If you were busy this past week, let me catch you up. Mark’s water bear resort adventure (category “bear necessities”) ended in the typical Mark Trail style:  Suddenly. On the previous Saturday Mark and Jeb the Journalist celebrated their rescue from “Millie” the bear, due to Andy’s just-in-time appearance. But by Monday, we found him relaxing at home, chatting online with Bill Ellis. Long-time blog follower, Daniel P. commented yesterday that Rivera did not end the story with the traditional Trail flapjack dinner at home. Indeed, Rivera has not done that for most of her stories. There seems to be two new post-adventure memes: One is Mark and Cherry returning from a nice intimate walk through Lost Forest. Perhaps their cabin isn’t soundproofed.

The second ending Rivera uses is what we had this week:  Mark doling out “the rest of the story”, as he summarized the post-adventure status of various dramatis personae involved in his assignment. Perhaps Rivera could merge the old pancake tradition and the newer tell-all tradition:  The Trails can have dinner at Planet Pancake as Mark delivers post-adventure anecdotes to his family. Afterwards, Mark and Cherry can take their walk as Doc Davis and Rusty sit around the cabin, waiting for their next opportunity.

Another good title panel, and the other panels are pretty well-drawn, as well. Were you surprised by Mark’s new sporty attire? It would be great to see him wear something like this or just different clothes from time to time in his daily adventures.

Do lobstermen read the comics? I have never heard of “ghost fishing”, so I did the usual online “high-school paper” research. While all of what Rivers wrote here plays out, it’s too bad she didn’t have room to note some initiatives to clean up this mess:  There is the NOAA Marine Debris Program to provide locations and means for professional fishermen to safely dispose of old, obsolete gear. There are also several NGOs involved in providing technologies for safe retrieval of ghost gear in our seas and oceans. All of that deals with the larger issue of ghost gear involved in general, large-scale fishing, such as the loss or abandonment of fishing nets. And the global quantity is unknown.

This past week the fight between nut-job Sid Stump and Mark “Don’t call me Markey” Trail continued. An invisible cliff suddenly materialized around Stump and Trail as they duked it out. In addition, a very large boulder just happened to show up on the edge of the cliff. Jared and Cricket Bro rushed up to push it over onto Mark. But things didn’t work out that way.

The fight suddenly came to a halt when Millie, the so-named and so-presumed friendly bear, turned out to not be as jovial and hail-well-met as journalist Jebediah Jeter thought. Everybody found a reason to quickly be someplace else. As if there wasn’t enough “suddenness”, when the bear came bearing down on Mark and Jeb, Andy the St. Bernard suddenly teleported into the chase to to put a stop to it!  I have to say (along with many others) that this was not a high point in Rivera’s animal drawing career. The bear, specifically, looks comical, even inept.

Are we now at the end of another adventure? In the pre-Rivera era of Mark Trail, I would say Yes! Mark’s adventures often ended abruptly with little attempt to tie up loose ends before his sudden reappearance back home in Lost Forest. So while we wait for Monday’s strip, let’s check in with the Sunday submission.

Okay, we have a pretty nice “classic” Sunday nature presentation with Mark, and another good title panel. Clearly, the animals shown here are very well depicted, especially compared to the cartoonish depictions of the bear in the daily strips. Why is that?

I’m not sure. Maybe Rivera puts more time in on the Sunday pages and just hacks out the dailies. Doing an adventure strip take a lot of time and research. As regular Trailheads know, the prior Mark Trail artists all used assistants for such tasks as lettering, backgrounds, Sunday strips, and writing (in Allen’s case). As far as I am aware, Rivera does not employ assistants. I think that is a mistake, but I don’t know if it is because of finances, personal preference, or something else. Still, there is a problem in consistency of quality in the dailies, even taking Rivera’s style into consideration. And I still don’t like the Ernest T. Bass beard.

Some commenters over on the ComicsKingdom web site noticed that Mark was not sporting any type of beard in Saturday’s strip. They were right! Whether this was a publishing accident or a deliberate decision, it seemed an odd time to shave! Frankly, I never liked Mark’s “new” beard style and much preferred the old stubble. So, Rivera:  Go stubble or go clean-shaven.

This past week was—I hope—the final and true revelation of what the Water Bear Country Retreat was really created for:  A fantasy arena for rich boys (think E. Musk) to see who is “king of the forest”, able to overcome animals and nature. The fact that the camp was mostly filled with 90-lb weaklings, one old fart, and two women who were clearly not in training suggested that Sid Stump wanted to ensure he had a better-than-average opportunity to win. Engineering the accident that took out the capable “Professor” Bee Sharp also helped ensure that probability. But Mark Trail would not leave.

