…enchanted, even.

And while Mara continues to ask herself why and how she ever got hooked up with this dolt, spiders are breakdancing!  And how does ‘Juanito’ know Mara’s name?  Super suspicious!  At least the Earth has stopped tilting!

No, Rusty, the correct response would be… ah… ‘no thanks.’

But then it’s been literally forever since Rusty has been kidnapped… If memory serves, it was when he was tied up in the back of Rod Bassey’s fishing van, after he had discovered the secret to his success…

So whether the kids take the bait and follow backpack guy (c’mon, Mara, at least you are smarter than that…) remains to be seen (tomorrow?  next week?) we can all remember what the strip used to be like, with story lines that actually moved along and a reasonable pace!

I honestly don’t know what Backpack Guy is up to in the first installment below…

…almost like he’s performing an interpretive dance, except with that, one usually doesn’t talk at the same time…  The pigeon appears to be equally confused…

Rusty snarls…  that’s not a good look for you, son… you’ll give yourself away!  Mara keeps her cool, as they are no doubt being led into a trap!

Or perhaps Señor Manos Grandes!  Good heavens!  Look at the size of those paws!  Funny how everyone speaks english… but no matter.

These kids are stone cold liars!  Not even a flinch.  We’re out exploring!   That’s it!  We got bored at the hotel!  Yea… that’s the ticket…

Don’t know about oversized Squirrels, but “Fists of Justice” is a reference from Mark Trail of Yore, when a storyline would wrap in about 60 days on average, with Mark punching the whiskers off the face of some bad guy…

Unfortunately that’s not what we do today… The stories drag on for months, seemingly without purpose or direction, and we are left to wonder WTF? I’m glad that Rusty passed up “Slime” magazine… and wonder of wonders, todo esta en inglés!

Probably so, since all the periodicals are probably in spanish!

And is “Backpack Guy” lost?  Just wandering aimlessly?  Seriously.  This is just Awful writing.  Simply awful.

…as to whether he is emotionally, intellectually and experientially challenged…

Clip art at its best comparing the center panels from yesterday and today!

Oh, Mara… You don’t realize what a rube you are hooked up with here until he opens his mouth and starts talking… Just remember that Rusty hasn’t had all the advantages that you have had, he’s not nearly as well read or aware, woke even.  He has spent his life on Lost Forest property dreaming of fishing.  That’s about it… This is his first travel-abroad opportunity, and well, he’s a little in over his head…

As we pick up the riveting dialogue, that has now endured for more than a week…

…we are again given a head-fake, suggesting that these guys are truly baddies and not undercover agents.

Almost there? You are sitting on your bike talking into a smartphone (again somehow patched through to a Citizens Band Radio…)

I am posting these dailies out of habit…  The flame is growing dim…