Out of all the issues on the table, Mark fixates on Rex’s feelings towards Tess. Well, that falls in line with Diana’s agenda. But so what? His paymaster is expecting a research article on the zoo, itself, and whether it is legit. Never mind that Rex’s feelings may be somewhat distorted by a childhood fantasy. But Mark puts the Third Degree on Rex, who caves in. What is Rivera’s goal in this story?
This story deviated right away from a strict uncover corruption plot that would have been normal in a Mark Trail story. Instead, the investigative angle has been secondary to a focus on interpersonal issues, something that falls outside Mark’s regular skill set. So, is this really a rescue mission? Does Mark’s eventual article get turned into a “How I saved Rex Scorpius from the clutches of a cult leader“? I have yet to see any evidence of a cult.
Some readers might be thinking about now that Mark Trail must be Mary Worth’s nephew, or successor. It seems odd, if not intrusive, that Mark would be all over Rex for being all over Tess. What business is it of Mark’s, anyway? First, let’s review how we got here: Mark was goaded by his editors into an assignment to investigate a dubious roadside zoo in Texas run by Tess Tigress that might be a cult, but might also be abusing tiger cubs. Mark would be working with Rex Scorpius, the famous “Internet” animal wrangler. An alternative assignment meant to sway him was to chase down a rampaging elephant somewhere in the south. Mark chose the roadside zoo story.
After arriving in Texas, Diana Daggers (original bad girl and now part-time sidekick) was there to pick him up. She confessed to Mark that his official assignment was something of a hoax. The real assignment is to help her save a vulnerable Rex Scorpius—her current boss—from the zoo cult and the clutches of its owner, Tess Tigress. The cover assignment is Mark’s investigative story on the zoo. Is Diana Daggers misleading Mark even more because she has personal feelings for Rex? Is she really jealous of Tess? To add even more complexity and drama, the elephant story has merged. And Mark now confesses to Rex that he may be more concerned about Rex’s personal relationship with Tess.
So here we are. It’s a more complex affair that we often see in Mark Trail’s adventures, but even so, this job is really outside of his area of expertise. Mark is not Mary Worth or even Dear Abby. Why isn’t Diana handling the situation? Good question, if I do ask it, myself! She was introduced several stories ago as a tough woman with an aggressive attitude to match. Diana even threatened bodily harm to Mark when they first met! But over the past several stories, her personality has softened, as has her attitude. She is almost a non-entity in this story. But is that also a secret ploy, meant to mislead Tess so she would not be looking for Diana?
I’m with Rex on this one. Sure, this “rampaging” elephant may be heading towards Texas, unimpeded by cars, neighborhoods, rivers, shopping malls, the police, game wardens, and all manner of local yokels. Nevertheless, Texas ain’t exactly Rhode Island in terms of size, so I suspect Mark is being a tad overly concerned. Perhaps he takes Dr. Seuss too seriously.
Anway, I just noticed: Why is Rex wearing leather gloves? Do nature hikes require gloves? Do two people looking to get away by themselves need gloves? Sounds kind of kinky to me. If Tess brings a whip, I wanna see pictures!
Ah, back to the Texas Twits…I mean, Mark and Rex. That prickly pear cactus in panel 1 looks a bit cartoony (flat) to me, like something from a Hanna Barbara cartoon. Perhaps that is a visual pun for thisprickly pair, Rex and Mark. Rex and Mark. Are they filming a show or enjoying a vacation!?
But as Rivera notes in panel 4, Mark certainly knows about the consequences of hiking in nature with women, as also seen in this panel from back in July. Even Cherry made sure we readers did not miss the signs.
So, is Mark concerned about Tess Tigress or Rampaging Horton? Leave it to Mark to ruin their budding romance. Okay, okay. She may be a con and Rex may be a mark. But for what end?
I say, let them go and say nothing about the elephant. If the elephant does somehow show up, Mark can enjoy a good laugh to see those two running for safety, pursued by an elephant adorned with their clothes. That would make a great panel, too.
