So, Jules Rivera decided to have Mark ignore the presence and utility of the on-site animal wrangler in California, as well as pass up an opportunity to involve Mark’s friend, Rex Scorpius, a professional animal tamer. And for what reason? To bring Rusty along.
What to think of Cherry pushing Rusty on Mark? And what to think of her idea to let Rusty spend the day, alone, in a hotel pool while Mark works? What could possibly go wrong with that setup!? It’s not as if there would be dangerous predators in a hotel, right? Once again, we see the dark cloud of child neglect hovering. Well, and then there is the giant Room Service bill that is likely to show up on the expense sheet.
Art. Dept. And speaking of puzzling things, what is your take on that “lion” in panel 2? Has Rivera been watching The Wizard of Oz?
Egads! The entirety of this week has been wasted on a pointless back-and-forth chatter over whether slack-jawed Mark Trail should take Rusty on an official assignment, an assignment involving close proximity to dangerous animals. Maybe Cherry has been sniffing the compost too long.
And by the way, just who is Cherry responding to and winking at in panel 4? Us poor readers? That kind of panel where the character reaches out to the reader with a wisecrack or slogan is more normally used in the concluding panel of a story. It seems artlessly and confusingly shoved into today’s strip, as if this was a punchline to a joke, like actors breaking character.
Art Dept. Occasional commenter Mark (no relation) pointed out yesterday about insufficiencies in Rivera’s artwork, such as foliage lacking shape, details, and accuracy. And looking at the background today and the past several days, it is easy to agree.
Partially in Rivera’s defense, I will point out that backgrounds in art tend to be simplified as a general rule to help focus viewers on the foreground figures. It is not a hard-and-fast rule, but merely a convention that’s been around for some 700 years.
Rivera will take this tradition to extremes. The background foliage in today’s panels are shapeless and lack definition; sometimes not even suggesting “trees” as a possibility; for example, panel 1. And check out the trees in panel 2 of yesterday’s strip, which look more like the hokey newspaper Christmas trees I was taught to make in Elementary School.
It should be obvious, however, that photographic representation is definitely not the design goal that Rivera has been pushing in the strip. And that has been a central problem for many Mark Trail readers.
Oh my. I wasn’t around in 1946, but what I saw of early Mark Trail (and summarized on Mark Trail Confidential) was that the bear in question was, in fact, Cherry’s “pet” bear that Mark mistook for an attacking bear. And they weren’t bonding too much at first, until Mark handed over a pile of cash he got from winning a nature photo contest.
Now, is Cherry seriously pushing to have Rusty tag along with Mark to search a house filled with lions!? That sounds like grounds for a child endangerment rap.
And how could Mark justify taking Rusty along as his partner/backup? Sure, he could suggest to Bill Ellis that Rusty would function as a staked goat to lure the lions out of the way, perhaps. That puts both Cherry and Mark in the pokey for child endangerment, and Rusty in the hospital. Or the ground.
I dunno. It all sounds so weird. Maybe Mark and Cherry want to break free from their restrictive lifestyle and start anew, on their own…and in another country that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States.
Former Daily Trail blogger and founder, Dennis Williams, sent me a link to an Australian artist (Adam Murphy) who creates mashups of different comics characters and styles, such as Charlie Brown and Calvin & Hobbes; The Phantom and Indiana Jones; and Tin Tin and Indiana Jones. Check out his impressive work on Instagram: @adammurphyart. Mark Trail does not seem to have been one of the inspirations.
The Tin Tin reference is especially significant, as the original Belgium strip proves that adventure comics with good suspense, drama, and even humor do not have to be depicted in what many consider a proper “realistic” style (e.g. Judge Parker, The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and vintage Mark Trail). Having noted this, I do not propose that Rivera’s current interpretation reaches the level of Tin Tin in either style or plotting. Well, I think it did in the beginning (as I have said before); and it could, again, if she wanted.
