Don’t want to alarm my faithful readers (all 9 or 10 of you) when you notice that I haven’t put up any new pages for a few days… Heading out on a vacation… but I shall return in a week’s time, refreshed and ready to tackle more mysteries, oddities and bad dialogue that can only be found in the Trailverse…
Just remember to ask yourself… What Would Mark Do??
Oh, just when I am convinced that I am so smart! That it will man vs. Beaver in the Wally Forest! Shows what I know!!
It’s (the) Beetles! And not the Fab Four variety… that have come to spoil all of Wally’s dreams of a happily-ever-after, married to Susan and living the life of a lumber baron… It’s beetles that are taking down his “Crop” “Stand” or whatever one calls a bunch of trees being grown for market…
And of course Mark the Nature Writer (I almost said Naturalist, but didn’t want to offend any in the audience…) is the one to diagnose the problem. It’s not Wally, not the man who has made it his life to manage a forest, probably went to school and has a degree in Forestry or Forest Management…
I hadn’t noticed before, but judging by the hairline in panel one, it looks like Wally may have recently been subjected to a frontal lobotomy…
One, I don’t think Beavers go after trees that big, and two, I think that tree needs to be harvested anyway… But what do I know?? Apparently not much given this evidence! While this king-sized rodent is working on a smaller tree, it’s clear that trees many times that size have fallen prey to the natural instincts of this predacious pest!
So what’s the big deal? A few trees go to the beavers, which are only interested in the smaller, top branches not the main trunk, which is what is money for Wally…
But then there’s this footage, which shows that Beaver and man continue to struggle over territory and land use policy… I’m pretty much rooting for the Beaver at this point, and if I ever find myself earning a living as a Beaver relocation service, I will either have to question my life choices or shrug just go with it…
Since we are once again focused on wildlife and the spate of endured perils meted out by the apex predator community, I want to share with you something I discovered with the help of the Comics Curmudgeon. (Much like like Columbus “discovering” America… as in “Hey- who are all you indigenous peoples??”) We see below that James is quite the artist, this time not drawing a hapless, noisy Lynx, but rather a stealthy Cougar/Mountain Lion… Doesn’t look good the young pair, now does it??
But to the point above, and I warn you dear reader, scrolling down will bring you face to face with an image that will be very difficult to “unsee…”
James Allen has a Facebook page called the Adventurers Group, which Josh was tipped off to and I share his passage below. For those of you not on the Facebook, I couldn’t resist pulling out an image from the Great Dismal adventure that never made it into the daily strip… You can thank me later…
Hey everybody! This seems as good a time as any to cue you all in the existence of the Adventurers Group, a Facebook group run by new Mark Trail writer/artist and faithful Comics Curmudgeon reader James Allen! James will be posting some behind-the-scenes stuff from the strip in the group, so Mark Trail trufans (which I trust all of you are) will want to check it out. Maybe you can ask how long we’ll get to enjoy this red-hot beaver-on-beaver action in the strip — but no, that’s the sort of magic that can dissipate as soon as you look at it too closely.
Grandpa gets shown two beaver-backs! Or maybe it has nothing to do with the “relationship” of which he “disapproves…” could be that he doesn’t want another male Beaver in the house… or lodge, or whatever that pile of sticks and mud is called…
Catch the “reaction” shown in panel two- is that victory emanating from the old Beaver’s heads or is that surprise? Disbelief? Regret? Sorrow? Hard to tell… but as the two youngsters steel themselves for the adventure ahead, they also gaze at each other with hollow Beaver eyes… almost spooky, huh?
Oh, fold back your incisors, Grandpa, we were only have a little fun… What, you don’t want grand-babies?? or is this one of your harem that I am muscling in on?
