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The only thing I like less than this guy’s organizational skills…
…is the look on his face in panel three. Creepy!!
But seriously, there don’t appear to be enough campers to go around… and the way he is dividing them up, he is inviting cliques and tribes to form. How long has he been doing this? What’s the return rate from his sponsored expeditions? Does anyone even care?
And is that Mark in panel two? Other than his pink shirt and blue jeans, he’s barely discernable…
*Asshole in Training…
Yup, they call him Ol’ Bucketmouth… Listen up, kids!
Rusty, here’s a chance for you to be heard! Step up, child. You of all campers should know how this little waif feels! And this looks like it might be Eric, son of Frank & Ellie… why is it that the chaperones’ son feels especially empowered to be a jerk?
The art (lately) definitely feels more cartoonish. That’s the only word I have for it…
Hi! Rusty Trail, here! I’m kind of a big deal! Have you met my “Dad?” He’s a world famous Nature Writer! People have heard of him on each of the 7 continents!! He has nothing better to do than try to weasel a story out of this little camping trip. Has everyone signed their waivers? I’ll collect them in a minute… wouldn’t want any privacy concerns to get in the way of exploiting the bad hand that is your life…
With Kevin’s blonde hair and young age he’s still in the ‘adoptable’ zone… don’t give up hope, kid!!
To most mere mortals, those would be cave drawings… but then Rusty has grown up in the shadow of a Nature Writer… or managed to pick up a little knowledge off that DSL connection at Lost Forest… out come the ten-dollar words…
It’s also an indication of what was prevalent before the indigenous people were overrun with guns and germs… Here have a blanket, Smallpox-infused at no extra charge!!
The troop doesn’t look very large- they make have more leaders than scouts on this excursion!
We still find Doc’s abnormally large head perched atop his withering frame…
…but what in the good golly gosh is going on with Cherry’s hips? I know it’s not polite to point and ask, but really?
And now onto really weird stuff…
I don’t often look at the Sunday installment as it has nothing to do with the ongoing “stories,” but look at the artwork here. James Allen is still putting his name to it, but I’m not buying it. On top of it all, Mark looks like he is showing some gray in his hair… What th-?!
…but OK, back to our new story line… Mark seems to think he can do anything he wants in the name of the magazine… but wait, did the ‘Camel’ expose just magically write itself?
Yes, Rusty, that’s the same Mr. Aldridge. <…insert snarky comment related to inappropriate youth interactions here…> It’s good that this came along, it’s been some time since Cherry had the place to herself, or at least without Rusty…
Involved in what, Mark? And if I’m not mistaken, Mark’s backpack is bigger than the one he had in the Himalayas!
Ick. Really? Frank and Ellie look barely old enough to be out of High School, let alone parents to a child that might be Rusty’s age. And where is Rusty anyway? Did Mark forget him at home?
Ah, it’s time to gather around the Ol’ Hearth at Lost Forest!
Not to mention taking credit for stock photographs you might find!!
Doesn’t Cherry have a proper seat? Why is she perched on the wooden arm rest with her arm around her dad? That’s kind of creepy… The Look on Doc’s face would suggest he is quite uncomfortable with the situation…
Thanks for the public service announcement, but oh Cherry, you have no idea what Rusty is up to on the internet… I shudder to think what is going on behind his closed bedroom door!
As Mark musters his look of “great concern,” Cherry looks on with her “uh, huh…” look…
Mark then utters the line that will become the subtitle to the story he is forming in his head… while Doc pipes up about things he might have only ready about… but then, who knows? He may have his own set of Social Media vices, the old coot!
And BOOM! Back to Lost Forest we go. Cherry is still there, apparently none worse for Mark’s absence… No attack by Dirty Dyer, the cannibal doll still safely in his box, and Mark just as clueless as ever!
Mark, it’s pretty amazing that you just up and left… I know that this assignment was a real PITA (Pain in the Ass) but it really shows your true character when you just up and leave… when a fellow human being goes missing and you couldn’t care less?
I like the idea of Dr. Camel’s Revenge… Maybe we get to see that someday!! And besides, Dirty came back from the dead, why not Harvey??
As Mark successfully navigates another would-be female suitor, he bids farewell… We’ll probably be in Lost Forest by tomorrow.
