This is starting to look familiar: the “Herp Hacienda Gang of Lost Forest”, perhaps. I laughed at Ol’ Cliff as he imitates a late night host introducing his next celebrity guest, not as a fellow vet who happens to also be a Big Deal nature journalist. Or vice-versa.

Another nice closeup of Mark. One thing noticeable in Rivera’s work is that we don’t see the same photocopied closeup face of Mark every other strip, or every other panel. Maybe there is some, but it’s not so noticeable.

In any event, I see a possible “A Team” episode in the works as Mark discovers a more appealing group of people to assist in his zebra mussel assignment. I’m guessing at least one of those people will wind up being a former Navy Seal, to help handle the difficult underwater work.

(Personal Note: I’m back, though a bit woozy. Just FYI, I had to have eyelid surgery because of overly-baggy eyes affecting my sight. With a delayed start and some post-op excitement, a 2.5 hour procedure turned into about 6 hours. If you can imagine somebody after a fight with two black eyes, you have a good idea of what I look like! But I’m doing okay. The black eyes should disappear over several days, they say. Unfortunately, they do not make me look dangerously sexy, darn it.)

Getting to the strips, I see that Mark has forgotten (or put aside, for now) his zebra mussel assignment to catch up with Cliff, who is soldiering through his post-war anxieties by finding a purpose and companionship through his fishing lodge with other vets. And good for him, too! 

Their chat—and the earlier rescue mission—should pretty well ensure Cliff gets further involved in Mark’s mission, er, assignment. But the most interesting thing to me is that Cliff has a comfy chair made out of Mark’s shirt, or something close to it. Cool!

This notification might lead to some minor harrumphs, a few desultory street protests, and a some strangled cries of desperation, but there might be a delay of a few days (i.e. Tuesday and Wednesday), due to scheduling conflicts. I’ll see what I can do. However, if all else fails, I will create an omnibus post to cover the delayed days.

And don’t fret. I promise to not go on and on and on and on, just because I’m writing on several days of strips at one time. I’ll try really hard to be concise. Really. Until then, you can get your snarkely laughs fulfilled (most of the time) at Comics Kingdom. Then come back here for that kind of hard-hitting, thoughtful, and entertaining analysis that you really look for in a blog dedicated to a comic strip.

– George Atkins

So, Mark gets “rescued” by his good ol’ friend, Cliff, who doesn’t take him back to Lost Forest, but to his own new fishing lodge. Where is that, exactly?  Is it possible that Mark would not know about a new fishing lodge built in his own neck of the woods? I suppose that, given his propensity for being away on assignments, that it is possible. Still, to be dropped off at this location suggests they are pretty close neighbors. “De-Bait Team” sounds like on odd name for a fishing lodge, though. A boat, okay.

Once again, this must be the resurrected Cliff McQueen from the old Ed Dodd days, as I mentioned back on October 2^nd. My so-called research showed that he was then a park ranger, and later, a Canadian Mountie. But that was then. This is now. And “the war” ain’t WWII, as it was for the ur-Mark. I reckon we’ll just have to assume it is one of our more recent military disasters and leave it at that. Certainly, that fire Mark mentioned was the big fire that became the turning point in the relationships between “Cherry and Mark” and “Cherry and Cliff”.

So, Cliff bears no regrets, no feelings of revenge for getting burned, so to speak? Well, it has been several decades in our timeframe, anyway. At least we can say one thing about the current strip:  All the females and all the males do not look like they are related to each other! Nevertheless, let’s see how this side-trip in the story pans out.  Will Cliff get involved in the mysterious zebra mussel affair, or does he have his own hidden agenda to derail Mark’s investigation? Funny thing about that: That’s exactly what Cliff did in a story back in 2011, when he attempted to stop Mark from searching for the source of a gold band with a Biblical verse Mark found one day. For those interested, you can read a few posts from the former blog of illustrator Shawn Turner (Shawn, Drawn), starting with his November 2011 submission: (http://shawndrawn.blogspot.com/2011/11/mark-trail-grows-cold.html).

Poor Mark, isolated and alone, after abandoning Diana Daggers, with a long walk ahead of him. And who is this “old friend” of Mark’s? Mark Trail has a history of characters that drop in and out of the strip, sometimes with years or decades in between appearances. This might be another one. Now, I cannot say that I’ve been following Mark Trail for many decades, though I’ve read the strip on and off over the years.  Again, it’s too bad that nobody has thought to reprint the Mark Trail strips as has been done for many other comic strips.

