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And they call it “Cryptid Love”

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Regular reader Daniel Pellissier commented yesterday on a general improvement in the artwork, especially the water scenes. Indeed, Rivera does a good job with that. The above-ground scenes also seem better handled in regards to composition (e.g. panel 1), figures, and general ambiance. However, it is still unfortunate that the flora are treated merely as background and stage-scenery. It would be nice to at least show more articulation, if not better resemblance to actual types of trees and bushes.

Today’s submission looks like we are going to have another week of filling in space before a new adventure begins. As scintillating as it may be to watch Rusty once again moan about his inability to prove the existence of cryptids to his friends, there likely won’t be much to say on a daily basis. 

As you might recall⏤assuming you have not dozed off⏤we went through a full week of Mark and Cherry going on a nature walk, then a full week of Mark talking on the phone with Bill Ellis about a new assignment. Now, it looks like we might get a third full week of fluff!

I sure hope I am wrong. But if not, I may gather the strips for the rest of the week and post a combined blog on Saturday. Before you write, I recognize the illogic of that statement. I clearly cannot know what the rest of the week’s strips will show before they are published. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Whoopsie!

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Well, here I am eating my words, or at least blushing for forgetting to take into consideration that the Sunday chat subject (i.e. catfish) could also apply to upcoming panels!

And we learn that Cherry’s two sisters are now going to live somewhere in Lost Forest. Does that mean they will figure into some of the ongoing stories of Cherry, and maybe Mark? That could present some needed variety in Cherry’s stories. As Rivera defined her, Cherry was originally pretty feisty, but her personna has flattened out lately. This seems to be a lot of what happened to the “original” Cherry of Ed Dodd’s days, when she was an outdoor gal, frolicked with a pet bear, and camped in the forest. Later, she got more domesticated and less interesting. Rivera’s Cherry is not yet the stay-at-home figure of old, and I see no reason to believe she will evolve that way.

But Olive still retains a lot of her independence and aggression. At least, she is drawn that way. So, I hope she can hold on to her personality if she is going to be a recurring figure in the Lost Forest landscape.

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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This week was the prologue for a new Mark Trail adventure. I’d like to think that it has the makings for real suspense and action, but I can only beat up on myself so much. Bill Ellis called Mark and spent most of the time this week stroking Mark’s somewhat cautious nature to get him to accept a speaking engagement at a technology conference in New York City. The topic is about artificial intelligence and the environment (so I am calling this adventure “A-I A-I Oh!” Catchy, huh?)  Mark was properly skeptical, as he could only speak on the negative effects of AI on the environment. Ellis told Mark he will get a big payday for the talk. Mark was even more skeptical and dismayed to learn that the conference is hosted by long-time serial nemesis, Cricket Bro. Bill Ellis must get his kicks making Mark squirm.

In spite of mounting pressure all week, Mark found a clumsy, if effective way to back out of the engagement (“let me think about it“), only to be undone when Cherry suddenly popped up to announce they had an emergency water heater leak that required a lot of money to fix. The last image we saw was an unhappy Mark giving in to Bill Ellis. NYC, here we come!

Was anybody looking for river giants, as Mark concludes? I wasn’t and I don’t recall Mark being curious any time recently. Until now, of course. Anyway, we get a topic that is unrelated to the current or most recent adventures. Unrelated nature topics were common in pre-Rivera times, whereas Rivera often focuses on creatures and environs related to Mark’s or Cherry’s current adventure and location.

And that is a good thing, I believe. Why? Well, it provides continuity throughout the entire week, and it serves as a way to highlight aspects of the location where the current story takes place. Still, it has never been required and takes nothing away from the Sunday topic, itself. But it does make me very curious to see what Rivera comes up with for topics related to New York City.

Mark gets double-teamed.

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Oh, poor Mark. Thrown into the fires of fate by reality, or at least by a diabolus ex machina (by the way, I like that fiery symbolism in panel 4. Good imagery!). We know that sometimes reality bites. And it sure looked like Mark was about ready to turn down Bill’s proposal, too. So sorry, Mark!

