Either rents are cheap in Lost Forest, or it’s become a ritzy artist’s enclave where people come to spend lots of money. Who knows? But, the sisters are working it out, so that’s all that matters. Doesn’t appear that there is any specific story starting this week, just some family time and living the life in Lost Forest.
And that’s okay for a short bit, but we’re not here to simply watch people go about their humdrum lives. That’s why Mary Worth and Arlo & Janis exist. We expect to read impactful stories dealing with environmental issues, and enjoy the occasional bop on the top of some miscreant or doofus.
I’m waiting for those three months to pass by quickly, so Olive can take the gloves off and start kicking booty. But at the rate time seems to pass in Mark Trail, it will be Spring 2026 before Olive makes a move.
I wish Rivera would quit doing that! Yesterday, I made a perfectly fine observation about Tess being shown online in her former Tigress outfit, instead of her current hunting attire. And today, Tess is shown in both costumes. I just can’t win!
Well, are we going to suffer Mark’s whining about Tess Tigress the rest of the week, too? Sure, some of you are likely going to counter with “Well, we already have to suffer Rivera’s relentless regurgitation of pointless boat explosion jokes!” And I will have to re-respond with “… uh … well, yeah.” And back-and-forth this will go. Okay, I’m calling it all off, as of now. Thank you.
Panel 2 suggests Mark has a short memory about Tess. I recalled the story about Tess and her Tiger Touch Center from three years ago, as I’m sure most of you do. Here is a snippet from November 29, 2022. Apparently, Mark forgot this after-action phone call with Bill Ellis, who caught him up on Tess’s whereabouts.
I think three years in Real Life is probably only a year to a year and a half, tops, in the Trailverse. Still, there is always the hope that this might at least be a fun story.
After putting all of that writing in front of you yesterday, I’ll take it easier on you today. I hope.
So here’s another popular Rivera practice: Wasting Monday’s strip to reiterate what happened on Saturday. Some people call this “padding the story,” though Rivera is not the only Mark Trail artist to do that. Other people might label this “Rivera assumes the readers have the attention span of 6 year olds.” But a few might be more charitable and claim “Rivera is just being considerate!Weekends can be tough on people who are just trying to relax and get themselves ready for another workweek at the plastics injection factory.”
As happens once in a while, both Mark’s and Cherry’s storylines take place in Lost Forest. But are they simultaneous? In the past, that was the case. But today, I’m not so sure. See the problem?
How is it that Cherry is hanging around with Mark and Rusty at their (too-tiny) log cabin to welcome Happy Trail, when she is supposed to be helping Violet find her mother’s lost peacock and get ready for the Summer Banquet? Cherry doesn’t even have her work clothes on!
And in a rare event, Jules Rivera has drawn the expected “animal of the day”—a pileated woodpecker in this case—not staring at you and me! And it looks like Rivera spent more time on drawing it, as opposed to just pasting in an image from the web. One thing I discovered: Those are really big birds! Look them up. They have a magnificent wingspan in flight, when seen from below.
Panel 3 suggests Mark didn’t update Cherry on the phone call from Dad while they were at Ranger Shaw’s house. But did he know whether Happy was really coming to visit or was he just feigning surprise?
And yes, the blog’s title today is not just click-bait (for the most part). The image of the Woody Woodpecker cartoon character (who first appeared in the 1940 animated cartoon, Knock Knock) was inspired by the pileated woodpecker. Woody even has his own Wikipedia page.
I’ve been watching peacock (more accurately, peafowl) videos to hear what they sound like and act like. They appear to have several different calls: one like a cat, one like a chicken, one like a trumpet trying to sound like a car horn, and yet another like a kind of crow sound. Overall, have some 11 different calls and yells. Check them out on YouTube.
I found a few videos of peacocks screeching out something along the lines of what is depicted in panel 4. As varied as their calls are, it’s quite a sight to see them when they raise their tail feathers (or train).
