Hours together in the car, back and forth across two state lines, and Mark is NOW only wondering about that Gazelle (Sorry, thought it was an impala) skull mounted on the hood?

Anything to pass the time, I suppose, and with the look on Mark’s face, you can tell he’s in the mood for a story…  C’mon, now, Ken… don’t disappoint…

What on earth did you talk about in the time it took you to traverse the Florida Panhandle, that little nub of Alabama and into Mississippi?  And while it’s difficult to show motion in a still comic, it literally looks like the Ken-Mobile is standing stock-still… unless you look at the wheels, but those could be Latrell Spreewell spinners, right??

And it just occurred to me that every Mark Trail strip has to have a form of wildlife in it- in this case it’s dead!  And skinned and boiled and mounted to the hood of an Eldorado.  That’s awesome!!

So I guess here’s what’s “unusual…” a guy has a package delivered to a dive shop- contents: one “Nuclear Dive Suit.”  Does that even exist??  Looks like there’s an entire career path  built around it, although the point of a “nuclear dive suit” is more to keep the diver cool whilst diving in 100-degree water than offering protection from radiation…  interesting work, though, performing maintenance on nuclear reactors… who knew??   Bet they have trouble buying life insurance…

Yup… he’s a baddie.  No facial hair, but that look says it all…  who could be on the other end of that line I wonder…  And I wonder what he found “unusual?”  Was it the 1974 caddie with the skull hood ornament?

Well, we needed to tie in the evil elements here, otherwise we’d be scuba diving in relative peace!  And we can’t have that!!

Sorry about the black-and-white image this morning… all my normal sites seem to not have it up yet…  a minor conspiracy??

What’s the phrase?  “Hire for the Smile?”  Apparently the owner of this dive shop never heard of that… the guy working the counter looks like he’d be more at home checking in towed vehicles at the impound lot…  What a menacing face!  Might be a brother-in-law out on parole who couldn’t find work anywhere else…

And yes, I would imagine that many of the things that pass through Deep End Dive Shop’s inventory are”heavy” in order that the diver be able to reach desired depths…

…”a little research out in the Gulf!”  Atta boy, Mark, way to keep things on the down-low…  No need to alarm the local population that there is a seething cargo of Cobalt-60 poisoning the ocean and all that live in it…

The scowl…  the clenched right fist…  he is ready to spring into action…  already he senses that there is something not quite right with this dive shop.  Let’s see, only one in town, validated and endorsed by Mississippi Ken, where a package awaits him… yup, something’s not quite right here…  right?  What?  Oh I don’t know…

Definitely a Cadillac… Eldorado convertible.  Nice.  Probably got all of 7 or 8 MPG on the way over…  but no matter, it would appear that MK is flush!

What in Heaven’s name is that thing?  Modified 1974 Cadillac Eldorado?  With a scoop and a European Skull Mount of a what… Impala on the hood?  Not very subtle, Ken, but then there are probably many sides to this dude… and we have only just become acquainted…

Bay Saint Louis, huh? OK,  I’ll bite…  Here it is.  They will have to pass through Mobile, Alabama before they get to Mississippi… Hey… maybe that’s where Ken got his nickname…  maybe this will be a homecoming for him…  Ken “knows right where that is” so yes mark, you’d better “hang on!!”

…when he realizes that he doesn’t have the biggest boat in the Gulf…  Holy Crap!  That’s what I call a yacht!!  Hard to image a life where one commits to such a thing, along with the crew that it takes to operate and maintain it!  Well, dear, if you have to ask the price, then you probably can’t afford it…

So as 100+ feet of waterline slowly makes way, we are left to wonder what the connection is…  or does James Allen just like to draw boats?

You call in the Feds over a beetle infestation… but that doesn’t  even cross your mind when it comes to your discovery of potentially radioactive material??  In what appears to be an attempt to smuggle??  Knowing that there was a heist that left the location of said material a mystery??  (Note to those who have an unnatural desire to learn about what inspires James Allen and contributes to his story lines…  check this out…  in his own words.)

Always a cause- always something bigger than himself to provide cover for any past transgressions and Spackle over hurt feelings and resentment…  The Mark of a true sociopath… With Lesley now looking all virtuous and noble, she is putty in your hands, Mark, putty in your hands…

…something to do with this Lesley woman and her car… oh the mind races, (or not…)  But it’s clear that whatever Mark did, she has kept that hurt in a mason jar and maintained its rankness…  to pull off the shelf and open up and take a whiff at opportune moments like this…

So if she is a college professor, she is a lovelorn and resentful college professor.  But of course Mark needs something, so he’s back…  to rend hearts and leave a Trail of destruction in his wake…

Oh where do I start…  Two nights on the road and there’s real drama going down…  Doc is on the case, working his people for free advice, and Mark is passing that information on, leaving Ken wishing he had actually paid attention in High School Biology…

Wagging your finger at Mississippi Ken?  Really?  That deserves a smack.  Seriously.

But wait, kids… Wait!  We are about to meet a part of Mark’s past!!  Leslie Joyce!

Oh, snap!! Mark’s past catches up with him!!  But Leslie, Seriously. You have symmetry issues!  Your eyes are going every which-a-way… and your demeanor is, well, slightly shrewish…

Love it, though… A “friend” of mine is a Professor at “a University…”  She “may” have some advice… God in Heaven, how dismissive and condescending can you be, Mark Trail, Prince of Lost Forest, one who doesn’t know what it means to put a meal on the table!