Catching you up on the latest Mark Trail dailies! This past week we saw Cherry bring a fruit basket and a weak apology to Violet Cheshire at her home as a thin diversion to get on her good side long enough to strongly advise her to stop working with Honest Ernest and quit using his harmful lawn treatment. Unfortunately (or not), Violet thought that Cherry came over to harangue her about her secret affair with Honest Ernest. This was something that Cherry was not aware of and denied. But just then, good ol’ boy Ernest conveniently showed up and loudly proclaimed his love for Violet. Naturally, everybody was caught off guard. As I wrote earlier in the week, this knowledge could have been used (and could still be used) to leverage Violet and Ernest to ditch the lawn treatment in return for Cherry’s silence. The Saturday strip had Cherry weighing her ethical options. It’s a good crisis point for a switchover to Mark’s tiger/elephant story, though we’ve only had 1 week of Cherry to 3 weeks of Mark. Hardly seems fair!
Ah, a traditional Mark Trail Sunday strip, and well executed. I never heard of the Grasshopper Mouse, so this was especially informative. The Arizona Bark Scorpion mentioned here is a painful reminder of the time I got bit by a scorpion down in Tempe. It turned out to not be a serious issue, but I just got lucky for being careless. According to Wikipedia, thousands of people in Arizona get stung by the bark scorpion each year. Painful, but rarely fatal.
As usual, Rivera creates a customized title panel every Sunday. I’m thinking that the title is fashioned from stylized saguaro cacti. It’s remarkable how different the Sunday panels appear in contrast to many of the dailies.
Ah, another moral dilemma. And as with Mark, it appears that love is involved. Of course, this affair is none of Cherry’s business, but as I’ve pointed out before, she does not need to publicize it; but she should be able to capitalize on it, in the obvious way I also mentioned. I’d like to think that Ernest and Violet will be grateful enough to agree to the deal. But I still think Cherry needs to find new clients, at least for a few new stories!
Again, the art is looking spotty. Is Rivera behind in her deadlines again? I’m guessing so, since her work is usually more accomplished than this (well, it is!). Yet there are periods when it really looks sketchy and subpar.
Okay, boys and girls, any guesses on the Sunday topic?
Honestly, I try to approach this strip with an open mind and some optimistic support along the way. But sometimes something like today’s strip comes along and leaves me dumbfounded. Not only is the art subpar today, but the plot development (I know that’s a stretch) reminds me of a bad movie parody or maybe just a parody of itself.
I had originally planned to discuss Violet’s possessiveness over the fruit basket gift, in spite of her row with Cherry. That all got left back at the station with today’s strip. Well, if Caroline has not yet left Ernest, I have a feeling that her departure will occur pretty soon. Who knows, maybe she’ll be the next person to show up at Violet’s house. Probably not a big loss, as her character has been superficial and unimportant, unlike Honest Ernest.
At the very least, Jules Rivera shows no fear in adding twists (or insanity) to an otherwise linear storyline. And Cherry must feel like a batter in the big leagues, getting thrown one curve ball after another.
I reckon the chipmunk is saying “Hey! How about me!?” In any event, seems like this volatile tête-à-tête has accidentally caused Violet to reveal her heretofore private relationship, after all. For a business owner who depends on good customer service and references, Cherry does seem to go out of her way to offend them. Then again, we have not really seen more than two or three customers over the past two years, with most of her business hired out to the Violet Cheshire’s Sunny Soleil Society. Clearly, they have a strange relationship.
Perhaps with Violet’s non-confession confession of her affair, Cherry will pull herself together long enough to use it as a lever against Violet. Wait, we went over this yesterday. There are three more days to go to hash this out, so it will be interesting to see if something gets done. After that, it’s back to Mark’s story. And after Cherry’s story gets resolved, let’s hope she breaks free of Violet and her Society and finds some new customers and opponents. Why not cook up another story with the Black Rose Garden Club? I think there is enough personality there for at least another adventure or two.
Peace offering!? More like a diversion, I think, so that Cherry can verballysucker-punch Violet Cheshire when she’s not looking. Violet may be thinking of a different kind of relationship with Ernest, but Cherry is laser-focused on condemnation and retribution. Had she just listened to Violet more closely, Cherry might have figured out how to blackmail Violet by threatening to divulge whatever information Violet fears would become public. That would have solved Cherry’s problem of how to rid Lost Forest of Honest Ernest’s noxious lawn care supplement. Blackmail would call into question Cherry’s own values, but as we have seen in the past, Mark and Cherry don’t mind crossing lines when they think it is for the common good.