Well, if this isn’t going to be a variant on the Banjo Cat and the Harpist cat hunt story, I wonder if they really resolved that problem of Banjo Cat running free and chasing down birds? A matchup may not go too well for ol’ Banjo Cat!
Regular reader, be ware of eve hill, commented on Violet’s “Groucho” eyelashes a few days ago. They are difficult to miss. Groucho Marx famously applied his exaggerated eyebrows and moustache using theater “grease paint.” Is Violet doing something similar? I made a quick survey of her appearances over the years and here are my findings:
Perhaps there is a hormonal change going on with Violet, since she seems to display a continuous thickening of her cilia. However, I’ll step back a bit. We already know that Rivera is not consistent with her depictions, so there is going to be variation. However, this seems to be a generally accurate visual chronology. So, Violet’s current over-the-top (so to speak) eyebrows are not just accidents.
Getting back to the “story”, it’s interesting to see how informal and personal Violet becomes when talking about her mother. And any time Honest Ernest is involved, we know that incompetence and failure quickly follow. I wonder if this is going to be a revision of the hunt for Banjo Cat story? Or maybe the peacock inhaled pest control chemical fumes from inside the van and Honest Ernest is rushing it over to Doc Davis for resuscitation.
I suppose we all deserve a break now and then from the intense, almost nonstop action and intrigue we usually find in Mark Trail storylines. Jules Rivera kindly helps us cool down with innocuous mini-adventures like this one, free from danger and virtually any hint of engagement.
It’s like the wall in panel 1, which appears at first to be a single plane going straight across, until we look closer (if you are up for it). How come the window on the left is shown on an angle while the bookcase is shown face on? (Be mad at me, because now, you can’t ignore seeing it!) But doesn’t that suggest two walls meeting at a corner? Yet no corner line is defined. “It’s a real mystery!” If you really want to push it, pretend the room is a continuously curving space with no sharp changes of direction.
Well, it’s your choice whether this is worth considering. It’s okay to just sit back, have another sip of your beverage of choice, scan the panels, and let your gray matter have the morning off.
Oh, I know. You want me to riff on the point that Violet’s mother should already have a cage for her prized peacock!? My goodness! Haven’t we been over this point before? Many stories usually involve some kind of crisis or task that has to be overcome by a given deadline. In many cases, these are totally invented things, cleverly woven into the fabric of a book or movie where it isn’t so obvious. That’s much harder to do in comic strips. Violet might as easily have mentioned “building a reviewing stand for her mother and her friends” or “making sure that the party balloons come in three different colors and are evenly distributed.”
Okay, let’s just admit the basis for this story is wanting. Violet throws her upscale cultured persona around like an Olympic athlete throwing the javelin. She wears what passes for fashionable clothes, seems to affect an English accent or maybe just a few words here and there, and has a mother with fancy friends. Maybe Violet lives with Mom and maybe she doesn’t, but Mom can’t live too far away. From Violet’s remarks, we have to assume her Mom and friends get themselves fancied-up for various events.
Yet, in spite of all this, Violet has no idea where to find a salon!? Is Lost Forest located in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp? For that matter, should we assume that Cherry manage her own hair?
Or is this just Violet’s technique for negotiating a reduced price?
Frankly, the concept of socialites in Lost Forest seems absurd, given the people we tend to see. It may be that Violet and her mother actually live in a more affluent community near Lost Forest, such as Cold River, which featured in a story way back in 1974. How do I know that? It’s not that my mind is a mental treasure house, but I’ve been reading some of the vintage strips on Comics Kingdom. Anyway, if Violet needs the services of a stylist in Lost Forest, wherever she lives can’t be any better.
