I mean, has James Allen allowed Mark to deliver ONE haymaker??  Nope.  And this isn’t the first time Mark has been sucker-punched, either in this latest incarnation of the strip…  Very disappointing.  What happened to Mark’s fight?  Pony Tail leads with a left and follows up with a huge right that sends Mark over the railing and into the water…  I hope the shock revives him, or he is surely toast!!

Isn’t it great how the word “Splash” sounds like it really does…  What’s that device?  Onomatopoeia?  Helpful in the telling of a story where there isn’t sound available.  Although we have seen, in the Trailverse, the use of the worm “Wham” to describe a rifle shot… not entirely accurate, if you ask me…

And with a certain angry, ugly aura emanating from Cherry (Again she must be wondering, “Who are you…” who gets punched and can’t defend himself? Certainly not the man I married…) we must wait another day to see how this continues to play out…  Is it possible, we all wonder, for TROUBLE to NOT follow TRAIL in the dictionary??

I’m with you, Mark!  I mean, Really?  And good for you, Mitchum- make your motive crystal clear so that when it comes time to put you away, there will be no doubt about why you took the path you did…  But Mr. Pony Tail will have none of such talk!  A left cross for you, Mr. Trail!!

Or Mitchum could be thinking, “Well… now that you put it that way, this does seem a bit rash… my Mentor warned me of my deadly combination of Signature Strengths®… Competition with Maximizer can lead to these kinds of situations…”

Bad Guy #2 (with Pony Tail) has the same color shirt as Mitchum!  What is it they say?  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery??  Maybe Mr. Pony Tail found it under the tree, since he wasn’t wearing that shirt on 12/23…  Or if we look at 12/12, it’s clear that Mr. Pony Tail has two of the same shirt and has let Mitchum wear one of his…  Holy crap, that’s creepy…  Creepier still is the fact that Mr. Pony Tail is a dead ringer for former Pro Wrestler, Governor and Navy Seal, turned Conspiracy Theorist Jesse “the Body” Ventura!

And with Justin now showing us a startled look on his other bad side (similar in its simian form)  the “plan” now seems to be taking shape??  Maybe?  With everyone on deck and the Aurora Borealis (coming pretty far south if you ask me…) lighting up the scene, Mitchum has forsaken his South paw in favor of his North and is waving his hostages forward at gun point.  Kidnap them and then blow up the boat?  Then what?  So confusing…

Kudos to faithful reader J. Wilk who picked up on the fact that Mitchum keeps changing hands…  Yesterday he was threatening with his right, and today he’s back to his left…  This is still just silly.  Imagine a situation (I know, difficult as it would be…) where you disagreed with your boss at work.  Your first move would be to hire two thugs (whose role remains unclear at this time) and threaten his life with a gun?  With a total of four witnesses now??  And I can’t decide whether Mitchum’s name reminds me more of tough guy actor Robert, or the underarm deodorant that only had to be applied weekly (good Lord, what did they put in that stuff??)

That’s right, Mark.  Confuse the lad while he has you at gunpoint… “Our plans?  My plan?  Oh, eat lead , Nature Boy, I’ll just start with you…”  But as we are reminded constantly, the strip is named after him, and while there was effective succession planning regarding the creative mind behind all this, there is only one, and will only ever be one, Mark Trail…  Ageless, Timeless, without peer… Mitchum, your plan has as much structure as a boneless chicken, and it has now met its end, barely before it began… I hope you haven’t already spent your year-end bonus… looks like it won’t be coming after all…

And, again, what exactly are you THINKING??  And that line, “Don’t try anything funny!” Where’d you hear that?  The movies?  What if we tried something serious, like attempt to disarm you and overcome you with force?  Do you really have the nerve to use that thing??

Cherry might just have the line of the year, as we head into the last few days of 2014…  Could easily have applied to almost any situation regarding Mark Trail since James Allen took over command of the strip… With every expression of feeling and profession of love coming out of Mark’s mouth, Cherry could very easily have uttered the words “WHO are YOU?”  “and WHAT have you done with my husband?!”

On the day that we Celebrate the Birth of our Lord and Savior, or the advent of more daylight ahead, or whatever this time of year represents…  we have Mitchum brandishing a weapon…

But let’s take stock of the story so far- Editor Bill Ellis sees a news story on CNN about protesters in the Great dismal Swamp, figures this might be right up Mark Trail’s trail (so to speak,) and rents him an 80’ yacht.  Mark takes Cherry on a vacation aboard the yacht, we are introduced to Justin Holland and his “Partner” Mitchum. Holland finds himself invited to spend some time on the yacht, Mitchum grows immediately wary of the possibility that Mark Trail will convince Holland to pull the plug on the mine project, so Mitchum hires a couple of goons to what- drive him to the SWAN, to what- pull a Clutter Family Experience on board the SWAN and motor off?  And blame it on the placard waving zealots protecting the swamp? But Mitchum, dude, now you have two witnesses to your crime, and how are you going to handle that??  Couldn’t you just have found your own way out there???  Oh, never mind.