As for this past week, we have endured days of Bill Ellis on the phone with Mark, convincing him to take on an assignment to help locate a film director who disappeared inside a house, where the house apparently is locked down and filled with lions and actors involved in the director’s current film. Does this sound absurd? Of course it does, in pretty much every which way you can imagine! If you want more details, you’ll have to scan the previous posts; I won’t repeat them here. What I will say is that, unless this house is on scale with the Biltmore mansion in North Carolina, I don’t see how this works. But, we can meditate for now on today’s topic.
Once again, Rivera chooses a topic geographically related to Mark’s current story: California. And once again, Rivera ends the discussion with a non sequitur (“social climber”).
Art Dept. In the “penultimate” panel (that might sound snooty, but I like the word), Mark is posed in front of an orange oval. This juxtaposition has been a compositional device in Rivera’s work for over a year. In most cases, it works (see panel 1 in Saturday’s strip), because the oval carries across the entire panel, creating a proportionally divided background using a slowly curving line.
But today, we see an oval isolated within a larger panel, unable to reach its sides. Rather than dividing the background, today’s example serves to frame Mark’s figure, like the concentric circles in the opening credits of Warner Brothers cartoons; just not as developed. Was Rivera going after the same aesthetic concept or adapting the device to a different idea? Okay, only art/art history geeks would care one way or another, I suppose. At least I’m not using footnotes.
Long-time readers of this blog know that I try hard to give Rivera an even break, even promoting this strip whenever possible. I’ve invested a lot of time and thought into analyzing, describing, and commenting on various aspects of this strip; from writing, to visual composition, to drawing, to characterizations, and more.
So, when I tell you that this story makes less and less sense by the day, I’m not just trying out snarky comments for Comics Kingdom (in fact, I don’t post on the Mark Trail page. I leave that to Bill F. and his compatriots). For one thing, I’ve noticed a change in tempo and temperature coming from Bill Ellis through today. Starting with his initial near-hyperbolic presentation at the start of this phone call (last Saturday), it has softened to a casual, bantering phone play during this week, as if this was all just sending Mark out on a normal assignment reporting on Japanese Knotweed. No hurry, no big deal.
We have today’s strip closing out the week and filling the space on your screen or your newspaper page without furthering the story. Presumably, Jules Rivera is writing her own stories, so she can pace them as she pleases. But can she develop a plot that does not require wasting days with empty blather? We’ve seen this happen over and over. To be fair, Rivera is not unique. Prior artist James Allen did this, as well.
A traditional approach in adventure strips was to use Monday’s strip (if Sunday was not part of the continuity) to summarize the prior week’s progress. This helps relieve the cartoonist from having to keep inserting time-wasting strips into the storyline. But Rivera likes to do both.
Since Rivera claims to be science– and nature-oriented, she has ample room to make those concerns more integral to this strip. It would be much more appreciated by the readers (I’m sure) than wasting dailies with endless bad jokes, bad puns, and an apparent low regard for the readers.
Oh boy! Maybe we will see Mark team up with his good buddy, former animal wrangler/trainer, Rex Scorpius. Otherwise, I think we can all admit that the foundation and justification for this story is one of the most absurd story setups we’ve seen.
Personally, I don’t know what the problem here is. Nobody in their right mind would stay in a house filled with, presumably, free-roaming lions. I’d get the hell out of there, immediately. I’d also be questioning the sanity of any actors who remained. Get those scared cops to check nearby motels and brothels.
There is a plethora of flaws in this entire setup, and I’ve mentioned a few; but since that is the basis of this adventure, let’s just take it on its own terms: 1) How does Ellis know the director is still in the house? 2) Did the actors check for hidden doors and passages? The attic? The basement? Kitchen cabinets? Maybe Rivera, by chance, recently read Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story, The Norwood Builder. 3) Did anybody check to see if the director is hiding in plain sight, say in a lion costume, to see how the actors react to the situation? He could be resting with the felines, just lion on the floor. 4) Finally, how long has Bill Ellis been on Crack?
