The game’s afoot!

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(January 2, 2025) Military commanders like to say that a plan never survives contact with the enemy. However, you need to have a plan in the first place, right? With all of the time that has passed between Mark learning about the assignment and right now, I would have thought the Storm Brain NPO could have put something together by now. Anything!

And just what the heck is going on in panel 1? Is this another instance of dialog balloons getting mismatched, intentionally or accidentally? As even a blockhead like me knows, “I’m glad you called me” is Mark’s line. And that “brilliant” analysis that transit is the best time for grabbing Max could have come from non-other than the impulsive Skeeter. Of course, he is wrong. The best time to grab Max is now, while they are standing around plotting strategy. And the Whether Men won’t just grab Max; they will grab the truck with Max in it.

It’s really hard to not laugh at the sheer naivety of these people, acting like little kids participating in their first school football game. This storyline and dialog force me to consider whether Rivera is once again mocking her readers or maybe her syndicate. I’m not criticizing the basic story idea—which is just fine— but the way it’s being developed.

So, am I wrong (again)? Is my analysis off, or is there anything else on your mind?

Happy New Year, unless you are a manatee or report the weather.

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Rivera brings in real events and (absurd) beliefs that have been in the news during 2024 (if not before). In the Real World, crackpots accuse meteorologists and the federal government of controlling weather, specifically, hurricanes. For this story, Rivera redirects that blame onto manatees. And not just manatees in general, but specifically to Max the Manatee. Somehow, teaching climate change is wrapped up in this stew of stupidity.

I may be just a slow kid from Virginia, but I found Skeeter’s comment in panel 1 problematic. Based on that comment about the influence of teaching climate change, I don’t know if Rivera wants us to think that Skeeter is acting a bit too paranoid or if we are supposed to believe that the members of the Whether Men are even more mentally unbalanced than originally presented . Well, maybe Skeeter is a bit too involved, anyway, as he thinks Max is their manatee.

Mark’s mission finally gets underway!

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Panel 1: Everybody sing: Do you see what I see? <Do you see what I see?> Well, do ya?

So, the story moves on, though the forced dialog for the sake of a joke (panel 4) is meh. On the other hand, it’s a good facsimile of how regular people sound who don’t have the benefit of professional joke writers at their beck and call.

I’m wondering how come we see no interest in checking on Max the Manatee’s welfare, unless Max is not yet in the truck, but in a temporary holding tank someplace else, ready to be picked up.

Art Dept. Today’s strip is an improvement over yesterday’s work, as picked apart by commenter Be Ware of Eve Hill. In fact, Panel 1 presents a well-balanced, detailed composition. Sure, I could quibble about the blocky and heavily outlined bush beside the tree … and I will. If the aim here is to just present a sense of “bushiness”, then at least make the outline of the bush look less like something cut out by a kindergarten student using plastic scissors!

Compare the bush to the tree: It is not any specific type of tree, but at least its depiction of the trunk and canopy are naturalistic enough to create a plausible image. Here is a good example of plausible bushes and flora, from Rivera’s earlier work in November 2020.

Rivera prematurely announces the start of Mark’s escort job! Confusion sure to follow!

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Is Max the Manatee already in the rescue truck!? Hasn’t anybody been monitoring and guarding him all this time!?

Well, if this Storm Brain NPO is so connected, who needs Mark to publicize Max the Manatee? With Mark’s puny social media following (just a few hundred more than mine, I think!), it’s a wonder how his name even wound up at the top of any Internet search (see Saturday’s strip for that reference, if you missed it).

As for “getting” the manatee rescue truck, I assume they mean “renting” the truck, since the actual cost has to be pretty high (>$100,000), owing to its special construction and gear. There really are manatee rescue/transport trucks, by the way.

One such truck was featured in news stories in Palm Beach, Florida in 2022. The one pictured in this photo was donated to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which counts rescuing and tracking manatees as part of its mandate.

It bears a striking resemblance to the one Rivera drew. And that is perfectly fine, of course. Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to.

Art Dept:  For today, I’ll let you all handle that analysis.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Rivera spent the first three days of the week covering the phone call between Mark, Cherry, and her sisters, as Mark finally learned why Peach and Olive flew up to Lost Forest. It wasn’t until the Thursday strip that Mark met up with the people involved in transporting Max the Manatee back to the ocean.

