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Oh my goodness! “Dirty” is ready to soil himself… just look at the face in panel 2… And it seems that “Carlson” is unaware that Chris prefers to be called “Dirty…” Or is Dirty a name that he has only just thought up? That only Mark knows about? Carlson is reminding me of the “Cobb” character Brian Dennehy played in the movie Silverado… Big, Brash, mean, crooked, no conscience…
And yea, back off, Carlson, you need a bath! Even the Warthog needs to get up-wind of you…
But a TROOP of Baboons… talk about a harbinger of doom… I love the one mugging for the camera, Ferris Bueller style… even got the blue eyes right… Then there’s the one shooting us a sideways glance…
I think Mr. Allen is having fun, drawing all the animals that he never got to draw under the heavy yoke of Messers. Elrod and Dodd… Easy there, big guy, managing and producing a daily strip is a marathon, not a sprint…
Now we are getting somewhere! There had to be a really BAD ACTOR… one with a full beard, to play the part of the heartless poacher. That “Dirty” is without same, we can assume that he is not beyond redemption. But boy is he ever up to his neck in bad here…
Judging by his dark hair and swarthy complexion, I am guessing that “Carlson’s” first name isn’t Sven… but maybe Carlson is his FIRST name… who knows. But it certainly seems like Dirty has history with this gang. That this isn’t his first rodeo…
And let’s review the transaction here. Carlson has Rhino horns worth big money, Dirty has (with apologies to Amazing Amy)
As usual, this will play out slowly and clumsily until such time that Mark can confront the bad guys and triumph over their evil. Will Dirty go down or will he be saved? That’s the question…
And so the plot thickens. If not slightly contrived… OK, Really Contrived. How does a Lady Dentist get wrapped up with a Rhino Horn Poacher replete with gambling debts? I doesn’t add up at all. So off he goes, not to “report this crime to the local authorities” but to the “outskirts” where all bad people who shun the light hang out… Are these the people of the Northern Outskirts or the Southern? How does one know? I guess it must be written somewhere in the Bad Guy Guide Book… Maybe it has to do with what hemisphere one finds oneself…
So while the animals in the water hole practice voluntary segregation, (really, why do we spend so much time forcing and preaching “diversity?” it doesn’t seem natural… but then we are above the animals, right? I wonder…) Dirty drives off to take care of his “business” while Mark and Lori, none the wiser (OK, maybe just Lori) head back to camp…
You won’t be so proud of him when you realize that he is a self-dealing, underhanded, lying, weaseling sack of dung… But hey, who are we to judge??
I hope we get to follow Dirty into town. I want to see what he’s up to!!
Dirty, you are so full of it the whites of your eyes are turning brown! Your goal this whole time has been to meet your contact and do your “Dirty” deal… So suddenly you are quite all right with leaving your “woman” in the care and custody of one Mark Trail… And in case we want to play the game, “Where in the World is Mark Trail?” Shyanda is in Rwanda, Africa…
Local Authorities… that’s a good one! Shyanda appears to almost uninhabited, certainly not a place where “authorities” would hang out… But it IS the kind of place where nefarious deeds can be concocted and brought to fruition…
Saddest Trail Ever. Seriously. This is not the first time we have stuck our toe in the poaching pool, but we have never seen the like of this…
No more words today.
And who is in charge of this Safari, anyway? Apparently it’s Mark, determined to find out “what caused the buffalo to run through” their camp… Maybe it’s a “Who” and not a What…”
And there’s Dirty, “betting” again… sheesh…
As Taurus recovers from him Traumatic Brain Injury, he shoulders a weapon while Mark and Chris “Dirty” Dyer play the “I know more about Cape Buffalo that you do” game… I learned the other day that it is entirely possible for two people together to know less than one person who doesn’t know what he is talking about… While Mark continues to play the “not enraged” card, I have to wonder what Dirty’s life has included that would make him so wise in the ways of African Fauna. But then he DOES “know people” there- people who are going to help him get out of debt by breaking international laws and norms by trafficking in White Rhino horn destined for the Asian market…
So sad to watch Mark have to puff his chest out, clearly showing his natural instinct to appear bigger than he is when threatened by another male human being- one who is threatening his domain as one who holds dominion over the Natural world…
It’s not like he was away, Mark… Really. Who does the writing here?? And with another lame attempt at dialogue involving multiple gambling euphemisms, two in one sentence, I really wish he had been beaten into the dust… but not a scratch on him. Left for dead, Chris looks like he hasn’t even been fazed…
And Mark is still on this “something scared the Buffalo” kick. Got news for you, Nature Boy, these animals live scared. It’s what keeps them alive… but OK, we will go with this idea that some external force, some agent of doom set the herd a-runnin’. Otherwise, where on earth can this story go? And is that it as far as Dirty’s plan to off Mark? I suppose it’s just another in a long line of big ideas that never seem to come to fruition…
And has feelings. For Buffalo, anyway… not for Taurus or Dirty or anyone else that may be lying out there in a heap or trapped on top of a dented Range Rover… And with Lori Tompkins safe in the crook of Mark’s chin, he begins to postulate what caused to herd to scramble… and makes the distinction between a herd that is pissed off and on herd that is frightened. Which I think is BS… As large as these animals are, they know one thing and behave as such- they are prey. Prey for the apex predators that roam the Savana, and their main response is to run, and only in protecting their young will they confront the predator. So “Enraged?” I don’t this that’s an option, Mark…
So enough with the charging Buffalo. Let’s get back to why Mark is there in the first place… The missing (dead?) naturalist that he went there to visit in the first place. Their paths have to cross in some form…
…the rest of you are on your own. Sorry, but that’s just how it works in the Trail-verse…the rest of you are on your own. Sorry, but that’s just how it works in the Trail-verse… Meanwhile, Taurus is demonstrating the skills that placed him on the Kenyan Olympic track and field team… Decathlon if I recall correctly. But oh my! What action!