Life has certainly changed for Violet Cheshire, the Sunny Soleil Society manager. She’s transformed from her original icy, domineering and arrogant presence to this over-emotional, beat-down, hapless person with “mother” issues. Ok, to be fair, Cherry didn’t get along with her mom, either. Still…
But I got a kick out of Violet’s remark about finding the fanciest stylist in Lost Forest! That would normally be the town barber in a place like this, but Cherry has Peach Pitt on hand. So, whatis the point of this story? So far, it seems to be: Violet must host a successful “summer bash” in order to make her mum (another English word!) look good for her high-falutin socialite friends. Not exactly a strong beginning for a story unless Rivera wants to compete against Mary Worth.
Art Dept. If spending more time on drawing figures is too much, it would at least be more visually interesting for Rivera to focus on designing more interesting compositions and perspectives like she used to do, instead of relying on static, simplistic arrangements like these panels. Of course, I’m just whistling in the dark. Even if—by chance—Rivera read this blog and agreed with me, no results would begin to show up for at least a month or two.
[A followup to yesterday’s Week in Review] Maybe it’s the fewer hours I’ve been sleeping lately, but I seem to be overlooking details. Thankfully, I have readers who are keeping my on my toes. Regular reader, Downpuppy, likened Cherry’s hideous facial image in Saturday’s panel 1 to that of a mask from the Mexican Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebration. His claim has a visual possibility, though the purpose for Cherry to be wearing it is unclear.
Also, a reader on Comics Kingdom pointed out that in Sunday’s strip, Mark talked about the California Condor’s 10-foot wing span, while showing an example with a 9-foot wingspan! Woo! I don’t know how I missed that one, but it does justify my prior observation that this was likely a hurry-up project for her. But now, on to the current episode!
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What’s with this “blimey!” talk? Is Violet actually British or just affecting the lingo? While it’s possible she’s been watching the British soap opera, EastEnders, for a long time, there is prior evidence of her “British” association. Back in April 2021 when Cherry first met Violet, our “Southern Belle” offered up a plate of scones to Cherry, who declined the offer.
Scones are now standard offerings in American bakeries and coffee houses, but they have an English heritage. In spite of this, we rarely detect any British accent or vocabulary from Violet. Oh, and you with your sharper-than-my eyes have no doubt noticed the changes between the original depiction of the Sunny Soleil Society’s headquarters and today’s version. It’s in keeping with the always-changing footprint of the Trail cabin.
Well, what’s with this “bear” thing again? And why is that black-eyed Cherry pushing around a statue of a bear? I’d have thought Violet had had enough of them. I hope we’re not in line for more bear jokes!
The ol’swimming hole is contaminated with wastewater, much to the Trails’ consternation. What to do? The ongoing story this past week saw the Trails move from the closed lake to an impromptu backyard slip n’ slide party and barbeque at the home of Ranger Shaw, the father of Rusty’s sometimes-friend, Robbie. In the backyard sipping iced tea and eating hotdogs, Mark tried to get information from Ranger Shaw about the contamination, only to find out that he claimed to know nothing about its source. This made Mark suspicious, given the weeks he and his colleagues have had to investigate. Mark is right to be suspicious, with Range Shaw’s questionable actions in the past and his seeming inability or unwillingness to help out (e.g. the Grungey Boys’ so-called lawnmower races in Lost Forest).
And wouldn’t you know it, just at this point in time, Mark gets a call from his dad, Happy Trail. Always nice to hear from family, right? Well, there was no discussion of weather, no “How’s Rusty?”, or “When are you all coming down to visit?” Nope, Happy Trail jumped right to the point: “There’s a golf course opening just north of you!” Since Mark has no history of playing golf, we have to wonder why Happy Trail even knew about it or bothered to tell Mark. My guess is that Happy is financially involved in the course and it will wind up being another scam.
Finally, there was some noteworthy art: A nicely drawn foreshortened view of Rusty sliding on Robbie’s slip n’ slide toward the reader; and a less-than-complimentary image of Cherry, seen from the back, in profile (shudder!).