Rivera once again pads this fledgling story by devoting today’s panels to repeating the punchline from yesterday’s panels. Rivera has Mark (panel 1) employing a sitcom meme that was old back in the 1960s: “Did you just say that <blah, blah, blah>?” Cue the laugh track. It’s a shame Mark was not at Planet Pancake, where he could do a spit-take with his coffee.
OVERVIEW: Uh, if they know he’s in a house of lions, how come they don’t know where it is?
DISCUSSION: That still needs explaining. But hold on. Let’s accept the premise that there is a house full of lions. This director is in the house. So how come they don’t know where the hosue is? Well, a kidnapper could have informed “them” that they were holding the director in a house of lions until a ransom was paid. It fits the weirdness of this story’s premise.
Now, why would there be a house of lions in the first place? That’s not a practical way to hold a kidnap victim. And where would a person get lions? Perhaps the kidnapping was done so the ransom would be used to pay for the lion purchase! It could be the work of a less-than-scrupulous zoo-keeper, such as Tess Tigress.
Anyway, I think Mark’s original response still holds: Why him? He’s a nature author and photographer, not a lion wrangler, for which several experts already exist throughout this country. Maybe Ellis thinks that Mark’s time on that Tiger Touch Petting Zoo assignment gave him enough hands-on experience to tackle this assignment. (yeah, I know. I’m taking this much too seriously!)
As we await Bill Ellis’s justification, I’m sticking with Mark’s position. And clearly, that position is about to be undone. Otherwise, there may be no story. So, moving on: Will Ellis assign another sidekick to Mark? If so, who?
Okay, I had to get that pun in before I forget. Anyway, I’m glad to see that Mark shows some common sense and honesty (panel 3)! As for Bill Ellis (see panel 2), who else did he expect to take the call on Mark’s phone? Okay, I know that Ellis’s statement is just a commonplace expression and not meant to be taken literally. Maybe Ellis really meant “If anyone could take this call seriously, it would be you.”
Well, I’m intrigued by this story’s opening. Coincidence aside, Ellis leads with a tabloid-style declaration (“click bait” to use modern jargon) sure to grab Mark’s attention. Eventually (we hope), Ellis will explain the more mundane details that will justify Mark’s involvement. For example, the director could have gotten lost while out hiking the Blue Ridge Mountain parkway. Now Mark just confessed he isn’t a modern-day Daniel Boone, but at least the plot is relatable. We’ll see.
Well, this week saw the culmination of both Cherry’s and Mark’s (or Rusty’s) adventures, merged into a week-long epilog. For Cherry, she and Violet were able to launch their “Movies in the Park” night at the same time as Mark met up with Honest Ernest and his “brothers”, who also decided to attend. They immediately formed ranks and started the usual ritualistic chest thumping and evil-eye throwing, until Violet, in an unusual intervention, stopped the impending fight by coming up with a plan to hold a public electronics demolition event on her parking lot, what she referred to as a “Rage Lot” event. Mark seemed puzzled by the reference, but the fight was avoided. The movie played. Later that night on the way home, Bill Ellis called Mark about a crisis: A movie director has gone missing, and he happens to be the director of the movie the citizens of Lost Forest just watched! Coincidence? And why should Mark be called about a “missing person”? We’ll have to await further events.
Interesting topic. Now the size of prehistoric lions (or any animals) cannot be established by cave wall paintings, which were not drawn “to scale” (panel 4). Perhaps Rivera only refers to the color of the prehistoric lion’s coat. Those cave paintings/drawings that Mark mentions exist only in Europe (not in North America), mostly in Spain and Southern France. The most famous “lion cave” is the Chauvet Cave in Southern France, discovered in 1994.
