Last time I checked the Oxford English Dictionary, the sound of a hand hitting the face is spelled “S-m-a-c-k”, Smack. “Smak”, on the other hand, is what somebody says when spewing BS to somebody or about somebody; as in “talking smak.”

If you’ve been keeping up, you’re doing better than I am in my Italian class. We’re still in the van, listening to the Jerk Bros and wondering why Mark agreed to this ride. Does Rivera hate Mark Trail? Or what he stands for? I think that is what a lot of Trailheads probably think, since Mark is almost always made to look and act like a hothead and a sucker. At least, that is the vibe I’m getting.

“That’s right, Mark. Good ol’ Dad felt so bad not hearing from you that, after screwing over his friend and neighbor, Jolly, Happy just had to travel all the way to Oregon and drown his sorrows on the beach, only to run into Rob and Jadsen. One big ‘happy’ family, eh? Seems like ‘Sucker!’ is a family trait. But I sure understand their dad cutting them off.”

This would be a pretty good time for Mark to exercise his so-called “Fists Of Justice” on Rob and demand some answers. I doubt that will happen. Frankly, his FOJ outings have been weak.

The thought bubbles that connect panels 1 through 3 provide a nice visual lead-in to the flashback, though I’m stuck wondering why Cricket Bro feels compelled to discuss this incident with Mark and Cherry. Did this event take place after he and Mark were school mates? Because the flashback suggests it took place on the coast (i.e. California or Oregon). Maybe not a big deal, anyway.

Okay, we have two parodies of nouveau entrepreneurs:  Young, aggressive, rich, narcissistic, and amoral.  Like Mark Trail villains of the past, these two have “Punch Me!” labels stuck on their foreheads. The question is whether Mark will be the agent of humiliation or Cherry. But I suppose it can be a team effort.

So, let’s move on, shall we? We’ve seen enough of their backstory. No reason to beat it to death, like the backyard barbecue that took three weeks to cover. It’s now Thursday, so there are just two days to get the Trails settled in. Wherever that is. After all, Rusty has to break out of his non-essential “extras” role and then get into his co-starring role to go hunting cryptids.

So, Mark disappointingly flaunts the impotence of his famed Fists O’ Justice and demurs over upsetting the feelings of The Scam Brothers. One has to ask:  Why!? What is going on here?

Why should Mark keep quiet about a kink in the eco-armor of Jadsen Enterprises? Seems to me that, with all of the passivity and weakness that Mark has been showing so far, he would want to try to balance the scales a bit in his favor. No?

But for the sake of fairness, let’s consider:  Is Mark’s behavior a deliberate strategy to only seem complacent and appear weak in order to throw off the brothers, until Mark suddenly turns the tables at the right moment? Well, we have not seen this strategy in his other stories (not even in the old Mark Trail). On the other hand, Mark might just rely on his usual emotional improvisation and extra-legal behavior to save the day.

Hey, one good thing that could come out of this:  Let’s hope that Rivera alternates Mark and Cherry’s storyline with Rusty’s adventure, just as she does when Mark and Cherry have their own individual messes. At least, Rusty’s story has the potential for real fun and mystery.

I was thinking of the 1950s Superman TV show. As a very young boy, I thought he was amazing. But by the time I was 7 or 8, I was a savvy TV watcher and started noticing details:  Nobody worked at The Daily Planet except for Clark, Lois, Jimmy, and Mr. White. Superman’s muscles were just padding; everybody had to be really stupid to not see that Clark Kent was Superman. He had to keep rescuing Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen when they kept getting themselves into stupid traps. Superman also wasted too much time chasing down third-rate crooks and crackpots. Of course, I was not savvy enough to understand story development for kid programs was not important.

Once again, we see that Mark leads with his head and acts like Jimmy Olsen. Leave it to Cherry to have at least a lick of common sense, even if it is too late. But as for her concerns about the environment, Cherry, you just flew across country in a giant jet airplane! Show some humility! At least Rusty is wise enough to tune out the “grownups.”

But who is that sock puppet poking his head around the seats in panel 3? Oh, my lord, it’s Cricket Bro. Is he behind Mark? Where did that extra seat come from? If he is in front of Mark, why is Mark looking back? And how did all three Trails get into the van without noticing Cricket Bro was already there? Never mind that Cricket Bro looks and acts like he is Rusty’s age. It’s all too much.