As for the cost of fixing or replacing a furnace, I reckon I’d have to know more before I could say that Cherry’s estimate had any accuracy behind it. And what is a small fortune to the Trails, anyway? It would be nice to get a professional estimate before making this decision, but I have the feeling that too much reality would ruin the point of putting Mark into the position of having to accept this assignment.

Bill Ellis lays it on thick and creamy, with a straw.

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Oh, Mark. Keep your values in check and Just Say No! Don’t let Bill Ellis gaslight you again. Ask for something in your wheelhouse: There must be a stranded penguin to rescue, somewhere; a mining company possibly sinking illegal shafts on protected lands; or maybe a corrupt editor setting up rigged assignments of dubious merit, just to gin-up ratings.  Just don’t give in, Mark. We’re with you! Don’t do it, Mark!


Ellis tries to humble Mark to take the assignment.

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Last week (or so) I proposed a thought experiment about what Bill Ellis did in his spare time. I found a possibility:  Moonlighting as a meteorologist for ABC under the assumed name of Lee Goldberg.

Bill Ellis⏤when not forecasting the weather⏤doesn’t seem to treat Mark seriously. He is happy setting up Mark as a punching bag for Cricket Bro (aka Rob Bettancourt), as Mark rightly assumes. But to what end? What does Ellis get out of this besides a cut of Mark’s fee?

Nothing mentioned (so far) about how this assignment has anything to do with journalism, much less which magazine this assignment is destined for. Is Mark supposed to write up the conference for publication? It’s a puzzle. Maybe Jules Rivera is finally transitioning Mark into more of an outright, independent troubleshooter, troublemaker, “Edward Abbey” type of activist, with Ellis more as his handler or manager than an editor. So “journalist” then becomes Mark’s cover job, rather than his actual job. If so, let’s get Diana Daggers in on this as his partner. She could definitely stand some hardening up in this strip. I don’t want to see her go the way of Kelly Welly or Dirty Dyer.

Ol’ Bill Ellis gives a job, A-I-A-I-Oh!

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Clearly, Mark has a limited view on AI and has not investigated areas that might hold positive benefits, the energy-hogging data centers notwithstanding. There’s no end of people pooh-poohing and raising flags about AI’s problems. For once, Mark is right (panel 1). So there must be something else, right?

Once again, Rivera plays Mark like the Batman in those 1960s TV shows, where he fights the same circle of comic villains, over and over. We’ll have to see if this really unfolds the way it is presented or is just a smokescreen for something else. Most of you have probably recalled a prior story about Mark investigating a missing journalist and bear activity at a mountain retreat for STEM professionals, (“Bear Necessity”, begun Feb 2023), only to run into a bevy of returning guest villains and a hidden agenda.

So what is Cricket Bro’s real motive? He was the behind-the-scenes inspiration for the recent conspiracy-based manatee kidnapping farce in Florida. Do you think that Cricket Bro is looking for revenge (once again)?

Does Bill Ellis hate Mark Trail?

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Okay, I’m going to withhold judgement for just a bit. We’ll assume the tie-in could have something to do with the environmental impact of large, energy-consuming data centers that also use lots of fresh water for cooling. Or, perhaps this audience of IT professionals is interested in how AI is being used in various environmental industries and programs. Who knows? But I would bet there would already be at least a few experts on those topics at this “tech conference.”

In any event, this topic involves detailed, technical issues and policies. Is Mark at all qualified to speak on them with any authority? Investigating wild horses in Utah and uncovering a hidden data center in the desert doesn’t amount to a lot of experience, but it’s better than nothing, I reckon. 

Maybe Mark doesn’t have to be a technical expert. Maybe he can take an ethical and philosophical position, assuming he is still aware of the current issues and ideas and how they are being handled. But I share Mark’s reaction in panel 4. This is not exactly in his wheelhouse and he runs the risk of looking ignorant and incompetent. Why does Bill Ellis think Mark Trail is qualified to give such a talk in the first place?

Perhaps Bill Ellis should have suggested Mark write a “weekly column” for Teen Sparkle Magazine or have Mark investigate an active volcano, as regular readers Daniel and Downpuppy commented yesterday. 

