what’s going on, right? But how can Mark even know what’s going on back in Ohio when he’s on the run in a speeding car, very likely in another state? Oops, perhaps I’m not supposed to bring up finicky details like that.

Suddenly, faux “professor” Bee Sharp texted in (I suppose) and requested live access to Mark’s stream. Sharp declared that his image and presentation had been faked by Duck Duck Goose (DDG) using A.I., made to falsely testify that the trains were safe. Conman Sharp had been scammed! Oh, the irony! He added that state senator Smalls was bribed by DDG, not with money, but with a wildebeest, of all things.

Well, it seems that Mark’s idea must have had some merit, because his viewership increased, and Bee Sharp was even swayed enough to jump in. Such is the crazy world of Mark Trail.

I don’t believe today’s title panel meets Rivera’s usual standard for creativity and style. I really don’t mean to be negative. However, while the information is good, the execution of the panels looks rushed: the environment is really abstracted. Even the animals—where Rivera normally spends more time—look very simplified. That bobcat eating dinner in front of a bush in panel 5 has that highlighted outline that is so obtrusive. It adds nothing to the animal’s verisimilitude or relationship with the environment. In fact, the outlining helps flatten the image. However, it’s nice to see that Mark does have more than one shirt!

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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The week started out so peaceful and self-congratulatory, as the four scofflaws (Happy, Mark, Sally, and Rex) stood around a campfire (where did they get those tents, anyway?) and shared happy thoughts. But all too soon, after scanning his social media sites, Happy reported that they were being sought by the police for inciting a riot (and eluding, I presume), which surprised the always self-contained Mark. “We have to tell the world the truth!” Happy exhorted, as if they were the only journalists in a world of reporters and investigators too lazy or corrupt to figure out what transpired.

We also learned that the Duck Duck Goose shipping company owns the derailed train carrying the chemicals. On top of that, the company hired “Professor” Bee Sharp to be their public spokesperson and pass around the corporate baloney. Mark is really pissed. But he’s pretty much blown whatever credibility he had. As is typical for Rivera, she mockingly refers to their situation as “Dilemmas for the ages.” I wrote briefly about Jules Rivera and her ongoing campaign (from my point of view) to convert Mark from his traditional nature reporter/adventurer persona into a more reaction-oriented environmental activist not above crossing legal lines. Kind of a male Greta Thunberg, perhaps.

Flash! I just read (on Saturday) that Isaiah Wartman, former campaign manager for an infamous Republican politician, was one of several people found guilty in an Ohio court of running a fraudulent charity for victims of the East Palestine train derailment. I wonder if Rivera has enough lead time to work that into her story.

Rivera continues to produce customized title panels as well as Sunday topics that are linked to the location that is the focus of the current story. At least the Ohio River (and its supported states) is not going through the problems that the Colorado River is. So, this is an obvious cautionary discussion.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Let’s see, what happened this past week…? Nothing, really. Cherry spent the week quizzing Georgia about “colony collapse” as she was outside tending to the depleted beehives. Never mind that Georgia already informed Cherry about this some time ago and Mark just delivered his Sunday nature lesson about ravioli mites. Er, the Varroa mites, that is. I reckon all of that wasn’t enough for Rivera, so we spent another six days on it! And the week ended with an ominous phone call about Mark being “wanted by the police”, thus ending Cherry’s superhero fantasy of fighting the mites to save beehives and bees.

——————————————————————————————————————–
“And that concludes the week, folks. Okay Dizzy, what are the stats (1-10) for this week?”

“Well, Pee Wee, after considering the content and the management’s overall decision-making, I give it the following:”

Story Development: 2 (the phone call)
Action: 0
Character Development: 2 (Georgia’s look of despair for bees or Cherry’s interrogation)
Ho-Hum Factor: 9

“Those are troubling numbers, Dizzy, but I hope that they can pull themselves up and salvage this storyline.”

“Well, we won’t begin to see the results for another two to three weeks, Pee Wee, as the strip will be returning to its main storyline, ‘On the lam with Mark Trail.'”

“Good grief!”

“Hey, you can’t say that, Pee Wee. It’s a slogan for a different cartoon character.”

“D’oh!”

“And that’s another one! Sorry, folks. And now a few words from our sponsor….”