Although this storyline has potential, the execution does not give us a lot of hope.

You know, it’s so easy to fall into just plain snarking. I have to control myself! Nevertheless, I wonder:

1. Why are the Trails riding with Jadsen in the first place? That certainly was not in the original plans! Yet, they didn’t seem to put up a fight at the airport.
2. Why are they staying at Jadsen’s “Oregon mansion”? Wouldn’t they have already made plans that involved reserving a hotel or house? And maybe a car rental?
3. Why is the traffic in panel 1 on the left side of the highway? It doesn’t look like the comic syndicate accidentally reversed the panel. Didn’t anybody bother to look? Is it supposed to be symbolic?
4. I get that Rivera designed Jadsen as a ludicrous parody figure, like his brother. So, are Jadsen’s “rose colored” glasses a pun of his mindset? Or does Rivera just like that color?
5. “Make it weird”? So, why not bring up the logging mill with Jadsen!? What does Mark owe this Jadsen jerk, anyway? Who cares if he gets uncomfortable?
6. What the hell is that expression “Van life!”? Are we supposed to believe Jadsen lives in his van or does extensive traveling around the country in it? Or is he just being a fool who thinks driving a van constitutes a life style?

Now hooooold on there, Baba Looey! First of all, that is a very nicely drawn Concourse E in panel 1, but it is also jarring next to panels 2 and 3. Is that Rusty walking with Mark and Cherry in the terminal? Where the hell was he during the flight:  Strolling the aisle hoping to find Mara?  In spite of what Mark said at the start of this story, looks like Pappy Happy ain’t coming along after all.

So, moving on:  It’s one thing to make the designated Bad Guy (Sterling) look like a goofball. In fact, it’s expected! But not Mark! He’s the designated Good Guy. Making both the Good Guy and the Bad Guy look like idiots creates visual confusion and destroys the whole point of visual symbols.

As for panel 3, how is it that Jadsen happens to be there in the first place? Who made that arrangement? It doesn’t look like much of a vacation. Frankly, I’m really disappointed with the B-movie dialog I’m seeing here. My unsolicited advice: Make Rivera focus on the art and hire a writer. This would give her the time needed to regain and maintain a consistent quality in her art.

Nit-pick, nit-pick. I don’t think Jadsen’s point was to give a summary of all of his business ventures! Still, it looks like the Trail’s latest crusade is going to be against NFTs, at least to the extent of getting Pappy Happy’s money back. After that, we’ll have to see. I hope this doesn’t mean we have to deal with Daggers once again. She deserves a break, and so do we.

Is that a man-bun on Sterling’s head? Perhaps that, and goatees, are going to be new identification symbols of bad guys, the way beards and sideburns used to be, before Rivera took over. Meanwhile, where is “Dad”? You’d think he and Rusty would be in the seats immediately across the aisle, or in the seats directly in front or behind them.

Ah, Mark. Soon we’ll all make houses, furniture, and violins from adobe and papier-mâché. But let’s move on:

Recent comments by reader Obtuse Angle (and me) concern how Rivera sometimes depicts heads and necks (etc.) in odd ways. There have been lots of comments here and elsewhere about the strip’s art and writing. But is this just an issue of inconsistency, as OA suggests? Or is there more to it?

If you look back at her earlier work in Mark Trail, you will see that Rivera is clearly an accomplished illustrator and knows her way around a drawing board. If you need more evidence, go to her website (http://julesrivera.com/) and click the Portfolio link. Then scroll down through the “Storybook” and “Comics” areas. You’ll scratch your head wondering if this is the same artist that draws Mark Trail!

It all suggests that “distortions” and “inconsistencies” in Mark Trail are deliberate, not accidental, or simply incompetent. But why? Several hypotheses come to mind:

• A deliberate avoidance, or dismissal, of old-school storybook illustration that Elrod, Dodd, and Allen championed (although they clearly had issues here and there).
• An attempt to develop a more expressive (modernistic?) style that reflects the absurdist-influenced story lines and characters, or at least a style found in online comics and graphic novels. That is, a style relevant to people growing up in the 21^st century. And most of us are stuck with 20th-century conventions.
• The result of Rivera trying to design updated plots, new personalities, and a new art style, while trying hard to keep up with a more demanding, deadline-oriented job.
• I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. That is, maybe I should just quit acting as if this is a serious, philosophic inquiry. Mark Trail is, after all, just a comic strip.