Today’s Title Panel is a clever, well-drawn take on the stereotypical vacation post card. And I’m glad to see fewer images of Mark filling the Sunday strip. Celebrate biodiversity, okay. Fine! But the execution of today’s “biodiversity” doesn’t live up to the definition. In fact, two of the animals here each take up two panels! What about flora? Sea life? And keep in mind that the main purpose of the Mark Trail Sunday strip is already meant to show and educate us on the diversity of wildlife and nature! Call me cynical, but today’s strip smells like deadline pressure.
Here we begin a week of post-assignment family time. The family time segment has always been part of the strip (as far as I can determine), but Jules Rivera likes to expand on this period, injecting more than her predecessors did. In the old days after Mark came home from an assignment, the family would eat, then Mark and Cherry would sit in the living room or on the front porch and chat about how dangerous Mark’s assignments were. Then Mark would get a phone call and he’d be off on another trip. That process hasn’t changed all that much, except Rivera likes to flesh out this time with “everyday problems” and activities to add more dimensionality..
Anyway, there’s a nice duck landing by the Trail cabin. Not sure when this lake (or river?) showed up again. And is that a side door? We know that the front door is centered, with a porch. And we recently discovered that the back door has a stairway leading down an incline, suggesting the cabin is on some kind of promontory. Maybe this is a separate, adjunct building housing their shower and bathroom facilities. Rivera has a transactional approach to the strip, such that if the Trail cabin or its property needs to look a certain way, it will. I don’t know if it’s because Rivera doesn’t care or if she just needs the changes to fit the current storyline.
I leave Mark’s dialog in panel 2 (“I feel at ease after a good shower.”) for you to comment on, if you feel inspired or coerced by your own sense of values.
Art Dept. Panel 1 is a nicely designed and illustrated composition. However, I’m puzzled by the design of panel 2. Rivera employs her standard panel arc compositional device. However, we can see that both sides of the arc are not drawn along the same curve and will not connect. This is unusual for Rivera, who has drawn this device hundreds of times. I don’t recall another case with this kind of looseness. Then consider the figure of Mark. At first, I thought the head was too big. But I covered up the arms, so the body and head don’t look too out of proportion. I think it must be the arms are too small for the torso. Rivera can usually handle foreshortening much better than this, even though she can be inconsistent. We know that Rivera deliberately distorts figures, though her motivation is not always obvious. However, these two quirks do not line up with her eclectic (or crude, if you wish) style. Was she in a hurry? Had a bad day? Did she let one of her fellow artist friends ghost-draw the panel? I dunno, but it is visually jarring.
For those coming in late, the “Grungy Boys” are middle-age delinquents with a fascination for causing destruction in Lost Forest. Head Grungey Boy in yellow, Honest Ernest, has fallen in stature over the years, from an optimistic ne’er-do-well with a business and a wife, to a divorced loser with a revenge chip on his shoulder against the entire Trail family. The guy with the Richard Simmons haircut is Connor, a whiny incompetent who got into trouble after following a fake survival book by fraudster Tad Sass. Connor was rescued by Mark and Rusty, but became a major headache in Mark’s doomed fishing survival class. The third member (panel 1) is an anonymous goof with a funny mouth and cap.
For some reason, Jules Rivera calls this action a demolition derby. It was originally explained as a race. Yet in neither case is there ever more than one riding lawn mower present. Yeah, don’t look for the logic.
We can expect some action coming up from Rusty and his aunt, Olive Pitt, who have been trying to find a way to stop the Grungey Boys from damaging Lost Forest.
I posted this discussion separately, in order to focus on one visual aspect of Mark Trail: Jules Rivera’s increasing use of grays.
My regular post for 5/27/25 follows below. I’ve been noticing more and more the use of grays in the black & white newspaper version of Mark Trail. From a visual standpoint, this is a worthwhile improvement, as these mid-tones can help define volume, lighting, and even mood. Here is today’s strip as published in the usual “black & white” format of the newspaper. Compare it to the colorized version:
Do take into account that I’m photographing the strip with my phone, so there may be a certain loss of fidelity. Nevertheless, there shoujld be enough to clearly notice that Rivera is using grays to indicate basic contrasts between objects. In panel 1 a graduated gray pattern in the background helps establish the table lighting from the overall, darkened room. It is a mundane technique, of course, but given the stylized imagery that Rivera uses, adding mid-tones provides an improvement in the strip’s presentation.
