Nothing says “I love you!” like a postcard with a cheesy drawing of … hey, wait a minute! Who sends postcards these days!? And I can’t even begin to understand the so-called punchline in panel 3. 

So, is this Mark’s assignment:  Research the effects of the wild horses in Utah as noted in panel 1? Seems to me that there are scientists who already handle that type. I would have thought Mark would be reporting on that research.  Then talk with ranchers, farmers, animal rights groups, environmental groups, etc., to gain additional perspectives to incorporate into the report. But perhaps I’m being too literal, and Rivera only meant that Mark would be doing more or less what I just wrote.

Art Dept. I’m not concerned that Rivera likely “photoshopped” the airplane and mountain scene in panel 1. After all, cartoonists (especially those drawing adventure/drama strips) have been doing this for many decades. My point is that there may be a design flaw in panel 1. Mark is presented in a “call-out” circle, whose extension goes back to the plane, but seemingly from the cockpit. Pretty sure Mark is not the pilot! Unless Rivera is once again satirizing the “ambiguous dialog box” meme of old, then I think it would have been clearer if she had simply flipped the plane horizontally, so that the call-out could originate from one of the passenger windows. Am I being too picky or nerdy?

Yesterday I queried whether Mark was being depicted as a jerk or a distracted goof. Perhaps I should have added “self-centered, arrogant opportunist.”  It has been Rivera’s position to often portray Mark as out of his depth, agonizingly out of touch, or just plain square. 

To put this in a more positive light (not a strong light, I grant you), Mark is … uh, at least appealing to Cherry’s practical nature. And consider those poor horses, running amok without Mark’s calming presence. Shoot, I’m being cynical again.

Just who is Mark looking at in panel 2? It sure isn’t Cherry. You’d think he was some shill selling giant scissors in an infomercial. They don’t even look like standard line cutters, though I’ll grant you it can be difficult to always be authentic in the limited confines of a comic strip panel. Anyway, I’ll let you spend a few happy moments dissecting Mark’s comments in panel 2. 

The bigger question is Mark’s attitude towards Cherry. When he had moral issues with how to treat the wild horses, he consulted Ralph, not Cherry. He spent the rest of the day and evening with Cherry, not bothering to bring up his assignment, until now. Do we assume Mark is just an inconsiderate jerk, as he is pictured? Or, perhaps distracted?  That seems out of character. What is Rivera’s objective?

Hoo-boy. Perhaps the comics syndicate published this out of order? This is only February 12. Or is this Valentine celebration going to last for 3 days!? Sure, we can expect a slight break in the story for the sake of the holiday, though holidays are something that Rivera rarely recognizes in the strip.

Second, what’s with this “Rusty is staying with my Dad tonight” remark? Last I recall, Doc Davis lives in the same home as Mark, Cherry, and Rusty. Is this why we never see the Doc anymore? Perhaps he sleeps at his clinic.

Sure, Mark is married to Cherry. They have a home, a family, and jobs. They indulge in senseless chit-chat. Their stories often include a percentage of fluff, or filler. Such is today’s installment. Do these two wide panels serve an integral purpose to the story, such as functioning as a transition from one context to another? 

Monday’s installment could show Mark landing in Salt Lake City; or maybe we’ll just see the Trail Family’s dinner time. This could be Rivera’s take on the standard Mark Trail Departure Dinner of stacks of flapjacks. Eat fast, Mark, and get on with the story!

This is where Ralph belongs, in the tree alongside the window of Mark’s office. That’s where we first learned about Ralph and his relationship with Mark. Mark has spent this week talking through his conflicting feelings about the wild/feral horses. Some internal conflicts take time to work through, and this has provided Rivera a way to demonstrate her awareness of some of the current problems concerning the horses.

But we have yet to learn what the specific situation is with the “rampaging horses” of Salt Lake City. Are they running roughshod through the Salt Lake Tabernacle? Are they running amok through the countryside, destroying valuable farmland or range in their wake?

This sounds reminiscent of the rampaging elephant subplot of the tiger petting zoo story, except that here, the rampaging horses are the main subject, rather than a subordinate clause. Still, this has to be a transitory event that will likely be over by the time Mark makes his way to Utah.  I’m curious how Rivera will develop this story. 

In the old days before Rivera, there would be some greedy land speculator or Big Rancher behind this plot, exploiting the controversial free-roaming mustangs in order to ruin land and crops of small farmers and ranchers. They would get put in a financial bind and have to sell their land cheaply to recoup their losses. 

While Mark plods through the colorful landscape, Rivera lets us know that he is, indeed, aware of some of the complexities surrounding the wild horses. But Mark is mature enough to realize that he doesn’t know everything and is willing to listen to somebody close, somebody that Mark feels a kinship with, somebody that will give him good advice…

…oops. Sorry, Cherry! But it’s great to see Ralph once again. He’s been absent for quite some time. I’m glad to see Rivera is reviving some of the original memes that made her version of the strip stand out. Exactly how Ralph wiggled his way from behind Mark to get into the tree in front of Mark is something of a mystery.