For all that, Cherry doesn’t seem at all concerned about wildlife and their vulnerability to the poisonous lawn spray. I think Mark would be very disappointed at this selfish oversight; that is, if he wasn’t somewhere in Texas, having conniptions about Rex, Tess, and a panicky pachyderm.
Cherry’s adventures are—by design—shorter and simpler than Mark’s, since the strip is called Mark Trail and not Cherry Trail (or is it Cherry Davis?). Doesn’t mean they have no substance to them, but a fair bit of detail and storyline has to be abbreviated or merely hinted at, as we are seeing here. Still, I think it is worth giving credit to Jules Rivera for the innovation of maintaining two parallel, but different, storylines. I cannot recall any other strips trying to do this, at least this clearly.
As for today, it seems that Cherry’s subterfuge has just been kicked by Violet. It’s interesting that Cherry referred to the backyard as a garden. It certainly looks like a field of grass to me. On the other hand, people overseas usually refer to their back yards as gardens, even if they do not have a traditional flower or vegetable garden. One Italian word for backyard is il giardino.
As this is an adventure comic strip, the focus must be on action, so we have apparently been relieved of watching Doc Davis conduct additional tests and validations, and we can just move on to the conclusion: Sassy got her rash in this specific yard. I wonder if that is the case for all of the other pets in the area who got a rash. Did they all hang out at Violet’s poi pond?
And in spite of their history, Cherry actually thinks that Violet will overlook her sneaky fact-finding methodology and accept her conclusion? And is Cherry really certain? Panel 2 suggests otherwise. Okay, let’s see how this turns out.
I may have to eat my words, or at least, some of them. Turns out that rampaging animal escapes can happen and go on for several days. The Charlotte Observer reports that a dangerous rodeo bull escaped from a stockyard in Norwood, North Carolina this past Thursday and is still on the loose as far as I can tell. That bull is not to be trifled with; but so far, there are no sightings! The top speed of bulls and elephants is pretty close (30 for Dumbo and 35 for Ferdinand), though an elephant has less endurance for long runs. Either way, I’m standing out of their way!
This week we saw Mark the Worry-wort communicating with Diana (wherever she is) about how to save Rex, when Mark suddenly got a phone call from Bill Ellis saying that the rampaging elephant is possibly headed for the Tiger Touch Center. If this were a dark comedy, the elephant will break through the perimeter and squash both Tess and Rex, solving Mark’s problem and satisfying many readers.
Logically, if this elephant has been sighted, why can’t it be trapped or tranqed? Some of you should recall that that’s what Mark did to an escaping elephant a few years back when a circus train derailed, disgorging inebriated clowns and a variety of animals. But enough of that. Here is today’s nature talk.
It is politically backward and destructive for politicians to oppose dealing with climate change, for whatever reason they care to claim. Of course, the first thought is that they do it to pander to their voter base, rather than help them understand the problem. I reckon a lot of this opposition is based on reinforcing our country’s long-standing distrust of experts and education, as we have seen in other areas of life. It’s an amazing statement of faith in the glory of ignorance and a cynical reliance upon authority. It’s good to be skeptical when addressing new or important concerns. It’s another to be intransigent when the overwhelming evidence says otherwise.
The notion that an elephant can simply run across the continental United States, unimpeded, pushes the boundaries of fantasy. Panel 3 is a leading question: How often would Mark see an elephant in any context, must less witness any abuse of an elephant…recently!? It’s been almost a decade since Mark was last in Africa. I suppose Rivera had to find a way to segue to the presumed misuse of tiger cubs, hence the “other animals” comment. But that stretches credulity in so many ways.
This also begs the question: Exactly how would Tess have provoked an elephant, since they are presumably not part of her menagerie and elephants do not normally roam around this country like fox or deer. So, elephants never forget? Is this a variant on the old joke about a kid who picked on an elephant at the zoo, only to be recognized decades later and assaulted with water by the same elephant when the grownup kid revisited the zoo?
