As the cranky hermit crab from The incredible Mr limpet (Starring Don Knotts as an animated fish amongst live actors) would say… These two need to get a room, or at least box seats at Target Field and get caught in the Kissing-Cam…
Are we done yet? That’s all you get Cherry! Let’s head home!! For what?!? I don’t even want to imagine…
It’s THE BEAR! THE WOUNDED BEAR! I thought it was in Doc’s care and custody! Ranger Dusty! Gather your men!!
Remember the grandson played by Fred Savage from The Wonder Years questioning his Grandfather played by Peter Falk in The Princess Bride??? He was being baited and switched into listening to a chapter book being read aloud to him whilst sick in bed… That’s what I feel is happening here… OK, James Allen, WE GET IT…
But let’s examine the words more closely… Mark is feeling lucky because he HAS A PLACE TO LIVE… and will do almost anything to not mess that up… Even subject himself to Cherry’s advances… Even make Cherry feel like he really cares about her… Or is this James Allen getting back at Elrod for years of inattentiveness on Mark’s part?
I might add at this juncture that James Allen has yet to draw Rusty once since taking the helm… is this a clear message, that he never approved of Mark and Cherry taking on this troubled, underdeveloped child??
Well, back to “As the Trail Turns…” More blah blah… What ever happened to punch punch, kick kick?? Mark has this silly grin on his face that can only tell you, James Allen, that he doesn’t quite know HOW to behave now that he has been home for so long…
I am going to start a petition to get Mark back out with the bad guys! Who’s with me?? But Cherry, let’s be clear- Mark’s “job” being a nature writer is just a front- for what we are not sure, but why don’t you ask him to show you his last check from Woods and Wildlife Magazine… Is he on salary or is he paid by the article? Does he get any money for living expenses? Because at this rate you will both be working at Wal*Mart in your “retirement…”
“C’mon Master, I am dying here!” says the Big Dog… By panel three Andy is hearing what we are all hearing… “blah blah, away from home a lot, blah blah I’m sorry about that, blah blah blah…” Please let this be the precursor to Editor Bill Ellis or someone calling Mark back to the world outside of Lost Forest. This is getting tedious beyond words… Aside from the fact that Cherry is doing her best to model for the ubiquitous redneck mud flap profile in panel one…
Black Capped Chickadees are meant to act that way Mark, but not you… C’mon James Allen, let him leave the nest… He’s much more interesting when he is operating without a search warrant and getting into other people’s business…
Well, forget everything I just said (as in yesterday) about how relieved I was that James Allen wasn’t changing any of the long-held notions about role clarity…
Maybe “doing dishes” isn’t the end of Mark as we know him, but it is a departure from what was… and what we held most dear about him and his cloddish, oafish, generally obtuse nature… so there he is, sleeves all rolled up, drying dishes… I am speechless…
Maybe a might peckish after heading out for an afternoon drive only to find yourself fighting for your life and spending the night in a tree!
But of course you were able to forage… “Some Berries for breakfast!” not much to keep body and soul together, huh, Mark??
So of course we find ourselves back at the table where meals are served and strong, black coffee is poured… Cherry, Baby, what IS going on with your face in the first panel? You return to your normal look of utter supplication at the sight of your man, but seriously, you look a little alien whilst pouring coffee!
I am SO glad that James Allen isn’t messing with any of the well-defined roles in the Trail-verse… Doc fixes animals (without receiving so much as a thanky-kindly…) Cherry serves and Mark sits there like a prince… But wait! Cherry made a joke- “glad you were able to get away from that bear, Honey…” Bear… Honey… Get it?? Ha! That’s a joke, son!!
Dusty the Ranger reminds me of Dr. Zaius from Planet of the Apes… same protruding, fixed lower mug… and then there’s Mark- cracking wise- “Well, Ol’ Friend, (he says in sort of a Ronald Reaganesque fashion) the bear delivered THAT message himself before YOU had a chance to… ha!” He’s literally cracking himself up! And Cherry looks back in, what? I don’t know… disbelief? How’s the shoulder, Mark? I bet it only hurts when you laugh…
This must be as fun (or maybe scary and disconcerting) for Mark as it is for us… All these new emotions to try on. It’s like when Data the Android received the “emotion chip” in an episode of Star Trek The next Generation… what will Mark do with all these new found emotions? Cherry isn’t sure she doesn’t want the old, wooden version back…
“What happened to the man I married?,” she must be wondering…
And they already have a suspect in custody? What up with that?? What’s Mark to do now? I don’t get where this is going…
Hold the phone! Keep the clock running! This story has only just begun!! The look on Mark’s face is telling- jaw is clenched, eyes are narrowed, posture is forward… Meanwhile the look on Cherry’s face tells the real story, as in, “Oh dear, there he goes again… off to save the natural world from evil-doers…”
And of course what is Dusty’s job other than to TELL MARK about what is going on? And then stand back and watch Mark do his job? I mean, what? Dusty is actually on the payroll and has in his job description to bring in bad people, but why would he do that if he has this crazy vigilante living in his jurisdiction?? Well, maybe they will work together… maybe we will get a little Dusty back-story to help round out his character… Remember, this is James Allen’s world now…
James Allen just keeps breaking new ground. Nipples. There… I said it. Nipples on Mark’s chest. This could be a first, although I won’t spend the time to prove my thesis… That, and once again, Mark seems to not have to ever shave… This just seems unnatural along with the total lack of hair on his torso… What about, oh, let’s not go there… but really- does he ever shave? I haven’t ever seen him with so much as a stubble. Even Dagwood shaves… every morning in front of the bathroom mirror…
And Mark, you are so clever, and could not wait to vocalize all that you have endured and how you schemed your way out of it… but you left out the part where you backed up and went over the falls!! That’s the best part! Simply saying you “hurt your shoulder” doesn’t do your story justice… But that’s you Mark, modest to the end…
Not sure about the look on Cherry’s face in panel one… is it gas?
