Yup, just a head fake, apparently…

So I guess we are full on with Doc’s story now, leaving Rusty to his own devices…  I suspect the package was just a bad joke from Professor Carter…  No doubt we will circle back to doll-sized mischief at some point…  Not to mention leaving Dirty Dyer behind…  James Allen, you really expect a lot from your audience…  keeping so many plots going at once!  But certainly they will intersect at some point…

content03142019

Such looks of foreboding about something that happened 40 or 50 years ago!  Cherry looks as though she expects a alien to pop out of her father’s furrowed brow or something…

And now Mark enters?

Leaving Rusty to deal with the deadly little doll all by his self??  Hopefully they have cigars and whiskey about to keep the little guy sated…

content03132019

And with the point of an unnaturally large finger, Doc declares the mystery that will perhaps carry us through the next story arc.  And Oh Goody?  An opportunity to go caving gain?

A regular Horatio Alger, he is…

Oh, Doc…  do you get to star is a story now?  Well, this ought to be interesting…  Day 345, Doc on porch, regaling us with still more stories of a bygone era…

content03122019

Working his way “through veterinary school…”  that’s very impressive, Doc…

I wonder why we never got to meet Mrs. Davis, Cherry’s mom?  How is t that Mark took up residence at Lost Forest?  That Rusty came to be in their charge?  So many questions!!  So few answers.

Get used to it, Doc…

And a quick cut to the front porch…

content0311219

…finds Cherry and her dad, Ol’ Doc Davis idly shooting the breeze, unfortunately about one of Doc’s contemporaries, Amos, who has kicked the bucket…

So off we go, campers, in no particular direction…  another walk down a very long pier for a very short drink of water…

Called it!

Either I’m too good, or James Allen is too predictable…

content0309219

Poor Rusty!  He’s thinking (hoping?) that it’s something from Mara (who has clearly moved on from her encounter with the Perpetually Coming of Age Rusty) only to find this cursed thing in his lap…  Soaking the package in water was probably a good idea…  Perhaps it’s time to go old-school on this little doll…  a ritual burn on a large pile of burning logs?  Darth Vader style?

Ten Bucks says it’s that Voodoo Doll from the trailer…

Well, Campers,  here we go…

content03062019

Back home to Lost Forest, where time moves  e x t r a  slowly…

content03072019

Reading the funny pages, huh? Well, I guess it’s better than nothing…  Reference to a real live (almost) strip?  Pearls Before Swine, huh?  Well, that’s one of my favorites too… I’d like to see Rat cave in James Allen’s head with a baseball bat some day…

content03082019

Boy, Rusty, you are really stuck on that girl, aren’t you??  Like it’s all you think about…  But why does it look like Rusty is sitting on the crapper in panel one reading the paper??  Is Rusty’s bedroom also the bathroom?  Does he have his own porta-potty in there?  An old-style throne with a chamber pot?  And I am also noticing that Mark still hasn’t changed his shirt…

Better soak it water…

The Mailman?  Did he ring twice?  Was it a he?  Who on earth knows where Rusty Trail lives, anyway?  Is it one of those “discreet” packages that doesn’t give away the contents, lest everyone knows your particular fetish?

content03052019

But I’ll be honest, Campers.  I live in a part of the country that has seen record snowfalls and cold temperatures… and seeing the green and blue and pink in today’s strip just makes me jealous.  At the rate we are going (still fighting to get above zero and stay there, and another 3-6″ forecast for the weekend) we are going to be living with the snowpack for a while…  I mean, if I wanted this, I’d go live in Alberta…

 

I guess it was David Hasselhoff…

But then he got the red to black brick ratio backwards… KITT was black with red accents… Unless we are referring to the Knight 4000 (admittedly I’m  not up on my Knight Rider Lore…)

Knight4000a

But back to team building:

content03042019

Oh, Dirty, always the wag…

Fair use?

Is it OK for the term “Legos” to be used so freely in reference to “building blocks?”  Like “Kleenex” instead of “Facial Tissue?”

content03032019

And are we to recall the famous Rock Star/Diva David Lee Roth who insisted that M&Ms be made available backstage, but with all the brown ones removed?

