…but everything I have been able to find on the internet suggests that there simply isn’t a lot of open water in the GDS… That, and we now know that the boat’s name is SWAN.  That’s breaking news…

I went back to check to see whether we had seen the stern before, but this turns out to be a new angle on things.  I wanted to make sure that Mark and Cherry hadn’t added that after taking “ownership” of the vessel.  Has kind of a graffiti quality to it…

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mitchum is smoldering and scheming about a way to bring harm to the man who would dash his dreams on the muddy shoals of the Great Dismal Swamp…  Can you feel the tension?  I can’t…

Am I to understand, then, that Riverway chemical is a private concern?  With exactly two shareholders?  And that there exists a set of documents that would automatically transfer all ownership to the surviving shareholder upon demise of the other?  That’s a fairly precarious setup if ever I saw one…

But now we understand that Mitchum DOES have skin in the game and that he is not merely a toady in the grand scheme of things…  But it does suggest that Justin has the final word on any decision making that goes on, and therefore stands to quash the dreams of this Young Turk…

But who am I to criticize?  Swamp Murder appears to be somewhat On-Trend to Trend-forward, as this story in the NY Post would suggest…

See how fast that smile on Ol’ Mitch disappears once Justin Holland is out of the room…  He’s a phony, through and through…  as for the Stewardess, oh, I mean ‘Flight Attendant…’ I swear her face must hurt by the end of the day…  Not that she wasn’t pleasant or friendly, but her smile still haunts me 12 hours later…  Just huge and fake and all teeth and gums and everything…  She’s like most of them though, never figuring on having to do this thankless job for as long as she has, she’s staring down the tunnel toward a modest retirement with flying privileges but never any empty flights or seats to take advantage of them…  But I digress…

So, Mitch…  Is it really the company’s money you are worried about?  Do you have some of you own skin in this game??  Drink your coffee, bide your time, scheme your schemes.  Time to check in with your REAL boss…

There’s something not quite right about this whole setup.  Justin certainly cuts a wimpy profile, even as he shape-shifts in the second panel, and he seems almost intimidated by “Mitchum…”

“Just making sure we are on the same page…”  I understand that a person who has invested time and energy into a project doesn’t want to see it unplugged for any reason, but I get the sense that there are other forces at play here…  Promises made and that need to be kept otherwise Mitchum could find himself in a world of hurt…  I think there are bad guys behind the scenes that have something on “Ol’ Mitch” and would be very disappointed to find out that the Mine is being called into question…  Oh, the plot thickens!!

Five letters- R-E-L-A-X.  RELAX.

But look  how chipper Mitchum is when he points the map of the swamp and the result of the “land deal” he mastered…  Sorry to break it to you, kid, but this isn’t YOUR COMPANY.  Whatever labors you invest, whatever fruits result for harvest, everything belongs to the COMPANY.  Until your name is on the building, it’s entirely up to management and the capricious whims of the Board how and whether you will be rewarded…  unless you can scrounge the capital to buy the land and build the mining facility yourself, you have very little say in anything that goes on here, despite your enthusiasm and talent…

And good heavens…  look at how long Mitchum’s right arm is in panel one…  It’s almost unnatural…

Not that people should report to the boss’s office and stand at attention, but what exactly is ‘Mitchum’ communicating here??  “Yeah, I’ll come to your office, Justin, but I don’t have to show you any respect…”  Recall that he is just “back from vacation” and maybe hasn’t completely “returned?”

But faithful readers will recognize the Mitchum Archetype right away- we last saw him in the Senator Hudson Mason/ Johnny Walker combination- The person who would be in charge is being manipulated by a crafty underling…

But how comforting to have the phrase “a little fishing” thrown in…  and how funny for Mitchum to have already figured out Mark’s motivation- although not so surprising, since Mark is about as deep as a kiddy-pool and nearly as transparent…

…where comics have no sound, we sometimes wonder what these characters sound like, right??  For whatever reason I am assigning the voice of “Droopy Dog” to Mr. Holland, CEO of Riverway Chemical…  especially the last line in the second panel, “some local people…” really seems to fit, especially with the seemingly benign facial expressions being offered up…

Wow, Mark, you are really IN the Swamp??  Currently?  Why that’s extraordinary!  I happen to own it!  Do you have my permission?  Have you been scouted by one of my lackeys?  I plan to mine every last ounce of titanium from this pristine and somewhat virgin ecosystem because you know why?  All I care about is ME.  That’s right, not anyone else, not future generations, not any friggin’ turtles or alligators that might call the swamp home…  They mean NOTHING to ME!!   Muuuaaaaahhaahhaahhaaa!!!!

OK, let’s count ways:  (1) There is a high-rise, city-style office building on the edge of the swamp- replete with mangrove and wildlife… (2)  Mark has the direct dial number of the CEO of a Multinational Chemical Conglomerate… (3)  Justin Holland is in the office and answers his own phone… and (4)  he answers it like someone who works in a call center…

…oh and (5) Justin has heard of Mark Trail and actually reads his articles (of course, why hasn’t or wouldn’t he??) and (6) Mark is so secure in his own skin that he can make business calls wearing nothing more than a smile…  OK, one might make the case that he has his trunks on, but I ask the reader to imagine otherwise!  And what exactly are you doing with your left hand, Mark??