Well, on that cheery note, Merry Christmas everyone.  Find some time and some peace in the season.  Count your blessings.  Laugh, smile, seek understanding.  We are all in this together…

It’s BRUCE vs SWAN in a semi-celebrity smack-down!  My money’s on The BRUCE…  The SWAN is full of eco-sissies that think the world is a just and vibrant place…

Dare I repeat myself, but unless the BRUCE has cut its engines and they are drifting up to the SWAN, you can exhort all you want about being “real quiet,” but it just ain’t gonna happen…  And are Mark and Cherry all snug in their stateroom, with visions of sugarplums and ruffed grouse dancing in their heads?  It’s not like Mark Trail tracks with the actual holidays the way other strips do, so I doubt it highly…  the sugarplums part, anyway.

This is like an early Christmas Present!!  Bad Guys “Sneaking up” on our hero in their twin-screw, diesel powered shark boat, which I am sure can be heard from across the lake, let alone right “beside” the Swan…  And it appears that the guy with hair is in charge…  oh wait, that’s Mitchum!  What the hell?  What is he thinking?  Does he want to be immediately implicated in whatever dastardly deed is about to unfold??  No Arms-Length relationship between him and the bad actors??

I can’t even imagine what is about to go down…  Trash-talking?  Threats?  I thought Mitchum wanted Holland dead…  out of the way?  I was expecting that there would be SCUBA suits and C-4 involved.  Maybe I have seen too many movies…

Well, Mark, you haven’t lost your touch, have you??  Just get them talking, and they will confess to everything and ultimately see the error of their ways…  You even have Justin using the word ‘could’ve…’  Which by the way, dear readers, is a contraction- a subtle but meaningful difference between the Elrod/Dodd Era and the James Allen Era… which is not even a year out of the blocks but has brought change the likes of which is nothing less than shattering…  OK, maybe not shattering, but I have to go for something here in the midst of all this flat and stultifying dialogue.

From what beginning?  Did you adopt him and raise him as your ward?  Hire him out of some fancy East Coast MBA program?  Whose money did he use to buy the property?  C’mon, Holland, pull yourself together.  You are still in charge here, aren’t you??

…because that’s helpful…  easy for you to start suggesting to Holland that he consider the whole project to be a sunk cost…  a bad decision…  Don’t keep throwing money at it, cut your losses and move on!  Except that it may not BE a BAD DECISION…

And Mark, maybe you should just butt the hell out of this situation, since you have no standing here…  unless of course you consider all the earth your cause and you are free to go and meddle wherever you want…  Of course that’s the case…  This all reminds me of the movie “Mr. Deeds.”  One of the only Adam Sandler Vehicles I found worth watching…  Where he tries to thwart the takeover of the company rightfully his (only to have it not turn out that way) but to change the hearts of all the greedy robber barons at the shareholder meeting…  We never get to see how the company turns out- whether or not it continues to prosper, thrive and create positive shareholder returns.  It’s enough that we turned stone hearts back into a living, feeling, pumping organs…

So as the Fiddler Crabs do their little courtship mambo, and with the moon risen full, Mark will continue to wear down the industrialist…  how many more days can Justin take until he cracks- his conversion complete- and turns to the good side?  And where are the dudes in the shark boat with their what- explosives?  We’ll have to wait and see…

I hate to admit it, but this strip actually makes me think once in a while…  no, not thinking of ways to makes fun of the characters, the stilted dialogue and clumsy plot lines- that’s like shooting fish in a barrel… (oops, can I still say that in this day and age??)  But rather thinking about the tenuous relationship between industry and nature…  Titanium Dioxide- it makes white paper white, white paint glisten in the sun, goes into many things we never give a second thought to in our modern age.  Think about times past, when things weren’t as white- parchment made of skins, for example. Of course we learn as we go, removing Lead from our gasoline and our paints in the mid to late 70’s, knowing that it wasn’t good for us… Until the market stops calling for things to be white, we will have the demand for TiO₂…  and the fact that it’s not hard to find stories about companies that run from their liabilities, this whole story line takes on a prescient quality…

But enough with the sanctimonious prattle…  Better get the Danforth down, Mark, you are about run aground…

Compared to Excellent, Flawless, Beyond Compare, an Environmentalist’s Dream?? Saying that a company has a “pretty good” track record suggests that there are holes in the cheese, times when things weren’t all that good…

And look at the scowl on Justin’s face in panel two…  that’s the look of someone who is peeved for any number of reasons: (1) He’s tired of having to defend himself and his company when all he’s trying to do is sustain his enterprise and the jobs it creates (2) Mitchum was right, this was all a ruse to get him onto the boat only to have Mark Trail try to convince him that he’s on the wrong path, that raping Mother of her Resources is always wrong or (3)  He’s tired of being the shortest guy in the room, and well, dammit, he’s not going take it anymore…

And Mark, don’t kid yourself.  These protestors are not “local people.”  They are paid activists brought in from other area codes, people who are down with the enviro-struggle, and have no better prospects than to camp out and waive placards and signs around…