Well, I’m not even sure what the answer is.  And does it matter? For example, should I hate Garfield more because it is actually put together by an entire team of writers and artists (mostly excluding Jim Davis) and exists mainly to promote a huge merchandizing empire? (I can’t begrudge Davis’s success on that point.)

Yes, boys, girls, and pine moths, the old Mark Trail is The Old Mark Trail. He is not the man you remember anymore. The message is clear, but old news. Anyway, it doesn’t pay to try and analyze this stuff. Just roll with it. This is like a mashup of The Twilight Zone and Bizarro World, the strange planet in the old Superman comics, where everything there is the opposite of Earth. And I think we know on which world Rivera has placed this reality.

Oh, we’re flying, but not making much progress.

What kind of pie, Cherry? (That’s a pun. Sorry I had to point that out.)

Otherwise…. So Mark had a rough day, did he!? Compared with whom? Frankly, I think we readers are having a rougher day. Today’s strip is just annoying filler, saying nothing and contributing nothing. I really don’t want to simply throw bricks, but why waste your comic strip story and our time with this soap-opera dialog?

I truly hate to point this out, but, unlike panel 2, the drawings of Cherry in panels 1 and 3 look like some kind of strange marionette, with a head unnaturally attached to an oddly long, skinny neck. We used to see something like this with some drawing by James Allen, where heads looked like they were stuck on the front of necks, rather than on top. But here, the heads look like they’ve been taped onto posts.

I get that Rivera wants to expand the idea of this adventure strip to include a more family-centric angle and give more time to family members and normal interactions. Fine. But at the end of the day this is still an adventure strip, and for the past six weeks (since this new story began), we’ve not had any activity that could be classified as “action”, much less “adventure”. That’s six weeks just building up to getting to Portland. And we’re still not there, yet. And it seems I was overly optimistic about this story focusing on Rusty’s quest. Maybe he’ll get some attention down the road. It might be a long road, though.

Practical Mark wears a flight pillow, just in case. Or maybe a fashion statement. Cherry sees no need, in any case. Anyway, where is the Family Trail at this point in their flight? Probably not the Smokey Mountains, but possibly crossing the Rockies. I reckon that puts them well under 3.14159 hours from Oregon. Based on panel 1, it seems the Trails decided to fly First Class. A wise choice, but pretty expensive for them, unless Pappy Happy is footing the bill. I suppose he and Rusty are sitting in Coach?

Hey, Cherry! There’s no need to “sneak” pie or almost any food onto an airplane any longer. It’s a common occurrence and perfectly legal. What’s amazing is how she got it onto the plane without it getting smushed.

I think panel 1 is well conceived and executed, and I especially like the image of Mark. He has a non-nonsense, determined expression that looks like what a lot of readers had hoped for in the new Mark Trail. It certainly plays more to type than the teary-eyed, boxy figure of Mark in panel 3. I’m not backing off in my appreciation of the fact that Rivera toned down Mark’s flat, heroic posture and purebred moral nature; but I would like to see more grit and determination in Mark that does not arise from emotional outbursts and revenge.

I know there is a problem with a story when I can predict what will happen; not that this was a high bar in the first place. But really now, I keep hoping we’ll move on to new adventures with new people. Instead, we keep getting “guest re-appearances”, like being stuck in a locked room watching the same two episodes of Jeopardy and Bonanza in an endless loop.  Even Rod Serling would not conceive such a hell.

“Well, actually, he did, George.”

Huh? What do you mean!?  

“He wrote an episode (‘The Hitch-hiker’) about a driver who keeps seeing the same man on the highway in front of her, trying to hitch a ride.”

Ah, I remember that episode! I was a kid when I first saw it. It was scary! Speaking of which, who the heck are you?

“…”

Okay, then. Moving on… So now the trip to Oregon is no longer just a vacation, but a rescue mission to recover Happy’s stolen investment. This is starting to sound familiar. I can’t wait to see how Cherry reacts to this turn of events.