Could this be Cliff McQueen, the “former” forest ranger who was once engaged to Cherry Davis before Mark finally won her over? I tried to find an old strip showing him, but nothing turned up in my searches. If somebody has a copy of his portrayal from back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, let me know. However, I suppose it doesn’t really matter all that much, now. But it does make you wonder if they are real friends. Seems that Cliff is now a “firefighter”; and his relationship with the boat “De-Bait Team” is part of his identity.

Today we do not see Diana or Mark’s boat. Perhaps Diana cut and run; or cartoonist Rivera simply focused on the current situation, leaving Diana off to the side for the time being. But it is a nice, if subtle, bit of drama, whether she is there or has left.

Of course, “De-Bait Team” is the boat that followed Mark and Cherry and was “hosed” by the cargo ship as it stayed behind to aid in Mark and Diana’s “dramatic” escape. It appears that neither the boat nor its crew suffered any lasting damage. In fact, it looks like Cliff didn’t even get wet! I reckon that they must have locked themselves in the bridge and simply moved away. Go figure! This doesn’t absolve Mark’s indecisiveness, of course, though it might help settle his current anxieties. Still, Cliff makes a point of mentioning his selfless act as he greets Mark. This should make an interesting conversation, once Mark has moved past his belated recognition of an old friend.

Well, now. Either Mark has attained supernatural powers that allow him to walk on water, or he somehow convinced Diana to move close to shore so he could jump ship. In a way, one can sympathize with Mark, who seems to want to be shut of this entire assignment; but in truth, the assignment has only just begun. So let’s get the obvious points out of the way:

“My panic attack”

The last we saw, Mark was just huffing and puffing from his underwater photography session. But no shivering. Mark is clearly being sarcastic about a panic attack, since he displays no real symptoms. On the other hand, the Mayo Clinic states that part of the condition is based on a strong physical and emotional reaction when there is no real danger present. As noted earlier, the attack by the cargo ship was an easily avoidable event for both ships. There was no real danger to them.

“Mark, get back here! You’ll freeze!”

Wait, Mark and Diana were dressed for a warm, sunny day. Mark didn’t wear a dry suit when he went for his swim. Diana is wearing Daisy Dukes and not much more, for goodness sake! They’ve been racing in their runabout, which would certainly give Mark more chills than wading through the shallows.

Frankly, this “abandon ship” scenario would be more convincing if Jules Rivera had had Mark walk away to a small, uninhabited island, where Diana could then stress over Mark’s isolation and potential vulnerability (he only has a towel, remember!). At least, that would have some plausibility. And he’s going to walk back to the car? I presume that when Diana raced away from the ship, she headed back towards home base.

Brave Sir Markie Ran Away.

I made the Monty Python reference a few days ago, and it bears repeating here. Instead of dealing head-on with the problem of Diana’s decision-making, Mark has decided to run away from the problem and sulk. No, this is definitely not the old Mark Trail. I’m not sure this is even the new Mark Trail, or at least the new Mark Trail that seemed to be evolving over these stories. Mark doesn’t have to be the indomitable, always right, comic strip hero of old. But does he have to be petulant so often? It wouldn’t hurt if he realized that it’s okay to assert control from time to time.

I think we saw this kind of destructive behavior in Mark’s first rebooted adventure, when he took his Dad’s boat and ran off in a temper tantrum, destroying it and everything else in his path. I could understand a bit, as Rivera was just fleshing out the new characterizations while getting her jabs in at male dominance. And Mark was trying to resolve the problem of Dad having a racing boat. But that was then. We are in the now, and Mark is still unsure, seemingly exhausted from trying to figure out if it’s okay to show initiative or assert authority. Maybe he’ll run into a bear he can talk things over with on the way back to the car.

Artwork. Today’s work is well drawn, as it has been the past several days. Rivera has been planting foreground animals, as in the old Mark Trail tradition, to carry some of the old traditions forward. But the most important tradition Trailheads want (aside from changing the artwork) is for Mark to be at least more secure in himself, a bit more decisive. I’m fine with the artwork, but hope for a more quietly confident Mark to appear.

Hey, that’s a pretty good ¾ drawing of Mark in panel 1. And Diana’s “cold reaction” in panel 3, with its old style hatching, is also a great panel. I do wish we knew for certain if Rivera is doing the colors or at least indicating what they should be. I have to say that the color really sets the in panel 3.

Anyway, that adrenalin bleed-off for Mark is really something, though. I reckon swimming underwater, alongside a moving ship (with one hand, as I recall), clearly takes a toll. But now, Mark swallows his own indecisiveness by laying some coffeehouse psychology on Diana, bringing up details of her life that I assumed he knew nothing about. Or did he have a background check run on her? Guess that part must have wound up on the cutting room floor.

