That jawline…  He continues to remind me of Dr. Zaius from the original Planet of the Apes!

Ready?  With clenched fists and flexed biceps, I’d say Marlin is itching for a scrap!  And what the hell does Jim have in his right hand?  A pointed stick?  The one from Monty Python fame?

We go from wide-screen, 2.76:1 Ultra Panavision yesterday to the somewhat standard 3 panel presentation today, and well,, that’s about as exciting as it gets…

The evil Marlin is grimacing over “something you don’t see all the time,” while Cherry throws her sympathies toward the “poor cat…”  While an off-camera voice (Mark?) completes the color commentary!  It’s about now in a James Allen “Storyline” that we have to start asking “Where is all this going?”  I’m sure he hasn’t the foggiest notion and awaits inspiration from who knows where in order to direct the arc of this tale.

Please… for the love of syndicated comics, hire a writer!  There have to be aspiring scriptwriters somewhere that would love to take a crack at this!

On what I am not quite sure…  Sorry Campers, I was away on Bidness for a couple of days… Unlike Mark, I actually have a job!

Which is what normal people do, which is what gives them the right to actually go on a real VACATION!  Seriously, weren’t mark Cherry just on one?  In Hawaii?  When they were rudely interrupted by Abbey Powell and her ant problem?

Dusty and Cherry’s attempt at humor falls flat and, despite some off camera laugh track being applied, Mark is also interrupted but he sound of the big cat, come looking for the other ham-bone!  But what was Mark going to say?  “I don’t think you… know what normal is?”

Today we are treated to a single panel of the Bengal Tiger getting tossed by the Rhino… I’m sorry, did I miss a frame or two?  I am just thankful that I was able to return with a triple-header, and didn’t have to comment on each of these individually!  I am now back for the dailies, campers, see you tomorrow!

And I do mean little…  Ha!  I get it!  The clowns are a bunch of lushes and can’t be trusted!!

But really, where do we go from here?  Where’s Dirty Dyer?  With that little plot element left hanging, it’s the only thing we have to look to for any excitement…

Let’s start out with the fact that Cherry is driving an Escalade.  Really?  Let’s say they buy pre-owned… a 2017 will run you 85 grand…  No to mention the 22 inch wheels with the extremely low profile tires (30’s?) makes no sense anywhere other than Southern California…  Where the hell would a freelance writer and a stay at home mom come up with that kind scratch, even if they had nothing in the way of living expenses?  Sort of reminds me of the people on “Storage Wars…”  They make more money “starring” in the show and gathering in endorsements than they ever would picking through the remains of abandoned storage lockers…  hence the reason they all drive brand-new vehicles…

Now let’s focus on Cherry’s impossibly thin waist…  Who is she?  Barbie?  Wearing a corset?  In panel two said corset has her doubled over in pain as she makes her way toward her smiling husband.

Ha, ha!  I get it! another Clown Car Reference!  Except that the clowns we were aware of were staggering around all zombie-like with their back-sides peppered with rock-salt!

And what’s with the continued “Mr. Trail?”  Not a single, “Please, call me Mark…”  What a pompous ass!

Your false modesty is nauseating… Not to mention your constant need for validation…

Oh, B as in B, S as in S…  To steal a phrase from a local radio personality…  Safety is not Mark’s Middle Name, but rather more like, “I’ve walked into a hazard and I can’t get out in less than 6 months.“

Nighty night, Jumbo!  I’m guessing that’s not the Elephant’s real name…

Enter stage left one Marlin Creed… who feels compelled to point himself out in a small crowd… rather than extend his hand in greeting?

Marlin looks like he wrestles bears before breakfast… and his assistant Jim (no last name) doesn’t look very excited to be there at all!  And judging by the look on Marlin’s face, he’s not excited to have him there…  But wait… Here’s the irony in all this:  We are channeling Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler, except that in Wild Kingdom, Marlin Perkins was the Milquetoast and Jim Fowler was the rough and tumble sort…  I see what we’re doing here…

I can picture the little artist’s model elephant on the drawing board being posed and turned about in order to provide all the angles necessary to continue drawing this sequence.  No small feat, I suppose… when one considers all the angles we have seen over the last week.

Cutting it close?  Really?  Was there ever a doubt?  Not so much.  What Dusty really wants to say is “Here, Mark, would you like my badge?”  It would seem that at least one of the characters here is redundant…

That was 4 feet, at least!

But isn’t this the job of the authorities?  Mark are you qualified and certified?

I see another magic, ropeless canvas tent just over Jumbo’s trunk…  I agree- gotta get me one of them!!

Somehow the elephant knows what is about to hit him, and is looking to neutralize the threat.

So yes, here we are… Suffering through another extended aspect of an artificially elongated plotline… I will say it here…  Serial comic strips don’t have to resemble movie storyboards that capture scene and action in 2 second intervals…  Maybe if we were looking at a comic book where we could get to the inflection points more quickly, and linger over the passages we choose, then that would help lessen the tedium.  But for me and the handful of faithful that look to the daily strips for constant intrigue, that’s probably an unrealistic expectation.

Have a good weekend everyone!

