No, Jimmy Songbird is not speaking in some kind of bad dialect. The Keytar is the actual name of this instrument, which is kind of a keyboard slung around the next like a regular electronic guitar. I remember seeing Edgar Winter use this instrument in his earlier shows. Never cared for the instrument, myself, but so what? I wasn’t a professional musician.
Still, how is Rex going to confront these geese and get them moved: Make friends with the geese and cage them? Get Jimmy to pretend to be the Pied Piper? Put up a yard sign stating, “Geese Hunting in Season!”
I reckon we’ll just have to wait and see; that is, unless Mark gets a brilliant idea and winds up creating chaos on the set.
Mark’s clumsy dialog is clearly mirrored in the equally clumsy artwork, which continues to befuddle me. How the art can go from decent to awkward so quickly is a mystery. By the way, I don’t expect that being presented as a writer for Teen Girl Sparkle will do much to enhance Mark’s reputation or standing with Rex.
Actually, I’m a bit surprised that anybody who has had contact with Canada geese actually likes Canada geese. But I do like some of Rivera’s labels: “Animal Rexpertise” is clever!
Today’s strip may do very little to win over long-time Trailheads (which Rivera probably gave up on some time ago) but will probably also do as little to bring in new readers, who will think that Mark is just a real jerk. If the best Rivera can do is turn Mark into her own parody of Woody from Toy Story, then I wonder if she has seriously miscalculated.
From a story angle, Mark’s odd behavior would seem do work against giving Rex any reason for building trust, which is presumably necessary to help keep Rex out of the cult. From a selfish point of view, Mark’s appearance and action certainly shoots holes in my presumption that this would be a more serious story. On the other hand, perhaps this is a deliberate act on Mark’s part to keep suspicion off of him and make him appear impotent. Okay, I’ll reserve further judgement and see how the week pans out.
In case you missed the strips this past week there was some rootin’, tootin’ silliness as well as some confessions and plot developments. Mark arrived in Houston International Airport dressed up like a dude cowboy at a square dance. He was met, not by Rex Scorpius, but by Diana Daggers, who happens to be the film producer for the Rex Scorpius Streaming Show. After a bit of snarking on Mark’s wardrobe, they drove off in her car. Then Diana revealed the real purpose of Mark’s assignment.
While the tiger roadside zoo is real, Daggers got her friend Amy Lee to give the job to Mark because she wants his help saving Rex from the clutches of a cult that is behind this roadside zoo. Apparently, Rex has confidence issues that make him vulnerable. I get the feeling that Rex is a bit more than a paycheck to Diana, but that’s just a guess. The bottom line is that this story has taken on a decidedly more serious angle, while Diana is showing a few signs of humility. Well, that’s the week. And now for something else.
HahHah! Funny title panel today: Mark Trail=Shark Trail. The things you can do with seaweed! Rivera must think (most of) her audience is informed enough to know the annual celebration day of sharks (as mentioned in the last panel), which is July 14 (Shark Awareness Day). Not me, I had to look that up! I thought shark awareness day was any time you re-watched Jaws.
Rivera’s points are all good, though I think most also apply (aside from “finning”) to just about every other sea-born creature. I have no idea how we will be able to clean up the plastics in the ocean. I do not understand why some countries continue to dump trash into the ocean, as if it will somehow dissolve in the water. We’ll probably find cures for cancer before we figure out how to safely deal with trash.
Wait, is that Caroline in the background of panel 3, before she hooked up with Honest Ernest? Well, maybe not. Anyway, seems Diana has a back-history of losing clients to cults. Perhaps she might be influencing their depression, as warmth and charm are not her strong points. But she certainly has no talent for saving them from cults! What about Mark? I don’t recall seeing that particular skill on his resume. Still, this is the Mark Trail comic strip, so we must hope for the best.
Some readers might be hoping to see some long-awaited-for fists-o-justiceaction in this assignment, but having seen Mark go up against Professor Bee Sharp, I’m hoping Mark wisely brought along a holster filled with a Colt .44-40 and plenty of ammunition. It doesn’t sound like this lion zoo cult is filled with washed-up hippies.
