“They thought he was just an Outdoor Nature Cornball. They found out he is a Man with a Certain Set of Skills, which don’t include fixing fences, installing light switches, or imitating bird calls!”

So, is this “Mark Trail: Nature Vigilante” now? We’ve come a long way from Mark’s former boy scout approach to righting wrongs, haven’t we? It’s one thing to twist an arm to get cooperation, but I think Mark is taking that to a new level. And I’m not sure I like the direction it is going.

First of all, Mark seems already sold on an application that seems to be a standard practice in many occupations, including animal welfare. And we never learned the practical, operational qualities of this app, which is to say, what’s special about it and how would it be used in a realistic setting? Furthermore, if it is designed for wildlife, what are you going to do if the air is not prime for the animals? Somebody going to go round up about 3,000 water buffalo and take them into a climate-controlled habitat for a bit? Mark never bothered questioning the practicality of this program. Frankly, I’m siding with Cricket Bro at this point, based on his responses and Mark’s actions.

Did Aparna or Reptilionnaire or Mark even think to simply ask Cricket Bro to buy back the application? I mean, if it isn’t a money-maker, why wouldn’t he let it go for a relatively small charge and the possibility of some royalties if the product ever hits the market down the road and makes a profit? They could have started with something like that, before starting instead with grand theft and battery. If all of this is caught on security cameras, I don’t think even Father Trail will be able to keep Mark out of jail and a bad date in court.

From the artistic side, I’m thinking…another day of quickly-drawn images, not like yesterday’s panels. In short, with last week in mind, perhaps some inconsistency in the work. As far as I know, Rivera does not have an assistant. Of course, as I noted before, it could be a case of employing style to represent the mood or temperament of the situation. But that is sounding like a stretch at this point.

Well, it’s nice to see that the boys shared a moment together.

Thoughts, anyone?

Time and space compression is at work once again as we see Cricket Bro and Mark magically transport into the alleged “complex” web of hallways where the Laptop Duo is attempting to make a getaway. Never mind that the company’s so-called Security (the person known as “Dare”?) has apparently disappeared. In any event, Mark adds to his expected growing list of possible criminal charges of accessory to theft and fraud by assaulting Cricket Bro, who suddenly speaks like a 1940s film noir character.

So where are Killer Bee, Diana, and Dare in all of this action? Did none of them think to come running when the alarms went off, or are they off to their appointed “battle stations”, ready to intervene if needed?

Today’s strip is a great improvement in artistic quality, with regard to style, staging, and overall effect. The off-kilter point-of-view in panel 1 underscores the urgency and anxiety of the current crisis. Cricket Bro in panel 2 is well-delineated in a three-quarter, foreshortened pose. Though Mark’s corralling of Cricket Bro in panel 3 gives the impression that the Herp Hacienda team now have a free pass to escape, it may be an illusion. Or delusion.

After all, Mark has to also escape. And there are still three formidable forces for Mark to deal with, excluding Cricket Bro. What will they do now?

Oh, about that software:  Why would Cricket Bro leave it on a docked laptop, if it was so important? In any realistic situation, the software would have already been uploaded to a server or other secure storage devices and the laptop drive wiped clean. In fact, it would have been proper that all of the laptops were connected to a server while being used.

Now, should we assume Jules is just not cognizant of such things? Hard to believe in this day and age. So, is there another angle here? Is the software issue merely a blind? A ruse? If so, for whom?

In adventure strips of the ‘30s and ‘40s, it was common for the big Sunday panels to more or less summarize the previous week’s dailies, since many newspaper subscribers only took Sunday. We don’t have that in Mark Trail, since Sundays are reserved for nature talks. In fact, we don’t normally have recap strips at all. However, today looks mostly like an “In case you missed a day” strip, with a recap of Mark’s silly boxing match with “Killer” Bee Sharp, while the Herp Hacienda kids have (already) set off a security alarm. All old news! In short, today’s strip gives us nothing new with regard to the story.

It’s not specifically story padding, as what we have here is more review than pointless filler. But why bother? The storyline is already getting long; it’s time to move it forward.

I’m also wondering if Rivera is deliberately playing around with continuity. That is, deliberately altering space and time for some unspecified reason. I already pointed out the example of the changing clocks, which have since been absent. Today we see the presto-change-o position of Cricket Bro, originally observing from the floor; but suddenly up on the outside edge of the ring.

