Poor Rusty, having to see his father act like boys his own age. And it’s not the first time, of course. I fear what he may be like when he grows up. It’s common for boys growing up to oppose their fathers, so maybe Rusty would become a hedge fund manager or insurance salesman. Or he could become a full-time bounty hunter with a Reality TV show for publicity. “What’s that? It’s already been done, you say?” Okay, salesman it is.

I wonder if Jules Rivera has ever seen any of the old b&w episodes of “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon”, which always ended with a close-up of the good sergeant kneeling beside his lead sled dog, Yukon King, and stating something like “Well, King, looks like this case is closed.”

But is it? Today’s installment displays the usual characteristics for the end of one of Mark’s stories, and … wait a minute: This was supposed to be Rusty’s story! Will we go back to Rusty and his revenge science project or has Mark, once again, hijacked Rusty’s adventure for his own glory?

Anyway, a note to Rivera: I believe the convention is that the wink goes on the eye closest to the person (or dog) you are winking at. Otherwise, they might miss it.

Well, I haven’t received a Cease and Desist letter from Rivera’s syndicate (yet), so I reckon I’m safe to continue blogging. So, back to the story…

…and it’s from there we go to …just about anywhere else. Yuck! You know, those three dudes (panel 1) almost do match the classic 3 Stooges. And I’m sure glad that Rivera decided to label the bat that Ernest now wields with the word “Block” in panel 2, after apparently giving the sledge hammer back to Curly.

But wait! Shouldn’t the label on the bat be something like “HIT” or “BREAK BONE”? I believe that when a bat hits an arm, that sound is not “Block.” I just wonder how this incident will play out with Cherry and Violet, once they hear the news.

What I want to know is, where does Ranger Shaw take on the Grungey Boys as Rivera touted in panel 1? Was he disguised as Andy? Oh, Rivera might mean those guys at the top of the hill who just showed up in panel 3. Yeah, they were a big help. Maybe they’ll arrest Mark, too, for impersonating a warden.

Hoo boy.  

I’ve read posts from Rivera that imply she doesn’t make a lot of money from this strip. Of course, the main way to earn more money is to increase readership by getting into more newspapers and generating additional financial streams. To do that, Mark Trail has to appeal to more readers. Rivera’s current strategy does not seem to be paying off. I’m going to suggest that Rivera change her approach in a few ways to give some respect back to Mark Trail and maybe put more bucks into her bank:

1. Eliminate the continual self-mocking and corniness. A little goes a long way and their novelty wore off long ago.
2. Put more effort into the drawing. That is, take it more seriously. Rivera’s earliest work was very good.
3. Put more realistic drama and danger into the strip. Make the stories real adventures. If Rivera wants to employ a light touch here and there, that’s fine. It need not always be deadly serious. Borrow and adapt plots from good stories. It’s a common practice among writers.
4. Mark does not need to return to his goody-two shoes persona. If Rivera wishes to continue his eco-vigilante profile, there needs to be some offsets, whether they be moral conflicts Mark has to work through or more legal consequences.  There have been a few such instances in the past, and I encourage her to make those consequences more consequential.

Rivera has made numerous improvements to the strip, and I have highlighted them many times. But they get pushed aside by the strip’s failings. With regard to the drawing, there is no reason to return to the old-school illustration style of Ed Dodd (as many Trailheads would like), nor mirror the kind of lifeless drawing seen in some contemporary soap opera strips. Rivera’s original drawing style (i.e. September 2020) had plenty of naturalism—even if it was stylized—and an appealing, contemporary edge to it.

I suppose that if I was taking this seriously, I’d chastise Mark for putting himself in this position through his bombastic and pointless machismo. I reckon he decided that trying to reason with these stooges was not worth it. Well, how did that strategy work out, Mark? And where the heck did Ranger Shaw run away to, anyway?

Let’s face it, Mark has no authority in Lost Forest to stop anything or anyone. Yet once again, Mark takes the law into his own hands. That is, Jules Rivera once again paints Mark as an impulsive eco-vigilante, more ready to duke it out than help educate and reform.

The least Mark can do is hand out copies of his Sunday nature talks before using his fists.

Art Dept. However, I am taking it seriously, up to a point. Looking more closely, it’s easy to see how the art has deteriorated just over the past several days. Panel 2 and Panel 3 are hard to view for any length of time. Mark’s face still looks like he’s recovering from the metaphorical drubbing I used to describe him yesterday. And panel 3 is just bad, the kind of scribbling that one would see in public school.

The question that keeps haunting me is whether Rivera is drawing like this deliberately to parody the strip. I forget which reader it was who commented on the pointless narration boxes Rivera likes to use (Mark? Downpuppy? Daniel?), but it’s hard to find a more pointless example; as pointless as that “GRIP!” sound effect. Let’s hope they beat the crap out of Trail. Maybe he will learn a lesson or two.

“Scummy boys”? That’s telling them, Mark! Why bother with that superior brain Rivera gave you when you can hurl insults? And what happened to your concern about Rusty’s safety or the threats to your family? Oh yeah, the trees.

To be fair, Mark does soften his approach after panel 1. Here is where Mark could sympathize with their frustrations but emphasize the need to haul the objects away after smashing them. Will he do that or continue to pontificate, infuriating these dudes even more? Still, they are not poachers or arsonists, just frustrated, dumb schmucks. They need education, not vilification.

Time to set an example, Mark. And Rusty is watching you.

Art Dept. Rivera continues to rely on lazy graphics by pasting artifacts, will-nilly, across the ground without regard to perspective or terrain. The effect is more like an elementary school drawing. I generally like Mark’s depiction in panel 1. It’s a strong image due to its closeness and diagonal composition. However, there are problems with the head. Mainly, his face looks like it met Tyson Fury’s two fists of justice and didn’t go away happy.