Many strips today avoid shading, altogether, especially the majority of joke strips, where features such as tonality, volume, and mood may not be important.
However, even some continuity (dramatic) strips, where mood and lighting would seem more important, avoid tonality: Judge Parker is one example (click the images to see expanded versions):
On the other hand, For Better or For Worse will use overlapping blacks, whites, hatching and grayscale patterns to evoke a more sophisticated setting of light and mood:
The avoidance of “shading” is often justified because of the reduced size of the strips when published in newspapers and the fear that scenes and figures will blur together, giving a less inviting appearance to the readers. There is some merit to that position. Like grays, I think there is a middle ground that can be staked out, and we should be glad to see Mark Trail making inroads in this direction.
Is all this just BS? Pretentious academic-speak wasted on mere comic strips? Let me know.
I’m not sure what is more cringeworthy: Mark with his nose bent out of shape as he stands on his moral high ground sputtering on about steroids, or Rivera with her attempt to reach Millennials and Gen Z’ers by involving this hipster who apparently works for Cricket Bro’s organization and talks the talk.
Anyway, I’m surprised Mark accepted her gift. I’d have thought Mark would eat crickets in their normal state, not pulverized into an energy bar.
The storyline still isn’t going anywhere. Is Mark going to get dragged back into Cricket Bro’s business? Or will Kelly Welly show up in the next few minutes to commit Mark to some other foolish action?
Ah, another one of Rivera’s “To be continued” signs in panel 4. You might normally think this signals a break in the continuity. The standard Mark Trail Mix is one week for the Second String (Cherry, Rusty, or Doc) and then at least two weeks for Mark. The times I recall her using this sign, the same storyline continued the following Monday. But this is a secondary storyline, so maybe we’ll see Mark on Monday.
As for this current storyline, at least we have some movement. Since both Olive and Rusty have backpacks on, it seems likely they are going on another forest walkabout, which fits in with Rusty’s plan.
If we switch back to Mark, we’ll also have a week of Mark and Cherry hiking around the forest or yakking before he gets involved in another assignment or story. Hey, maybe Mark will get involved in Rusty’s scheme, just like he did with the Grungey Boy’s first appearance (“Thanks-alotl for the E-Waste”).
The Main Event began this week, with Kelly Welly “moderating” the panel consisting of just three people: Cricket Bro, his brother Jadsen (aka Crypto Bro), and Mark. Kelly announced that the topic of discussion is “Going Green With AI”, which is about all of the moderating Kelly did for the week, other than to slam Mark a bit in her introduction. I suppose she’s entitled.
Cricket Bro spoke first, denying any value to going green and thus, undercutting the “green” vendors that Mark interviewed , as well as the point of the convention. Naturally, Mark jumped in for the defense, and the rest of the week was just a back-and-forth contest between two hard positions.
While Cricket Bro and Crypto Bro kept dumping on Mark, Mark kept trying to calm the situation and talk rationally. A few catcalls from the audience suggested that they might be a bit biased against Mark. Mark kept his composure and decided to try a gambit and take one of the insults and affirm it. This silenced the audience, which is where we ended the week. How will Mark turn this attack on its head? Post your suggestions, if you’re brave enough to withstand ridicule if you’re wrong. Otherwise, cower in silence until we return to this chat.
Alert! In case you have not been on the Comics Kingdom site for a while, they have begun restoring the Vintage Mark Trail strips. This should especially please Mark the Contrarian Commenter. I haven’t had time to see how far back they go, but they are currently running strips from 1974. If you do a regular “Mark Trail” search, you will find links to both strips. Have fun!