Coming up … Bill Ellis and his red-hot offer

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I’m hoping that this offer was so red-hot that Bill had to give it to Kelly Welly, Mark’s “old timey” competitor for choice assignments. At least, she used to be, in the pre-Rivera tradition. And she did make an appearance or two in some of Rivera’s earliest Mark Trail strips, but has never been seriously retained. At first I thought that Diana Daggers was going to be the new replacement “female rival”, but maybe Rivera thought that it played up to old-school stereotypes.

In any event, I reckon we’ll learn about this bigtime assignment soon enough. But this brings up another point, doesn’t it? How is a “hot assignment” relevant to magazine publishing, unless the magazines Ellis represents have already transitioned to online? And what happened to all of those magazines Ellis represents? It’s all become just so much background, hasn’t it?

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Well, if you’ve followed any of my posts this week, you may as well just skip to the Sunday strip, below. Otherwise, here goes:

Mark and Cherry, after driving to the Lost Forest Jailhouse and haranguing Rick the Bipolar Poacher and ex-beau of Cherry’s sister, Peach, decided to go on another one of their cherished nature walks. 

This one lasted most of the week (in our time, not theirs). Each day favored a different animal vignette for them to gush over, and I suppose we were invited to gush, as well.  The problem was that none of the depictions seemed especially gushable to me. Your mileage may vary, as they say. As Mark relished the idea of getting away from technology for a while, he faced the predictable consequences of a charging phone flush with left calls to answer on their return to the cabin. And wasn’t Mark surprised! Were you?

One of the featured nature walk creatures was this stag beetle. So we get some of the beetle’s lifestyle and personal likes. On the other hand … 

I thought that Rivera had realized the importance of really focusing on the creature-of-the-week by minimizing the appearance of Mark and his pointless puns, as she did last week. Well, call me Mr. Naive. Go ahead; I deserve it! Once again, it’s hard to distinguish what is important here, as the first thing I see is Mark commenting in almost every panel. I mean, honestly, Jules! Aren’t the narration boxes enough!?

Watch as I gesture and set my phone on fire!

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Notification Repeat: I’m on the road now and will be for the next 3 days, heading for a family visit. See details on Friday’s blog. There may be delays in posting, but I’ll eventually catch up. So if you don’t see the current strip you expect, check back later or the next day. Once I’m in Virginia, things should normalize.

The non-tech nature walk is finally over. But it’s disingenuous for Mark to suddenly get apoplectic over his missed technology, don’t you think? Rivera might be saying something along the same line in panel 4, but she gets no laugh from me, since she’s the one that made it all happen.

So, Trailheads and Neo-Trailheads, what shall we find on Monday: A new assignment for Mark or another misadventure with Cherry and Violet (as seems to be the running trend)? I think it would be nice for Cherry to have a new client once in a while, with new issues to resolve. As for Mark, would attaching him to a new magazine editor really make a difference? I was hoping that this multiple-magazine hook Rivera set up for Mark way-back-when would introduce different types of stories and goals. But I haven’t noticed much difference. And we haven’t seen much of these different magazines lately, either.

And I thought sap came from trees!

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Notice: We’re leaving on a road trip this Saturday to visit my Dad and my siblings down in Virginia. There may be a bit of delay or stacking of strips for a bit, though I think I’ll be able to sneak in the Saturday strip on time. Maybe Sunday. Why the trip now, you wonder? My Dad turns 99 in March, so I figure I better get back down there real soon!

It’s not as if Rivera was caught up short in her storylines and had to plug a plot hole. Like most comic strip artists, Rivera has to work up her stories and art weeks in advance. Theoretically, anyway.

Rivera had long ago met her goal of illuminating more aspects of “At Home with the Trails” beyond the traditional, limited sessions of porch chats and pancake dinners we used to see. And that’s just fine. But this week sure takes the pancake … uh, cake. Most of the nature walks Rivera has portrayed last just one or two strips. But this time, Rivera apparently showed us an entire walk!

