Home » Articles posted by Dennis Williams (Page 14)
Mark, lacking any shred of empathy or self-awareness, continues to get under the skin of Dr. camel…
…and is this what we have to look forward to? Weeks of bickering over whether Yeti exist?
Not to mention the Bumble from the Rankin-Bass Classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! I mean, if reindeer can fly, then certainly The Abominable Snowman exists!!
Clearly, judging by the expression on her face, Genie has heard this laugh before, and she knows that it means nothing good…
Num? It’s a place, all right… a place where it’s best to bring your Range Rover…
Funny… The picture from the space station (yesterday must be from the other side… as it made it appear that Makalu was to the west of Everest… Apparently not…
All these stories start out innocently enough…
How about Mountain Climbing?? Makalu, as seen from the International Space Station…
The fifth highest peak in the world, just to the left of Everest. Let’s see how high they go…
Ah, Kathmandu… a mix of the new and the old… The “transport” arranged by Genie turned out to be a dude on a bicycle rickshaw… reminiscent of an old Seinfeld episode. Good Lord, could we even make that show today??
“Ah! We’ve Arrived??” Like you couldn’t see the plane and hanger from (literally) a mile off?
A beard! I knew it! Dr. Camel has a beard! But what self-respecting academic prowling the Northern Steppe would leave home without one? Of course, Mark has no facial hair and could never sport such a prodigious Jaw-mane…
You can tell by the last scene that Dr. Camel is accustomed to “selling” people on his belief systems… as this is where he makes his living! Science? Pshaw! It’s a matter of getting people hooked on the possibility of meeting Squatch. And oh, buy the way… If it’s not Beef Jerky, now it’s Soap… Who has the rights to this anyway?
Good for you, Mark. Let’s get some things on the table…
The Indian Army? One footprint? Felt? I can’t even begin to count the number of ways that sentence is flawed. Science is not based on feelings, for starters. It’s based on hypotheses (proven or not) and is open to new ideas and credible challenges all the time. OK, but what choice to be have but to follow Mark and Genie as they are conveyed in a bicycle rickshaw trundling through what appears to be an industrial park?
As with probably most of us , Mark needs to get out of his own head and back yard…
It would seem that Genie is the unofficial spokesperson for Nepal… Or Kathmandu at least… Mark is still looking on with distrust in his eyes… So we get a close up of the lovely Genie putting him in his place. Remember, Mark has already dismissed Dr. Camel as a crackpot- a Yeti chaser, if you will. He has his journalist hat on. He’ll have to be shown the proof!
…the multiple potential strips showing the outside of an airplane with voice bubbles coming out of it…
…and the fact that this is a 3 day journey with multiple stops, Marks looks pretty fresh…
Don’t you mean flights? With an ‘s’? Nice pink shirt, Trail. Love the sign calling for ‘Mark Trail…’ I mean, isn’t he famous? Wouldn’t anyone recognize him? Did Mark not know with whom or on what he was going to make a move once he landed in Kathmandu?
Of course there is the cute-as-a-bug Assistant. She Looks like a ‘Becky’ but I guess we’ll call her ‘Genie.’ Because that’s her name. And apparently, one gets to Tumlingtar on YETI Airlines! How Appropriate!
Boy, have we been here before… but I guess even in a world that now can be explored without ever leaving your front porch, walking in the actual footsteps of your quarry still counts for a lot. Funny word, quarry. Prey? Hole in the ground? You get to pick…
So buck up, Lassie. There’s no crying in the Tailverse!
Oh dear…
“That ‘Dirty’ Character…” I love it. He won’t die, that one. He remains the specter of evil over the entire Trail Eco-System… Mark’s reply? “Bill Ellis, blah, blah, blah…” “blah, blah, blah, Pictures…” Cherry’s having none of it… Let’s see if Mark puts on a suit and tie to travel, like in the old days…
Check out the center panel… Mark is physically and literally bowled over!
