I need your help figuring this out:  1) Mark has a smartphone ($$$) on which he is taking pictures of the train explosion. 2) He doesn’t want the cops to take it from him, even though I’m pretty sure they cannot.  3) The cop claims Mark and Happy cannot be “back here”, which seems to be the same place where everybody else was standing just before the train exploded. 4)Mark decides to distract the transit cop by tossing his phone towards him, anyway, so that he and Happy can make their getaway (or at least run somewhere else), rather than staying to offer an explanation or at least apologize and return to their own train.

So, HUH?! What’s Mark’s game plan? They clearly lost their chance to snoop around the burning train, which was none of their business, anyway. And now Mark is out a phone with all of his contacts and photos on it (which are hopefully automatically backed up) and is running from the police. Again. “Here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into, Dad!” If he keeps this up, Mark won’t have a state left on the East Coast where he can travel without a disguise.

So, this cop (or security guard?) wants to confiscate Mark’s camera because he was taking pictures of a train on fire at a train station. Maybe the train is carrying boxes of secret NSA recordings of phone calls by citizens ordering pizza and planning to take over the world.

Or it could be one of those situations where Mark’s video gets declared “evidence” of a possible crime, so the phone would be confiscated to obtain the imagery. Yet, the cop doesn’t sound like gathering evidence is high on his priorities list, given that any number of people at the station could also be taking pictures.

“But officer, I’m MARK TRAIL, nationally known nature journalist! I get paid to butt into other people’s business and take pictures. Surely, you’ve seen my adventure strip in the newspaper!? Maybe you read Teen Girl Sparkle? By the way, I’m not that guy wanted down in Florida for destroying private property, assault and battery, fleeing police, and polluting the river with diesel fuel. And you can even see I was—I mean—that other guy is drawn really differently! Uh, we’re not the droids you are looking for …?”

Rivera ruins the engineered suspense with her snarky textbox in panel 4. I’m feeling generous today, so you can discuss the police officer, if you wish.

Yeah, I’m with Mark on this one. We can stop (at least for a year) with “Mark blows up boats” jokes. How about replacing them with “Mark never takes photos on assignments, even though he’s a photo-journalist” jokes?

So, the dialog moves from being somewhat serious to being something of a parody. And shouldn’t one of the guys be at least a little concerned about the fate of, well, any humans that might have gotten hurt or blown up? I realize that people are a bit out of the Trail wheelhouse, but still.

I also wonder if Happy Trail is going to start beating on firefighters and railroad inspectors who might try to block his access.  Happy Trail should be careful these days, as law enforcement takes a dim view of agitated individuals with backpacks wearing masks and hanging around disasters.

That is certainly one, very long train platform!  And if you look closely, there seems to be a train, or trains, wrapping around the far end of the platform. How odd!

It’s unclear exactly what is going on, unless the railroad brought in a 19^th century wood-burning steam engine and its boiler exploded.  Diesel engines can catch fire and may explode in certain conditions (aside from a crash). Since this is an adventure strip, I’m guessing this was either sabotage or an explosion of chemicals illegally being transported on the train.

Anyway, Mark and Happy are not train inspectors, nor do they presumably have any experience in crash investigations or forensic analysis. But who is going to tell that to Happy Trail, one really pissed off dude missing his father-son fishing trip!?

The caption in panel 1 suggests that the train got fixed, because it says the train paused at a train stop. That’s not what one says about a train that broke down at some arbitrary location along the tracks. Rivera (or syndicate editors) must have decided to move the story (and the train) along by cutting out the panels dealing with the train’s repairs and travel resumption.

But now we learn that a train exploded, not the train exploded. Is Rivera getting careless with grammar or is that really a different train in the distance? This innocuous story just woke up and took a sharp turn into the Suspense Zone. Reckon we should learn more come Monday.

Mark and Dad are waiting for the train to get fixed, which is probably reason enough for them to take a walk outside, carrying their bags. Meanwhile, Mark seems fixated on the idea that he would not have learned more about his granddad from Dad while the train was actually moving. Perhaps Happy gets motion sickness or movement makes him forgetful.

Speaking of “trading stories”, would somebody remind me what story Mark traded with Happy about Granddad Forrest Trail? Was it the “Wow” remark or the “Sweet 70’s sideburns” comment?