The composition of panel 1, lowered point of view, well done. The overall drawing of the panels is tighter, though still looking off from Rivera’s usual work. Mark’s face in panel 1 with its punch-drunk expression will likely tick off long-time readers as either incompetent drawing or just a disrespectful representation, though I think it is deliberately humorous, like the way villains and tough guys looked in the old Popeye comic strips after they got walloped.

A possible interpretation of Mark’s face in panel 1 is that he is visually suggesting to Killer Bee that this is what his face looks like, as Mark also orally taunts him in the first two panels.

Final observation:  I think the dialog in panel 2 is a reference to the rhyming jokes in The Princess Bride. What do you think?

As we recall, this past week was the continuation of “Mark’s Trail of Woah!”, as we bounced back to his impromptu fight, in progress, with Killer Bee Sharp, after cutting away for a week to watch Cherry cozy up to another one of her oddball siblings.

So, we watched this supposed “pretend fight” start and stop and start and stop again, allowing Killer Bee to get in more actual punches than our “Champion for Nature” was allowed to do. Still, when he did connect, he left messages.

While Mark was more concerned with how to make this travesty of a meeting last for about 30 minutes, the Herp Hacienda kids bungled their attempt to sneak Aparna’s laptop out of Cricket Bro’s hands. Oh, it’s been a herky-jerky week for Mark and Company, both in story and in drawing. If this was the first week of viewing Mark Trail for a reader, I would understand that person complaining of headaches and confusion. Even many of us veteran observers are likely scratching our noggins trying to understand current events. As before, I think these story segments demand two straight weeks at a time in order to help improve overall continuity. And let’s get Dirty Dyer back!

Even though the Butterfly Bush has been mentioned, along with its problems several times in the past few weeks, it has still found its way into a Sunday nature talk. Once again we see a nice cooperative Sunday chat featuring both Mark and Cherry. Still, I wonder why it couldn’t be just Cherry this time, as it falls in her bailiwick. Perhaps there is some long-standing rule Mark Trail has in his contract where he has to be in every Sunday strip.

Well, at least Rivera gives us a set of recommended butterfly plants that help the butterflies. Good show! I will go on to add that the common milkweed (Asclepias) is another good choice, especially beneficial to Monarch butterflies.

Otherwise, this is a nicely drawn page. Perhaps Rivera draws several Sunday strips at one time, after several weeks of dailies are drawn. This would help keep the drawing consistent from one Sunday to the next, especially as the Sunday strips are generally drawn cleanly, evenly, and sympathetically; whereas the style in her dailies is more confrontational and sometimes jagged, perhaps to support the current drama. Anyway, some good continuity with Mark showing garden shears in the middle panel and again with the same shears in the final panel!

Hapless is as hapless does. I reckon that Aparna never realized there were security alarms for the docking stations. Apparently, Reptilionnaire set off the alarm when he removed the laptop. As Aparna is shown in panel 1 half-way removing a laptop without an alarm going off, it is clear that only total removal matters. As if that mattered, anyway. Have to admit that Cricket Bro is no dummy. Meanwhile, poor Mark is once again denied his revenge, just when he is again getting into form. Fisticuff Blue Balls, to coin a bad metaphor.

Artistically, we see Mark’s oddly-foreshortened face certainly looking like it took a lickin’, while Killer Bee’s countenance merely looks like Rivera’s ink pen slipped. Hate to note it, but the overall drawing again looks rushed and untidy, especially panel 3. The panels also lack the kind of detail we normally find in Rivera’s work. Not sure why. One thing for sure:  Cricket Bro needs better pest control for his offices!

Perhaps, when these two kids are captured, Mark will finally get to—if not have to—use his Fists of Justice to save the day.

Okay, I’ll admit to being confused here. More than usual, that is. Based on the remarks of Diana and Professor Bee, I’m thinking they are not quite the bosom buddies of Cricket Bro. Or am I misreading the room? It’s just that their comments have the tint of criticism against Cricket Bro. But is the phrase “It’s the only influence he has in the ring” meant to refer to Mark? Surely not; that makes no sense. But neither does this entire phase of the adventure.

So what happened to Dare and his role in this so-called video commercial scam? Did we miss a day of panels?! Or did Jules drop a daily without fixing the continuity? And exactly how is Cricket Bro provoking this fight? Certainly, his lame insults at Mark are not “encouraging”, unless they are meant to get Mark mad enough to lose focus? Sounds like Cricket Bro is self-projecting! In fact, as I recall, no provocation was needed for Killer Bee to start this so-called fight by throwing a sucker punch at Mark. Dare temporarily stopped it when Mark was getting his licks in. And suddenly, the fight has somehow resumed.