Sid and the two Bozo Brothers (Jadsen and Rob) found Mark and Journalist Jeb Jeder in the forest, thanks to Mark shining  his flashlight up into the air so it could be seen. Stump made various threats against Jeb and Mark. Meanwhile, Jeb’s bear protector was nowhere to be seen.

Stump admitted the true purpose of his work (see above) and suddenly moved against his most dangerous “competitor”—Mark—to take him out. Fortunately for Mark, Stump was also a wuss. But Mark remembered how to hit back and a right cross sent Stump stumbling in the opposite direction he intended to go. And that’s where we end the week.

When I was young, my mother sometimes took care of abandoned or injured baby birds. She nursed them until they were old enough to fly and live on their own. The baby birds would even stand on her hand as she fed them or helped them get used to flying. In one particular case, a now-healthy robin (which was also my mother’s name) flew off and that was that. But next Spring, my mother was surprised to find the same robin had returned and flew down to her when she called it. It even landed on her held out hand. I was amazed. It never happened again, however.

Moving on:  Regarding Mark’s beard, keep in mind that Sunday strips are often composed weeks before they are posted, most likely before Saturday’s strip.  Otherwise, good content, but rather quickly knocked out. Even Mark looks like he just woke up in time for his talk. Yeah, I’m surprised. Rivera usually takes more time on the Sunday strips. Today’s panels look like they are entries for a “Fill in for Jules Rivera Who is On Vacation” contest. No winners here.

The story took a few more turns the past week. Journalist Jebediah Jeter continued to explain to Mark his presence in the forest, due to threats from malevolent tech guru Sid Stump.  Jeb said that “he knew too much,” so Jeb exiled him to the forest to be killed by a bear. But what did Jeb know too much of? Either that Sid Stump is using A.I. to flood the world with misinformation to create worldwide havoc, or that the A.I. scheme is really a scam and Stump’s real secret plan is to con rich people into investing money into the project. We learned that Stump was aware all along of the dangerous geology in the area and was selling the camp as an experience with the thrill of danger. At this point, I’m not sure where the STEM concept fits in, except as some kind of public “cover.” Maybe a phony public cover story makes a good proof of concept for his A.I. misinformation plan!

I presume the incentive for investors to support Stump’s A.I. scam—or scheme—would be finding ways to capitalize on the instability generated by the misinformation:  Taking advantage of the stock market or seeking political gain, perhaps?

But Jeb is now stuck in the forest, unable to leave, but protected by the bear that was supposed to kill him. Apparently, Jeb never thought about simply walking through the woods to get away or walking out with his Bear bodyguard by his side.

Mark did offer to give Jeb a ride down the hill. Unfortunately, Mark’s ignorance of how light functions at night created a new crisis. Sid Stump and the two NFT Bros were able to track them down because Mark kept his flashlight on while pointing it upward, like a spotlight. Stump was kind enough to give credit to Mark for helping make their discovery possible. And that’s how we ended the week with a classic “cliff hanger.”

Another really good title panel! Box turtles were plentiful where I grew up. As little kids, we sometimes fed them wet dog food. They looked cool, and we sometimes kept them as pets for a while, but I remember they were too much of a nuisance to take care of, especially when you are around 8. They weren’t dangerous and they usually closed up when we approached. We also had snapping turtles in the area, sometimes big ones. Now, those dudes really were dangerous! We fed them sticks that they would bite down on, then we tried to raise them up by lifting the stick.  They’d ultimately let go, dropping down into the swampy area where they live, with a big splash. We’d haul our little butts out of there real fast. Yeah, we were a bunch of very young, stupid kids, laughing at the excitement and our fear.

What’s been going on this past week? Mark conducted a nighttime hunt for the lost reporter in the woods alongside the STEM retreat. In a short time, Mark stumbled onto the reporter, one Jebediah Jeter, who popped out of the bushes. Seems Jeter was thrown into the woods by Sid Stump to be killed by a bear (!!) for discovering his secret plan to use AI (Artificial Intelligence, in case you came in late) to take over the world, or something like that. But Jeb and the bear somehow befriended each other. Jeb can’t leave the woods without Sid coming after him. What to do? We’re waiting on Mark’s response, which could appear as early as Monday.