As is usual, the two transporters (Rita and Skeeter) are not your everyday business-as-usual movers, but operate an NPO involved in teaching weather and climate science in underprivileged schools. That’s all to the good, of course. They showed Mark threatening emails from members of “The Whether Men” conspiracy group. We also now learned how Mark got involved in this project:  Rita and Skeeter specifically asked for him, not because of his reporting skills, but because he showed up in an Internet search as a Manatee Fighter. In my basic understanding of English grammar that phrase means Mark fights manatees, but in the world of Mark Trail, it apparently means somebody who fights on behalf of manatees. I would have opted for Manatee Defender, but I’m too Old School, I reckon.

In other news: I have written now and then about how certain comic strip characters (here and in other strips) wear the same clothes all the time as a form of visual identity; but some don’t: Mark and Rusty conform to this standard, whereas Cherry does not. Anyway, I was catching up on Greg Evan’s Luann and saw its own take on clothing identity. Brad DeGroot finally reveals the secret. And it’s just as I thought!

So, what do you think of the Sunday Nature Chat?

The title panel reminds me of a children’s storybook cover. That’s not a putdown.

I think Rivera presents a good topic today: she gives a nod to superstition, but ultimately anchors the topic in an informative explanation of how genetic mutation creates different versions of “white deer.”

What Mark didn’t state is that this whiteness can make deer especially vulnerable to predation, and not just from humans. Also important to keep in mind is that their whiteness is not an example of a different or an endangered species of deer.

Skeeter lays it on thick and Mark eats it up!

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Okay, how many of you really did an Internet search for “Manatee Fighter”!? Let’s see those hands!
…well, I did, too, of course.

Needless to say, most of us are familiar with the many tales of Mark Trail: Manatee Fighter as relayed by Rivera’s predecessors. The earliest adventure was probably “Mark Saves Cherry Davis from pet Manatee.” Then there was the notorious “Don’t Manhandle My Manatee!” One of his more recent stories was “The Manatee Make-out Caper”, where criminal manatee kidnapers chase Mark, Carina, and Gabe the Manatee through a dangerous cave that took several months of newspaper time to traverse. Gabe was so feisty that Carina barely had an opportunity to flash her assets at Mark

It appears that there is more manatee backstory in Rivera’s Mark Trail that hasn’t yet made it to print. And I know a lot of you are hoping it remains that way..*

Now, keep in mind that Rivera’s Mark Trail is not yet the internationally known and respected nature reporter his “dad” was. This current incarnation of Mark is a fringe up-and-comer, eager to take on just about any project that will get him more exposure. That might also explain Mark’s willingness to continue moving between reporting and activism as well as crossing that red line of legality when he deems it necessary.

Internet: Speaking of Internet searches,  you will not find the “Whether Men”, but you will find entries for “The Whethermen.” I’ll leave it to you to find out who they are and what they do.

* I hope readers realize this is just sarcasm. As far as I know, Mark has no manatee history.

Mark looks back over his shoulder and wonders where Skeeter bought his cargo vest.

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I think we can all agree that there are some aspects to this “feel-good story of inspiration and hope” that don’t make a lot of sense (at this point). And I’m not referring to the fact that Rita and Skeeter immediately reintroduce themselves to Mark, after having just done so a moment before.

Skeeter and Rita claim their lives have been upended as a result of raising funds to transport Max back into the ocean. So …
1. Who put these two civilians in charge of arranging transportation? Are they qualified?
2. Wouldn’t the first people you turn to for a project like this be actual marine biologists and other specialists? (I think I mentioned this point, previously.)
3. Where the heck is Max right now? According to Bill Ellis (see the December 6 strip), Max had already been removed from the freshwater pool and put into a van (“Oh The Hu-Manatee! Manatee Movers”) apparently containing sufficient ocean water to keep it healthy and alive. So why wasn’t Max immediately driven to the ocean and put back? Did they have to put up a GoFundMe page to buy gas?

The needs of the story outweigh the needs of logic and reality.

4. Still, why contrive the context of two aspirational meteorological educators working in underprivileged schools when Rivera could have fashioned a more plausible setting by making them members of an underfunded marine biology research center, a zoo, or the Department of Natural Resources? Heck, any of these positions would be even more likely to receive threats and harassment from conspiracy theorists and other nut jobs.

Mark Trail, reporting for duty!