That long of a focus might make sense if Rivera was the type of artist who spent a lot of time creating and showing really impressive, detailed drawings of flora and fauna. But that is not her style. Furthermore, nothing particularly exciting or dramatic has happened on this walk.

Enough, already!

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This cloying “nature appreciation” week is starting to get really annoying. And there are two more days of the week to go! Yesterday would have made a proper ending for this woodland ramble, with that “walking into the distance” closing panel. Bill Ellis just cannot call soon enough.

Anyway, I don’t know what Mark is posturing about in panel 3, since we rarely see him doing anything even remotely resembling nature journalism.

Mark and Cherry avoid the giant stag beetle ambush and confront a mother alligator!

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The Trail’s bucolic stroll through Lost Forest continues, as they enjoy a cooling off week after the action and suspense of their recent adventures. But don’t despair, readers, as real excitement and danger can  suddenly appear at any time! That Pileated Woodpecker in panel 4 might mistake Mark’s head for a tree stump and start pecking on it for grubs. Woo! Maybe some wood ticks will latch onto Cherry and start crawling down her sweater.

Art Dept. Again, consistency seems to be an issue. The image of Mark in panel 1, for example, looks top-heavy, and  he is not moving. Perhaps that is why Cherry seems to be kicking him in the shin to get him moving. The wavering thickness of limbs and lines that define Mark’s jeans seems to have no rational explanation. And yes, it would be nice to see Rivera spend a bit more time depicting the flora and fauna, since they provide the thematic focus of this strip.

Finally, do you agree that omitting the text box in panel 4 to focus only on the silhouetted figures of Cherry and Mark walking off into the distance provides a much more effective follow-up to Mark’s comment in panel 3? In so doing, it would emphasize the silence that Cherry and Mark are appreciating. What do you think?

Mark and Cherry manage to avoid the bear, only to fall under the notice of a giant stag beetle!

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Ever wonder why Cherry and Mark always wear backpacks on their nature walks? I do! It’s not as if they are going on a 3-day mountain hike! Maybe they are just prudent? I suppose they might carry snacks, water, raincoat, compass, extra socks, perhaps a blanket, and some lotion … uh, suntan lotion, of course.

Anyway, it’s only Tuesday, people. This could be a lonnng walk!

Nature Dept. I’m curious about panel 3. Not the beetle, but the rock with a tree growing atop. I’ve seen this before on some hikes I’ve taken with my wife. Here is a photo of one such occurrence. The tree is a member of what are known as Lithophytes, flora that grow on and/or in the rock. They subsist on sunlight, rain, and minerals extracted from the rock. I don’t really know the botany, so maybe Mark will tell us about it this coming Sunday.

A Wildlife Lesson from Mark Trail!

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And here we have famed nature advocate and journalist, Mark Trail, demonstrating the proper procedure to follow when coming across a bear in the wild:  Continue to walk towards it!

Moving on, I think Mark is trying to score points with Cherry (or maybe just score) with his empty pro-Bear boast (panel 2). In fact, when Mark ran across bears in the past, he ran the other way! On the other hand, when Cherry made her first appearance in the strip back in 1946, she had a pet bear to play with!

Moving on, it’s too bad Rivera has this chronic disposition to inflict bad, school-age puns on her readership, but perhaps she is focused on capturing middle school readers to make up for the senior citizen Trailheads who have moved on. Or worse, she thinks we really like them.

Artwork. It’s nice to see Rivera put more variety in the flora once again, even if they look like flat, painted cardboard props from public school plays (ah-ha! I see a connection with the puns!). This is a nature-oriented strip, after all, so the more nature, the merrier. Now, if the flora actually looked recognizable …!

The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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If this was truly the ending, or aftermath, of the adventure of Peach and Rick, it was an unusual ending. For starters, most of the main characters were no longer around: Peach, Olive, and Dirk simply faded from the story, like drops of water on the sidewalk during a sunny day. While Rick, the story’s villain, sat in the local jail awaiting extradition back to Florida, the only people who visited him were the two people who had the least to do with the prior events:  Cherry and Mark. Well, Cherry did house her sisters, of course, and that is where Rick ultimately met his defeat and arrest. Mark was not even around. Still, it is unsatisfying that Peach was not given the opportunity to have her final say.