Another Note:  Once again I am going on a road trip for a few days, starting Tuesday. It is quite possible that you will not find my scribblings on Mark Trail consistently up-to-date until Friday. Eventually, the waters will calm and equilibrium will be restored. But do check in regularly, as I’ll post when time and opportunity permits.

Is that really what Ellis wants? Well, we never got to hear anything definite from him, but it’s possible Rivera simply decided to exclude some of that phone conversation to evoke a sense of drama and uncertainty. She needn’t bother. Uncertainty is certainly a certainty in Mark Trail.

Art Dept. I continue to be impressed with how Rivera is designing the panels in this story. Even the scenery evokes a more mature, naturalistic sense than we saw in the just finished Fishing Fiasco story. The shaded coloring of the trees and attention to natural details here are a welcome addition. I still dislike Mark’s clown beard, but I’ve learned to mostly ignore it.

Just imagine:  One person’s entire life has been directed by a love for animals; specifically, those of the genus equus. Horses fill his waking (and sleeping) hours, and even though he dislikes Westerns, he watches them just to admire horses galloping across the prairie or drinking from the town’s horse trough. His childhood bedspread had a design of a corral of stallions. He had three different scale models of Trigger in his room. He even has an autographed photo of Mr. Ed! He memorized every extant breed of horse and can distinguish them by sight. His first car was a Ford Mustang. His dream vacation was a Dude Ranch. His dream job was owning the Dude Ranch. In his mind, America’s wild horses rushing through valleys and canyons is a symbol of what makes our country great!

However, that person is not Mark Trail. Mark has little experience with horses, wild or tame (unless Jules Rivera creates such a background for him). There is no evidence Mark watches The Kentucky Derby or even reruns of BoJack Horseman. So, what’s going on here? Why does Bill Ellis make a big deal about the foreign heritage of these feral horses? Is this some kind of riff on illegal aliens? And why does Rivera create this phony over-the-top, melodramatic sequence for Mark?

What’s going on here? In panel 1, Mark expresses shocking ignorance of wild horses. In panel 3, Mark displays more ignorance about their origins. Then suddenly, he immediately answers his own question, followed by his flummoxed expression and response in panel 4. Clearly, Mark cannot simultaneously be ignorant and knowledgeable about wild horses. Ergo, it was Bill Ellis who provided the informational response to Mark in panel 3. But the poorly aimed dialog balloon creates the ambiguity. There is precedence for this, however.

One of the more popular memes of pre-Rivera Mark Trail was the occasional ambiguous speech balloon, where it wasn’t clear who—or what—was talking. For new readers, this forced error on the part of the cartoonist was a source of continuous hilarity and ridicule for years. Here is one example, preserved by blogger Michael Leddy back in 2015, where the joke was whether it was Rusty, Mark’s elbow, or the dock’s bollard responding to Mark.

So, might we entertain the notion that Rivera is deliberately echoing this meme? Or did she just make a mistake that nobody caught in time?

Look for a future Sunday page on mustangs. Their status is controversial. Their heritage is not native, but linked to horses introduced by Spanish colonists. They are formally known as “feral”, not “wild.” This distinction carries a fair bit of baggage. Regular roundups are carried out by federal agencies and done to maintain a quality of life for the horses that roam freely. Captured horses are normally sold to private parties. We’ll see if Mark Trail actually deals with any of the issues and nuances of mustangs and horse management in this adventure.

“Nothing to see here, folks. Move along, move along.” Wait! I hear there’s actual drama going on in Gasoline Alley.

So this is the third day of Mark and Bill Ellis’s phone call and we still have no details about the incident or Mark’s assignment. How tedious to waste a daily strip just to push another pun. I’m with Mark. Enough is enough!

Art Dept. Rivera repeats her “Aquarium View ” meme, the repetition of which also does nothing to advance this story.

Hmmm, how about this different point of view for the narration box in panel 1: “Mark’s period of unemployment and lack of income finally comes to a  welcome halt.” Because he’s not going to make the mortgage payments on the family cabin with small-time fishing seminars.

Art Dept. The art seems to continue moving towards a more naturalistic view, away from the expressionistic style that Rivera has been using. Even Bill Ellis doesn’t look like the cardboard image that Rivera usually employed (perhaps it was done for satirical value). Do  you see that bit of shading or texture in Mark’s cap? That’s something Rivera would usually ignore in earlier drawing.

I also like the way Rivera composed Panel 1. Adding insets of Bill and (a concerned) Mark looking at each other provides a visually interesting “micro” view contrasting with the peaceful “macro” view of the fishing boat and its surroundings in the background.