Vacation for Cherry Trail:  She gets to cook in a small, cramped galley on board an 80-footer while Mark does whatever it is that Mark does…  although, pictures of Mark cooking would simply destroy the ethos, or is it mythos, of the Trailverse, so I suppose I should just stop my whining…  As mark holds a steaming cup of coffee- with saucer… Justin offers up his bad side, and yes, ladies and gentlemen, he has one…  Sort of simian in nature, his lower face protrudes and, well, it’s a little bit disturbing…

Lovely sunset and purple sky.  Stilted and awful dialogue…  Enjoy yourselves, people, because trouble is on the way…

Having trouble fixing an age on this guy.  He wears a crew-cut like he’s from the 1950’s, but that would make him 80-something years old…  And what’s with that wistful look he gets every now and then?  He wears it while confessing his deepest convictions and feelings and reveals himself to be one who has not turned himself completely over to the dark side- one who is within a stone’s throw of redemption…

Funny thing about that fish- it already looks like it’s been mounted.  But then Mark does know a taxidermist named Marlin… But oh that’s right, he only pretended to be one while running a turtle egg poaching operation…  and is now cooling his heels in the pen…

Now cast in a whiter shade of pale, The Swan is doubling as a fishing boat…  Not its highest and best use, but every Mark Trail story has to include at least some familiar themes- Photography, Fishing, Environment Fanaticism…  There are probably some other ‘Pffft’ sounds, but I can’t think of any more right now…

Justin Holland sounds just like Rusty- “Mark,  I’ve hooked one … I’ve hooked one!”  Good for you, Corporate Titan.  Would you like a cookie?  And of course Mark can’t help dishing advice, even when it’s not requested…

But where’s Cherry?  No fishing for her?  Is she below-decks getting sloshed on wine coolers??  Why she puts up with this crap is beyond me…  it’s like she becomes invisible once Mark goes into “Journalist” mode…

Either Vince has super-sonic hearing, or Mitchum and his henchmen-for-hire did not do a very good job disguising their intentions…  and now Vince knows, and with an over-sized sense of duty, is bent on finding out more… foiling and spoiling their plot, even…

And you are correct, Vince.  A 50-foot shark boat with ‘BRUCE’ boldly emblazoned on the stern will not be very difficult to find…  sort of like Rod Bassy’s Van, thinking they would just melt into the scenery with Rusty bound and gagged in the cargo box…  but I digress…

I love it!  Just look at the bad guys!  Facial hair!  Male Pattern Baldness!  Two of the classic markers for no-good-nicks in the Trailverse!!

And he even uses the term “Eco-Terrorist…”  funny, though, how Mitchum completely avoids any of the necessary context as to why he wants the boat (and Holland) destroyed…  But then that’s probably a quirk of mine- needing to know why…  for these guys, the satisfaction may simply be in the blowing-up and the carnage…  probably tortured small animals growing up…

But oh, Mitchum…  Mitchum… you have crossed the line, haven’t you?  The act of contracting for murder (ordering and presumably paying for a hit) is as indictable as the act itself, and since you aren’t a peace officer, there is a high likelihood that this catches up to you and ends badly…

The story line can stall or move with such pace as to leave the reader scratching his head…  Now who are the people aboard the good ship Bruce??  Is that Mitchum on the left?  Difficult to tell…  And what pray-tell is “this sort of thing…??”  Sounds like we already up to no good.  And it sounds like the crew of the Bruce is up for “anything…”  nothing is too dangerous or dirty for them.

But what on Earth does Vince, his back-ordered Boat Part, his lack of a phone to call and see whether the part is in or not, and his flat-bottom boat in which he can only “punt around the Swamp” have to do with anything??  I Submit to you, dear reader, that Vince must feature in this storyline otherwise we wouldn’t have learned of his name- first and last…

Well, James Allen, touché… Here I thought it was Mitchum already out in the swamp scheming and causing trouble, but no… we have Mike and Vince, two seemingly unrelated characters.  And wonder of wonders- Vince is a person of color- and we aren’t even in Africa!!

Thanks, Mike, for the awesome hand gesture in panel two- not sure we would have known “front” from “back” without it…  Come to think of it, how many times have you asked a store clerk to “go check in back” to see if they are really out of the item you are looking for…  What with today’s perpetual inventory platforms that tick things down at point of sale and auto-magically reorder at a pre-determined point based on demand and time to manufacture and ship, it’s almost a lights-out procedure… but then this is a a random “Repair” shack on the edge of a swamp, so they probably still have to “check in the back…”

I know that boat in Panel two…  the platform off the bow, the barrels!  The shark jaws mounted on the front of the flying bridge!!  I can only guess that it’s Mitchum greeting the boat’s owner- Vince Wilkins… who will no doubt feature prominently in the unfolding drama as Mitchum tries to put a hurt on his boss…

But back to our Main Characters…  I repeat my assertion that Justin Holland got beat up a lot in school, only to become a titan of industry…  brains over brawn I guess…  I mean, look at how he has his shirt buttoned up to the top!  What, no hat with a big floppy brim?  Where’s your sense, man? That sun will pound your mercilessly…