It’s not every day we see Diana Daggerssans shades, so this assignment is clearly important to her, at least. And we now learn that Diana’s objective all along is saving Rex. Is their relationship more than professional, or has Diana gone full-tilt altruistic?
But Mark is a nature journalist, not a commando. Does Diana think Mark can expose enough of the cult’s practices to bring Rex around? You’d think Diana could do that herself. After all, why should Rex trust a stranger, especially one dressed like Sheriff Woody? The plot possibilities are piling up!
Still, Mark might want to watch his backside. Perhaps it is Diana that is part of the cult, and she has developed this negative feeling about men. Maybe Professor Bee Sharp’s betrayal put her over the edge. And now, she could be luring men into this strange cult. Tigers have to be fed, of course.
Thank goodness Rivera is adding more layers of complexity to the story, as well as avoiding the macho driver put-down I wondered about yesterday. I don’t mind being wrong. But I’m glad to see the plot take on some surprising turns, rather than sticking with the original farce of an assignment.
So, the roadside zoo assignment is a blind and Rex is the actual assignment. We’ve been getting a more nuanced view of Diana for the past few stories, beyond the cartoon tough gal image she originally portrayed back in Palm Springs. It seems somewhat incredulous that Amy and Diana just happen to be childhood friends, but still, why not? After all, how incredulous was it that Cricket Bro turned out to be Mark’s childhood nemesis, Rob Bettancourt? Okay, don’t answer that!
Mark’s other editor, Rafael, also knows Diana, which further explains her frequent appearances. Still, I hope this is all of Diana for a while. Mark needs new people to interact with. So does this strip!
So, Diana is in charge? At least we know how and why she met Mark at the airport. I’m going to take a wild guess that this is not LAX, since there are so few people in the terminal and there is no way a car could just park right outside, all by itself without getting towed.
I notice that Diana is on the passenger side of the car in panels 3 and 4, opposite Mark. Another big limb here, but I’m thinking that Rivera is setting us up for some misogynistic “I’m a guy so I’ll drive” trope humor.
It’s one of those time-wasting submissions today. For some reason, Diana Daggers seems to have become somewhat like Kelley Welly in this rebooted strip, always unexpectedly showing up to interfere in Mark’s assignments, but not getting chased off.
Rivera has introduced at least twenty new secondary characters (those with speaking roles) in the strip, but that seems hard to believe, when we keep seeing the same three or four. Isn’t Rex Scorpius enough of a character? Or is Rivera suggesting it is Mark that needs the character support here? Sure, Daggers has interesting qualities as a supporting character. But over-exposure will almost certainly dilute her edginess.
Really!? Really!? Rivera has to make Mark look and sound like a friggin’ dork tourist attending a taping of Austin City Limits. Why? Is there a purpose, other than a cheap laugh? And once again, we see signs of haste and carelessness in the artwork, from Mark’s flattened and spindly figure in panel 2 (which exhibits all the quality of Bazooka Joe comics) to the sloppily drawn windows in panel 3. Yet, panel 1 is quite decent and a strong contrast to the other two.
I don’t think an international airport would allow trees within a quarter mile of its runways, but they do provide attractive scenery, so the artistic license is appreciated.
As for the big surprise, there was nothing in the assignment that mentioned Diana Daggers showing up (again). So, where is this Rex Scorpius dude? Or is Daggers now working for him? I know I have argued many times about the validity of satire in this strip, but I admit that it would be nice, once in a while, to have a serious episode, just to break things up a bit. This is not one of those times.
In case you were too busy to see this past week’s strips, the focus on pet rash was temporarily put aside, as was Mark’s preparations for the Texas Tiger Spa assignment. Instead, Rivera began fleshing out Cherry’s own storyline, which began with returning to work at the Sunny Soleil Society’s garden.
Cherry was just finishing planting native plants when Violet Cheshire turned up with Honest Ernest, who has expanded his business to include lawn care, if by “lawn care”, you mean covering it with chemicals, such as his latest concoction, “Lawn Libation.” Catchy name. For millennia libations of oils, water, milk, and other liquids have been poured over sacred objects or grounds as part of various rites and activities.
Anyway, it seems Cherry’s just-completed planting will once again get demolished, this time to put in an “English garden”, meaning a lawn. Well, “garden” is a common English term for a back yard. It’s the wrong word, but it’s too late to do anything about it.