Nice of Mark to offer a little consolation, as he is the one who put his dad into this emotional state in the first place!  I think they call that “passive-aggressive” behavior? That “weird” piece of Mark’s anatomy in panel 1 is likely meant to be his left hand wrapped back across his shoulder and around the back of his neck. Nice image of Mark in panel 4, however.

Anyway, it appears that my fears are correct and that this Jadsen Sterling character is the link to Cricket Bro. So, we can expect Mark to blow his top in Saturday’s strip when he realizes who Happy is doing business with.

And like dads everywhere, Happy has no clue who Mark’s friends really are.

“Once I was just your son, Dad. But now, I’m the Father….” so Mark now instructs his old man. Well, Portland finally comes into the conversation stream. Should we overlook the technical foobah in panel 2 and just go with the Big Picture? It pays to be accurate when talking about science. And Rivera was more on the ball in her Sunday panels of January 2^nd. On the other hand, there is only so much text you can cram into a single comic strip panel. But I think she could have edited the speech balloon more carefully.

Is it too much to fear that Happy’s business partner will be Rob “Cricket Bro” Bettancourt, who must have taught Happy to use the pejorative “Marky” Trail nickname? Last we saw, Rob was in Palm Springs, trying to launch his NFT enterprise. He could have another home up in Oregon. However, for variety’s sake, I hope we get a new Trail Villain, somebody with black hair, beard, heavy eyebrows, and… oops!

By the way, I just noticed that the new spokes-monkey for Happy Trail is possibly the same monkey that Rivera used as an example of an NFT in her January 2^nd Sunday panels. Well, the same red shirt, at least. Go look it up. I’ll be around!

It seems like there’s always at least one such person in any crowd or family. Decorum and context usually have no meaning for such people who will stand up at a Thanksgiving dinner and pontificate about the conditions of turkey farms; or lecture everyone at a picnic about how much carbon was emitted by people who traveled there, while children in poor countries could only choke on their auto exhaust fumes.

So, we are also forced to witness—once again—Mark’s emotion-driven diatribe on NFTs. Not that Mark is wrong, of course. But what’s the point here: To piss off the old man right before taking him on vacation? So nice timing, Mark. Speaking of timing, Mark, can we finally get this vacation on the road!?

We readers have heard/read Mark’s “NFT lecture” several times already, including a Sunday installment; so, we really don’t need to go hear it again. Cherry’s interruption is a hopeful sign that we’ll depart with her and not have to hear Mr. Morality issue forth from his pulpit, yet again.

If Pappy Happy is sharp, he’ll immediately surrender his plan and fall in behind Cherry, while he can. On the downside, looks like we are going through more story padding. Certainly, the trip to Portland will provide plenty of opportunity for incidents, not to mention what happens after they get there. Why do we need four weeks of diddling around the Happy Trail house gunning our engines and not getting anywhere?

You see, I’m trying to find some purpose here, other than a) picking up Happy for the vacation; b) having Rusty meet Reptilionnaire; c) getting the family together; d) getting Rusty a Cryptid adventure helmet; and e) confirming Happy and Jolly are still friends. Hmm…that is a lot of things.

So, okay. Maybe I’ve become a victim of modern mass media tropes, which emphasize quick edit cuts and non-stop action over story development and character interaction. Perhaps I should be applauding Rivera for a slower-paced story that lets characters breath and is something other than a sequence of conniving crooks, car chases, forest fires, kidnappings, avalanches, fights, and cave escapes. But we will get something along those lines soon, right, Rivera? Remember, Jules, there are already plenty of soap opera and family strips around, but too few adventure strips.

Somehow, Pruneface must have escaped Dick Tracy’s clutches and elected to hide out in Florida, disguised as Happy Trail. I thought Rivera would follow the time-honored Trail Tradition of skipping over details and move us directly into the next phase of the story. Instead, the lecture on NFTs continues.

Of course, time in comic strips is infinitely elastic. And it’s possible that all of the cookout activity, including the Trail’s drive down, took place in a single day, even though it consumed 3 weeks of comic strips. In any event, it is nice to see that Rivera is once again using “Batman”-style sound effects.

Admittedly, I’m wondering what all this is leading up to; or what it has to do with the vacation/story. I suppose it was important for Rusty to get that special cryptid-hunting mask from Aunt Olive. But did we need three weeks to do that?