I think this might be a new look for Mark!  What’s he implying, I wonder?  I am sure that “Professor” Carter hired Becky simply because she was the most qualified candidate… it certainly couldn’t have been her movie star looks!!

So, hide your disappointment Mark, she’ll turn up sooner or later…  with any luck, you’ll get trapped in the temple with her, alone, where you can (again) proudly proclaim your “happily married” status… Just like in the Cave Odyssey a few years back…

Tomato / Tomahto…

Who is this Dr. Carter, anyway?  Where did he get his Advanced Degrees?  His attitude and technique are both suspect… along with this story line.  I mean, where is this going?  I don’t find much tension in listening to a Peevish Professor!

Oh, the thought of earning “top dollar” for the items “provided” by this site has Mark creaming himself!  What about anything related to the “Antiquities Act?”  What gives Carter the right to profit from this activity?  Does he have investors beyond the usual academic funding that are demanding a return?  Is he more mercenary than truth seeker?

And thanks, George, for pointing out Mara’s head/neck configuration.  It gets more disturbing from every new angle…

Boy that trailer sure does look secure!  Even has a locking doorknob!  And look!  Pottery!  Are we sure that we haven’t stumbled onto some ancient Artisan Commune?  Mass producing authentic (looking) items to be sold to gullible tourists visiting Chichen Itza?

Or perhaps Dr. Carter is referring to the number of weeks he has been looting this sacred site…

I can’t help but think that both men are extremely uncomfortable in their long sleeved shirts…  And as we are afforded a longer view of the temple, we are treated to a large face of sorts- not particularly scary, just unfinished.

Hey Campers, I’m back… did a little campling myself over the holiday week and now I am back on the grid!  LOVED the comment about Rusty having nothing to fear from virgin sacrifices… ha!!  Speaking of virgins, the movie “The Virgin Suicides” comes to mind for no particular reason.  An early Kirsten Dunst vehicle… before all the Spiderman nonsense…  Not to mention James Woods and Kathleen Turner as the parents…  definitely worth a look.

Yea, Mark, if you had anything at all to bet, we might take you more seriously than we do.  But seriously, look at the doe-eyed Marla, still with the strange head perched forward on the too tall neck!  She’s even got the goth lip color going on…  How old is this young(?) lady, anyway??

Aww!  That’s a rip-off!  Shoved into the stoner-van and dragged through the jungle only to be shown items from the gift shop!!  But yes, taking Mark inside and leaving the youngsters to fend for themselves should allow for a little hyjinx! (WHICH WOULD BE A FANTASTIC SCRABBLE WORD, BTW…)

Leave it to the experts, please… I am sure your conjectures will be front and center when you write your “article,” but for now, please leave the learned stuff for those who are actually learned.

Rusty is riveted to every word coming from Dr. Carter.  But Dr. Carter, do you mean the local diggers like “Bill” and “Ted?”

Dark Rituals?  Virgin Sacrifice??  Please, do go on in GREAT detail…

Riveting stuff… really…

‘Guessing’ is always is a good substitute for ‘knowing…’  What’s your source, Mark?  Upon what are you basing this conjecture??  You will never be more than a hack writer unless you engage in some kind of critical inquiry!  At least there is a question mark at the end of that otherwise declarative statement… perhaps Dr. Carter will respond, or politely ignore your supposition.

The fact that Mark’s shirt and the cloth band on Prof Carter’s pith helmet are both pink.

OK, I know that’s a reach, but what else is there??

Maya Temple?  Mayan Temple?  According to this site, Mark has it right!

In traveling around my native Belize, and neighboring Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador, the word Mayan is not in use by the indigenous Maya. … And the word Mayan does not exist in the Mayan or Spanish languages. In Spanish, the Mayarefer to themselves as “Nosotros los Maya” (We the Maya), for example.

And I should also note that finger pointing is rude in just about any culture.

Like porridge in a giant sluice, the story continues…

A bit of clip art later… and voila, hopefully we are done “learning…”

More about The Lost City of the Monkey God can be found here… The real-life escapade looks to be a tad more treacherous that what we are currently seeing…

I almost didn’t recognize Dr. Carter with his hat/helmet removed…

Of course characters have the opportunity to morph in the Trailverse… we may even be looking at a visual representation of how Rusty sees this guy… and his desire to know his birth parents…  Now there’s a story line that could go on for years…

LIDAR… I guess we’ll learn more here by accident than elsewhere by design…

Yes, Dr. Carter, please tell us more!  As George has pointed out, Mara’s overly large head/neck is unnaturally craned forward in anticipation…  Rusty looks like he knows he’s about to get a smack!