… and by that I mean mark Trail!  Of course.  Mark will always cast a very long shadow, making everyone else, including Dusty the Game Warden a bit character at best.

I think we are all doing our best to stay with this “adventure…” I’m not sure whether it would have been more compelling to see Mark lifted and tossed like the truck, but for now he seems to have the upper hand.

I’m sorry, but is ‘Jumbo’ the equivalent of an ethnic slur for elephants?  Sort of like calling all the Pullman Porters ‘George?’

Remember Ol’ Jim Fowler?  Marlin Perkins’ man on the ground?  He was never afraid to “go in” and take care of what needed to be done…  And it would appear that he is still kickin’ it at 85…

Of course Mark will be perpetually 36 years old…  Young enough to make these moves, but mature enough to know a few tricks… One of which is to scoot under the belly of the beast and thereby avoid getting gored or stomped…

Even though I have taken issue with the size of the elephant, the drawings of said pachyderm have been first rate!  Let’s wait ’til tomorrow to see if Mark draws down at point blank range!

Allow me to make my point…  African Elephant, below:

Unless this is an Indian (Asian) Elephant… which appears to be slightly smaller:

But with its “Africa shaped ears” and single dome head it appears to be an African Elephant.

But really?  I have already invested 30 minutes of my life I will never get back on this foolishness…  but oh well, helps me get my brain working in the morning…

Mark appears to be making a “move…” let’s see whether he’s able to avoid a goring!

More like the state’s truck…  as if you’d be driving your own and if you were it wouldn’t be that nice a vehicle… have you priced new trucks lately?  We’re talking $40-50 grand!

I am having a heck of a time piecing this all together though…  an F-150 goes three-ton at the curb…  can an elephant really up and toss something that big through the air?  Not likely…

Actually Mark, even taking perspective into account, that appears to be a modest sized elephant…  And Dusty, Mark is asking you what he ought to do, not be…  Listen, man…

Or is it maybe even a nod to Star Wars?

Whether attributed to Han Solo or anyone else in the Franchise that has brought forth this well-worn trope, it keeps popping up in the Trailverse, and I can’t decide whether I should appreciate the irony or blast the obvious rip-off…

Never mind the fact that we are also witnessing a scene right out of the first Jurassic Park movie where the approaching T-rex is making the ground shake…  the only thing missing here is a puddle or a glass of drinking water…

Dusty is striking a really odd pose in panel one…  I’m thinking that arms folded or akimbo would be more in line with the seriousness of the occasion…

Tiger in the Front Yard = Mark getting involved!?  As far as Cherry is concerned, Tiger in the Front Yard = we’re not having Ham for dinner!!  Given that Mark apologized to Rusty only yesterday, maybe a week or two down the road we will be let in on the “theory” that Mark was testing by feeding the tiger their dinner…

And what’s with the Army Surplus Green Canvas Tent?  Is that meant to imply that they will be at this for days?  That’s not surprising as we have only begun to milk this scene for content… Well, Mark is sure to get a story out of this… and he didn’t even have to board an airplane!!

Mea Culpas all around!!  And the faithful Rusty is on display…

He figured that in time he would be proven right, so what’s the big deal if the two most important people in his life think he’s a lying snake??  That kid has been through the wringer, let me tell you!

The slight slack-jawed look on Mark’s face in panel three suggests that Mark realizes this too.  Does this mean that Mark has learned a small lesson here?  Ha!  Not a chance!!

Who does the sheriff think he is?  Paul Revere?  At this rate he will have at most 4 or 5 people alerted to this news by the end of his shift…

But of course he had to stop by Lost Forest, because if Mark’s not in the know, then the story can’t move forward… s l o w l y  move forward… In the time it has taken the Sheriff to tell the tale, Dusty would have been able to muster the 5th Armored Division of the Georgia National Guard!  Where’s the Governor in all this?  Certainly he or she needs to get in on the act!

And we still don’t have a clue as to what Mark had in mind when he fed the big cat the ham that Cherry was counting on for dinner…

It might seem that James Allen, keeper of the Trail flame, relies on copies of previous images to keep his panels full of expressions…

And certainly, if one compares the first panels of yesterday’s and today’s installments, there seems to be evidence of that…

But look at the mouth.  Ever so slightly different…  so it would seem that he might start with a basic outline or template and then fills in the shading and the details?  Otherwise I would image we might be looking at faces that are nigh-on unrecognizable…  The way that Rusty and Cherry sometimes appear and you’d swear they were new characters!

But the story?  Rock salt?  I guess it’s a real thing, although not recommended by this fella…  He prefers more lethal rounds for home protection!  Castle Doctrine, anyone?

Anyway, the Sheriff sure seems to think it’s funny!!

Hilarious, even!!

But for a clown who only expresses himself non-verbally, (only screaming??) THE GREAT WILHELM is assuming not a welcoming stance, but rather a menacing one, not unlike the one made famous by Frankenstein’s Monster.  No wonder kids think that clowns are creepy, if not downright scary!!

But one has to wonder where the parents of the frightened tots are…  long gone are the days where mom and dad would say “OK” to having their gradeschool-aged kids hang around a cemetary bonfire, unchaperoned, hosted by some old dude…