Clearly though, Mark no longer seems concerned about the other crew, but more about gaining the moral high ground here. He’ll have to do better than this. The obvious question here is whether Diana will “open up” with Mark or whether she’ll try to open Mark up…with a knife. She’s been hot and cold in this story, so it’s a toss-up.

It is easy for long-time readers, I believe, to think that Rivera is making sport of them, if one reads captions like that in panel 1 as parody: “Terrifying brush with the Duck Duck Goose Shipping Liner.”  Really?! There was nothing really terrifying about it, of course. Absurd, perhaps. So Mark and Diana’s escape concludes with Mark still wracked over his moral dilemma, which Diana has so far resolved by telling him to stuff it.

But Mark, himself, is still in a moral quandary. Note that he doesn’t forcefully state “We must go back for the others”, but instead settles only on the possibility of going back. It’s one thing to have your morals (or ethics, if you will) thwarted by events out of your control, but at least you know what’s right. Here, Mark seems to doubt whether his compass is pointing in the right direction. This only gives Diana room to assert more control and leadership as Mark once again settles in as a rider and not a driver. Who’s in charge?

I get Rivera’s desire to give Mark more depth of character and reduce the strong (white) male hero kind of idealism that the traditional Mark Trail represents; that is, try to make Mark more of a real person. Or maybe the point is to define a “world” where being the Big Hero is less important than being one part of a solution. Yada, yada, yada. I don’t know. My mind could be getting infected by too much California Craziness. Yet, I think there’s currently too much self-doubt and indecisiveness in Mark. It’s hard to believe that this Mark is a person who can get things done, much less solve problems. There has to be a “happy medium” some place, but I don’t think it is there, yet. Unless, of course, tomorrow brings a turnabout in Mark’s current attitude and his moral/ethical certainty dominates the scene.

Two more quick points: 

1. Why is Mark suddenly so out of breath? Is this some kind of delayed reaction caused by a surge of adrenalin brought on by their escape from the terrifying brush with the cargo ship? Mark certainly doesn’t sound like he’s in any condition to help the other crew, anyway.
2. I forgot point two. I wasn’t quick enough.

So, Diana finally figured out what direction to go, as they make their “escape.” We also see that Mark’s conscience catches up with him. This is where Mark would be getting guidance from a passing fish or bird, since Ralph the rat snake is hanging out (literally) at Lost Forest.

So, what does Mark do at this moral juncture? Does he force the issue and turn the boat around or just store the incident away in his head as something else he can’t fix? Does he take Diana to task? Or will he just internalize the incident as a bad job all around?

I think if I was Mark and believed that that fishing boat crew were sincere, legit, and in real trouble, I’d push Daggers out of the way (or out of the boat) and go back for them. I might also pause to consider why they bothered to stay behind when both boats could have raced away. Looks fishy to me.

I was also going to comment on the contrary and unusual clouds in the four panels, but they do not appear in the black and white version of the strip. This makes me believe that the syndicate colorist put them in, apparently as a poorly conceived afterthought. Too bad some people will think Rivera is responsible for them. But the drawing of Mark in panel 4 is well executed, clearly showing he has a more sophisticated collection of emotions than his predecessor.

Well, somebody should tell me when my sense of timing is off. My wife won’t do it and I’ve done a bad job of it, myself. Of course, this is the second week of Mark’s adventure, so my Saturday commentary about what to expect is pure bunk, as usual. I reckon I should spending more time looking before I leap. So, apologies for the sloppy timekeeping on my part.

The madcap adventure drones on. In spite of the dubious “sacrifice” of the other fishing boat to allow Mark and Diana to escape, it appears that these so-called anti-pirate hoses are pretty wimpy deals. They look more like flat, yellow straps. And there is already one of them on Mark’s (or Diana’s?) boat! I reckon that their runabout is more of a floatabout, given they haven’t moved very far. Or have they?

Recall that Saturday’s strip shows that these two were a good bit further away than we see above. In fact, they seem to be moving in the opposite direction from the cargo ship than they are today. Clearly, there is something odd in continuity. Perhaps they have fallen victim to the Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum, first discovered by Kurt Vonnegut. This is where time and space tend to coalesce, allowing a person stuck in this situation to experience multiple timeframes (past, present, future). Perhaps that is not what Rivera had in mind, however.

I suppose we must overlook these visual flubs and focus on what are the important points:

1. The conflict between Mark’s moral sense honor and Diana’s moral sense of opportunity and self-interest.
2. The dilemma of “doing the right thing” in a situation where you may not be able to make the correct choice.