…except an ever-so-tender kiss on the Trail-cheek after his brush with death! Was there time for a life-flashing-before-his-eyes moment? I wonder… But Dusty and Cherry, not Rusty and Andy, found Mark a little worse for wear but alive and able to write non-stories and fight eco-evil another day…
OK, maybe this wraps a story line… we’ve been at this for 39 days… and we never even left Lost Forest! Unless of course we consider the hint that Ol’ Dusty dropped a week or so back- the fact that there appears to be a poacher afoot! Trapping bear and making them angry and aggressive… So this is probably just a pit stop on the way to figuring that one out…
But a handful of stars and a thumbs-up to James Allen… that was actually moderately exciting!
Everyone looking forward to going back to work this morning?? Getting your ass kicked by the Alpha?
Just remember… EVERBODY has a boss… everyone answers to someone.
only tip my hat to the genius that is behind this. wait for it to load…
… ha, ha, ha…
But we have certainly arrived at a new plateau in the Trailverse… Mark shirtless and needing help, Cherry part of the story but NOT the one needing help… (well, never has she been shirtless, but always in need of help…)
Which reminds me of a Haiku I heard the other day…
Atop that plateau
We were greeted by an odd
Sense of inertia
OK, everyone, let’s take a breather…
James Allen can draw bears!! And forgive me, Mark! That wasn’t fear on your face yesterday~ that was happiness laced with surprise and gratitude… So many emotions are now at your disposal it’s understandable if you don’t use them correctly, or in my case, I don’t read them well… We are on the journey together, Ol’ Friend… there I said it. Could it be I have feelings for this two-bordering-on-three dimensional character named Mark Trail?? Perhaps…
So… as the bears decide who is the biggest and the baddest, Mark slinks away, stage left, hoping that he will not have to worry any longer about becoming bear chow… Cherry and Dusty HAVE to be somewhere in the picture… but then perhaps Mark has more trials to endure, more gauntlets to run as he makes his way back…
Nice left, Rex! If the Black Bear goes 350 lbs., then the Grizzly has to run twice that! That’s a lot of bear! Paws the diameter of 165 gram Frisbees… Well, Mark was right about Rex’s territorial tendencies… it wasn’t two seconds before he emerged to defend his turf!
Really, Mark?? You think Rex “Knows his Name??” You think he’s going to respond to that? Is he now bearing down on you? (Ha! Get it? ‘Bearing Down?’ That’s a joke, son! Nice man, but he’s about a sharp as a bowling ball…) Mark, you keep showing fear… which makes you infinitely human, but I am not sure I know this side of you, nor do any of us… let’s hope you can get out of this in one piece so we can get to know you better- the vulnerable, open, approachable and accessible Mark Trail. Ewww…
Mark’s left arm and shoulder no longer immobilized… dazed from his fall, but he still has the wits to know that he’s about to become lunch… Met his match, as it were… Not that he was looking for a fight or even did anything to deserve this, but you know, life can be like that… And life can also be like what is happening in panel two! Ta da! Straight from Cutter’s Bluff, it’s… Ol’ Rex the Territorial Grizzly!
All I can say is Hokey Smoke! That’s one bad-ass bear. But wait- could Rex actually be Chuck Norris’ Spirit? Could be… Check it out…
Some days the bear eats you… Looks like this is one of those kind of days. I see this all playing out in super slo-mo… OOOOOHHHHH NOOOOOOO….. at the rate we are advancing this story line. Tension, yes, I believe in tension, but c’mon is this chase going to last all week?
Down onto the other shoulder with the bad arm out and breaking the fall… I know from experience that this DOES NOT feel good. Oh Mark, this has turned into an interesting couple of days hasn’t it?
I am suddenly reminded (by what I couldn’t tell you…) of the bear that gnawed on Cherry’s shoulder in the epic yarn of “Wes and Shelley go camping and light the forest on fire…” So here we are again with a bear playing bad (breaking bad??) in hot pursuit of our hero, who is running as fast as he can with a bad wing and only bipedal locomotion at his disposal… and what happens? Why Mark is about to go DOWN, boys and girls. That random exposed root (in a rye field??) is going to bring him to his knees for sure! And the reflex action of Mark throwing his arms forward to break his fall will only drive his left shoulder deeper out of whack… OUCH!
But where would we be with Rex, now the “Territorial Grizzly?” Mark is about to introduce “Cranky Black Bear with sore foot” to “Get off my Cloud Rex” in hopes that he can stand back and watch the battle, confident that he will no longer be the main course…But of course, Rex being “old” would suggest that he may not be a match for CBB, or may even have gone home to the great honey pot in the sky!
…and Mark, you are no Chuck Norris… So rather than stare down the angry beast and make it high-tail out of there… you let your fear show and choose to run… Hoping that What? That “Old Rex the Grizzly” will help you out? Brilliant, Mark. What on earth have you ever done for Rex, and you may be giving that Old Bear way too much credit…
Got to hand it to James Allen… Mark has become a much deeper character under his pen than he ever was under the doddering Dodd and Elrod… and while in the past every strip would have the obligatory, throw-away nature shot, Nature is now featured, front and center, made part of the plot, and drawn with the danger and ferocity that it deserves! Oh my! Look at the ruby red tongue and saliva dripping from the pursuing beast… Hopefully Mark can maintain a 20 MPH pace all the way to the bluff, otherwise he’s toast!
The Daily Trail 