I was puzzled by the image of the zebra in panel 5, where Mark discusses the extinction of the “American” lion. It turns out that many fossils of prehistoric horses have been found in Idaho, and are commonly known as the Hagerman Horse, or the American Zebra. (FYI: I’m simply summarizing equus information from several scientific/nature websites.) This animal is known as Equus simplicidens, in the taxonomic genus Equus, which is the ancestor of modern horses, donkeys, and zebras. Several sources claim it is more closely related to modern zebras, though there is no evidence of what their coats looked like. That is, there is no evidence for stripes. In any event, academic/scientific study and debate continues.
Okay, the humor in panel 1 is actually normal for once. Very good. Otherwise, it looks as if Mark is finally back on the meter, which Cherry should be happy about. Mark cites the old phrase “Things that go bump in the night”, though it’s not the apt comparison to the movie he thinks, nor was anybody speaking of such things in panel 1.
It is phrase that, for once, does not go back to Shakespearian England. It refers to things like ghosts and spirits or unexplained noises that bungle around for a bit and disappear. This is not a habit usually assigned to vampires, as they seem to be more graceful, being able to morph into a bat to enter or leave a bedroom. Vampires are not stumblers.
Otherwise, we are left with the odd notion that Bill Ellis thinks Mark is now The Finder, a sleuth of missing people. I wonder what happened to “Mark Trail, Defender of Nature and our natural resources”? I mean, geeze, Bill! Hire a private detective, why don’t you!?
Art Dept. One good thing that leaps out to me is a generally improved level of art, especially in the faces, showing more individual expressions. Rivera is clearly taking more time. But I have to admit, I’ve always been puzzled by the blue bands behind Mark’s head. I’m thinking they represent graying hair, perhaps? Or maybe some kind of unusual haircut style.
Warning: Pun Alert! Pun Alert! Secure your pets and children!
Rage lot!? I don’t know that term and haven’t seen it around. So I looked about. There is an AI management tool known as ragebot, but I found nothing specifically for “rage lot.” Perhaps Rivera simply riffed on the pun of rage lot and rage bot.
In any event, this sounds like a silly idea. I read a WebMD article stating that “smash rooms” and “rage rooms” where people go to supposedly work off anger issues only affirm the anger problem, but do not provide alternative solutions or techniques. And people come back for more.
The silliness of Violet’s idea goes beyond a lack of therapeutic support. It could be dangerous, with broken parts flying every which way, to say nothing of possibly dangerous components and chemicals that could accidentally be exposed. Call me a fuddy-duddy, if you wish, but I’d keep the kids at home. Plus, I’d bet that recycling sites would not much care for taking items deliberately smashed.
Say, do you think those three guys are really biological brothers or just “brothers-in-arms”? That idea reminds me of the three brothers in Newhart: “Hi. I’m Larry. This is my brother, Daryl. This is my other brother, Daryl.” A much nicer bunch of guys.
One thing you might notice in Rivera’s Mark Trail is that virtually every male is either pissed off about something or auditioning for a Steven Segal movie. And that is not a compliment. An adventure strip usually has to have drama, intrigue, some danger, and a “save the world” for or from something. But there is little drama in constant fighting, Jason Bourne, notwithstanding.
What we have here is a version of a high school gang of bullies movie, where the hall monitor/teacher steps in to stop the fight that ensures the dramatic and humiliating beat down takes place in the Boy’s Room after school. Mark’s calm demeanor (excuse my sarcasm) on display here is the normal reaction Mark pulls out for just about any kind of situation, because that is what Rivera thinks Mark Trail is all about or thinks that’s all that the readers care about. Well, I care about flapjack dinners and talking snakes, too! And those intimate nature walks Cherry and Mark go on, where Rivera omits the best parts.