On the cartooning side, this is not one of Rivera’s shining examples. In fact, the entire set of panels looks rushed and sketchy, as if she submitted a draft, rather than a finished product. Or maybe this set of panels was ghosted by somebody filling in for Rivera. She usually does better, in spite of how anybody feels about her drawing style. And as for that last panel, it’s a nice overhead composition. But Mark’s right jab is more of a probe of Bee’s weak defenses rather than one of those famous “fists of justice” he has thrown in the past.

Well, Aparna had no problem with the door code, whose “dit-dat-dit” sound calls to mind the letter “R” in Morse Code. Maybe that’s an “Easter Egg” planted by Jules Rivera. So, how many laptops are in that room? I can’t tell where they are, or are those two structures on either side of the room supposed to be the stored laptops!? Black Widow spiders wanna know!

Also, there seems to be an inexplicable continuation of the fight which Dare had just stopped! Supposedly. Well, if we see this entire series of panels as concurrent with the panels of the prior days, then panel 4 may just be a recap of the impromptu fight that Dare goes on to stop, although Killer Bee originally walloped Mark with a right jab, not an uppercut.

But this is all quite vague and contradictory. In fact, the timing…er, time, seems out of whack. The clock on the wall in panel 4 looks like it is around 7:20. However, the strip yesterday clearly showed the clock at 6:00.

So, what gives here? I’ve got no answer. Do you? Oops, I’m out of time.

Dare has a vision!? Looks more like he has Excedrin Headache #22. Poor Dare. If only he had bothered to share his vision with everybody before the current kerfuffle! But even by panel 4, we have no idea what that vision is. Does it involve Killer Bee, dressed in boxing attire, attacking Mark, sans gloves? Or maybe the two of them meeting in the middle of the ring, knocking fists against each other, and deciding to work together to solve the world’s problems? Or maybe Dare has a deal with ESPN.

Well, while we wait, seems that Mark has a busted lip (panel 3), leaking black blood, not red. Either that, or Rivera smeared the ink before it dried.

I think we have to assume that a good ten minutes has gone by since Dare first let Mark into the building, while the Herp Crew snuck into the off-limits wing. That means—if my college German is any good—that Mark only has to fool this crowed for 20 more minutes. But if Mark’s strategy is to coax Killer Bee into a premature rematch, I’m not sure this is a winning approach, as either the Bee goes down quickly, or Dare the Bear knocks them both down.

Maybe Mark can play Boxing Clown to Bee’s Rodeo Clown and waste a lot of time literally running around the ring, avoiding those yellow gloves. Or Mark can break the fourth wall and ask Jules Rivera to change the minute hand on the wall clock so we can get this story moving on.

Yes, as commentator Downpuppy pointed out, size isn’t everything, and whipcord-ripped Mark has no problem sparring with The Bee. In fact, it looks like Mark’s right cross carried a meaningful message of danger to the arrogant Bee-man. Frankly, Killer Bee looks more bully than boxer, and his technique frankly stinks. I would bet that, had this “fight” gone on, Bee would go down in the first round. But as Rivera, herself, pointed out, the fight got stopped by the local version of Andre the Giant, just as it got started.

And that brings up more questions, such as

a) What’s the point of the boxing match gimmick in the first place?

b) Why was it stopped:  Did Cricket Bro get disappointed that Mark can actually fight?

c) Where is Cricket Bro, anyway?

d) How are those two Herp Hacienda members getting on?

e) And where is this story going?

So far, we have Mark invited to fly to LA and participate in a still-unseen video with Reptilionnaire; also invited to stay at Herp Hacienda, a reptile retreat filled with assorted human oddballs; then invited to a party by the video’s “money man”, “Cricket Bro“, who happens to be Mark’s childhood nemesis, Rob Bettancourt. This turned out to be a party where Mark was systematically and deliberately insulted, ignored, and threatened. We learned of a revelation by Aparna, one of the Herp Hacienda staff, about Cricket Bro stealing her intellectual property. This subplot is added on by a plan hatched by Mark to infiltrate Cricket Bro’s offices to help steal it back; but the plan was weakened by an otherwise pointless interlude with Professor Bee and Diana Daggers stopping Mark and his “street posse” on the way to Cricket Bro’s office, ruining any chance of surprise. But then a discussion between Mark and the human mountain doorman enabled Rept and Aparna to somehow slink into the off-limits Developer’s Wing. And finally, we have this outrageous boxing match setup for another alleged video. This is truly some off-the-wall goofiness!