I reckon I’ve fallen behind in my Star Wars Universe viewing, but I don’t recall a Hellbender in it. Do you? I did find references to salamanders, in general. Perhaps that explains the faux “Star Wars” style Mark Trail title panel and Mark’s Jedi clothing. I happily await further edification from any of you! Well, May the 4th be with you!
The Grungey Boys story continues. Apparently, Ranger Shaw claims to have no authority in Lost Forest because it is mostly unincorporated land. Okay, then. Where does his ranger’s authority extend? I won’t pretend to have special knowledge, though I used to watch Yogi Bear tangle with Ranger Smith a lot.
Normally, the county sheriff has jurisdiction in an unincorporated area. Why doesn’t Ranger Shaw get the sheriff and detain the Grungey Boys, as he did when we first met the “Boys” destroying and abandoning office equipment in Lost Forest. Ranger Shaw could at least advise Olive to contact the county sheriff. But since that would logically end the story, it seems that Olive might go “vigilante” on the Grungy Boys, like Mark did.
Keep this episode in mind, as we’re likely to return to Mark’s adventure, come Monday. In the meantime, we’ll have the weekly nature chat tomorrow.
Even if you grow up in a forest where you will likely see lots of deer, you can still appreciate an interesting photograph.
Anyway, it is problematic that Rivera just cannot decide whether Mark Trail should be a continuity strip or a joke-a-day strip, so she tries to merge both concepts. And usually fails. I’m sure there are ways to put humor into an otherwise “serious” adventure strip without resorting to a standard 3-panel joke format as Rivera often does. This isn’t Pearls Before Swine and Rivera doesn’t have Stephen Pastis’s chops for puns (good or bad).
I’m not sure this event qualifies as an actual story yet, though the general “plot” seems to be “The Grungey Boys are discovered messing around in Lost Forest on a riding lawnmower. Rusty and Olive take steps to report them to the forest rangers for further investigation and law enforcement.” If so, the story is almost already over.
Art Dept. It seems as if Rivera wants to at least give the impression that her animals are cut-and-pasted, as I’ve even stated, yesterday. But is it really just part of a possible “stick it to the Trailheads” agenda? If we examine that deer in panel 3, the uneven black border lines suggest a rather awkward cut-and-paste job. But check out the line under the belly of the deer and you’ll see it continues over top of the hind leg. So what’s the real purpose of these oddly shaped, heavy contours, if not part of a gag? Also, just whose cabin is that behind the deer? Is there a guest house that’s been hiding out of view at the Trail cabin all these years?
In other news: There was a lively discussion in the comments section yesterday about a possible future for Mark Trail; not that we have any control over that, of course. It was more a matter of what might be possible or desirable.
I’m hoping that this week sees us return to the happy glades of Lost Forest with its gentle folk, homespun wisdom, and simple ways. Like many of you, I yearn for those halcyon days of animal and fish poaching, arson, and the occasional kidnapping. Yes, simpler times for simpler . . . uh, hold on.
I don’t know who that kid is in panel 1, but it sure doesn’t look like the kid in panel 2. When we were last at Lost Forest, Mark was chewing out Olive Pitt for doing what he would have done, had he been there: Putting a sock in Honest Ernest’s face for his provocations and bullying behavior.
And once again, Olive and Rusty go out on another walk. Apparently, having a post office in Lost Forest means you come and collect the mail. However, this gives Rivera the opportunity to introduce another character and story arc from the Lost Forest population. Well, the more the merrier, I say! These Lost Forest stories need fresh meat. But will this new story abide by the nature/environment focus of the strip’s raison d’être? Peach Pitt’s recent story about her macho hunter-turned-psycho ex-boyfriend pushed the boundaries of the focus on nature.
So, okay. Rivera got her joke strip out today. And it was a gentle, innocuous Family Circus kind of humor, too. But no more! No more joke strips this week!
The Daily Trail 