Perhaps Mark might have learned more about his granddad if he had seen him once in a while as he grew up or had asked about him during the 18+ years he presumably lived at home with Dad (and Mom?). I suppose one thing I (as Mark) I would ask Happy is “How come Granddad looks more like a normal person than I do? Why do I look like a character on The Cartoon Network? And just who was my mother, anyway, Dad?”

Note: The regular daily commentary follows below this **** Special Feature! ****
Frequent commenter Daniel P made what seems a kind of back-handed compliment on Rivera’s drawing of a traditional Mark Trail image in yesterday’s strip as a “boomer” era version. But it reminded me that in a strip lasting over 70 years, images of characters can modify over time. Here are a few examples:

Making assessments from single images may not be fair, but they are still representative. Tom Hill was Dodd’s uncredited assistant who did lots of dailies from the 1950s on, so I’m giving him recognition. Elrod’s less animated and somewhat wooden model (c 1978-2013) was typical for him, while Allen (who seemed to favor a corner angle pose that made readers think he merely photo-shopped the image) returned to a more Dodd-like model, but gave Mark hair that was glued in place, as well as an expression that also seemed glued in place. Rivera’s original take on Mark Trail had a certain rough naturalism that she ultimately transformed into what we see today. Speaking of which, on to today’s strip!

We interrupt this adventure to bring you virtually the same information you saw in yesterday’s strip!

Every now and then Rivera feels the need to repeat content from the prior day, as we see today. About the only thing new is Forrest Trail’s “Elvis” sideburns. Yep, pretty wild, man.

Now, could Ed Dodd, Jack Elrod, or somebody actually named “Forrest Trail” have been involved in research that led to the EPA? I was not able to locate any citations.

Jules Rivera reprises the unusual ancestry of Mark Trail’s family originally presented in her first Mark Trail adventure, wherein several ancestors were shown to all share the same name and general look. I wonder if this also means they all married women named Cherry and adopted a kid they (re)named Rusty? Old “Forrest Trail” has Mark’s traditional double breast-pocket work shirt, and the Ur-Mark look. Good job, Jules.

I’m sorry, but is this the first time Mark has heard about his granddad’s work? How is it he has been following in the family business all this time, yet remained ignorant of grandpa’s achievements? Ain’t like he was some soldier from WWII unwilling to hash over old war stories. Wait! The first Mark Trail was a WWII veteran!

Art Department: How do you like the visual composition in panel 4 where Happy and Mark mentally “look back” at (or look forward at) Grampa Forrest at work?

Oh, the uncertainties of life, love, and transportation. Sure, the train broke down. A plane could have crashed or been waylaid because some stupid person decided to urinate on an attendant or demand her own recliner. Stuff happens. I reckon ol’ Pappy Happy just didn’t plan for uncertainties and thought getting there the night before the event was …uh …what!?

Wait. Stop the presses! In Panel 3, Mark says that the second day of the fishing trip is tomorrow. DOH! That makes no sense. They apparently boarded the train earlier in the day, some five hours or so ago (published date June 10). Is Mark delusional or did they think they could take a train all the way up to Ohio and start fishing on the same day? Is Lost Forest in Kentucky!? If so, how do Mark, Cherry, and Happy manage to drive to each other’s homes so quickly? Yeah, I know: It’s China Town, Jake. No, I mean, this is the comics, not a documentary; the natural laws of physics may not apply.

Anyway, WHAT will we learn about that surprise? What could it have been, unless it was a special, one-time event, like viewing the Night-Blooming Cereus (Epiphyllum Oxypetalum), which blooms its flower for a few hours only one night a year. But I digress. And I’m being a smart-aleck.

I just hope Happy Trail at least remembered to book sleeping berths.

So, is the true cost of the scenic route enjoying the big window view or getting stuck in the middle of nowhere for several hours? I’m not sure which is correct. Whatever the response, it seems that, unlike the train, this story is already spinning its wheels. But it’s way, too early to claim the story is <ahem!> off the rails.

On the other hand, this delay could turn out to be an important plot development. For example, the actual story might be what happens when the train gets delayed, and something occurs that sparks the interest or need for Mark to investigate. In a nightmare scenario only a masochist could dream up, we could have an attack of bears led by Sid Stump, riding Millie the bear.

Art Department: A nice overhead view in panel 1 is unfortunately cheapened by that barely sketched-in bird. As a nature/adventure strip, Rivera could put some more time into drawing the flora and fauna.