I noticed that Mark’s most recent official, paying job was the assignment in Utah, reporting on wild horses. I don’t know what Cherry earns from Violet, but if Mark and his family want to keep eating and paying the rent, shouldn’t he spend more time soliciting paying work? On the other hand, I do appreciate Rivera’s innovation to reveal some of Mark’s “downtime” activities, rather than simply continuing the old Mark Trail routine: “Go on assignment-return home for 3 days-get called to another assignment”, which was the prior modus operandi.
A corny horror B-movie sounds like a good choice for a movie night. Brava, Rivera! I guess Rivera wanted to avoid a direct link to the universally panned 1991 horror flick, “The Malibu Beach Vampires”, a movie that might have ended the night before the first reel ended.
As for this story, we appear to be at the start of the standard “Mark Trail Family Time”, that period in between adventures where we sometimes learn about the aftermath of the just-concluded story.
No doubt, it would likely violate the Comics Common Code of Consistency if Robbie changed his spots and became fast friends with Rusty. That would be as likely as Mark changing his shirt. Come to think of it, Rusty never changes his clothes, either. But Cherry does, a lot. What’s with that?
What exciting events occurred in Mark Trail’s world this past week? Let me look . . .uh, not much. The real action was the week before, when Cherry and Violet faced down a hungry bear rummaging through the new compost bins.
Rivera devoted this past week to closing out the e-waste story with Ranger Shaw and Mark cleaning up the debris in Lost Forest. In reality, the time was largely devoted to Ranger Shaw confessing to his own e-waste offense at this same illegal dump site! The ranger also complained he did not have the manpower to deal with the Grungey Boys, even though he knew of their actions for several weeks. Never mind that he had no problems calling in the local sheriff to haul them away only after Mark had corralled them. Finally, in Saturday’s strip Rusty came home with his A-grade paper on e-waste. Mark got assurances from Rusty that he hadn’t embarrassed Robbie in school. Rivera closed out this story with a pithy moral: “E-waste is not a game.” Get it? “Game”, as in Robbie’s buried game controllers. Yep, those controllers were the story hook that led us to think this adventure was going to be about Rusty and his Revenge Paper. But all that was buried by yet another Mark Trail Storyline Takeover. I wonder what would happen if he crossed strips and took over the current storyline in Mary Worth or Rex Morgan, MD?
This is, from what I can tell, a good summary of the Eastern Kingbird and its behavior. The orange (sometimes red) patch is normally hidden, only being exposed when it is in attack mode or when mating. But who knew Mark was a Shakespeare aficionado? Well, to keep the paraphrase closer to the original, perhaps Mark could have said “Uneven lies the head that wears an orange crown.”
At least Rusty managed to squeak back in at the end of the story to remind us (and Mark) that this adventure was supposed to be his adventure, not Mark’s. Or was it? It sure would have been nice to have Rivera spend a bit more time on Rusty’s paper and presentation where he could have demonstrated some his research to enlighten us. After all, this comic strip is supposed to feature nature and our relationship with it, right? So, how do e-waste toxins affect the environment? No idea so far, but then, maybe Mark will take that over as well and tell us this Sunday.
We’ll give an “Attaboy!” trophy to Rusty, but Mark always gets top billing, and that means Rusty’s primary role is priming the pump for daddy Trail. Mark my words.
Art Dept. I dunno about that seated Mark reading the shrinking book in panel 1. He looks uncomfortable and oddly built, though maybe it’s just Mark’s expression that gets me. But compared to the past several days, today’s drawing presents a better sense of organization and craft.
Here we go again, with Rivera padding out the week by reiterating the script from the previous days. Does she think this strip is only published once a week? Anyway, pity the poor schlepp, Ranger Shaw, an unqualified warden of the forest who can’t seem to find the wherewithal to call on his fellow rangers for assistance; who can’t find the ability to even call his district supervisor for help. No wonder he’s afraid his wife will leave him. No wonder his son is a jerk.