Finally, Cherry acquired a bottle of Ernest’s Lawn Libation and had the prescient suspicion that this liquid might have something (or everything) to do with the pet rash running rampant in town. However, this seems to be rather obvious, don’t you think? Maybe it’s a red herring. Will we get a second week of Cherry’s story, or do we move on to Mark’s Texas tiger assignment? While we wait to see, check out the discussion, below!
Well, a straight-up nature talk on waskily wabbits! Cool. I’m guessing that the title panel is composed of “speed smoke” from the racing hare, as in Warner Brothers, the source of the most famous carrot-eating member of the family Leporidae. We get a lot of rabbits in our backyard garden (an actual garden, not a mere backyard lawn). Thus, we also get various neighborhood cats passing through. Fortunately, no lynx has shown up. Feel free to quibble on details.
As far back as the ancient Egyptians, libations have been part of religious and funeral rituals as well as celebrations. Libations composed of oils, water, milk, or even alcoholic liquids were poured onto objects or on to the ground. In spite of Ernest’s “aw shucks” redneck pose, he apparently had enough of an education to create this clever brand name for his otherwise odious concoction.
Thank goodness Cherry has enough common sense to see a possible link with the pet rash problem. Maybe we’ll learn something next week, if Rivera doesn’t drag us to Mark’s tiger spa assignment.
Honest Ernest is nothing if not motivated and self-confident, whereas Cherry misreads the room, until Violet throws her a lifeline to put her in her place. Cherry ignores the put-down and goes on the attack.
But Ernest— “The man in the yellow suit” —is clearly a better salesman…er… salesperson.
So why would the SSS hire Cherry as well as Honest Ernest for the presumably same job? Or did Cherry mix up her own assignment? Is there a reason for these continued conflicts? Well, a pointless question, perhaps, since this situation is used to move the story along.
Ernest is an interesting character. His very pose in yesterday’s strip is an archetype of his comical arrogance and almost affable, positive attitude. Until pushed, that is. I hope we’ll learn more about his personality and motives. For one thing, Ernest was at least smart enough to diversity his business with another revenue source. We’ll just have to see how the story develops.
Honestly! Ernest and his chemicals to the rescue. Or fescue? Whatever.
Oh well, back to Cherry’s small world of Big Problems. I’m glad to see that Cherry has a business and something to do other than wait for Mark to come home from his latest adventure. And there’s checking in on Rusty (if he hasn’t run off with the Seaside Specter) and ol’ Doc and his rash crisis. But doesn’t Cherry’s business have any other customers around which an adventure can be built? What about her secret garden commandos? Surely, there is a story to be found there. Instead, we have the Big Hat and the Big Mouth once again.
Okay, this reads like some pretty reasonable interactions between real people in real situations. Very good! And the artwork is consistently fine, as well. Panel 1 offers us a picturesque landscape, while panel 2 offers an interesting foreground/background composition that was last used when the Trails were visiting Happy Trail down in Florida.
But good grief! Just what is the focus of Cherry’s storyline? Is it the pet rash or another go-round with the ambiguous Sunny Soleil Society? Of course, Rivera could be expanding the story threads and we will have concurrent storylines with Mark, Cherry, and Doc. That will be a good challenge for us readers, too.
But hasn’t Mark seen the data on the damage that flip-flops can cause to feet? And are you planning to wear flip-flops around the lions, Mark? They do leave your feet terribly vulnerable and are just lousy to try and run in! You might want to keep using them as fly swatters and go with a pair of running shoes.
If you want to skip over my diatribe, ignore the purple prose and jump down to the black text. You’ve been warned!
Jules Rivera’s aesthetic, coming out of non-mainstream art styles popular with online comics and graphic novels, has been a lightning rod for controversy, scorn, and even positive support. Her stories have also received their share of snark and appreciation. Not that that is new, of course. The legacyMark Trail has long been a popular target for its cornball and illogical stories, its sometimes-uneven old-fashioned artwork, a reliance on cut-and-pasted poses, stilted dialog, and simplistic morals. Oddly, they have also been the strength of the original strip for many who cherished its sameness. It’s one reason why reruns of old TV shows are still very popular. Just ask my dad!