[edits below] Really now?!? How could there be a rampaging elephant on the loose, anywhere in the United States for more than a day or two, at most? If zoo staff, the DNR, and the State Police could not track it down, private hunters by the score would not pass up this opportunity to be out in trucks, ATVs, and private planes, all hoping to at least pinpoint the panicking pachyderm.
Would Mark abandon an assignment in mid-stream just to hunt down a crazed elephant? Would he abandon Diana and Rex for a story? I reckon this might be a test of Mark’s journalistic ethics and professionalism. Or maybe not. Free-lance journalists are just hired hands and go where they are told, when they are told, and to quit whining about it. In any event, Mark doesn’t know how to solve his current problem, so it might be time to cut bait.
[added] On the other hand, he is already in Texas. Maybe the elephant will suddenly come crashing into the Tiger Touch Center and really create some excitement!
Maybe Rivera has been watching old episodes of Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties. I have to say that this is an awful lot of melodrama for a situation that has yet to look threatening to Rex: No locked gates, no 30 foot walls, no deep dungeon, no chains, no knock-out drugs. If Rivera expects us to believe there really is an actual threat against Rex, it would be a good idea to show some of it. A bit of seduction and an arched eyebrow hardly constitute a mortal threat. Frankly, a little seduction may do Rex some good, based on what we’ve seen of his personal life.
Now, I’m not completely sure about the white “cut out” highlighting around Mark in panel 4, except that Rivera must be using it as a visual device to offset his “actual” presence from the “mental image” of Rex and Mark sharing an intimate moment with pet dog pictures. She has drawn several “flashback” scenes, but this is the first one I’ve seen using this outlining. I don’t think it is very convincing as a temporal border. Rivera would be better off using a large thought balloon, as she has done, before.
Rather stiff, awkward drawing today. When we look at the banner of this blog site (while admitting that it is a bit stretched to fit the screen), it might be jarring to realize that it was also drawn by Rivera.
Speaking of awkward, this story has reached an uncomfortable fork in the road. It seemed to me a bit earlier that Diana must be emotionally invested in Rex, based on her subterfuge in getting Mark involved. But her advice today (from wherever the hell she is) suggests otherwise, and that she knows Rex about as well as Mark does, which is not much. Doesn’t she know anything about her boss? And what if Rex is right and they are wrong? How do they know at this point?
So, what is Diana’s motivation, other than keeping Rex’s streaming show going in order to keep her job? Is that all there is to this assignment?
Note: In case you missed it, Monday’s blog was delayed until earlier this afternoon because the Comics Kingdom site was offline. Scroll down to see my late Monday post, if you dare.
Mark has his undies in a knot over potential hanky-panky between Rex and Tess. So what!? If those two want to get familiar, it’s not any of Mark’s business. A crisis is building, even if it is enlarged by Mark’s over-reactive temperament.
As some of you know, the Comics Kingdom site went down last night (I stayed up late, hoping it would come back up). It was still down when I returned from class today, so I took a photo from the morning paper to use, instead. But as I was writing this post, the CK site came back on, so I also posted the color version. They provide an interesting visual comparison. You can tell how much Rivera is tied to working online in color, due to the lack of hatching or other B&W modeling techniques done in ink. This is not a criticism, just an observation.
Also, this is the third week running for Mark’s story, rather than returning to Cherry’s adventure after two weeks, which has been Rivera’s common pacing.
Anyway, I’m wondering if this strip is taking hints from Gilligan’s Island, where whatever is needed (or worn) conveniently shows up in somebody’s hut? Where did this roomy caravanserai come from? Where did Mark’s laptop come from? Okay, maybe it came from the vehicle they drove in. But if so, why is Mark zooming Diana? Isn’t she waiting out in the car? Wouldn’t Mark have seen her when he went to get his equipment? Or did Diana walk all the way back to camp? Or did she take the car? If so, when did Mark get all this equipment? So many questions and so few answers!