I guess we will have to wait until Monday to learn of Dirty’s fate… did death come knocking? Seems a little grim… I’d go with a good bruising and rank humiliation. That would keep the fires of indignation burning brightly in the Gambler’s heart… and the story line interesting…
Like they couldn’t hear the stampede with their own less-that-Trailian senses? And besides, it looks like they are in the middle of a dance- sort of the John Travolta/ Uma Thurman kind from Pulp Fiction… And we’ve probably never seen Mark running from a full-behind perspective… oh, the vistas we have uncovered since Allen took the pen…
Take cover? Well I guess there IS that giant tree trunk they could hide behind…
What happened to “Dirty?” Been knocked about by the buffalo… I think we have established, by now, the author’s ability to draw the Cape Buffalo in all its various angles… Well done, James Allen, but it’s time to move this story along. Enough single panel episodes that leave one feeling trapped in a bad dream… And is part of surviving a stampede staying hunched over and low to the ground? Must be, since that’s what Mark is doing!
The animal to Mark’s left seems to be regarding him with a certain amount of wariness and disdain. Note the sideways glance… The Cape Buffalo Stink-eye, as it were… looks like Mark has (not surprisingly) his own place within the herd where the animals give him free reign…
…know when to fold ‘em… and clearly Mark is throwing in his hand on Chris Dyer… poor guy. Only sort of knew what hit him… The karmic forces are alive and well in the Trailverse. But does overrun mean trampled? Literally? It actually looks like Chris Dyer is getting overrun by The Fog… not hooves…
But clearly among Mark’s many other skills is the fact that he can out-run a Cape Buffalo at full gallop… since he appears to be set on rescuing Lori from this marauding herd… and he needs to get out in front of them if he is to do that…
Recap for those who just might be joining story… Chris “I have a Dirty gambling problem” Dyer has eyes for Lori “I’m a Dentist on the lam” Tompkins, and is afraid that Mark “I am a happily married man but there’s not an invitation I know how to say no to” Trail is getting in between them… So he coaxes Mark out into the tall grass, away from camp, hiding a machete behind his back (I swear I saw it a couple of days ago…) and now they are being overrun by Cape Buffalo, the baddest of Sub-Saharan Bovines…
And judging from the cloud of dust in panel two, there is an actual herd behind these leading two beasts.
Oh the humanity! The one is bearing down on Dirty, it doesn’t look good, ladies and gents! He has barely enough time to let out a meager thought balloon… Will be actually get crushed/ gored/ trampled? Will Mark get away to save Lori? Is anyone at camp witnessing the carnage?
The way this strip jumps around these days, tomorrow’s installment might well be all of them enjoying a nice Cabernet, recounting lusty tails of stampedes avoided… Stay tuned!
The Mighty Cape Buffalo… Nothing to trifle with, it would seem… except these appear to be a special variety with WHITE HORNS… huh. I wonder what that means? Other than right now it appears to be a two-buffalo stampede… Is that like a two-car funeral, heading for safari camp? Well, Dirty is getting more than he bargained for at this point… trying to get Mark eaten by an apex-preditor and ends up stirring up a heard of large bovines…
Whether it’s Bear, Hippo, or other wildlife, James Allen takes us where the action is, that’s for sure… I wonder if he spends his spare time watching NatGeo??
I don’t have to run faster than the lion, I just have to run faster than you… And without planning this part (I am sure…) Mark’s noble nature is playing right into Dirty’s hand (if you will pardon the gambling metaphor…) As Mark tells Dirty to Run, he places himself in mortal danger of being Lonely Mr. Lion’s main course… or Wait… are my blurry eyes are making out a set of horns?… Not a lion but a stampeding herbivore? Oh please. That’s not nearly as exciting…
Of course lions don’t make a BRRRRMMUMBRUMBBLLE sound do they? Is that two sets of horns and a cloud of dust? O M G!! it’s a STAMPEDE!
…dirty appears to be shrinking… If only to make room for Mark’s lecture… And Mark, poor Mark, so misunderstood… such is the burden of one who goes through life seemingly without issues or baggage of any kind… the burden of one who finds himself on a five-star safari ten minutes after he finds that his original plans have been scuttled…
And now, Mark, you are taking the place of Dr. Phil?? “How’s that workin’ for ya??” I can almost hear it in his tone… “Seems the two of you have some things to work on…” More like “Ditch the stupid handle, ‘Dirty,’ grow up and stop thinking in terms of ‘odds’ and getting rich quick… Take it from me, I have been a kept man for longer than anyone, including me, can remember, and I can tell you, you are going about this all wrong…” Sage words (again) from Mark Trail…
“Another Man…” “Another Man” Dirty, you’ve got issues. SERIOUS issues. But at least you get right to the point. No more “it’s a lovely day on the savanna” for you. No, let’s get right down to the matter at hand. Mark, you may have done nothing to earn the enmity of Dirty Dyer, other than be your old obtuse, un-self-aware, unsympathetic self, but there you are, in the tall grass, lured there by the man who sees you as a threat. A man with questionable natural hair color (does his hairdresser know??) with what appears to be a Machete hidden behind his back… But Really… where exactly was he hiding that when he was luring mark away from the safety of others??
Let’s recall Chris’s plan… Dispatch Mark, make the pick-up, sell the goods, pay off gambling debts, win Lori’s heart… Seems foolproof to me…
The Daily Trail 