I was a little disappointed in the story development, as I had thought there would be a chance for a more dramatic plot development. Well, maybe it is, a bit. Jeb is yet another weirdo; a bewhiskered reporter dressed more flamboyantly than necessary, running around the woods like Grizzly Adams. Jeb wants Mark (and us) to believe that Sid Stump is willing to kill him to prevent exposing the fact that AI can be used to create destructive amounts of fake information. The notion that other people are not already aware of this fact about AI seems farfetched, even within the Trailverse. Still, it’s a topical item in the news these days, and that’s something. At least Mark isn’t once again trying to expose fraudulent fishing at a bass tournament, so let’s see how this story develops.

I still don’t like Mark’s new beard. It just does not look right. Jules, return the stubble, please!

Another week that wasn’t. Or was it? Aside from a welcome cameo by Ralph the Rat Snake, we saw Mark jump on Rusty for slamming “Professor” Bee Sharp because a) Sharp posted incorrect information Rusty used in a report that made him a laughing stock; and b) Rusty discovered Sharp was not a real professor at all. For his part, Mark shamed Rusty for dissing Sharp because “the Professor” was in the hospital suffering a broken leg. But how was Rusty to know this? Didn’t matter to Mark the Moralist.

Given Mark’s own history with Professor Fraud you’d  have thought he would be sympathetic to Rusty, but ‘twas not the case. Instead, Mark was fixated (as we have seen) on Sharp, as if he was a long-lost brother. Mark has been unusually focused on Sharp and his health, to the point of ignoring his own assignment. He didn’t have much to do with Cricket Bro, either. But Mark has started pondering whether there is a nefarious hidden conspiracy underlying the accident as well as the missing reporter. This presages a change to a more dramatic mood. But, can Rivera pull this off without making it a farce?

Warning: At this point, you can keep reading or skip down to the Sunday strip and avoid my rambling analytical musings on Rivera’s art. You’ve been warned! No take-backs.

Comments on Rivera’s drawing came up again, so it’s an opportunity for me to respond:  I really do share people’s frustration with Rivera’s art. It certainly conflicts with the more naturalistic styles of Dodd, Elrod, and Allen. But honestly, some of their work was crude, mawkish, and just mediocre. We’ve all joked on their overuse of clip-art (cut-and-paste) and hokey stories. Of course, that was part of the charm:  That unintended corniness. The traditional Mark Trail style could be cloyingly sentimental, like a petit point embroidery. The old Mark Trail was everybody’s grandfather with silly jokes. As “Mark Trail Confidential” author Mark Carlson-Ghost cataloged, Elrod (and maybe Dodd) even went so far as to recycle older stories. Hey, you want to see great adventure strip art? Look at Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and John Prentice (Rip Kirby, in the vintage section of Comics Kingdom.). Daily newspapers focus on quantity over quality, so reduced-sized formats can no longer faithfully reproduce their work.

Rivera’s art (and writing) was originally a wake-up call and a bold redo to bring the strip into the 21^st century. Bravo for that! But Rivera’s current flat, sketchy style with virtually no modeling and a deliberate disregard for proportion mirrors her sometimes chaotic, weird storylines. I like a bit of parody and weirdness; but I also like variety of mood.

I still believe Rivera’s original vision and style was more appealing, sophisticated, inventive, and fitted the grittier storyline she had. Start back in October 2020 and view those earlier strips. Even the storyline moved between drama, comedy, and social issues. I don’t know why Rivera abandoned all that, unless she didn’t have the time to keep up. Her predecessors had assistants, which certainly made it possible for them to maintain their traditional Mark Trail style.

Okay, a good, informative Sunday strip! Nice try on the title panel. As long-time reader Downpuppy commented earlier this week when he complimented Rivera’s awareness of this recent event: “The reordering of Artiodactyla [is] based on molecular biology.” I do have one nit to pick:  In the penultimate panel, Rivera notes that “…new information can shake up established beliefs”, which I think includes a careless term. Neither science nor scientific results are based on beliefs, but on the results of observation, experiment, and testing to arrive at a supportable conclusion based on the evidence.  New evidence can cause scientists to revise their conclusions. These are not beliefs, since the concept of belief does not have to be based on research or evidence. It would probably be more accurate to state that new information can shake up established knowledge.

It is one thing for Rivera to juggle two separate storylines in one strip (Mark’s and Cherry’s), and kudos for doing that. It’s another thing when one storyline starts branching out in a different direction, as has been going on for a while. While supposedly tracking down the source of intermittent bear attacks at the Water Bear Country STEM retreat, and possibly finding one likely source (unsecured garbage dumpsters), Mark got sidetracked into rescuing several guests from a hiking accident. Mark was hardly reluctant to step in and exercise his first aid survival skills, performing certain tasks that still seem inexplicable to urban plebes like me. The apparent telekinetic skills of Mark’s canine sidekick, Andy, came in handy when Mark had to put the injured Professor Bee Sharp into the back of his station wagon to transport to the hospital.