I think we should try to understand Rivera’s Mark Trail through her non-mainstream roots, but it is certainly a difficult task for many of us. I imagine it is similar to what the art world and general public of late 19th century France faced when they first came into contact with Impressionist painting and its many followers. It was “the shock of the new“, as art critic Robert Hughes wrote about the birth of modern art.
I am both apologist and critic of the Mark Trail reboot. I admire Rivera’s gutsy efforts to bring the strip into a contemporary setting, as off-kilter, reactive, and nutty as you would find in any Florida-based piece of fiction. I liked her original artistic vision of the strip during its early months, before the art became more simplified and sometimes erratic. In part, I see that due to unforeseen pressures of deadlines, but I could be completely wrong!
I am very glad to see Rivera giving Cherry greater visibility and her own adventures. In that way, she is more like the way Cherry wasoriginally depicted when the strip first began, before she transformed into a conventional wife and mere supporting cast member. On the other hand, I am not a keen admirer of soap opera/sitcom elements that sometimes show up, especially during interludes between adventures.
That brings us to this past week, where Mark has fretted like a boy having to recite poetry in English class. Mark is plainly afraid of the offered assignment to investigate a roadside zoo in Texas. While Amy Lee tried to play up Mark’s love of adventure, it was Cherry who laid down the law and sent Mark whimpering like a hurt puppy back to take the assignment. Yet, Cherry acted like a preteen gushing over her teen idol when she learned Mark would be working with a Hollywood celebrity animal wrangler.
Is Rivera making fun of Mark and Cherry, casting them as a henpecked husband and a shallow wife? Or is Jules trying to use old TV tropes to connect with long-time readers? It is a dangerous approach, as many long-time readers clearly don’t cotton to Mark being made to look and act like an overly sensitive metrosexual who would prefer to stay home and listen to light jazz. Anyway, while Rivera gets this party going, let’s spend a bit of time looking at today’s nature talk!
I’m fine with this approach. Far too much decorative concrete pavement appears in large cities.
Story-wise, I don’t get it. So Cherry has the hots for Rex Scorpius. Why should Cherry want Mark to take the assignment in order to work with this dude? It’s not as if she is going along or that Rex is going to make a house call. Mark should have talked with Ralph the rat snake first.
As for the art, I also don’t get it. In early June, as the rash story was starting up, Cherry was depicted as quite the comely gal, as she is normally shown. But today, she looks like a member of the SNL Widette family. Is this deliberate (as in making a statement)? The result of rushed work? Somebody else helping out? Frankly, even her head looks odd (panels 1 and 4).
I am also embarrassed that Mark had to be shown looking like some whipped, whiny pansy (panel 4). I think we all get Rivera’s anti-macho position, and I’m okay with that. She’s been doing this since she started. Rivera already established that this Mark is no longer the 1950’s stoic, highly moral, invincible man of action (as Allen was also starting to explore).
But I don’t think she needs to swing that cultural pendulum so far to the other side. Rivera has been showing Mark sometimes indecisive, out of his depth, lost, and even knocked down. That’s fine. Yet, to literally show Mark limp-wristed and hang-dogged is over the line. Add to that, having Cherry react like a bimbo-brained, swooning girl and this all seems reminiscent of stereotyped roles in family TV sitcoms (e.g. Married with Children, I Love Lucy. Go ahead and fill in your own examples).
“You have to be careful writing this article, Mark.” to which Mark should respond, “Okay, what is the objective of the article? Why do I have to have an assistant? I used to work alone, you know.” But what’s with this cult business, Mark? Quite a leap of logic when all Amy Lee has told you is that the staff live on-site.
I reckon that it is not common for staff to live where they work, unless it is a summer camp or a secret laboratory devoted to creating super-soldiers for a rogue element of the military. Still, the Touch Center might be somewhere in western Texas that makes commuting very difficult. The Center might even have rooms for their patients. Doesn’t make it a cult, Mark, so don’t look like you just got wind of Cherry passing gas!
And we still haven’t heard from Ralph the rat snake, one of the few voices of sanity and sagacity.
The Daily Trail 