Today’s Sunday Supplement should ruffle a few feathers, but in a good way. Rivera does not force the jokes (or puns) this time and the information is actually interesting. The title panel is cleverly designed (as is common). I think Rivera must have enjoyed doing this one. Coincidentally, my wife was telling me today about a murder of very large crows she saw across the street, but I missed them. And that’s about usual, as well.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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In case you missed this week, Mark fell back on old habits. If, for some reason, you thought that an adventure comic strip that focused on preserving nature and the environment was a proper example of professional and ethical behavior, this week’s strips might alter that perception.

Mark and Happy attended an official press conference run by some caricature of an Ohio state senator. Not to be overlooked, Mark and Happy made their way up front and immediately started throwing accusatory and leading questions at the senator. The over reactive senator felt obliged to call on a squad of transit police—who were present for no apparent reason—to arrest Mark and Happy.

Mark decided he wasn’t leaving peacefully without getting answers to his questions. Thus, he and Happy squared off against the cops, in full view of everybody. Fists met jaws and Mark and Happy quickly fled the building, only to be met by Rex Scorpius and his mother, idling by the curb in his muscle car. How convenient! Seems they somehow knew Mark and Happy would be there, would get in trouble, and would need rescuing. Maybe they were reading the comic strip, too.

The police chased the quartet of scofflaws as they sped away, out of town. Along the way, Happy and Rex’s mom shared a nostalgic moment about the ’70s. The chase culminated in a cinematic car jump across a missing section of bridge. Such an attempt would spell doom to any other vehicle not equipped with a JATO rocket. There you have the week! And here you have the Sunday lesson!

Gawd, another invasive species found in Florida. We need to build a wall down there! Anyway, today we have another clever title panel. The topic is not relevant to the current story this time. In fact, it harkens back to Cherry’s and Georgia’s story about beehives depleted by an invasion of Varroa mites (June 2023). Since Mark and Happy’s train adventure was just “leaving the station” at the time, the following Sunday strip of June 18 was about the impact of trains on wildlife. I wonder if today’s topic suggests that we’ll return to Cherry for a week to see what’s going on with her?

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Where to begin? After the prior week’s high-level interview with tiger-pal Rex Scorpius, followed by Cherry’s phone call of concern and alarm, Mark and Happy spent some time taking pictures of dead fish in a river as evidence of the harm caused by the chemical spill from the train derailment. Then they went to a press conference led by Senator Sam Smalls and immediately dominated it by throwing out a series of leading questions and accusations about deliberate sabotage by train or government officials; accusations that the train was (secretly? recklessly?) carrying dangerous chemicals; and declaring that everybody knew the entire train system was unsafe, anyway. Perhaps Mark was still a bit steamed by his train’s breakdown.

Not that the content of the questions was improper, but the way they were phrased and at whom they were directed seemed misplaced. Mind you, Mark had no specific evidence for some of his questions, since he only arrived the day before and only had pictures of dead fish (that he never bothered to show).

This episode of off-the-cuff ambush-journalism seems a bit unusual for Mark, who—in past stories (such as the zebra mussels assignment)—felt it necessary to actually dig for information before going into action. By that, I don’t mean getting ready for a rough-and-tumble fist fight, as Mark and Happy were ready to do in Saturday’s strip when two cops started moving in to eject them from the press conference for their behavior.

Does Jules Rivera think that research and analysis are too boring or slow-paced to be interesting for readers? I submit that long-term viewer interest in TV shows like the CSI and NCIS franchises emphasized lab work and data analysis as central parts of those shows and were exciting in their own way. Rivera should take note! Speaking of taking note, check out today’s strip:

Rivera continues her creative idea to link Sunday nature topics to the current adventure, whenever possible. And she continues her tradition of customized title panels with this superhero comic book style title panel, as well. But really, now. N95 masks will not protect you against gas. You need, at a minimum, a chemical cartridge respirator mask.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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This was a week of fussing over the phone. Cherry saw a news item reporting the train explosion that Mark and Happy witnessed during their forced layover at a train terminal, so she called Mark and tried to force Mark (and Happy, who never really factored into Cherry’s worries, but we’ll assume the best) to come home. Mark spent the week dodging details, claiming he was fine, and pushed his inherent need to “get to the bottom” of the incident and make sure everybody knew what was going on.