Of course, Cartoon Hero-Man shows up at the nick of time. At least, that’s how I think Rivera imagines this particular aspect of Mark Trail. Mark makes a melodramatic, tough-guy “Arnold” appearance, wearing the same hunting vest as Connor, both items left over from Mark’s misrun fishing survival school (“For Men Only”).

Pre-Rivera Mark Trail felt a moral obligation to duke it out now and then, but without announcing it to the victim, or bragging about it. Now, Mark (again) spouts this macho cliché that was already trite when only the strip’s critics were saying it. That is the point, I think. Rivera can only treat this as parody. In so doing, Rivera robs the story of virtually any actual suspense and drama. As most readers probably agree, she is not really interested in genuine drama, anyway. But maybe this is what passes for drama in an age of “reality” TV shows such as “Big Brother”, “Survivor”, and “Race to Survive.”

Art Dept. A visual aspect of Rivera minimizing (or avoiding) “drama” can be seen in panel3. Up to this point, the difference in height between Honest Ernest and Rusty has supported Ernest’s dominating personality. But in panel 3, Rusty is nearly at eye level with Ernest. If there was a time when the height difference could have been used to really amplify Ernest’s threat, this was it. One obvious compositional solution would have been to show Rusty’s head just poking up from the lower corner, looking up at Ernest, just as Ernest would then be looking down. Another solution could be to show Ernest in full-face, looking down at “us”, as if we were Rusty. A variation of that scenario would have Rusty’s back to us, standing in silhouette, facing a taller Honest Ernest (not in silhouette) looking down at Rusty as he makes his threat.

Another day, another daily. Rivera continues to recycle the same story elements all week, as if one need only catch a single day to stay on top of the story. I suppose Rivera is stretching this out to accommodate her usual two-week Saturday switch-over.

But why not fill out the week with some variety? For example, the Grungey Boys could have asked Rusty if he’d like to take a swat at the fax. What kid can resist destroying things with a bat?

But then Rusty would become implicated in this illicit activity, making it very difficult for him to rat these guys out to Mark.  Ooh! I think that is the kind of blackmail that Honest Ernest could get behind. It’s both a kind of revenge on Mark and Cherry, as well as protection for his group.

Well, this was worth sticking around for, right!?! I mean, so much progress was made in the story today that . . ., uh, I mean that it is possible to offer a post-structural analysis of an underlying, Marxist duality that leads us to surmise a progress of hierarchical society based on hexametric poetry and deterministic opposition to logic. Right!?!

Hmm, well, can we intellectually appreciate the triangular arrangement of figures in panel 1 reflecting a simple, if popular, compositional device in painting that goes back to at least 15^th century Europe? Hey, some of you must have taken an art history course in the past.

Well, can we at least recognize the repetitions and overlaps in the strip over the past several days as echoes of the chant-like repetitions found in the music of Philip Glass?

Perhaps in the end, all I can really state is “Long Live the Three Stooges!”

(News Update: The NTSB just released a report on the cause of the East Palestine, Ohio toxic train crash that Jules Rivera fictionalized in one of her prior stories (“Something Fishy”) last year: https://abcnews.go.com/US/ntsb-reveals-cause-2023-toxic-train-crash-east/story?id=111398249)

But now, let’s catch up with Mark and Friends!

(Tuesday) Hmm, wouldn’t Honest Ernest refer to Rusty more naturally as “Cherry Trail’s kid”? Well, I reckon he’s just an old-school sexist. But speaking of old-school, I’ve made references to Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie in the past with regard to writing and to Gray’s inking to create atmosphere. Maybe Rivera noticed, as Andy has taken to imitating the bark of Annie’s dog, Sandy. Why? Maybe it’s because Mark Trail is a vintage, old-school strip and Rivera is riffing on that status.

(Wednesday) Honest Ernest seems to actually be “honest” about his group’s intentions and tells Rusty just what’s going on. Then he turns the tables on Rusty. Will Rusty also be as forthright in his response?

This is fine. Rivera returns Rusty’s story to the foreground in order to move it along. In spite of the appearance of these three dudes, there is nothing actually dangerous here, except as it seems in Rusty’s mind. So it is “age appropriate” in its content. The fact that the story has wandered a bit from Rusty’s original intention to seek revenge on Robbie is also a normal plot device. Stories often evolve from what they originally seem to be about. One problem here is that Mark’s own stories too often seem to have a similar level of danger and drama as Rusty’s. And we expect more.

Well, patient readers, my two-week family visit is ending, and I fly home on Tuesday. Therefore, Tuesday’s post will be late. 

The potential for danger might be more acceptable if we didn’t already know that Honest Ernest is a blowhard and Connor is a coward. As for the third guy, he doesn’t look especially threatening. Of course, to a twelve-year-old, three guys waving blunt instruments has to be scary. Andy’s a big help.

Art Dept. Yeah, I also noticed a change in the color scheme. Perhaps they used a different colorist at the syndicate. We’ll see if this is an anomaly or a change of direction.  

Andy certainly has that “fashion runway walk” mastered in panel 3, though it’s unusual for a Saint Bernard to have such long, slim limbs. Perhaps the Trails had Andy’s legs shaved for the summer. Or maybe Rivera was looking at Marmaduke’s character reference sheet by mistake. 

You know, my mindful readers, I have a notion that Rivera’s stories could be better if she didn’t go out of her way to telegraph upcoming events in such obvious ways, as in panel 3. Now, Rivera could be throwing us a curve, where Robbie does not suddenly pop into the picture, but Mark and Ranger Shaw do.  

But what would be the outcome if Robbie does show up? I mean, Rusty does have a shovel. And Andy.