From a broader perspective, I see that both Mark’s and Cherry’s storylines have converged on these same moral points. Do the right thing or do the convenient thing. And like Cherry, Mark may be in a situation where his sense of right is irrelevant.

Critics would point out that part of what made the original Mark Trail appealing was his moral certainty and unshakable resolve. His actions were almost automatic when it came to responding to danger or seeing another person in danger. The expression “moral uncertainty” was not in his dictionary. Now, I don’t think we can write off this Mark Trail as a moral relativist. At a certain point, Mark’s sense of duty rises to the surface and demands a response. Perhaps the Yeti story our former Mark Trail experienced is similar in regard to Mark’s conflict with Harvey, the expedition leader. For most part, Mark was simply an observer reacting to Harvey’s decisions. While Mark knew his position was correct, there was nothing he could do to resolve the situation except to walk away from it, so to speak. But the outcome was out of his hands.

Okay, sometimes it’s really hard to not throw in with the snarkers. This is silly on so many fronts that it could take a page to get through. The fishing boats are just a nuisance. But maybe the ship’s crew were bored enough to make engaging their anti-pirate boarding system worth the time and effort for a good laugh. Still, this scene of “defense, sacrifice, and escape” just doesn’t live up to its moralistic aims.

• Why did the other boat need to stay behind when they could have both just moved away? It’s not as if a cargo ship can turn on a dime and chase them.
• Why are the two crew members of that other boat just standing around in panel 3 instead of trying to get away?
• Exactly why are Mark and Diana worried? Nobody’s shooting at them.
• When did Mark ever run away from danger? Oh, right. This is the less idealized Mark, who reacts to danger like many of us.
• And what is Diana even doing in panel 4? Where did her bravado go?
• So, was that boat’s “screening sacrifice” really an act of courage or just an act?

I mean, c’mon! Neither boat was in any real danger, except from the undertow of the cargo ship, itself. Those fire hose defense systems aren’t designed to pursue pirate ships moving away from the ship. However, perhaps Rivera thought it would make an exciting action scene to have fire hoses waving all around and spraying water everywhere. But the result reminds me more of the robot on the TV show, Lost in Space, which would ineffectually wave its arms whenever it sensed danger. On the other hand, I would feel very insulted if this entire sequence of “dangerous mission”, furtive pursuit, dangerous reprisals, and unknown sacrifice was all just some kind of parody. I’d be much happier if this were just Rivera’s attempts to construct a classic adventure story.

She has not had the opportunity to do so, until now. The first story was for introductions and more of a social commentary on the Mark Trail tradition of the idealized hero as much as it was a nod to environmentalism. The second adventure was less “adventure” and more mad-cap lunacy in a state (other than Florida) known for its quirky characters. So we are now into Mark’s third story, which is cast in a more traditional format of a Mark Trail adventure; only the premise is shaky (illicit zebra mussel importing). It’s still early in the story, though. But for all of you die-hard Trailheads who think this is not as good as the pre-Rivera Mark Trail stories, think back to the Bat Cave and the Hawaiian Island stories. Even the Himalayan Sasquatch adventure. These were all stories that mostly had no point to them, solved nothing, and suffered ridiculous escapades.

Crew of the cargo ship finally notice the action below and threaten to deploy “deterrents” if they don’t leave. Not sure what those deterrents are, but they probably do not include detergents.  And now, the crew of the pursuit boat appear to want to assist Mark and Diana’s departure, or escape. A minute ago, the crew of the pursuit boat were the problem. Now that’s the role of the cargo ship’s crew.

Why does the pursuit boat’s crew want to help Mark and Diana? Why do they even need to “distract” the crew of the cargo ship so Mark and Diana can escape when the ship’s crew can plainly see them from above and have already demanded that they leave?! It’s not as if Mark’s boat can go into stealth mode and slip away, sight unseen. What then—Is the pursuit boat going to start deploying smoke? Are they going to attempt to board the cargo ship? Or is this whole thing just an elaborate trap? There is certainly no end to mystery and suspense going on here.

Back to the artwork, how come the pursuit boat keeps gaining height (panel 2—that’s right, boys and girls. panel 2 is not one of the crew on the cargo ship!.) and losing it again (panel 3)? What’s the point to that? Finally, where did all of those black splotches in the water come from? They were not there before…maybe that cargo ship is leaking fuel?! Forget the stupid zebra mussels, call the EPA!

Why do I have the feeling that the goose (?) is laughing at us? Cheeky bird!