Most of the week was a flood of tongue-wagging and finger-pointing as Mark got to exercise his morality and show off his presumed influence, all to humiliate Rick. It looked pointless and petty to me. Cherry, for the most part, had nothing to say. Now, was this week meant to give the appearance of family support, but subtly show Mark and Cherry as holier-than-thou buttinskies? Was it to show Mark getting his pound of flesh to fulfill his need for not being around during the episode? Did Rivera deliberately put Mark and Cherry in an unflattering situation? Decide on your own, dear readers and let me know.

Why is the American Crocodile a threatened species? It isn’t because of attacks from other animals, for the American Crocodile is an apex predator. Most of these crocs are killed accidentally (cars) or deliberately by humans (Yes, I know we are part of the Animal Kingdom, but you know what I mean).

A good component of today’s strip is that Mark has not injected his face into every panel, restricting himself to just the opening and closing panels. I applaud that decision and I hope Rivera keeps it up, because it means more space gets dedicated to what Mark is talking about.

Finally, Mark did not end on one of his bad jokes. Another success! However, I have no idea what Mark means by “Special on a grand scale.” Sure, the male American Crocodile can grow up to 20 feet, which is about 19 foot more than I’d prefer to see. But is that what Mark means by grand? What do you think?

All done. Time to go home!

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Okay, are we finally finished with this story? I think so. And yet, even more information comes to the surface about poor Rick the Hunter, aka Pokey-Man. I’m not sure why Cherry is nervous about Rick coming back to Lost Forest, since Peach lives in Florida, just like he does. But, dear readers, I stand (or sit) confused, and I’m a bit nervous to reveal the reason. But here goes:

Where are Mark and Cherry walking to in panel 3?

There, I got it out of the way. I feel much better. So Panel 1 shows Mark and Cherry walking alongside the truck, not towards it. I know I’m being nerdy, but in panel 3 they are still walking, as if on one of their nature walks. That truck isn’t that long!

Could there be some unmentioned time dilation between panel 2 and panel 3?

Do you think they decided to take an impromptu nature walk while still at the local pokey, before hopping back into the truck? We see that Cherry is guiding Mark, who is just a tad too happy from their conversation. It also seems like an unusual time and place to see a turkey lurking about. Still, I saw one just the other day walking on a neighborhood sidewalk. Go figure!

One door closed but another one opens.

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I suppose Cherry and Mark can claim some justification for their visit and shaming, since Peach invited herself up to Lost Forest and involved them in her troubles. But I agree with Rick: “No more!”

I have to hand it to Rivera for coming up with a nice closing comment from Cherry in panel 4, though I think I’d have swapped a “y’all” for “you” (y’all can be singular or plural, whereas “All y’all” is definitely plural). It would have just given Cherry’s statement more southern sweetness.

Artwork: Are you as mystified as I am about panel 3? It’s as if Rivera had been reading “A Tale of Two Cities” with all of its jail scenes. Rick’s cell has taken on the form of some old plaster-and-brick prison. That’s odd for what appears to be a modern concrete and steel building. Furthermore, the architecture of the jail cell is completely different from before. But I’m really curious how and why the jail cell door is now open. Maybe the sheriff agrees with me that having to listen to Mark all this week was punishment enough for anybody!

No, Mark is not using x-ray eyes in panel 2!

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So, Mark and Cherry feel the need to butt in and get their pound of flesh. Seems rather petty to me, and not in any way useful. Not that I have sympathy for Psycho Rick, who is definitely being portrayed as a pathetic loser.

And I have a some questions about Mark’s diatribe in panel 3.

  1. Exactly when did mark contact this editor, as he only just got back from Florida?
  2. How did Mark figure out which magazine and which editor to contact?
  3. Why would any magazine editor pull an article on the say-so of a nature journalist with, uh, only about 500 followers? Sure, the hunt was rigged, as Peach originally stated, but where is the evidence? As an editor, I would want more verification.