How does this subplot (I’ll be generously optimistic here) tie into Mark’s original mission, assuming he can even remember it? Maybe we’ll learn more on Monday when this story continues for another week. Just a note:  We’ve now had four publishing weeks dedicated to Mark’s first day on assignment. He’s had a very busy day!

Want to bet that this week’s strips will focus on Mark going over his first day with Cherry? Oh, she might get a word in, edgewise, with her latest Honest Ernest tale of woe.

Well, Andy was pretty much the only “wildlife” we saw this past week, so why not devote a Sunday to Saint Bernards?

By the way, I really don’t like the new old-school beard Mark is sporting. Rivera should go back to the hand-drawn stubble and ditch this “hobo beard” meme. Does anybody like the new beard style over the old one? Just compare the banner illustration at the top of this page.

I criticized Rivera’s interpretation of Monarch butterflies in the title panel of Sunday’s strip for looking more like fall leaves. I think I may have to eat those words. As can be seen below, a colony of Monarchs in a tree looks very much like autumn leaves!

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!

Scroll down to see the original Sunday post.

You can wake up now, the week is over. As far as the current story arc goes, Mark left the retreat with Bunny, er, Honey, . . . no, Holly (?) to investigate her plea to help her friends hurt by a collapsed trail. Mark arrived to find Rob and Sharp lying injured at the bottom of a steep hill. Instead of smiling with the feeling of justice done, and returning to his job, Mark’s good side decided to rescue them, instead. Presto! Shazam! Mark made a dog-cart pulled by faithful Andy suddenly appear to assist him. Clearly, there was an unspecified time delay. Somehow (how, Rivera does not show us) Mark was able to either get the cart and Andy down the hill or get the two boobs up, whereupon they all returned to safety, with Bee Sharp in the cart and Rob helped back by Jadsen. Of course, the two casualties complained and whined along the way. So typical.

As I noted before, this otherwise nonessential side story could have been presented in a more dramatic fashion, but I reckon Rivera decided that actual drama was out of place in a strip based more on eccentricities and parodies (or was that satire?). Parody and goofy characters have pretty much been Rivera’s approach since she started. I’m not against that in general, but I think this strip would be better if she intertwined some real drama here and there into the stories. The two elements can work together. Isn’t that we mean by a dramedy? For example, the movies In Bruges, The Wizard of Oz, and early Jackie Chan movies; Buffy the Vampire Slayer on TV; and Tintin in comics. So, it can be done.

I like the idea of the butterflies spelling out “Mark Trail” more than the execution, which looks more like fall leaves. Yet, this is a good, positive Sunday strip showing that sometimes, things do get better. By that, I mean the monarch butterfly population.

Rivera saved some drawing time, as cartoonists will try to do, by taking a few butterfly images and replicating them to create the swarms. Unfortunately, she included a heavy outline in the replicated images (e.g., panel 2), which foils their natural light appearance.

Mark showed up for work, only to get distracted by squabbling between Professor Bee Sharp and Cricket Bro, who just happen be some of the participants at this tech/nature retreat. As I indicated before, the rest of the participants are most of Mark’s other recurring opponents. Cricket Bro’s remarks about Bee Sharp’s new main squeeze, Holly Folly, was the reason for the fracas. Mark wisely walked away from this fight, but the group eventually continued on with their nature hike.

Mark went to work on his assignment, quickly discovering a major reason why bears were coming onto the grounds of the retreat. Mission Accomplished? Not so fast! Not so fast! Holly Folly suddenly came running back from the hike to plead for Mark’s help. Seems that the boys got caught in some kind of geological mishap on their hike. But why did Holly run to Mark, a nature reporter? I suppose the apparent lack of any professional staff on the site is deliberate and a part of Rivera’s ongoing goal of poking a stick into Silicon Valley’s impresarios, geeks, and its elitist male culture. But as far as adventure is concerned, it’s early on; so I hope things start picking up. Until then, see below!

Today’s topic is not a big surprise, considering the week just completed. We’ve all read reports of people feeding wild animals outside of their homes or at national parks. Or they try to snuggle up to them for selfies, sometimes with unfortunate results for the person. And making wild animals dependent on eating human food is not a good thing for the animal, either. So, it’s not surprising that people in certain areas of the country will fail to recognizes that wild animals often eat whatever they can find and that looking for (or avoiding to become) food is one of their main activities.

But this PSA might also ironically dilute some of the satirical intent of Rivera’s daily strip, since it implies that even “normal” people who live in areas frequented by bears can be careless or ignorant of proper safety measures.