Okay, everybody! Just settle down and let’s try to make some sense of this. Wait…none of this makes sense. First, I appreciate the topical pun in the initial message box. And an emerging Mark shouts “STOP!”, but it isn’t clear if he refers to the argument or the boats drifting around him. Marks looks to be swimming towards the other boat, which is named “Debait.” Of course, it’s a boating pun, not a pun for a collegiate discussion forum, one presumes.

Diana, far from being the in-your-face menace she has always been, now sounds more like the old Cherry, at least in panel 2. But she does get a little more testy by panel 3. And what’s with the argument over boat ownership? Diana says it’s Mark’s; the guy in the hat says they know it isn’t. But on Tuesday, these guys said it was Mark’s boat! Make up your minds! That man in the purple hat might be a marine police officer or an HVAC installer. I didn’t notice any police stickers or sirens on his boat. If it is really his boat, that is! As the two groups of people square off, they fail to notice that they are drifting into the wake of the passing cargo ship. Then again, the water looks as placid as a fishing lake at 5 AM. But the collision definitely puts a wrinkle into the story and may provide an excuse for moving Diana and Mark onto the cargo ship, if their boat falls apart and sinks. We know Mark’s history with boats, so it’s an odds-on favorite it will happen.

Now, to address some of the art; specifically, the issue of scale. It’s tough trying to make the case for small boats and big ships all in the same location, at the same time, when drawn in a set of small squared panels. You should try it. It isn’t easy. Nevertheless, in panel 1, Mark and Diana’s boat seems to be close in size and height to the pursuit boat. Yet in panel 2, it looks like the pursuit boat suddenly grew ten feet higher, as the man in the purple hat looks down at a smaller Diana. And in panel 3, they are both on the same plane once again. I’m getting dizzy!

Panel 4 is an interesting angle, showing us the passing cargo ship and the two smaller boats. We finally see two people on the upper deck of the vessel, looking down at the smaller boats. The observers seem pretty small compared with the people in the two boats. Since we are looking down, they should be larger to our eyes. Don’t you agree? In fact, the cargo ship (on its own) looks like it should be about twice the size it is drawn in. But I’m sure there are small cargo ships like this. Still, the variations in scale are jarring. It shows how difficult it is to consolidate objects of diverse size in one scene and make them look realistic. I don’t know if Jules Rivera uses an assistant or not. Many cartoonists do, as I’ve come to find out. Perhaps her assistant got to take up the pencil today, as compared to the strips from the prior three days.

Finally, Mark’s attempt to bluff their way out of this situation in panel 3 came to a crashing halt in panel 4. So we move into darker waters of suspense, ladies and gentlemen. What will happen? Who are the men in hats Are they professionally related to the ship or ship’s owners? Will Mark try to continue his bluff?

Amazing underwater acrobatics as Mark essentially leg-paddles along with the moving ship as he takes photos. The hull now seems to have sunk down several feet, based on the lower point of view in the first panel. But I’m unjustly quibbling and overlooking the bigger picture. Are t hose zebra mussels? Last I saw (when they were first brought up), they looked more like tiny clams, not barnacles.

Oh, I get it. Perhaps Mark is ignorant of what he is looking at; a potentially embarrassing moment for “Mr. Sunday Nature Encyclopedia” and another opportunity for Diana to insult Mark.

Panel 3 implies that Mark is vertically swimming to the surface. Well, water does tend to create distortions in angles and space, so perhaps the river really is deeper. So, is a snorkel the best thing to use here? It seems to depend too much on a person’s lung capacity and breath retention without blacking out from the exertion of underwater swimming and taking photos. Again, I’m quibbling. I apologize. Getting back to the plot…

The story unfolds simply and directly, as Mark finds his “evidence” and breaches the surface, only to discover that Diana has finally realized they are being followed by people with suspicious intent. According to the “Handbook of Heroic Actions” (as used in action movies), this should be where Diana throws a roped life ring to Mark as she speeds by to escape. Mark grabs the passing buoy, pull himself upright, and water skis to safety on his bare feet, leaving startled strangers behind in their slower craft.

I’m just not sure Jules has seen that reference book; or cares. More likely, she’ll just have Diana wave a fist at her pursuers and threaten to hurt them really bad. It’s a tactic that sure worked on Mark!

I’d like to comment on the color over the past few days, which is good, but again, we don’t know who is specifying it. I do know that the comics syndicate usually does it on their own, unless they have specific instructions from the cartoonists. The artwork, itself, continues to be fine, with interesting changes of view and without the scribbly, hurried look we sometime see.