And what, I ask, or who, gave Dr. carter the right to go in with heavy equipment and local labor to disturb this piece of cultural antiquity?  This isn’t colonial Egypt, for cripes’ sake…  Bill and Ted?  On an Excellent Adventure??  I’m guessing he gave them all anglo names so that he wouldn’t has to learn or pronounce their actual ones…

The fabulously colored Toucan (you know, pale orange beak, black and white body and gray feet) followed them all the way to the Ruins as Mark continues to explain away the obvious fact that Cherry looks for opportunities to NOT be with her husband… the inveterate Man-splainer…

Sure you do, Mark, and there is no hiding the fact that Cherry will often leave you to your own devices given her natural instincts toward self-preservation!  This time it seems that she wanted Rusty to go as well… even if there is slight collateral damage in the form of this Mara-girl…

the look on Dr. Carter’s face is priceless… Not only is he disappointed that Cherry didn’t make the trip, but now he has to suffer inane questions from children, and finger wagging from Mark…

What is up with Mara the Amazon?  With her prematurely gray mane and adult stature, she’s practically dwarfing Mark, let alone Rusty… Poor Rusty, who just seems to be shrinking away?  And did they really just say what they said in unison?  “Honored?” That’s unlikely.  And weird.

Who introduces a friend that way?  “Famed Archaeologist?”  Who apparently was only really looking forward to seeing Cherry!!  What ever happened in the Trail backstory?  We may never know… Perhaps Cherry is absent on purpose- too painful for both of them…

Why make up names when you can simply reference the past?

Howard Carter was the dude who “discovered” King Tut’s tomb…   Whose appearance was anticipated by the faithful souls reading this page…  But beware, gentlemen… These tombs and temples carry curses!

Oh, Joe…

Always ready for a siesta!!  I guess creepy temples just aren’t your thing, huh??

Careful Mark, don’t touch the merch!!  And careful not to get a whiplash!  As Dr. Carter emerges from the mist? Some random backdrop that makes room only for his pithy comment? We see that he is bedecked in safari gear right out of colonial history… Khakis and a pith helmet!  Now that’s authentic!  And at first glance, it would now seem that he and Mark were childhood friends, if in fact Mark has “known him for 30 years…”

Haven’t we talked about this in the past?  You have to pretend that you are allowed out of the Lost Forest Compound every now and then…  You can’t look all wild-eyed at every last thing you see.  Besides, slipping in a little blase and ennui for Mara’s benefit will only up your cred, young man…

Well, at least we are finally here, you know?  That took a while.  Longer than the ride from the airport to the resort…  Nice mask on the temple!

The fact that we have been on this van-ride now for a week and there seems to be no end in sight…

…along with the fact that Mark has been allowed into the jungle with two young people, especially given his track record of inviting disaster, natural and otherwise…

Why does the van keep changing color?  OK, it’s just vacillating between black and white, but still, it’s puzzling…

And Mark, I am sure that you aren’t the only one excited to see the temple…

…now cue the jurassic era bird…

What? Are there prehistoric renderings of Sponge-Bob?  Now that would be different!

OK, Joe, you are probably starting to over-share a bit… You are now answering questions that no one has asked.

But meanwhile inside the sumptuous ride…

Haven’t you been paying attention, Rusty?  Don’t you realize that you are going to see ruins now?  Or perhaps you can’t equate the phrase “temple in the jungle” with “ruins…”

Now that face in panel three is a new one… Not the usual sleepy, dopey manner we are accustomed to in panel one…

Been losing your hair long, Joe?  Ever have a movie projected on your forehead, Joe?

Nice tree frog!  It’s rare forMark Trail (the strip) to show fauna in the foreground these days.  That was a must back in the Dodd/Elrod era…

If I’m not mistaken, we have yet to meet Professor Carter or learn his first name… but remember, Mark has “known” him for 30 years…”  Since Mark was a tad, apparently…  Which would put the good doctor in his 50’s or 60’s… that is unless they were childhood friends?  Hmmm….