Did someone really write Mark Trail’s Name all over the body of this shark?  Or is Ken speaking in euphemism?

Wow.  That Shark died quickly.  This is very disturbing- a species known for surviving the epochs with little change and this one gave up on life after one look at Ken…  appears to have its fins, so not a victim of those who would supply the Asian market with fins to make soup…

Well, we need not wonder any longer boys and girls.  Ken must know Mark or at least know of Mark and his need to get the heck out of Lost Forest…

We see in panel one that Kelly still hasn’t found her pants, and in panel two, James Allen is borrowing from the artistic style of Margaret Keane, famous for the “big eyes” school of portraiture…  made recently more famous by the movie of the same title…

Such sadness and concern from Ken…  the shark is fully submitting to his obvious and apparent dominance, and this isn’t what he had in mind at all!  No-sir-ee-bob!  Well at least we now have a mystery on our hands… but how on earth do we connect Mark Trail to this?  What good would a wildlife feature writer have to offer this situation??  Safety tips?  Fashion sense?  Let’s stay tuned…

Guess that’s why we call this a tiger shark…  I believe that the stripes fade with age, though… Ken is showing much bravado, here…  gasping for air and looking like he’s going to hurl… and declaring that the fish isn’t putting up much of a fight…

Good to see that by at least one account, the Tiger Shark is merely “Near Threatened” on the extinction scale…  Let’s hope Ol’ Ken here will release his quarry like he said he would…

I love the fish in the Trail-verse- they are all summoned to the hook as if on cue…  Of course this beats days of bad dialogue which no action…  600lb-test line getting stripped off the reel, muscles and sinew battling one of nature’s fiercest and oldest predators…  and unlike getting shot with a high-caliber round, the fish here actually has a fighting chance…

Ken Hale- are you related to Alan Hale of Gilligan’s Island fame?  Latter day Oliver Hardy to Gilligan’s Stan Laurel… seems to fit with the nautical theme and the whole “three hour cruise” motif…

Remember, Ken is the fisherman here and Uncle Doyle has taught him all he needs to know about fishing for and “ketching” sharks!  As mentioned previously, though, I do share Kelly’s concern… or perhaps concern is too strong a word… prediction perhaps…

And what’s with the Bill-fish in the foreground/forewater?  Having a laugh at Ken’s expense, no doubt…

Because, man, these people are white…

And the more I look at the Shur Ketch3, the more skeptical I become…  no chair to strap into, nothing that suggests that they are going after anything quite so large as a Tiger Shark.  All that 600 lb test line is going to do is ensure that Ken gets yanked overboard with the fish…  now, that would be entertaining…

Stingray, huh?  and where does one go to get Stingray?  What does that mean?  The entire metaphor of Ken = Shark is starting to break down…  Maybe he really is going to go fishing…  in case anyone is curious, here’s what that looks like…

Ken, it’s a good thing that you broke out your last box of Just for Men, to make sure that all the gray roots in your beard are taken care of…

What, you think he’s going to keep you once he’s caught you, honey?  Think again.  Ken is top predator!  And catch and release is his bag, baby…

What’s with Uncle Doyle, anyway??  Father figure?  Mentor?  Point of emulation? The look on Kelly’s face in panel three suggests that she’s not exactly “down” with this whole thing…  can we blame her??  Hands off, there, Ken, you are getting a little close…

Aboard the Shur Ketch3… We find Ken and Kelly- Ken, a washed-out, washed-up hippie turned substitute high school biology teacher with enough left in his trust fund to afford a modest ocean-going fishing craft, and Kelly, his latest, uber-impressionable target… “You like fishing boats?” he asked one day after class in the same creepy voice a guy might utter, “You like Sport Utility Vehicles?”  Or it could be that this is Uncle Doyle’s boat, and they take turns “ketching” their unsuspecting prey- Tiger Shark being a euphemism for, well, let’s keep this at least PG-13…

And with all the scientific precision one might expect to be applied in the stalking of a Tiger Shark, Ken is keeping one eye on the GPS and the other on his “prey…”  with the idea that Tiger sharks school (do they?) and stay in the same spot (probably not…)

Meanwhile Uncle Doyle is busy touring with the latest Debbie, doing his best to stay sober and to not listen to the voices inside his head…

I see Barbie, I mean Kelly, forgot to wear her pants today, and just how old is she anyway?  Do her parents know that she is cavorting with a pony-tailed, bearded, smooth talking shark angler with a knack for naming boats?  Not to mention creative, since this is the “Shur Ketch3” which means that there must have been a 1 and a 2, not necessarily sailing under the same flag…  not that one has to register the name of small craft like this, so we can probably assume that Ken has traded up, bringing the name forward each time…

“The middle of the Gulf of Mexico…” Is she speaking literally or figuratively?  One reason that this might be “the spot” is that it’s hell and gone from the Deep Water Horizon disaster of 2010 and the waters haven’t been fouled…  so are they truly a couple hundred miles off shore, or is she employing hyperbole??

All their base, physiological and safety needs are met here, apparently.  They are going for esteem and self actualization like it’s their right…  I guess we all measure things in our own terms, so who am I to judge what makes one whole??

I must also call out how resplendent they both look in their almost matching, t-shirts-of-single-palette look…  Pink for Kelly, Lavender for Ken.  You know, it’s really too bad her name isn’t Barbie…

Catching sharks is like hand-raising baby squirrels?  That’s an intriguing notion…  where does one buy squirrel formula?  How tiny are those nipples? If you are really interested, here is a step by step treatment of the process… But what about hand raising the orphan shark pups once Ol’ Ken here takes out the mother??  Or is the father who rears the hatchlings?  Or do either of them care?? Oh, so much to learn!!

Not the Kelly I was supposing, but that’s OK!  Ken is quite a specimen, though…  All the markers of a Mark Trail bad guy- pony tail, facial hair, cock-sured-ness…

All I can say is that if they are fishing for Tiger Sharks, they had better get a bigger boat…

Or yes!  Kelly Welly? Perhaps a bit premature in my thinking, but for those of you needing a reminder, recall that Kelly Welly is the reporter always tagging along with Mark and trying to scoop his stories, and while Mark never has to pick up the phone to ask for work, Kelly is a constant thorn in Editor Bill Ellis’ side begging for an assignment… A funnier moment has Kelly waiting in Mark’s hotel room with Mark in the shower!  Nope, nothing to see there, kids… unfortunately that’s the truth…

But I am sure I have gotten waaay ahead of myself here, and let’s hope the disappointment is not too great when Kelly turns out to be a guy!

I have to admit I saw yesterday’s strip and I gave a little bit of an eye-roll and moved on…  But today I set about my morning routine and googled “octopus…” and what pops up, but this:

Here’s video gone viral and if you wait ’til the end, you will hear the videographer sum things up nicely…

So with mystery solved, (at least the mystery of what inspired the last couple of days,) we shall see where this takes us.  Far away from Lost forest, that’s for sure…

Which is fine, since I think we need a little time away from the crushing reality that Mark faces up to on a daily basis- time to let him range free again- to be seduced and bedeviled by bad people!