Now, if this was a story about the illicit trade of coral, for example, it might have more weight. Not to take away from the menace of zebra mussels at all, in spite of Mark’s discovering what must be the mussels-under-investigation, and conveniently stuck to the bottom of a cargo ship’s hull that has a draft of no more than two feet. This must be a really small, empty ship to be sitting so high on the water. It does justify the snorkel, I suppose.

And Mark doesn’t really have to swim very deep, especially in a river that seems to have a depth of about…what, 10-15 feet?! So, we have a tiny cargo ship running in shallow waters—apparently really, really slow!—without any lookouts to notice Diana tailgating the cargo ship (and without being affected by the ship’s wake). Mark, being a modern day Johnny Weissmuller, has no trouble keeping up with this ship using only one hand to swim while he takes photos. Atta boy, Mark! With that kind of strength and stamina, we have to believe that Diana is already thinking about how her night is going to pan out.

And she must really be preoccupied to not notice another boat just behind and closing. This reminds me of those cop shows where the good guys follow a suspect only one or two cars directly behind for 10-15 blocks, and never get made. Maybe there’s a case for that:  Many of us live our lives, oblivious to daily routine. If prompted, we probably could not describe any cars we drove alongside or passed on the road, unless it was something notable, such as a Ford Model-A or that cyclist we just missed, as it blew through a red light.

In spite of the rather “small potatoes” scope of this zebra mussel investigation, somehow the purpose of Mark and Diana’s boat excursion has been leaked to one or more of those dangerous companies that Rafael mentioned, in passing. Who are they and why are they dangerous? We don’t know yet. Will we ever? And does the crime of having zebra mussels on a ship’s hull require a boatload of thugs to follow, and deal with anybody who got too curious?

Or is this really not about zebra mussels? These unknown bad guys might be surprised, if not astounded, to realize that Mark and Diana are not looking for illegal drugs stored in the ship’s hold, nor abducted and imprisoned young girls destined for a slave market somewhere in Southeast Asia. Just zebra mussels.

Otherwise, we are left with a premise, something like this:

OWNER OF DANGEROUS COMPANY: “Okay, yous guys. Get inna da boat and follow behind our ship. Look out for anybody that getsa too close to it and startsa snooping!”
BAD GUY #1: “What do we do if we spot somebody, boss?”
OWNER OF DANGEROUS COMPANY: “Unless they actually sees-a the zeebra mussels we are smugglin’ in, just-a scare them off, Benny. Otherwise, give ’em cement goulashes. Got it?”
BAD GUY: #2 “Sure, boss, we get it! But what’sa the big deal with these mussels, anyways? Dey’re all over the country already, and nobody wants ’em!”
<SMACK!>
OWNER OF DANGEROUS COMPANY: “Stupido! We don’ta get paid to aska the questions. This is just the story Rivera stuck us into, hokay? Now get outta here!”

Well, now that Comics Kingdom is back online, there is a good supply of jokes and snarks to read!

(revised) On Sunday, I remarked on the unusual (to me, at least) choice of the Shiba inu (Japanese for “Brushwood dog”, I believe) for a size comparison with the coyote, while more people would have likely better understood a comparison with a more common dog, such as a retriever or poodle. But reader jalindrine (welcome!) made an interesting observation and noted that there was more involved than Rivera just making an esoteric comparison. Turns out the Shiba inu became a popular Internet meme almost ten years ago, when pictures of the dog appeared with mangled (mongrelized?) English phrases (e.g. “So scare”, “Much noble”, etc.). Jalindrine challenged me that I should be aware of this connection in order to understand the art. I may not be up to it, but…
I don’t see any broken English in the Sunday strip, so it is not an out-and-out meme, itself; but it is likely Rivera is at least trotting out the concept, in what I am calling a meme echo; that is, a reference to the actual meme. We already know that Rivera is a popular Internet artist and social media regular. From a more commercial point of view, this meme echo could be a way for Rivera to attract younger viewers to the comic strip. Otherwise, I cannot detect additional meme significance to that dog’s appearance. Please feel free to append or correct me!

Moving on to Monday and Mark’s storyline, Rivera has thoughtfully caught up the readers, as the plot now ventures into fantasy land (or Fantasy River), where it’s perfectly fine for somebody using only a snorkel to go swimming around the hull of a cargo ship under weigh. So how is a snorkel useful under water (aside from the face mask)?

I’m not going to rehash (you’re welcome) the recklessness of this decision, nor the suggestion that the zebra mussels are best found in ballast; nor the reason why they think that a specific shipping company is a more likely suspect than any other shipping company. I suppose the story will sink or swim, depending on how much we’re willing to ignore real world physics. That shouldn’t be too hard. We watch “Mission Impossible” without having conniptions, right?

