Hah! I think I’ve got it. This part of the story is an homage to Little Orphan Annie, right? We have the big capitalist, DaddyWarbucks, played by Chedderson; we have his assistant (i.e. ward), a gal who wears glasses that makes it look like she has no pupils. But we’re missing a dog. As in the old Annie strip, these two are complaining about reporters (ie “socialists”) who want to take “Daddy Warbucks” Chedderson down because he is a capitalist exploiter of resources and people.

Well, that’s one interpretation. Another is that we have a shipping owner who can only think about moving his ships and finds anything else a distraction or an obstruction. His assistant realizes he is easy to manipulate, though we do not know her motives at this time. But she does have Cherry’s knack for finding help in weird geezers who live in out-of-the-way places and probably thought Deliverance was a documentary. What will you do, Boffo? Run Mark over with your Combine? Throw him in the baler? Force him to plow the “back 40” manually?

Printing or lettering error aside, I wonder how this Chedderson fellow puts up with an assistant who seems content to spoon out information on a “need to know” or “need to ask” basis. And whose online comments, one muses, did she find, since she just reported that Mark has virtually no online presence. Who would be publicizing what was supposed to be an undercover operation? Could it be Diana Daggers, trying to keep her public image relevant?

Well, there is clearly a “show and tell” aesthetic going on in this story, as everybody who has something to say also has to hold up pictures when they’re describing something. And this gal seems to have an unending supply of displays!

Well, will we ever hear the end of “…who has won many conservation awards” every time somebody introduces Mark’s name? At first, it seemed like this “Mr. Chedderson” actually knew of Mark Trail, the way he loudly exclaimed his name in panel 1. It is cleverly written in the former official “Mark Trail” font (which I don’t have). But by panel 2 Chedderson doesn’t know Mark. It must be some kind of visceral reaction in people when they hear Mark’s name. It causes them to repeat it back in a loud voice, like the announcer on “Let’s Make a Deal” who exhorts contestants to “COME ON DOWWWWN!”

This is starting to be fun comic strip melodrama. It certainly seems like those two people are weighing the pros and cons of how to get rid of Mr. Nuisance and his spy boat; and Mark’s lack of online presence appears to be a major criterion. All for zebra mussels?!

Or is the Duck Duck Goose Company actually oblivious (there is that word again!) to them and more concerned that Mark might find out something about their company’s illicit (pick one: human trafficking/fentanyl/rare animal/counterfeit Pokémon cards) smuggling operation?

Say, wasn’t the prior job of that woman in panel 4 the researcher on “Criminal Minds”?

Well, it looks like Cliff’s warning is not so far off the mark, after all. Poor Mark:  He has moved on from being “Mr. Obvious” (thank goodness) to “Mr. Oblivious” (uh-oh!)

Not only did Mark not appear to identify zebra mussels correctly on the cargo ship, he seems to have failed to identify Cliff’s boat as “the rescue boat”. Mark even failed to ask how Cliff just happened to be passing by. Now, he failed to grasp the fact that his own boat’s registration can identify him, a concept understood by the apparently nefarious Duck Duck Goose company, in their San Francisco-style Victorian.

Still, Cliff did not identify his boat to Mark as “the rescue boat”. Why is he keeping Mark in the dark? Finally, why did “Criminal Minds Gal” identify only Mark’s boat? Mystery abounds!

Hard part over? Let’s see now:  Mark swam underwater for a few minutes to take pictures of a hull covered in barnacles (so it appeared). I didn’t see anybody take pictures of the cargo ship, itself; so how will he prove what ship it is? Can he even prove where the photos were taken?

So you call that an investigation, Mark!? No interviews, no follow-up, no verification of the ship’s route or manifest? Maybe a fishing magazine just doesn’t have to meet the higher criteria of a more serious investigative organization…such as QAnon. Now, would a company really send out thugs to beat up Mark, as Cliff warns? Sure, they do it in movies and books all the time: “Nice cabin you got there, Mr. Trail. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.” On the other hand, I suppose the shipping company could try to hurt Mark professionally. They could finance an exposé of Mark’s most recent adventures, for example.

Yeah, lay on thick, Mark, if you want to hook this group and pull it into your assignment. “It was too close to call”, huh? Maybe, if you were an octogenarian angler in a rowboat, perhaps. Anyway, I don’t think it was the case of the cargo crew spotting you underwater, Mark, since they could not have missed the two boats floating alongside their ship!