I don’t know how long a day is in the Trailverse, but it must be about 30 hours or so. They were already halfway through the day when the explosion occurred. Then they were in a hotel ready to call it day when they went to visit Rex Scorpius (exactly how they got there is unknown, unless they called an Uber or rented a car), who told them what he knew about the train incident. Then back they go to the hotel, to spend time talking with Cherry. Heck of a day.

Mark is sporting a nice beach shirt, rather than his out-of-place red-check flannel. Today’s nature lesson is informative (at least to me!), despite the opening and closing puns. Even they are not as abrasive as past puns.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Following the mysterious train explosion and getting chased away by transit police, Mark and Happy “took refuge”—as Rivera put it—in a local motel. With their train apparently stopped because of the other train explosion, their second and final day of fishing was also ruined. That fact, by the way, was forgotten as the two Trails focused on discovering the reason for the explosion.

Mark got in touch with one of his newest friends, Rex Scorpius, the animal trainer (an occupation Mark thinks makes him a nature expert). Rex was coincidentally nearby, visiting his mother, and knew something about the explosion. So Happy and Mark visited Rex at his mom’s place. While Rex happened to be helping his mom move to Los Angeles, he told Mark that—in spite of the fact that the explosion just occurred today—he knew why it happened: The train derailed, causing dangerous chemicals to spill out. The “authorities” tried to do a controlled burn to eliminate the spill, but it got out of hand and caused the explosion.

This was a lot of information for Rex (or anybody) to discover in a short time, all the while looking at the wreck from a distance, using binoculars. Maybe Rex has some abilities far beyond those of mortal man. He is, after all, a nature expert. Meanwhile, Mark and Happy vowed to carry on the investigation as Rex had to leave with his mother. But before you have to leave, let’s investigate today’s nature talk. You won’t need your binoculars, but you might need a respirator mask.

Based on an earlier statement this week about this exploded whale by Mark, today’s topic should not be surprising. It is rather light on science and nature, but an interesting and humorous tale of misguided optimism with tragi-comic results.

Whale + Dynamite = Moby Ick? Rivera makes another groaner PUNch line in the last panel. Of course, dynamite was not really used to capture or carve up whales in either the book or the movie of Moby Dick. In fact, it would have been absurd, since the point of whaling is to capture a whale in order to harvest its blubber and meat. I wonder how many people today have heard of Moby Dick, much less saw the movie (I did) or even read the book (I did)? Okay, I’ll stop. It’s just a silly pun. Hah!Hah!Hah!

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Wrapping up this past week, the mysterious train explosion continued to be a mystery. Happy Trail, possibly spurred on by some past failure or personal incident, goaded Mark into running across the platform with him, towards the exploding train to investigate it. Why? Perhaps a father-son fishing event seemed less exciting, especially as they had already missed half of it.

Anyway, as Mark and Happy trotted across the platform and Mark started taking photos of the wreck with his phone, a transit cop ran up behind them shouting that they did not have permission to take photographs and had to turn over the phone. Never mind that the cop’s demand is probably not even legal. In any event, quick-thinking (for a change) Mark tossed his phone-like charging case towards the transit cop to make him think Mark was obeying. Then Mark and Happy continued on their way, though it wasn’t clear where they were going at that point. Doesn’t seem likely they are going to get to “investigate” the exploding train. Still not sure why Happy thinks they could do this.  Heck, the way this story is exploding in all directions, I would not be surprised if it turns out that Happy spent a few years in his early life as a railroad inspector and still has his badge and union card!

I’m not sure what the timetable is for this adventure, but while we wait for a connection, let’s train our attention on today’s nature seminar!

Okay, this looks like good advice for the family pooch. Of course, instead of buying booties (which I wonder whether dogs really like), why not just take Muffles down to the park or to a field to run around on some grass? As for soundproofing a room, I wonder if Mark bothered to price soundproofing tiles and similar add-ons? Whoof! Perhaps Mark only means to minimize outside noise. Certainly playing music or a movie could help. Put the music or movie on “Repeat”, since there are always fools who will shoot off their fireworks all night long.