One thing I am curious about is the slender gray object in the background of panel 3, between the ship’s hull and the comment box (“No big deal, right”). It appears to me that it’s an approaching ship. So, the danger will soon increase, as Mark must not only avoid getting turned into sausage from the propellers of this ship, but avoid getting sucked under the approaching vessel.  Especially if he does not notice it in time! And I don’t believe ship hulls have handgrips under the water line, either.

Okay, my hoped-for solution did not follow. Diana did not have a full SCUBA setup hidden away for Mark to use. Instead, we are to believe Mark is going to snorkel his way around a cargo ship under way, using his own power. As for the implied value of that camera, it’s hard to judge it based on the drawing; but it certainly didn’t look like anything special. If that camera is designed to work underwater, why isn’t there a lanyard attached to it? Or at least a hand strap?

So, as Diana encourages Mark (panel 4) to start his investigatory swim, we are left with…what, exactly? The carping (excuse the fishing pun) continues, unabaited (no excuse for this forced fishing pun!). Other dialog seems clueless:  “Once we’re close enough…”? Mark, if you were any closer, you could paint that ship’s hull without leaving your own boat!

A few visual points: When I first spotted Mark in panel 1, he reminded me of the ancient Greek swift-footed messenger god, Hermes (i.e. Mercury), with his winged helmet and buff physique. “Oh! Mark is wearing a snorkel,” I realized. That was also when I realized there would be no SCUBA gear and propulsion assistance.

And I was a bit disappointed at the stop-action technique in panel 4, showing Mark cascading into the water after getting pushed. The two “before and after” images, alone, are not enough to create the illusion. A person not aware of what Rivera was intending might suppose there is another person already diving.

Anyway, we should also admit that this whole premise seems screwy. If there are mussels attached to the ship’s hull, it’s not as if the DDG company put them there for some nefarious purpose. And it seems ludicrous to suppose that the ships of other companies do not suffer the same infestation. And let’s not overlook the ballast issue, which is really where these two hapless investigative reporters should be looking. But, this is the story, so we’ll follow it to its watery end.

Well, they stopped, and now they’re moving again. And apparently, so is that cargo vessel, where we can see the full company name on the side, as we would expect (as I discussed two days ago). Like the cargo ship, the plot crawls along as we learn that Diana, indeed, was going to do the diving and shooting, until Mark finally exerted some control over the situation. And we finish with some kind of beefcake pose of Markey Mark disrobing for his swim, while Daggers has a hitherto undisclosed secondary agenda. In an early interview on Comics Kingdom, Jules Rivera said that she deliberately draws Mark as “ridiculously hot, and I do have a talent for drawing hot guys.” That much is obvious.

Okay, some questions, once again:

1. How is Mark going to keep up, under water, with a vessel under way? They do not appear to have any underwater propulsion devices (but see below).
2. Even if Mark could keep up, how would he look for mussels along the hull—and take pictures—without getting caught in the ship’s undertow and drowned, or mangled in the propellers?
3. Is Diana making another non-literal sarcastic remark about following the vessel all the way to “the Great Lakes”, in the same way she made her “Welcome to California” crack after she landed at Mark’s airport near Lost Forest? That is, “I’m not gonna follow it forever!”

But if we take her literally (which I think is always a dangerous proposition), then either Daggers has no understanding of geography, or Lost Forest is really far up the Atlantic Coast, since there is no way to get a cargo ship up there from the South. That also means Cherry sure drives a far distance to her Floridian customers. So, no. Diana’s Great Lakes remark is just sarcastic hyperbole.  And there is no reason to assume Rivera also has no grasp of basic geography. Besides, in the interview I cited, Rivera makes the point that Mark is a real “Florida Man”, whatever that entails.

Nevertheless, one must question the overall validity of this scenario. It’s one thing to investigate an anchored cargo ship. I don’t care how ripped Mark is, he cannot realistically swim underwater alongside a moving vessel while simultaneously looking for zebra mussels and photographing them; all, without getting killed by the ship. Even Mike Nelson (i.e. Sea Hunt) would not have attempted that on his own.

Okay, Rivera threw us a small misdirect about who was going to do the underwater research. Is today’s situation another misdirection for readers? As it appears Diana rented the boat (which is why she is the driver, as Mark declared), did she deliberately maneuver Mark into his “it’s a Man’s job to do the dangerous work” decision? So, while filming Mark getting ready for his gutsy and possibly fatal task, she tells Mark just before he dives to stop and not to be such a macho idiot. Then she reveals an underwater propulsion jet and some scuba gear that she happened to have stowed away in the boat. Thus, this particular setup is a way for Diana to get some of her unexplained need for vengeance against Mark by making him look foolish on video, which not only will wind up in her social media, but find its way into the zebra mussel documentary. Brilliant practical joke!