In any event, we can count on Cliff’s vocal support for Mark’s testimony to gain the approval and participation of the squad. Unless they do not participate, in which case I have to wonder what their purpose is to the story:  Friends or foes.

I suppose that if these vets have been on deployment for a long time, they may not be au fait on the zebra mussels, in spite of the fact that they have been in our waters since the late 1980s. Anybody looking them up on Wikipedia or browsing online photos might get a feeling of dread seeing how they spread and cover so much territory and so many objects. Still, all of this talk of zebra mussel gloom and doom would have been fine in a Mark Trail story 20 years ago. But today, it’s like we walked in on an old episode of MASH.

Still, no problem is too old, too arcane, or too broadly based for Mark Trail to kick it in the gonads with his Boot of Justice. Or was that his Fist of Justice? Mark’s prior attempts to resolve problems in the old-fashioned Heroic Style of “rock’em sock’em” have not been impressive. Maybe he’ll finally get a chance to knock the living daylights out of at least one nefarious, crooked shipping company magnate. Or maybe the guys who deployed the anti-pirate firehoses.

Really, was it “a tough break” for having to walk home? This comes from one of the military vets who have clearly experienced worse than a lack of transportation (unless they think Mark lives in Canada). Well, Naomi’s comment does provide the opening Mark needs to make his case and keep the story moving along.

But Mark’s “cover story” isn’t the only sin of omission here, is it? Cliff isn’t exactly coming forth with how he happened to find Mark in the first place. So, will Cliff reveal the actual facts behind this string of events? Isn’t the real reason Cliff picked up Mark so he could introduce him to the group, who just happened to be waiting around. I’m thinking that they already have a mission, and it may overlap Mark’s. Remember, Cliff and another crew member were following Mark’s boat to begin with, so there is something going on behind this convenient setup.

Er, that’s a rather funny looking zebra mussel; like it is covered with its own invasive parasites!

This is starting to look familiar: the “Herp Hacienda Gang of Lost Forest”, perhaps. I laughed at Ol’ Cliff as he imitates a late night host introducing his next celebrity guest, not as a fellow vet who happens to also be a Big Deal nature journalist. Or vice-versa.

Another nice closeup of Mark. One thing noticeable in Rivera’s work is that we don’t see the same photocopied closeup face of Mark every other strip, or every other panel. Maybe there is some, but it’s not so noticeable.

In any event, I see a possible “A Team” episode in the works as Mark discovers a more appealing group of people to assist in his zebra mussel assignment. I’m guessing at least one of those people will wind up being a former Navy Seal, to help handle the difficult underwater work.

(Personal Note: I’m back, though a bit woozy. Just FYI, I had to have eyelid surgery because of overly-baggy eyes affecting my sight. With a delayed start and some post-op excitement, a 2.5 hour procedure turned into about 6 hours. If you can imagine somebody after a fight with two black eyes, you have a good idea of what I look like! But I’m doing okay. The black eyes should disappear over several days, they say. Unfortunately, they do not make me look dangerously sexy, darn it.)

Getting to the strips, I see that Mark has forgotten (or put aside, for now) his zebra mussel assignment to catch up with Cliff, who is soldiering through his post-war anxieties by finding a purpose and companionship through his fishing lodge with other vets. And good for him, too! 

Their chat—and the earlier rescue mission—should pretty well ensure Cliff gets further involved in Mark’s mission, er, assignment. But the most interesting thing to me is that Cliff has a comfy chair made out of Mark’s shirt, or something close to it. Cool!

This notification might lead to some minor harrumphs, a few desultory street protests, and a some strangled cries of desperation, but there might be a delay of a few days (i.e. Tuesday and Wednesday), due to scheduling conflicts. I’ll see what I can do. However, if all else fails, I will create an omnibus post to cover the delayed days.

And don’t fret. I promise to not go on and on and on and on, just because I’m writing on several days of strips at one time. I’ll try really hard to be concise. Really. Until then, you can get your snarkely laughs fulfilled (most of the time) at Comics Kingdom. Then come back here for that kind of hard-hitting, thoughtful, and entertaining analysis that you really look for in a blog dedicated to a comic strip.

– George Atkins