Like so many TV and movie writers, Rivera seems to make every other “good person” in the strip appear less than or not equal to Mark Trail. So, Diana Daggers was a formidable and deliberate badass when she originally appeared, when opposing Mark. But ever since she more or less came over to his side, she has been weak, ineffective, and mostly invisible. Rex Scorpius, former stuntman and Internet animal tamer, is only good enough to drive a getaway car for Mark. Debait Team member Cliff certainly had little to do with actually helping Mark’s fishing retreat succeed. And now we have Ranger Shaw, who has been a weak character from Day One. In fact, even his face is weak; a flattened pancake of a face without depth.
Why do writers feel the need to make other people look dumber or weaker, just to prop up their Main Character? It’s such a simplistic and patronizing attitude. Rivera is not the first or only person to do this, of course; but it would be nice to see her break away from this cheap meme. For example, a really strong and smart Diana Daggers working alongside Mark and actually accomplishing things on her own or in tandem would make a great team and likely increase the popularity of this strip. In truth, we had some of that in the Zeeba Mussels story. Let’s have more!
So, this is not the first time that Mark reacts as if hearing something for the first time, when he already responded to it in a previous strip. In fact, from a normal reaction sequence, today’s panel 1 text would—should—precede yesterday’s panel 4. That is: First the reaction, then the moral teaching moment. But in the context of moving the story, it seems necessary to walk backwards a bit. I’m not so sure.
But speaking of sleeping on the couch, it’s clear that his conjugal issues go a lot deeper than Vampire Romance movies or what his mother-in-law thinks.
Finally, that “DVD” box in panel 3 suggests that either Ranger Shaw had to label it so he wouldn’t forget what he was abandoning in the woods or Jules Rivera thinks her readers are as clueless as Ranger Shaw and the Grungey Boys. Well, indeed! We certainly wouldn’t want to think that the box was just some random box of crap that happened to be in that clearing where Ranger Shaw is losing his mind. No siree Bob!
This is wrong on so many levels. Dang, I think I’ve written that before. Is this Groundhog Day?
Ranger Shaw now confesses to being an unofficial Grungey Boy, dumping e-waste in Lost Forest as a way to work off his own aggressions!?! Talk about a compromised investigation, I’m hoping to learn whether Shaw resigns from the service or just turns himself in.
And Ranger Shaw has never heard of recycling or selling DVDs? Donating them to friends, people he doesn’t like, public libraries, nursing homes, or even state prisons? How did he ever become a Ranger? How would you get the idea that dumping DVDs in the forest is good? At the very least, you would dump them into the river, where they would be harder to spot!
It seems to me that Rivera continues to make every male figure in this strip a loser, an incompetent, a wack job, a vigilante, or a crook. To be fair, women do not always come off much better, though Cherry does provide a positive presence, maybe more than Mark does.
The entire Trailverse must be filled with disparaging examples of humanity, only some even pretending to be good. Of course, Mark makes the attempt. So I reckon it’s Mark And Cherry Against The World. That’s a bit long for a comic strip’s title.
Today’s dialog presents some problems for the story and Shaw’s position. I’m certainly not an aficionado of park and forestry law enforcement, but the US Forestry Service does have their own law enforcement, both uniformed and ununiformed. Even the national park service has law enforcement. So, this presentation of Ranger Shaw as weak, insecure, and ineffective makes little sense. He could have called on fellow federal law enforcement officers or even the local law, as he plainly did in the July 6 strip when he took the three Grungey Boys to the local sheriff. But then, how would Mark get involved!? Ay, there lies the rub.
As far as story is concerned, I’m holding judgment a bit. Today’s strip does not appear to provide much relevance to the story’s development. Even if Ranger Shaw only just found out about the trash, so what? Will there be some kind of consequence for Ranger Shaw as a result of his inability to do the job for which he was hired? Again, so what?
Anyway, wasn’t this story supposed to be about Rusty and Robbie’s rivalry? Rusty is probably back at home, swearing up a storm about how Mark once again sidelined him out of another one of his own adventures.
The Daily Trail 