Hard to tell the difference between them… well, I’m rooting for youth and procreation…
Ok, when last we saw Cherry and Mark, we were only seeing word balloons coming out of the green Jeep. Riveting stuff, really, with Cherry continuing to prattle on about marriage and such… Well, now we find our intrepid travelers in the warm embrace of Wally and Susan. We know that his last name is Wood, but of course we don’t know her last name, on account of their not being married…
How nice to have roles so clearly defined… “Susan has prepared a nice lunch for us…” well, of course she has! Why wouldn’t she? And there’s nothing Wally likes better than showing off his trees… I am simply agog at the suggestion that Mark should follow Wally “out” in order to “have a look at <his> trees…” Wally I think the world abounds in trees, millions of them… I sure hope yours are special.
But of course we now have to cut back to our main animal story- that of the young male beaver looking for a new pond to call home. Thankfully a “receptive” female awaits… And what behavior does the female exhibit that would give one the impression that she is “receptive?” Doing its best Mae West, something like, “Hey, big fella, why don’t you come see me sometime…?”
Now that is one pissed-off Beaver. I love the stare! Not that Beavers have particularly good eyesight… From that distance, the Leader might just as well be staring at a couple of trespassing otters. He’d never know.
A playful courtship begins? Looks like a lot of bared teeth and angry posturing to me… But then the Captain and Tennille did not sing a song about Beaver love, they opted for Muskrat love… which apparently is less violent…
…to be let in on Mark and Cherry’s private dialogue? Let’s hope this isn’t a long drive otherwise I am not sure I can take it. Although one might use ‘although’ when writing, it’s hardly ever used in the spoken form, Mark… sort of like Notwithstanding… And are we talking ‘tree farm’ or a stand of timber?? I am have difficulty locking in on what we should expect to see once we get to Wally-World…
And what’s with the dragonfly turned locust? The former has fixed wings that don’t fold back… With red eyes straight of the belly of the underworld!!
I meant to mention this yesterday, but if Ol’ Wally Wood is growing hardwoods, he might get a cutting in once or maybe twice in a lifetime… Unless he inherited a stand of mature oak, and is replacing as he goes with sound forest management practices, Susan may be waiting for a long time to get a ring on her finger…
…because Cherry is becoming ever so tiresome on the same topic: and I quote “Are they ever going to get married?” Oh please, enough with that…
So long, Rusty… hope you savored the one line you were allowed before you went back into your cage…
Wallace “Wally” Wood owns and runs a tree farm where he cuts and sells lumber. And Yes, Mark, apparently you have already informed Cherry of this acquaintance and what he is up to… And Cherry is also aware of how well he is doing with his lumber enterprise… much better than her free-loading, sometimes-writer husband…
Wally Wood. That’s almost as clever as Rod Bassy….
As we see Mark and Cherry make ready, carrying duffel and satchel respectively, it appears that this is going to be an overnight trip, at least… I hope that Cherry has enough room in her suitcase for her corsets, judging from her waistline, she will need them.
But what’s in panel three? Why it’s none other than Bo the Beaver giving us the stink-eye… I can see where he and Wally are soon going to clash…
What’s with all the shacking up in the Trailverse?? Mark called Lost Forest “home” long before he put a ring on Cherry’s finger.
Wallace Wood. There’s a “solid” name for you…
That last gesture by Mark, the finger on the tip of Cherry’s nose, is so cloying and sweet I’ll soon be calling for an insulin shot… geeesh…
And I needn’t remind long time readers of Mark Trail – that there have been more public and private displays of affection in the last 3 or 4 months than in the entire 50 year history of the strip. But life must be grand for these two… other than getting shot at, blown up, tied up, or placed in danger by Editor Bill Ellis, they really are living the dream aren’t they??
And no, it’s not what Archie Bunker thought it was- that which lives down below his “privates…” but rather:
“Lying stretched out on the ground with one’s face downward. synonyms: prone, lying flat, lying down, stretched out, spread-eagled, sprawling, horizontal, recumbent; rare: procumbent; the prostrate figure on the ground”
Which is what Beaver, Young is currently doing on the rock in the middle of the pool…
Poor Bo… had to evade his first predator. Meanwhile the Lynx (Bobcat, whatever) is thinking to himself, “Boy, if I just hadn’t given myself away, I might be noshing on beaver right now…” Oh, well, better luck next time, silly cat.