Finally, what’s up with Justin?  Huge head, small body, narrow shoulders, not exactly painting the archetype of the eco-villain, now is he??  Probably got beat up a lot when he was a kid…

… emphasis on the gagging …  Time we made time getting up the canal – we have a date with destiny – with Justin Holland of Riverway Chemical.  I just wonder, though, is the “h” hard or soft in “Hollland?”  Upon which sylla’ble do we place the empha’sis?

And who is that watching the Trails?  Is this Papua New Guinea?  Some type of indigenous tribesman?  15 minutes from Elizabeth City??  Or is this Swamp People meets Mark Trail??

OK, I was wrong.  Not the first time and it won’t be my last…  I searched this time for “alligator nest” and viola- here’s what we are talking about…  So the bear went to the mound looking for a tasty snack of gestating Alligator… (mmm… crunchy on the outside, soft and gooey in the middle…) And yes, The Mother Alligator took exception to that…  Oh Mark, How could I have ever doubted you??  My hat is in my hand…

“HA HA HA …”  that’s a fairly robotic laugh…  I prefer the highly punctuated “HA!” as in, “WOW!” or “COOL!”  But then I have always suspected that Mark is an Android, devoid of the “feelings” circuit  that would allow him to express and modulate emotion beyond what he is apparently capable of doing…

The only reference to “Alligator Mound” is an Indian burial mound in Granville, Ohio… and what on earth would that Alligator, painted Boat Motor Green, have to do with the haystack?  His head would barely fit inside, if in fact you are suggesting that he was using it as a hiding place…

As for Alligators attacking Black Bears…  right…  best I could find is an animated scuffle from animal planet which is 100% CG…

OK, whatever…  carry on.

Who?  Mark?  James Allen?  The whole Mark Trail enterprise?  When Allen took over the helm and began to apply his vision to the Mark Trail comic legacy, he quickly introduced us to a cranky  Black Bear with a sore foot who then promptly treed Mark Trail… only to be bested by Mark’s cunning and apparent dominion over nature by forcing a confrontation with Rex the ill-tempered Grizzly, over by Cutter’s Bluff…

But with the Cherry peep-show over, we have to get back to business, and business is all about Nature and Nature is all about preservation and halting evil, profit-motivated people from destroying it!

But wait- what’s in that haystack that looks like a beaver lodge, except that a beaver wouldn’t build a lodge on dry land…  they are hard-wired to try to dam up the entire waterway…  how curious…

Have another, Cherry, you are on Vacation!  First one of your life, so why not make the most of it?  And what kind of “drunk self” are you?  Which of the seven dwarfs do you become?  Sleepy? Happy? Dopey? Grumpy? Randy?  Oh, that’s right, that wasn’t one of them…

And leave it to Mark to wax encyclopedic on the topic of Butterfly diversity in the Great Dismal…  Fascinating.  Truly fascinating.

At least they are back to calling each other something other than “Honey…”

Hang onto that tiller.  Trim those, um, sails…  Only you Mark Trail could be thinking of the endangered environment at a time like this!!  Have to say, though, that since Mark has affirmed (and re-affirmed) his love for Cherry, he seems to have found his bowflex as well… nice pecs, dude!

Mark, you doofus, it’s not the scenery that she is remarking on!  Dim and dense to the end, I suppose…

And Cherry, what hideth beneath the flannels of Lost Forest?!  I guess it took a trip to the Great Dismal Swamp to find out…

Good Heavens, girl…  put the goblet down and put some clothes on!  Your skin is now more alabaster than ever before… and your suit has turned an even brighter shade of pink!!  And assuming that it’s now the next morning, with the sun properly rising in the east through the morning fog, what are you doing with a drink in your hand anyway?!?

The bird in the first panel, staring open-mouthed, is sufficiently agog with Cherry’s lack of decorum, and has decided to fly in for a closer look…  Cherry, you are such a lush…  who knew??

Wow… tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.  For a couple of days…

Note the gender neutral use of the pronoun “its…”  as in “Its next meal…”  I guess in all the excitement Mark was unable to positively ID the gender.  Check for boy-shark parts…  The so-called “Claspers…”  I am a little disappointed.  Usually Mark Trail fits a nature lesson in where- and whenever he can… Such as the fact that the Bull Shark is endangered, having a status of “NT” or “Near Threatened,” the smallest rating being LC for “Least Concern…”  Implying that all animals are potentially threatened so long as man continues to inhabit the earth…

That is one sad looking fish…  knowing that it’s about to become a meal…  sort of flies in the face of the whole “fish are not sentient creatures” argument …

Once again, though, Mark leads the charmed life.  He doesn’t have the slightest clue that most people cannot be quite so cavalier and come away unscathed…