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I reckon we might want to gear up for an Armadillo Sunday. And it’s nice that Mark was able to tear himself away from his family chit-chat long enough to get to the emergency situation he was sent down here for. I’m glad to see I was wrong about the stalling continuing. Rivera actually is moving the story along!

You’re not supposed to judge books by their covers, conventional wisdom says. We shouldn’t prejudge these hipsters employed by the Manatee Transportation Company as if they are anything like those laughably bad “hippie” portrayals that were a common staple in the old Dragnet TV show. Still, are these two people marine biologists or veterinarians? If not, where are the scientists? There are two more days this week where Rivera can introduce some support staff. But then again, if we insisted upon strict realism and proper protocols, where would the fun be? Mark is in the Land of Lunatics, Scammers, and Oddballs, so let the weird begin!

Cherry touches a sore spot!

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<Sigh!> Will this desultory dialog mark the content of the week? (To paraphrase Rusty, see what I did there!?) Rivera tends to parse her stories into weekly chunks, a simple and convenient technique that functions as book chapters. But do we need an entire chapter devoted to this phone call? That is to say, if Mark is off on some important and potentially dangerous assignment (according to Bill Ellis), is distracting Mark with Peach’s bipolar ex-boyfriend a really good idea right now?

Long-time readers of Mark Trail know that Mark has a long history of dealing with poachers, so even just mentioning the word is enough to set him off, as we see here!

Historical Note: Interesting use of the slang, “moxie” in panel 4. I remember it as a popular term often used in MAD Magazine when I was growing up. In case it isn’t obvious, the term refers to personal audacity, nerve, or spunk. The term originated in a once-popular beverage of the same name that was advertised as “nerve food” and a health beverage.

I wonder if Mark remembered to bring his camera and notepad.

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Here it is Christmas Eve and Rivera wastes another day on meaningless drivel that does not move Mark’s story one iota farther along. So today we see a possible example of Mark’s narcissism, as played out in panel 4. Should we take his statement seriously? Perhaps Mark is just being melodramatic to evoke more sympathy from Cherry. Otherwise, Mark is developing an alarming sense of self-importance. Sarcasm might also explain the narration box containing that hackneyed phrase “Thoughts and Prayers”, normally reserved for people at death’s door or for their survivors.

Anyway, what is Mark talking about in panel 4? Nowhere does Bill Ellis assign the role of manatee bodyguard to him. Instead, Ellis simply pointed out some dangers related to the assignment. Even Bill Ellis knows that Mark is just a reporter (or “journalist” if you want to be charitable), not a Navy Seal or trained bodyguard.

Misplaced people, misplaced priorities, and misplaced story

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Hoo-boy, a plate of crow for me. Now I can see a really good reason to keep these characters in their normal, identity-based clothing. And there is Mark in bed wearing pajamas, which brings up another point: What the heck time is it, anyway!? Unless Lost Forest is west of Georgia, they’re both in the Eastern time zone. Mark is ready for bed, while Cherry and Rusty are dressed to go … someplace: Christmas Service, perhaps? An invitation to a 1950s social dinner at the Sunny Soleil Society?

It’s really disappointing that Rivera builds up a story of a manatee-in-crisis down in Florida that demands Mark’s immediate cooperation and participation; yet, wastes a day giving us nothing but a pointless throwaway strip with Mark loafing around in bed at a time when everybody else is still in their day clothes.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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As the prior week focused on Mark’s departure to Florida to save Max the Manatee (as that adventure should resume tomorrow), so this past week Cherry learned about sister Peach’s weakness for men who check several of the macho boxes: big, strong, handsome, hunter, poacher, bipolar, … uh, hold up. Too many boxes. Seems boyfriend Rick illegally lured a protected deer onto private property so he could shoot it. Well, nice to know that even Peach has some standards, so she dumped the dude.

Unfortunately, Rick turned angry and violent after the rejection, threatening Peach, Olive, and other family members. So the two sisters fled the state to seek safe shelter in Lost Forest. And that’s where things stand at the moment.

Well, this is an interesting departure from the usual Sunday nature blab, and I’m happy to see that Rivera’s approach to the Christmas holiday is not some sentimental greeting card blather. Focusing on the animals of The Twelve Days of Christmas is a clever idea. Well done, Rivera! She clearly spent extra time designing and drawing today’s panels. It’s actually quite good and makes me wish all of her stuff measured up.