But, other than the so-called theft of an animal air sensor phone app, where is the Injustice against Nature that Mark normally works to resolve? It has to be more than the two videos or the simple thrill of humiliating Rob “Cricket Bro” Bettancourt. There has to be something more, something much bigger. Perhaps we’ll see it this week.

I think a second week of Cherry’s story would have been better, but we did leave Mark in mid-punch, getting hammered by Killer Bee. We return to the action and its follow-up, which amounts to Mark still standing after that right jab and vowing to unleash the much talked-about “Two Fists of Justice!” Of course, it might be wise for Mark to put on some boxing gloves in order to minimize the chance of breaking a knuckle. But will Cricket Bro foil Mark’s justice and stop the fight before Trail returns the compliment to Killer Bee?

Artistically, I know people will complain (as they already have) about the sometimes spindly anatomy of various figures, whether it be Dirk’s legs or Mark’s body in panel 2. But it seems to be a stylistic feature of the strip in general, and here, it is used to effectively differentiate Mark’s appearance from Killer Bee’s partially-visible strongman physique. By the way, this feature was not apparent in Professor Bee’s initial introduction, where he looked a lot slimmer, more like a dancer. But he was wearing a full-length coat or duster. I suppose ‘clothes make the man’? Anyway, this difference helps set up a dramatic question of whether a person of slight build can overcome a person with a more aggressive and strong appearance. In the old days of this adventure strip, the outcome of this fight would be obvious. With Rivera, the outcome seems less certain.

Perhaps that sense of uncertainty we have seen in Mark’s character is a deliberate ploy created by Rivera, so that when Mark does send Bee to the mat, it will be a greater surprise to the onlookers and a more pleasing dramatic turn of events. This reminds me of watching a Popeye cartoon, where the much bigger Bluto always pounds Popeye mercilessly until he can consume his magical spinach and gain the strength of ten men. Then Popeye wipes the floor with Bluto and wins the day. But we’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see what happens next.

Now, Rivera has a good sense of design, and panel 1 is a good example. First, there is a similarity in angle of the two figures, which aids in the aggressiveness and movement from left to right. The curved bee antenna is mirrored in the curvature of the “stars” of Mark’s face as he gets punched. Nice touch!  The funnel-shape above Mark’s head, which I suppose represents part of the effect of Mark’s head getting walloped, is mirrored by the triangular shape of Mark’s torso, as it falls to the right.

Anyway, in spite of my academic noodling above, I think we are all ready for some good old-fashioned Mark Trail Payback at this point. And it’s about time we see Mark return to his “man of action” roots! There’s been enough of Mark The Clueless Wimp.

Thanks, Dennis, for once again taking up the reigns while I drive through rain storms and sweltering heat from Virginia, back to Minnesota. Okay, I had the AC on the whole time, but still, three days of driving does wear on. And those thunderstorms dropped rain like it was a heavy fog. No fun when driving through mountainous terrain.

Well, well, well. Is Cherry calling in the bovine cavalry? Seems a bit of a stretch for her to set a sounder of wild hogs loose on some garden patches. So this week’s strips somewhat slowly unroll the character of one Dirk Davis, a hitherto unknown sibling of Cherry’s, whose appearance belies any family resemblance. And let’s face it:  Either Rivera does not have a lot of experience drawing beards, or there is something else going on here. As has been pointed out, this has got to be one of the phoniest looking beards on any cartoon character.

In any event, not much action, nor much in the way of explanation at this point. While we might complain about the slow pace here, I do think there is a valid explanation, and that is there must be something important about Dirk’s backstory and his particular set of skills that makes him vital to Cherry’s success. But there are concerns:

1. Why doesn’t Cherry tell Dirk the whole story? She is clearly shading the truth here.
2. How will getting hogs to run wild through flower beds resolve the larger issue here of the clearly arbitrary and negative rules of Sunny Soleil, much less its arrogant staff?
3. Why did Cherry think she had time on her hands when she took the day off to visit the rose garden that got turned into the butterfly bushes? I suppose that was to set up a reason for getting Dirk.
4. And what about the palmettos?
5. And how is any of this going to make the Home Owners Association change its rules?