OK, I’ll bite…

First off, this isn’t even a very good joke.  The is a distinction being made: “That job” (referring obviously to the occupation of forger, which was forsaken) vs. “This Job” (The one you have- of being a Cabana Boy/ General Gopher and Factotum) is what today’s punch line hinges upon, and in my opinion, doesn’t make any sense…

content03012019

But what car in what show was red with black accents? (reference: 500,000 red and 100,000 black building blocks…)

magnum-pi

I guess Tom Selleck was a little more eccentric than we thought?

Uhhhmmm… You can take the backpack off, now…

That’s got to be a tad bit uncomfortable… those straps digging into bare shoulders?  But what do I know?

content02282019

This conversation is (once again) riveting.  I can barely contain my excitement.  Or my words.

Everyone’s a Comedian!

As the Random Shore Bird (RSB) continues to attempt extraction from the tiny shell, we learn more about “cabana boy…”

content02272019

Always good to have a forger!  Never know when you will need to assume an alternate identity!  Although I am guessing the technology has advanced some since the Donald Pleasence character in the Great Escape

The Crew Forms…

Have to admit that I have never witnessed criminals sizing each other up and sharing their bona-fides…

content02252019

So what you are saying, Smith, is that you are a curator of fine nature magazines?  That in your spare hours between killings, you enjoy reading old tales of defeated poaching and winning environmental causes?

Smuggler and a tracker?  Really Chris?  Your one attempt at smuggling got you killed, and remind me what you have tracked in your life??

content02262019

Enter the cabana boy… Now we have a regular “A-Team!”

OK, I have to say it…  the first panel above breaks a cardinal rule… nipples!  I mean, really?  Put a shirt on, man!

Because I haven’t had a good killing for a while?

Hire. a. writer.  Please.

content02232019

And the only way you can think of getting off the island is to be an accessory to murder?  Makes sense.

Who is the third guy in the frame?  Another Arms dealer/lackey?  He certainly appears to be armed…

“WTF?,” says the stranded Conch…

Two things…

  1.  Why does Dirty have the same hair color as Mara?
  2. Why is Dirty such an idiot?

content02222019

Sure!  Why not?  Create witnesses to your intentions wherever you go!  Maybe he considers this a suicide mission- his last act.  He has no need to hide his intentions… I mean, isn’t ALL THE WORLD out to even a score with MARK TRAIL?   Won’t he be greeted with love an affection in jail, as he meets up with all the bad guys that Mark has put away over the years?

And certainly I underestimate the reach of Woods and Wildlife magazine…  why, its readership extends across the globe, including Protectorates of the United Kingdom…  And the reaction is priceless- going from Easter Island monolith to Huh?!  What??!! at the mere mention of THE TRAIL!

Revenge is a dish best served…

…with a flamethrower??

content02212019

Or a Rocket Launcher?

I seriously wonder if we will be allowed (now) to follow through on this storyline… or if we will be teased (once again) only to be dragged into another slow motion story featuring Mark and a handful of non-repeating bit players…  focused on some “article” that Mark owes the magazine…

I am sure that Mark remains oblivious to this threat, having moved on, thinking (as we all did) that Dirty Dyer died.  Oh won’t Mark be surprised when he sees what will surely look like a ghost to him…

Small World!

I mean, what are the chances, really? Two Mr. Smiths?  And, judging a book by its cover, one of them looks a lot less likely to have that name…

content02202019

And where are you going, oh Dirty One?  To exact revenge?  A rocket launcher or a flame thrower would both lay Lost Forest to ashes and ruin…  assuming that is the plan.  Boy, this is getting dark

I don’t even have to change the category…

I had a feeling we’d run into Chris “Dirty” Dyer.  For those of you who are new or don’t recall, Mr. Dyer has been a recurring character, first introduced in the Rhino-horn-poaching caper…  where he supposedly met his demise, only to be resurrected in a brief encounter in an airport

content02192019

Now we find him in the Bahamas, on the lam, so to speak, under the alias “Mr. Smith” testing weapons on wax figures!  My, what fun!

We have been here before…

About 10 months ago, in real time, to be exact…

content0218219

But in Trail time, not that long ago…  Harbour Island, where we saw Dirty Dyer being served a “Gun Club Punch.”  On the house.  I guess crime does pay.

Are you saying something, James?

Are you suggesting that you might be in line for an award of some kind?  Seriously?

content02162019

I will not even dignify that with a response…