And I do like the “country squire” attire Mark sports. I can actually imagine spinning off a 17th century Lord Mark Trail adventure strip. We’d see Lord Mark rising from his snobbish upper class ways to become focused on learning about and protecting animals and their habitats during the early days of the Royal Society, while also interacting with scientists, nobles, and lawbreakers of the day.

Hiding in plain sight

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So the week ends with an uneventful return to the Trail cabin, as Rusty rushes to hug his favorite (and only) aunts. And this concludes the current chapter of Cherry’s latest story as we’ll return to Mark’s emergency trip to Florida (note the symmetry here: One emergency results in fleeing Florida, while the other emergency results in a race to Florida).

Art Dept. Have you ever seen one of those trick perspective rooms where a 6’ dude walks to a corner of the room closer to the viewer, yet is now smaller than the 5’ person he was originally standing beside? It’s all optical illusion, of course. These are known as “Ames Rooms” named for the scientist who first constructed one (but it was not his original idea). However, that is not what is going on in panel 1.

While the sisters are correctly proportioned with regard to the truck, they are literally giants with regard to the cabin in panel 1! There is no artistic requirement for this, as the cabin could have been drawn in any number of ways that would maintain correct proportions. This then brings up the question of whether this disparity is due to Rivera’s indifference, a deliberate choice, or just carelessness. Do note that a proper, proportional relationship between people and cabin is restored in panel 2. Why the disparity?

If you like, feel free to submit your reason and justification for thinking so in the Comments!

And the award for “Non Sequitur of the Week” goes to …

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The story is coasting today, as Rivera does indeed spread out the drive home to fill out the week. Perhaps Cherry’s squirrel remark is one of those sitcom-like remarks meant to inject some humor into a tense situation. Or maybe it’s a warning that the commercial health inspector hasn’t gotten around to the donut shop yet, so be careful. Meanwhile, nobody yet has thought about the possibility of Rick pursuing Peach.

Art Dept. Rivera’s earliest work in Mark Trail featured interesting and unusual perspectives. Today’s axonometric-like drawing in panel 1 is another daring attempt that is mostly successful, but the figures of Cherry and Peach are somewhat blocky; especially Cherry. The human figure can be tough to interpret in acute angles. Rivera has been altering our viewpoints inside the truck all week long. But the interior of the truck is starting to look more like a room with small windows than a truck’s cab.

This just in: Sisters Flee Mans’ Man Psycho, but Cousins and Canine are Left in the Lurch!

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Peach’s “Jerry Springer”-style confession does give one pause to wonder whether Rick’s behavior manifested itself any earlier, unless their relationship was short-lived. And the Pitts are clearly not ones to go running to the police or an attorney, either.

Cherry might want to rethink her decision to give shelter to her sisters, for the sake of her own family’s safety. Rick sounds like the kind of person who would come after Peach. But I hear what you’re thinking:  “What about Mother Pitt?” Apparently, even Rick knows his own limits, as he didn’t try to threaten her.

Boyfriend Rick Crosses Peach’s Redline.

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Rivera paces today’s strip the same as yesterday’s but in doing so, the overall pace of the story has slowed down, since we have to wait until tomorrow to learn about Rick’s reactions. I’m betting today’s and tomorrow’s strips could have been consolidated into one. We could cut out panels 2 and 4 as extraneous. We really don’t need to know who or what this “famous buck” is that Rick poached. That it was poached is good enough.

Art Dept. On the other hand, I’ll give points for the background coloration in panels 3 and 4. Their somber tones help reinforce the drama. In fact, I was going to mention that yesterday, since panel 4 did not have a tone-setting background, in spite of its darker content.

Peach Pitt Tells (almost) All!

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Art. Dept. (This is George being a mega-geek today) I think Rivera’s pacing in today’s 4-panel installment is well timed, with no extraneous fat to trim out. After the panel 1 premise is established (“What did he do?”), panels 2 and 3 waste no time or space in establishing the basis of Peach’s former affection for her boyfriend, Rick. In panel 4, Rivera ends with Peach’s conflict, creating a cliff-hanger designed to get us to “turn the page” and discover the truth by which Peach made her fateful decision.

I also like the manner in which Rivera transitions Peach’s backstory from current time (panel 1) to her past, via flashback. Panel 2 shows the start of her flashback as the “Current Time” Peach literally looks back on her past time with Rick. Notice that Rivera shows Peach still talking using a conventional speech balloon. By panel 3, we have moved into Full-Scale Flashback Mode, as all of the images are now part of Peach’s flashback. Her recollection is carried forward only in narration boxes.