And Mark, I guess you have been, and always will be, Bill Ellis’ Bitch…
…but he’s fine with that! Apparently…
…and all Doc can do is hike up his breeches; knowing that he’s had his adventure, so he’d best keep his own counsel on this one…
…at which point Cherry is now heading for either the bottle of Excedrin or the bottle of Tito’s Handmade Vodka…
Oh, Mark… you so proud! You get to go on a trip without any of your adopted family! This is what you dream of day and night!! You go, Tiger. Bag yourself a Yeti!
Harvey Camel? Like of Cigarette Fame? Oh that’s right… that was Joe Camel… the height of cool in the 90’s… Man, Do I feel old!!
Mark, I am shocked! I thought you knew everything!
Anyway, Mark is suddenly worried about what? His reputation? Who he pals around with and writes stories about? Boy that was a horrible sentence- ending one clause and the entire sentence with a preposition… I wonder who even notices these things anymore… Boy, I guess I am getting old!
I guess the Family Trust that is keeping Woods and Wildlife Magazine afloat still has some gas in it… Good thing that the Trust is very explicit and irrevocable, otherwise I am sure the Trustees would have turned to other more relevant pursuits…
C’mon, Mark, Really? Pack your bags, man, and don’t forget your Mukluks!!
Wrapping things up after a holiday weekend finds us in more familiar territory…
…a quick cut to New York offices of Woods and Wildlife Magazine…
… with Editor Bill Ellis talking to himself… Why? because he is the only one remaining on the payroll as the world of print magazines continues to shrink. And apparently Woods and Wildlife needs to start competing with the Weekly World News for readership… Yeti vs. Bat Boy?!
And why was Mark “expecting” a call? Because it’s the only way we can move this slug of a strip forward, and onto the next “Adventure…”
Good gravy… should I create a new category called “Rusty Reads?”
It used to be that these turnarounds in Lost Forest consisted of a little slap and tickle, a phone call, and Mark would be off again on another assignment… Now we are subjected to the not so terribly interesting lives of Mark and Cherry, featuring opinions and public service messages…
Not only is this a waste of ink and time…
…but I swear we have been here before…
…Mark whining about online trolling… Hopefully Cherry sees the voodoo warrior doll off camera, and while Mark continues to prattle on about his hurt feelings (wait… he has them now? Oh that’s right- just for himself…) The little guy pops out and spears him in the buttocks!
Struck a nerve, have we?
“Comments?” “Rusty reads the Comments?” Mark sits up straight as an arrow, the Primitive Trailian brain kicks in, all fight or flight…
Awww… Mopey Mark… are people making fun of you on line? Just wait ’til that Raven swoops down and plucks out your eyeball! Then you will know pain! The pain we all feel day to day and we wend our way through you world…
Comics within comics… makes my head hurt.
Jungle Jim, huh? Never heard of it. But Johnny Weissmuller played him on TV… after the Tarzan Role, I guess he was a bit typecast…
Looks to be a fast paced romp! Not!
Ok, enough already!
Anything, anything at all, please. Just remove me from having to witness these lies! Mark! Get on a plane!
I have to wonder, along with how Mark keeps so clean-shaven, is who keeps the Lost Forest grounds so tidy? Is there an army of gnomes that pops out of the woods and cuts and trims and makes sure that all the stones lining the drives are in place? Must be. It’s an otherwise magical place, so I would suggest that as a highly probable explanation.
And is there a happier place on the planet than Lost Forest? Andy bears witness to the joy as he canters along-side Mark and Cherry… Dogs are a great barometer of the mood they are surrounded by… and Andy is beaming!
I mean, just look at her… she just gets thinner and thinner…
“At his age?” Doc (and everyone else in the Trailverse) has been the same age for years (decades) now… Mark and Cherry are the only ones who got the other-than-shit-end of that stick. Rusty locked in perpetual pre-pubescence, Doc a Sept- or Octogenarian… Andy of course is ageless… what is he in dog years? Who cares, really…
As Mark continues to search his true feelings about JJ (Really? We need to let this go…) Cherry is (once again) showing her patience and stamina with what must be a very challenging marriage…
What’s with Andy? Doesn’t he want to go for walkies too? “No,” says the Big Dog… “The porch is just fine…”
Cherry, “Doc” is “Dad” to you… or have you forgotten?
The Daily Trail 