Okay, am I overthinking this?

So, another fishing boat finally appears. I reckon that cargo ships make good fishing spots. Why, I see fishing boats all the time, hanging around the container ships in Duluth Harbor.

Not really.

Okay, so we finally learn a bit more about this assignment, such as that Diana is clearly far ahead of Mark with regard to background information on this assignment.  Diana dribbles out the details to Mark as if were “need to know” covert information. And perhaps we’ll eventually discover that the issue is not zebra mussels in general, but zebra mussel infestation in this unnamed body of water, somewhere near Lost Forest.

But try as I might, I cannot resist:  It’s one thing to fashion the new Mark Trail as a less idealized naturalist hero who has doubts, whose hair is no longer immaculate, and talks to animals. But it’s another thing, entirely, to make Mark appear ignorant, stupid, and incompetent.

1. Mark seems curious that mussels (like other mollusks) could attach themselves to ship hulls. Then again, The USGS web site reports that mussels are commonly spready when ships dump ballast water .
2. Why does Mark only now realize one of them has to go underwater to get photographs?
3. And why doesn’t Mark realize it is Diana who is going underwater, not him? After all, she is the one wearing a bathing suit and carrying a (presumably waterproof) camera.

Mark really is becoming the second-banana in this story, the loose change in your pocket you don’t mind losing. His job is apparently to be the main distraction, while Diana does the real work.

The only thing that can save this wreck as a Mark Trail story is for Diana to get trapped or captured, requiring Mark to don his hero costume and come to her rescue. Or something along those lines.

Well, may Jules will rename the strip to Mark Trevail.

Other fishing boats? Where? Surely, you jest. And are we to believe that a cargo ship just happened to be anchored along a forest shoreline? And is this shoreline that deep?! Hard to believe.Maybe that is the problem:  It lost its anchor(s) and drifted aground. And all of the crew have abandoned the vessel, except for the crusty old sea captain.

But where the hell are they, anyway!? I reckon that the “Lost Forest” location of the comic strip—if it is in Georgia—must be off the Gulf Coast by one of Georgia’s two main gulf rivers:  the Altamaha or the Savannah. But so much here seems just weird. I’ll summarize:

• In panel 1, the cargo ship is described as “wild.” Why? Wild for showing up in this situation, or maybe because it hosts illicit hip-hop dances on the foredeck at sundown?
• “DDG” is the name on the bow of the ship, which turns out to be the company’s name. This is not standard. Normally, the ship’s name is on the bow and the company’s name is on the side(s).
• In panel 2, Mark prepares to go fishing and acts as if there is nothing of interest, including the cargo ship directly in front of them. And does Diana need to get a pair of shades that work?
• It’s either getting warm, or maybe Diana is already planning to put the moves on Mark.
• In panel 3, nobody on the ship has waved them off yet, even though there are supposed to be crew manning watches to prevent such incidents.
• There are enough double-entendres here to satisfy a Friends fan.
• If Diana is a producer and videographer, where is all of the equipment: Video camera, microphone, sound mixer, clapper-board, Director’s beret, etc? You can’t make a documentary or gather evidence with only a small photo camera. If Diana has no equipment to speak of, why is she needed? Rafael sold Diana to Mark as an up-and-coming documentary star. I suppose this will be like props on Gilligan’s Island. When the castaways needed something, POOF! Like a dux ex machina, the needed things would appear (except for working transmitters and boats).

So, now what? Does Diana don scuba gear (not so far seen) and investigate the keel? Does she try to catch the attention of somebody on the deck and ask if they want to star in a new documentary about cargo ships illegally bringing zebra mussels into the country?

Okay, okay. Maybe I’m getting too far into the trees, here. That’s what the Loon seems to be telling me. This is just a comic strip, after all. It isn’t a documentary, nor a graphic history. And it’s not as if the prior versions of the Mark Trail dailies (not Sundays) were noted for their factual accuracy, either. Movies always play fast and loose with reality, so I don’t think it is fair to expect much more from comic strips. I didn’t intend to simply issue snarky comments and catch every questionable item or act. I’ll leave that to you readers in your comments (as you’ve been doing, thank you). I’m going to try and stick to the high road and deal more with the storyline, the art, and…and…a bit of snark, here and there.