(I’m recovering from all that typing on Saturday!) For this past week, Mark pretended to know how to manipulate a video camera while Tess seduced Rex during a tour of the Tiger Touch Center. Yet Mark did little actual filming. He spent most of the time talking to himself about animal abuse and possible quackeries at the Center. He was also bothered by the sensual manipulation of VulnerableRex by Temptress Tess. Mark feared that Rex might be drawn into Tess’s cult (for which no evidence has yet appeared), as Diana Daggers feared. What to do, oh what to do? Rivera ended this two-week’s story arc with Tess looking over her shoulder at Mark with an arched eyebrow and sly smile. Is she confirming Mark’s suspicions or recognizing Mark’s ulterior motives? On Monday we go back to Cherry’s story and see whether she and Doc have made any progress in proving the source of the pet rash. But, to help you transition from Mark’s reality to Cherry’s, first rest your eyes on the Sunday Nature Chat.
In Minnesota, it is legal to trap and remove live raccoons from your city property. I’m all for that. As far as killing them is concerned, that depends on the circumstances. “Inhumane” is a ridiculous and erroneous term. A better word is “cruel”. I have a younger brother who actually leaves food out for raccoons, though away from his house. Well, truth be told, my father does the same thing, and also away from his house. I think it is a bad idea. Wild animals are not to be coddled or trifled with. Get a pet cat, if you must, preferably an aggressive one that will patrol your yard at night and scare away the raccoons. “Here first” is also an over-used and simplistic argument. Rattlesnakes and poison ivy may also have been here first, but I wouldn’t let them continue to exist on my property.
“This place is trouble. Volunteers who don’t get paid, tiger cubs that get held, and people that touch each other. What next, dancing!?” Mark is starting to sound like a hardline Baptist preacher. What he doesn’t looklike is a producer filming a show. Methinks Tess has Mark’s number.
Optional: Some thoughts on the writing in Mark Trail. Read at your own risk, or skip it, entirely!
A good adventure story almost always features a hero who suffers through obstacles (such as traps, villains, and lust) along the way to a hard-won victory. The original Mark Trail was a traditional adventure strip based on Mark going up against poachers, cheaters, mistaken identity, forest fires, bank robbers, and Nature, itself. The current iteration of Mark Trail is more or less in the same tradition, though it follows a quirkier path that many find unsatisfying, both in its story and art. So, I’m focusing on story today.
Jules Rivera’s approach to storytelling falls more in line with modern satirists, such as Carl Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey, and A. Lee Martinez, who pair crazy characters with crazy plots. Good satire is hard to pull off, which is why I don’t think you see it too often. Until Gary Trudeau got tired of it all, Doonesbury was a successful satirical comic strip with continuous storylines. And it took time for Trudeau to find his groove. Pogo was another great satirical strip, though too sophisticated for many readers. Yet, neither could be called “adventure strips” in the same way as Prince Valiant, Rip Kirby, Little Orphan Annie, Popeye, or the original Mark Trail, to name a few. And none of them could be labeled satirical, either. I believe Rivera is attempting a significant goal, combining adventure with satire (think Don Quixote, Gulliver’s Travels, or Indiana Jones).
On the other hand, Rivera has made positive enhancements to the strip, such as creating more complex plots, focusing on larger issues than hillbillies stealing dogs, and hosting concurrent storylines that flesh out Cherry, Rusty, and even Doc Davis, as actual characters. That is, these family members are no longer merely space-fillers or running jokes as they were in the original strip. I think playing down (or poking fun) at Mark’s macho heroics is fine and probably compatible with younger generations. But I do bristle when Rivera goes extreme and makes Mark look like a shrinking violet or a clueless rube. In fact, this modernizing Mark Trail is what really sets off lots of readers who were happy to see the strip remain entrenched in its old-fashioned, white bread, 1950’s world as it has been, until two years ago.
Frankly, I think Rivera’s earliest efforts (such as her first story, introducing “Dad”) were more successful than recent stories. The hook of having Mark work for a collection of different magazine editors is also an inspired idea, though Rivera has not really taken advantage of its potential so far. I just don’t think Rivera has found her groove yet. Perhaps King Features could pair Rivera with a professional writer to mentor her. It would be worth their investment.
The Daily Trail 