Otherwise, the overall drawing remains sketchy. I would have liked to see Rivera alter the style (or at least appearance) of the flashback panels as a further visual reinforcement of the time/place change.

The Manatee Emergency will have to wait a week!

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I’ve already gone over the fact that moose should not be found in Lost Forest, unless Lost Forest has relocated to upper New England or an upper region of one of our other northern States. So we’ll move on. (Ed. note: I missed the erroneous comparison before posting.)

Today’s strip solidly stamps the main focus of this story. I expect Cherry will grill Peach on the person’s name and the reason he is such a lowlife. That should conclude on Wednesday, if Rivera is efficient.

Wait. Did I just write that? Sorry, I picked a bad day to stop drinking chocolate malts. In fact, Mark and Cherry took most of last week to drive to the airport. Can we expect any less on the return trip? Nope! So tell Olive to move over as we hop in to catch the dialog.

Art Dept. Panel 1 is somewhat nicely drawn, including flora that doesn’t look like it was copied from Hägar the Horrible. On the other hand, drawing things in motion can be difficult. Cartoonists often use horizontal “speed lines” (what Mort Walker called “hites”) trailing behind the moving object to suggest motion. Rivera uses them on occasion, though sometimes blended into the terrain (see the last panels for December 11 and 12). No room for hites today. In fact, the truck in panel 1 looks empty!

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Call this the Week that Weaved, if you wish. As Cherry dropped Mark off at the local airport to fly down to Florida and protect Max the Manatee from danger, the Fickle Fates of Airline Scheduling conspired to have Cherry’s two sisters, Olive and Peach, fly into the airport at the same time. Well, truth be told, Cherry knew they were coming, so she likely scheduled Mark’s plane to take off around the same time to save herself another trip.

And lucky Cherry, not only did airport police not chase her away from the curb while waiting on the sisters (as noticed by commenter Be Ware of Eve Hill), but she learned that the visit is really to get Peach out of Florida and away from her violent ex-boyfriend. His identity is a mystery at this point, but we do know that he is heinous, which is pretty far down the scale of personality attributes. Speaking of mysteries, will we continue with Cherry’s story on Monday or pivot to Mark and Max the Manatee?

While you’re flipping that coin, I hope you’ll stick around long enough for the Nature Monologue.

Growing herbs (outside or inside) is certainly a useful sideline and doesn’t take much work. We grow several herbs, which is to say, my wife does. I have a brown thumb, because anything I try to grow turns to … well, my wife is the gardener and she keeps me away from it.

One thing I tire of is TV commercials with the always smiling faces of the actors, even people in those dreadful, omnipresent drug commercials. Cherry and Mark’s frozen smiles in today’s nature chat just trigger a reaction that makes me want to immediately turn the page (or scroll away).

Today’s strip is like watching an Infomercial. I keep waiting for Mark and Cherry to tell me how little they want to charge me for their customized mail-order herb baskets that I can grow in the comfort of my own home: “Just three payments of $14.99 (plus shipping) and they will arrive within seven business days! Order now and they’ll throw in the Grow Light! Don’t wait! Call 555-1212. That’s 555-1212. Call today at 555-1212. Why are you still watching? Call now!! Did you get the number? It’s 555-1212.“

Peach doesn’t feel so peachy at the moment!

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So, the Pitt sisters are united once again! For those of you who came in late, I noted back in 2020 that the given names for the three sisters is the basis for one of Rivera’s earliest and better puns. Rivera created Cherry’s family (as far as I know at this point) with the surname Pitt; hence, we  have sisters Cherry Pitt, Olive Pitt, and Peach Pitt (note the color of their clothing). Lest you think the surname is contrived (okay, it is!), let me remind you that the Prime Minster of England during the American Revolution was William Pitt, the Younger. And there is that Brad dude, too.

Names based on puns is nothing new, of course, and they litter the history of comic strips. Entire families are rarer. The family that always pops up in my mind is the family of Olive Oyl, (Popeye’s girlfriend), including Castor Oyl and Cole Oyl. Do you remember any other examples? Let me know!

As for the “heinous hunter ex-boyfriend”, whoever could he be? This is clearly going to be the point of Cherry’s next adventure. Too bad it won’t be the dramatically serious story it should be. Maybe the dude will turn out to be Mark’s old nemesis, Dirty Dyer!