Panel three is goofy. That’s a really weird hand-shake, there, almost one that is trying to avoid cooties… and Genie appears to be breaking to 4th wall, peering into the eyes of audience/ camera, Ferris Bueller style. Mark’s smile is one that I have never seen before…
Excuse me, Mark? As “WE had hoped?” You were nothing but a buzzkill the entire trip… You love being right!!
So as Harvey Camel contributes to the unrecovered body count in the greater Nepalese range, Mark better take some selfies or something, or else he won’t have anything to use when he sets about writing his article…
Good gravy… all this talking…
…I don’t know if it’s meant to inspire intrigue or boredom…
All I know is that we are (again) dragging a storyline out waaaay tooooo long…
Oh, right, that’s what happening, Mark, he’s marooned on a snow-covered slope and all he can think about is saving face? I think Genie, for one, is anxious to get on with her life, or at least write her own tell-all book… My Life with a Kook…
Well, Mark, you pretty much nailed it!
Belief Systems. Faith. Knowing. Powerful things, indeed. Needing to believe, otherwise what is left? As Mark challenges the very foundation upon which Harvey Camel based his existence, in front of the layer of snow that buried him, assumed to have killed him, he feels absolutely no compunction about any of it. Never mind the fact that the snow slid over a week ago in real time, never mind that we have all been snowed over, so to speak, for months now, I think it’s time to find his crushed corpse and Sherpa his ass down the mountain…
I am very confused by today’s installment:
Yes, Mark, he wanted to show the world that The Yeti was more than mere fiction. Why are you so slow sometimes? And Genie, do you always carry around a first edition of YETI by Harvey Camel, PhD?
And if this was to be his Penultimate adventure, then what was he planning as a finish?
…again, shouldn’t someone, anyone be digging?
Chapter, ummmm… X? The Harvey Camel Backstory?
It would seem that we all have the capacity for resentment, in the end feeling underappreciated in light of what we might do for others who then take flight. Who was once savior becomes factotum while the downtrodden forgets who he is or where he came from… Nice Selfie-Stick in the middle shot there…
…or its parent company, whichever is appropriate…
Bill Ellis (Remember, the editor that works Mark like a puppet) catches wind of Ol’ Harvey and can’t help but take the bait… Now he, through Mark, has the scoop of the (I don’t know, week?) that will allow him to report on the untimely death of a Social Media “Star” and the backstory that, in this day and age, probably will only burnish his reputation among his followers- dying whilst capturing the ultimate selfie- how many influencers have given themselves up in the name of their craft to date? I bet we’d be surprised by that… Fame is fleeting, especially today. Now Mark, you’d best start taking pictures and get writing, dammit.
As riveting as this conversation is, have we simply given up on the chance that Harvey might still be alive?
By the look on Mark’s face, he’d rather be digging than listening to more of the Harvey Camel back-story… yet it goes on…
Huckster! Charlatan! Confidence Man! And what exactly is happening in the second panel? A sideways snow typhoon?
As Genie shares her Florence Nightingale world view, Mark appears about to fall asleep.
But apparently all Harvey needed to do was hook up with the 6 Million Dollar Man…
You know, it’s sad when a person is enabled to the point that his delusions are able to fund boondoggles and put lives in danger, or even bring about death… Or I guess it’s in support of the old adage, “if you are going to lie, lie big!”
But doesn’t Juvenile Diabetes turn into Adult Diabetes? It’s not like a person “grows out of it” like a proclivity towards croup… no matter. I predict that their blue suits have an auto-inflate feature that by now has formed a bubble around Harvey. We just need to dig him out…
Strip one, panel three… what… is Mark climbing out of the cellar? The proportions are all wrong…
Strip two, panel 2… Genie’s face has morphed again, this time into a mask of horror. She looks like she’s aged 20 years… panel 3, Big-eyes Mark is back.
Strip three, panel one… enter the Sherpa. Panel 3 giant Crocodile tears…
As Mark seeks to comfort Genie, he offers up an improbable outcome… Unless the “other side” refers to the “go toward the light” kind. Maybe that’s where Harvey is now, romping with Yeti and Bat-Boy and Chupacabra and all manner of fantastical beasts…
Bye-bye, Harvey! One small step for Nature, one less Cryptozoologist to worry about…
Come to think of it, this is the first time I have ever seen the bottom row of Mark’s teeth… Plus he has the sad, big eyes… weird!
The Daily Trail 