This seems like the wrong time to switch back to hapless Mark. We need to see more of the story before it goes to the back burner.

So the subject of today did not appear in any of the panels this past week. The Title panel shows one of the ducks grabbing the “K” in the name formed of sea grass. It is another cleverly designed panel and makes sense when you view and read panel 4, explaining the Moscovy Duck’s feeding habits. Why can’t these invasive ducks be legally removed? Rivera does not say why, but they (at least the feral version) are classed as invasive in the US. Rivera lacks space for really detailed discussions, but I learned that this duck has been around for a very long time, especially in Central and South America. Its feathers were used by Aztec rulers for cloaks. According to Wikipedia, they are considered indigenous (not invasive) in a few Texas counties.

I’m wondering if Rivera draws up these Sunday panels in groups, as she assigns herself the time; then arbitrarily selects which ones get published in what order. Somehow, this reminds me of some of her earlier Mark Trail work, but that might just be my imagination at work.

As another D-Day Remembrance commences and becomes ever more distant to people born several generations after that event in 1944, we arrive at the end of another week of “Mark Trail, Clueless Adventurer.” It seems, jus when Mark gets his head straight, somebody knocks it off its axis again. Poor Markey! Well, this past week has been spent getting Mark, Reptilionnaire, and Aparna, the naive programmer, into Cricket Bro’s offices, so they can reclaim/steal back a program (or a laptop, or both) held by Cricket Bro. Not so much a car race as simply an eco-friendly car getting run off the road by a fossil-fuel injesting muscle car, the three conspirators are hassled by Prof. Bee Sharp and his assistant, Diana “Kato” Daggers before being allowed to continue on. Thereupon, the two nerds are somehow able to waltz into off-limit offices while Mark gets hoodwinked, once again, into taking part in some kind of dubious video (which is what got him into this mess in the first place) involving a boxing match against Professor “Killer” Bee Sharp. But it maintains the “absurdist” ambiance which often characterizes life in California, at least to those of us who do not live there.

No surprise that today’s Sunday panel focuses on the puma we saw a few days ago. And note that the title panel pays homage to the famous “Hollywood” sign, which is also shown here. Puma “P-22” is, in fact, the designated name for an actual puma that haunts the Griffith Park area in Los Angeles where the Hollywood sign stands. I was not familiar with the term “Ghost Cat”, so that is some new information for me to file away.

One of the innovations that Jules Rivera injects into Mark Trail is how she uses narration. Unlike the prior incarnation of the strip, the current strip uses narration boxes more frequently to provide context. Narration boxes have also been used to contain “flashback recollections” (see May 11).

However, what is most innovative is Mark interacting with the narration (see also May 12), as if there is a live speaker on site. This is a new trope to the strip; at least I did not find any occurrence in Rivera’s first story, where narration boxes were quite rare. Maybe this interaction is an alternative to Mark talking things out with animals, which was a feature in the Happy Trails story. I am guessing that Rivera is working out how much irreverence she can get away with while maintaining an otherwise serious adventure strip. No doubt, this approach pisses off more purist Trailheads who know that the original Mark Trail rarely joked when on assignment. Or off.

But one thing I’m stuck on:  We all note the use of the derisive “Markey” in that first narration box, whereas he is given his normal name “Mark” in the second box (panel 4). Is there a significance to this usage? I dunno! Anybody got an idea?

Now we find Mark already in the ring…without boxing gloves. How did that happen, especially as he doesn’t seem too happy to participate? Certainly, Killer Bee (aka Professor Bee Sharp) takes it seriously. He is suited up, if you consider wearing fake bee antennae is part of being properly suited up for boxing. Still, even if Bee was some kind of college boxing champ, he is too much the narcissist to worry about the Marques of Queensbury rules. I hope that right jab to Mark’s face doesn’t put him down for the count, since he needs to keep these reckless bozos preoccupied for an entire 30 minutes.

Still, a 30-minute fight?! I don’t think so! Mark has fighting in his blood, as we know, so I expect he’ll connect fist to face and drop Killer Bee before long. Or Cricket Bro will interrupt.

Now, where is Cricket Bro? I figured he would at least be the referee, with Daggers acting the “ring girl”, parading her signs between rounds. And where are those cameras to record this commercial, by the way?