Such action! As the young beaver (what? no name?? Let’s call him Beauregard… “Bo” for short) makes tracks and looks for water, we are left to wonder if and when humans will return to the story… From my seat, they are a lot more fun to riff on, and this whole nature thing is getting too many column inches.
Where can we be going with all this? Has to be trapping. While Bo can probably escape his natural enemy, the apex predator, he soon may find himself with his foot caught in a trap, victim of an anachronistic pastime that helped establish trading routes in the North American Continent…
Or at least I assume the cat is hungry, what with the way it gives away its position by announcing itself! Might as well put a collar with a bell on its neck! Looks a bit cross-eyed, too, which certainly can’t help… sort of like Clarence the cross eyed lion from Daktari– always seeing two of everything…
And what on earth is the little beaver doing on high ground? Get to the water, little guy… stat!
We think we know what’s going on here, but let’s admit for a moment that we might not. Could be that the Mother Beaver is sick and tired of picking up after her now adult son, and he needs to move out of the basement and leave his wet towels laying around his own house from now on…
So off with you, boy, do your mother and nature a favor and find a stream of your own to block up… Did you know that beavers hate the sound of running water? That’s their trigger to start felling trees and creating dams! Fascinating!
We don’t hear from Rusty for what? 120 days? And he gets one line. And it makes not a lick of sense… And Cherry is beside herself with pride, placing her hand on her breast in wonderment… “Did my boy come up with that on his own? Well… will wonders never cease…”
We have either shot forward many weeks, or I don’t know when a moose calf reaches an age of self-sufficiency… Last I checked, “Littlefoot” was still quite dependent on his mother… Which makes me think Doc doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about…
But apparently we are bored with moose and are going to move on to beaver. Fine with me… Anything to not have to look at the back of Doc’s head…
What is Cherry doing in the middle panel? Swearing and attesting to her personal knowledge of the fact that her father “Doc” Davis graduated from Vet School, passed the board exams and is a licensed, practicing veterinarian??
But Mark knows better that this…
Stop me before I meme again!!
And from the Curmudgeon:
Oh snap, Mark Trail will see your “let’s foster an orphaned deer” and raise you a “let’s foster an orphaned moose”! Do not try to muscle in on Mark Trail’s insane animal storylines, capisce?
Yes, oh, Poor Little Thing… Never mind the carcass that was the “Little Guy’s” mother… and how do we know it’s a “guy?” or are we using that in the gender neutral form of the word, as in, “C’mon, guys, let’s get a move-on…?”
And we are to believe that the calf will stand their stock-still and let Mark and Cherry walk up to it? Oh heck why not, Mark’s powers are a mystery to most and needn’t be questioned at important times like this… Better get out the giant formula bottle… we have a big baby to feed!! Or does Mark have Rusty don the Mother Moose outfit in order to not spoil any hope of returning the calf to the wild?
…of keeping wild animals as pets! ALWAYS a good idea… NOT. With one wolf tranq-ed, the pack will fall back confused and in disarray… and Mark and Cherry can swoop in and save the calf, give him/her a proper name and take on another mouth to feed. Rusty will be so excited!!
Mark, you are on heckuva shot! Dart finds its Mark right in the shoulder and it’s sand-man city! Not sure what Cherry is doing in the background- I would expect a look of encouragement rather than the look of dismay she is offering up… maybe she is just shaken by the whole nature scene unfolding before her, or the knowledge that she’ll now have to raise this calf into an 1,100 lb. herbivore…
I can’t take it anymore… I guess the objective here is to show us how nature works, maybe what separates us from the animals, or in some cases does not. There’s no win-win in Nature. Some lose in order to benefit others… That’s why rabbits have so many bunnies, etc., etc… But when a species in crisis still gets targeted, and they are lucky have one offspring survive… and the mature also go down, well, that’s just sad.
But Mark understands. But will he watch this unfold, or will his new-found human sensibilities kick in?? We’ll have to wait until tomorrow…
The Daily Trail 
