In a city where is seems that all the stucco and mud coatings have seen better days, the wall that will trap them looks to be freshly skimmed and painted!

Mara, sometimes it’s the littlest of things… decisions we make that can turn the tide for or against us.  The day you decided to follow the hapless and feckless Rusty Trail into a Mexican alley is the day that you will live to rue…  If they survive this setback!!

Not to mention that cheesy grin in the second panel.  Would you trust this guy?   Oh Hell  no!

Somehow he knows about the dig site…

…but even that is not enough to win the trust of these two plucky tweens…  And off they go around another blind corner!

Raul, he of tiny hands and wandering right eye… is attempting to lure the children in with the oldest of ruses… “I am a friend of your Dad’s!”  OK, then who’s my Daddy?  How do you know him?

Good Lord, how much longer does this drag out?  Christmas?  That’s where my money is…

As Mara comes to her senses… as in, “Why the hell am I following this dimwitted boy?” Rusty tries to justify what was probably a bad move…

Enter Raul… Looks like a baddie, but wait, what?  He’s calling out to the kids like he’s trying to help them…  hmmmm….. what to do??  How about clicking your heels together and getting the heck out of there!

Better get caught up, here… With the dude on chopper in hot pursuit, making mincemeat of the patio furniture…

…our people are racing through the highways and byways of Santa Poco…

…until they make their most serious mistake of all…

…following Rusty’s lead!  Good luck with that.  Taking after his father, though, heading down blind alleyways in search of sanctuary.  We’ll be back in a while after this little chase scene resolves…

As we continue the slow crawl through the streets of Santa Poco…

…it would appear that Raul is in charge…

…it would also appear that Mara’s proportions are growing by the day… her blossoming bodice is becoming a downright distaction.  Rusty’s form, as he chimps along, looks more apelike than human, poised to have his knuckles drag at any moment…

Why does a guy on a chopper cut such a menacing profile?  What is it about the popular culture that puts that notion immediately in our heads?  Didn’t the Rolling Stones hire the Hells Angels to act a security at one of their shows?  OK, that little incident at the Altamont Speedway didn’t turn out so well…

Yes, it’s the biker… What’s his name…  Raul… who is hooked up with Sleepy Joe and the antiquities operation, or is undercover Federales… Who knows?

Yes, the Biker is following you!  Duh!  And it’s also good to know that Mr. Allen can draw the bike and rider from two perspectives.  Or did he just take the image and flip it?

   Yup!

Judging by the Toucan’s flap, we are now moving through the Trailverse at 16 frames per second…

And ‘Backpack Guy’ seems to have Rusty and Mara firmly in his web of deceit…

So let’s all look forward to the next ‘flap’ of this story- a single framer, no doubt, wherein our main characters continue to walk toward the camera, boring even themselves…

Another award winning single panel ‘wonder’ that moves the “story” ahead ever so slightly…

…while Mara’s proportions grow more amazonian by the day (or minute?) …

…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…

OK, I’ll bite… more Three Amigo references!  Amazing that this didn’t become more of an American Classic…  Chevy Chase looks like he’s pissed that he has to be in this movie at all…

And how do we “take care of” kids?  Put them in a time out?  Take them out?  we’ll see…

I am barely following this either…

Joe goes to Santa Poco, seemingly dragged by the nose by “those meddling kids,” and now he’s talking about how the kids are actually leading him to things?

And how exactly does a guy sitting on a bike in the middle of a Mexican Desert talking on a cell phone (improbable- where are the towers?) get patched through on what appears to be a CB radio (limited range and completely different technologies?)  Oh, the questions that arise!

FBI?  Customs? These guys are deep undercover, but certainly revealing themselves now…

And so now what are Rusty and the Nancy Drew inspired Mara going to do to “help?”  They were right not to trust anyone but themselves, but what do grown ups always say?  “Tell someone in authority about what you are seeing…”  “Don’t go in there alone…” Or something like that…  But boy, you could tell that Becky was a no-good-nik from the day (months ago) we laid eyes on her…