We still find Doc’s abnormally large head perched atop his withering frame…

…but what in the good golly gosh is going on with Cherry’s hips?  I know it’s not polite to point and ask, but really?

And now onto really weird stuff…

I don’t often look at the Sunday installment as it has nothing to do with the ongoing “stories,” but look at the artwork here.  James Allen is still putting his name to it, but I’m not buying it.  On top of it all, Mark looks like he is showing some gray in his hair… What th-?!

…but OK, back to our new story line… Mark seems to think he can do anything he wants in the name of the magazine… but wait, did the ‘Camel’ expose just magically write itself?

Yes, Rusty, that’s the same Mr. Aldridge.  <…insert snarky comment related to inappropriate youth interactions here…> It’s good that this came along, it’s been some time since Cherry had the place to herself, or at least without Rusty…

Involved in what, Mark?  And if I’m not mistaken, Mark’s backpack is bigger than the one he had in the Himalayas!

Ick.  Really?  Frank and Ellie look barely old enough to be out of High School, let alone parents to a child that might be Rusty’s age.  And where is Rusty anyway?  Did Mark forget him at home?

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?

Yup, we all know…

You don’t mess with old Rex…

…and there is always “the telling” after a trip away from the homestead.

But I wonder if there has been time for laundry?  Or a change of clothing?  Or does Mark have 12 pink chamois cloth shirts in his closet?  Someday, just some day, I would appreciate seeing Mark in a different color combo… And Cherry, oh Cherry…  that profile you are striking reminds me of those oh so classy (classic?) mud-flaps one sees on a semi-truck, or a duely pickup with a scrotal sack hanging from the trailer hitch…

While we admire the author/artist’s ability to draw nature…

..we really must shake our heads…

Barrels of ink, electronic or otherwise, sacrificed in the name of carrying on a tradition…

…even though the current mantle-bearer continues to fall short of expectations.  Blah.

Ah…  the familiar… But wait, not so fast!

What the heck is that?!  An escaped Circus Lion??  Stay tuned!

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…

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…

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…

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?