Mark is on the job! Driving across hill-and-dale to reach the nature retreat, Mark met tech impresario and Retreat founder, Simon Stump, sporting a Tintin haircut. I wonder if Simon’s name is supposed to be a pun of some sort? Frankly, I’m stumped.

Not only is Simon worried about bears, he worries that bears might have kidnapped (his word) the other journalist (paraphrasing reader Downpuppy, “where is the ransom note?”). If that isn’t enough, Jules Rivera included almost all of Mark Trail’s prior opponents for the past two years as current guests at the Retreat! Isn’t hunting down bears and a missing journalist enough of an adventure (as it would have been in the old days)? Rivera seems to think that continuing to recycle these same sociopaths and con artists provides some kind of secret sauce to her plot recipes.

Yet, they are not even proper bad guys or villains; just twisted jerks.  Sure, Mark does not need to face down super-villains like “Dr. Doom”, “Professor Moriarty”, or “Darth Vader.” But he could face a few actual bad guys willing to hurt, frame, or dispose of Mark for getting in the way of their plans. In most stories by Rivera, Mark’s life or reputation have never been under serious threat. Well, there was one, minor incident.

You might recall the recent zebra mussels adventure, where a shipping tycoon (also now at the Retreat) sent some knee-breakers to scare Mark off his assignment. However, the two goons quickly went down like sacks of rocks off a cliff. And that was that. A ripping good adventure could have taken place where the two pursued a fleeing Mark Trail down the river and through the woods in a serious life-or-death struggle. Whacky has its place, but I’d like to see Rivera integrate more actual suspense and danger into some of Mark’s stories. He needs to exercise his survival skills from time to time. Aside from aping Tintin’s haircut, Rivera could learn a thing or two from studying that Belgian teen’s adventures.

For those who think Rivera spends too much time on climate change, she frequently spotlights traditional Sunday topics, such as this one. I’m never quite sure if Rivera deliberately exaggerates Mark’s pointer finger (panel 5). It frequently looks like he’s holding another object in his hand. Hands and feet can be notoriously difficult to draw well. Go ahead, try it!

We are moving deeper and deeper into Mark’s newest adventure, babysitting a crowd of tech workers at some nearby mountain retreat. I might be overstating the case. This past week Mark kept trying to get the right information from editor Rod Radagast about a matter of fighting bears. Turns out that under cross-examination, the original investigative journalist might have been talking about water bears. Mark explained the difference between real bears and water bears, but to little avail, as the editor clearly lacked the proper educational background. Well, this was the week that was, I reckon. With luck, Mark will end this tortured interview and get on with the project. Until then, check this out:

Water bears? What a surprise! Clearly, the outer space gimmick has Rivera’s attention, since she repeats the assocation. But what else can one say about tardigrades? They don’t make good pets. They are food for other tiny creatures.

Wikipedia reports that their very taxonomy is still an ongoing concern. Yet, in spite of their small size, there seems to be some fossilized examples from the Cambrian and Cretaceous eras. I think we have to give special awards to the paleontologists who found these examples, given that the average size of a tardigrade is only 0.020 in.

Editor’s Note: I came down with COVID on Saturday and feel like crap. But I’m also taking those paxlovid pills and hope they shorten this misery. Depending on how things go, I may have to post several days at once, later in the week. Just so you know, I wrote most of this stuff before the COVID hit me.

Despite an error-prone week of mixed up and missed postings on my part, I think we were still able to get the gist of Mark’s recent travails. Thinking he had a million-dollar idea for working from home, Mark’s attempt to sell an article on alligator migration and climate change met with sober disinterest from editor/corporate avatar, Bill Ellis.

Cherry, led to believe Mark’s idea was already a done deal, was surprised to learn otherwise. But Rivera cut away before we could learn whether Mark suffered the sometimes fate of Jiggs, the beleaguered husband in the old “Bringing Up Father” comic strip (which would likely not get published these days. Ah, the good ol’ days of slapstick humor).

Throwing a bone to Mark, Ellis suggested he take on an assignment to nursemaid a bunch of STEM “professionals”—presumably public school teachers of science, tech, engineering, and math—at a nearby mountain retreat. This will supposedly allow Mark to come home every night. Anyway, it’s clear enough Mark was around long enough to put together today’s nature lecture. So, check it out!

So, what I get from this is that the former versions of Mark Trail were the traditional alpha male type now in disrepute. Rivera’s take on Mark clearly fits the newer standard. Some quick online searches seem to confirm Rivera’s (Mark’s) explanation.