…not far from a RANGER STATION?  Whatever part of M Trail Inc. scripts this dialogue must know I get up every morning and look to make fun of it… “Secluded area not far from a Ranger Station.”  Uh, OK…  I guess we’ll know soon enough why that’s important…  I am still dying to know who the blonde is in the framed portrait on Shelley’s nightstand…  These things can’t go unmentioned, and certainly they would not have gone to the trouble of inking it if it did not feature in some future plot point… But isn’t Wesley the picture of success under an old-time/ robber baron/ we love profit era?  ***sigh*** As we head into another round of “Teddy Roosevelt and the Trust busters,” we can only look upon such vim and vigor and say, “we knew you when…”

Love the first panel- no rack-focus here…  cranking the aperture down and keeping near and far in crisp focus, we get to see male and female bonding over cups of strong black coffee… Wesley, with his hand on Mark’s shoulder and Shelley, who by now must be sweltering in her ribbed turtleneck sweater, remaining nonplussed by the notion of sleeping on the ground under canvas, regarding the whole thing as “silly…”  Careful there, Lassie, you have just entered the Trail-verse, where such notions are met with less than an approving nod.  Mark’s Cherubic face, on display in panel two, makes us think that he’s on the verge of tears, so excited is he to go in to the woods, not on assignment…