Apparently Leslie is less than thrilled by the sound of your voice… but of course you would not have see that coming, since you are incapable of feeling other people’s pain…

Ken, you are grasping here.  “Gag Novelty Items” with the radioactive symbol on them?  I don’t think Spencer Gifts ever went that far…  Besides it appears that Spencer’s has balanced out their inventory and are now specializing in “adult fun” items…  Like I said Mark, you should have brought your camera!  Doh!

That’s right Mark.  A test.  Didn’t you and Ken drag the shark carcass back in order to perform “tests?”  Heaven knows what that might look like…  But Blondie, I mean Barbie, I mean Kelly is right!

But Geese?  Do they hang out in Florida?  Why not?  Looks like the Cackling Goose…  with a bit of extra green thrown in.

Ken sure looks all concerned talking about the “Missing Nuclear Material…”  The same look he had when he first laid eyes on the sickened shark…  Mark must have gone to acting school judging by the effective gestures he is offering up, giving the impression that he is actually thinking and feeling, two things that the Mark Trail of yore would not have been so proud to exhibit…

And Kelly, why so sad in panel 3?  is it your hair?  The fact tht you really don’t “get it?”  Well, get used to it girlfriend, between your hair color and just-shy-of-retro styling, you are going to spend a lot of time there…

In Lost Forest, they drink their coffee hot and black and out of cups with saucers…  What the hell do you have in your hand?  Some hipster mug that you bought at the local Crate and Barrel?  That’s a lot of caffeine, there, Ken…  Not to mention it’s perilously close to that laptop…   one slip and it’s curtains for the motherboard…

I think I just found the article, too… although in real life, the “highly radioactive and dangerous” Cobalt-60 was found on land, and ironies of ironies, the hijackers are expected to die since even minutes worth of exposure can be lethal… Forgive me Mark, for questioning your extreme reaction to what you found on the freighter…  So what’s the big deal here?  Dirty bombs!  Dirty bombs, my friends…

The color of Ken’s shirt matches the highlights in Mark’s hair which matches the accent color of the lampshade.  OK, I’m reaching.  Big time… but watching ken do an internet search is about as exciting as, well, Ken doing an internet search.  Almost as exciting as the yet to be released thriller about Edward Snowden downloading a bunch of classified data… or the 1995 Sandra Bullock vehicle The Net…

“Oh, there are things called articles?  Oh yes, I write those.  I need to make sure I keep that in mind if I am to justify renting a cigarette boat…” …Mark must be thinking…

Assuming the moon still rises in the east, that shoreline is facing south which suggests North Florida coastline…  Nice digs!  Ocean Front with a view!  $2 million dollar home if it’s a nickel!  Maybe it’s Uncle Doyle’s…  Maybe Ken is really rich!  It’s nice to see that Kelly has colors other than pink in her closet from which to choose…

Mark, what would you do if the world did not stand ready to feed you?

Kelly is ashore, and probably shopping for dinner…  since she is the woman and therefore must prepare the meals!  So yes, let’s race back to Ken and Kelly’s.  Literally.  Race.  Mark should be able to smoke the Shur Ketch3 in his cigarette boat… Ha!  get it?  Smoke him??

But no time for silliness here…  there’s “research” to do… like look up shipwrecks and stuff…  too bad that for the first time in his life, Mark did not have a camera with him!  What was he thinking??

…while Mark continues to lose his!  “Seriously?” he says…  Ken is starting to think that Mark has made the whole thing up…  Still perspiring heavily (what- radiation poisoning already?  Or is it the bends, considering how fast Mark shot to the surface…) Mark continues to gesture wildly in making his point.  And it would also seem that Mark keeps an eagle-eye on the maritime shipping news- not ONE story about a shipwreck in the gulf…

So what are we to make of all this?  Ken, chill.  Mark, manic…  Mark’s brain is working hard now… no report of a wreck, must have been an unflagged vessel… smugglers!  TERRORISTS!!

OK, we get it…  but isn’t it more accurate to call it “Radioactive Material?”  Whatever’s down there, Mark is starting to sweat bullets, and most every one of his hairs is back in place…

And with Mark worried and using clumsy hand gestures, you know that we are only a few dozen strips away from real action!  Stay with us, boys and girls!

OK, this has gone on way too long…  but come to think of it, has she shown her face the entire time Mark has been on the scene?  Maybe she got sick of waiting and demanded that Ken take her ashore…

But with Mark safe on board the Shur Ketch3, I guess it doesn’t really matter all that much.  As we see in panel two, Mark’s hair is quickly snapping back in to place (oh what The Donald wouldn’t do to have that low-to-no maintenance mane…) so we can now get on with what is really the mystery- what is down their on the freighter that has the NUCLEAR SYMBOL on it?  Where did that symbol come from- when did it start to signify to the world Danger!  Radioactive material!!  It is, according to Wiki, the “Radiation Warning” symbol, one of many warning symbols used in the world, and did not always have the black on yellow trefoil that we commonly associate with danger today…

Faster than a billfish, featured in panel one, Mark catapults to the surface, clearly shaken by what he has seen and been exposed to…  even dropped his light… that’s too bad.

But really Mark?  “Cough, Cough, Ken! Ken!!?”  Couldn’t spit out MISSISSIPPI?  But at least stage one of the mystery is solved- what is making the fish sick…  or at least the sharks.  Who owned that boat, what’s with the cargo?  Much more to figure out here.  Let’s see whether Mark goes all vigilante or whether he calls in the proper authorities, which would be who??? EPA? DOE? LMNOP?

Oh… and a big shout-out to #Scuba Sports Club on Facebook.  They have been following Mark’s exploits in the Gulf and my commentary on same!  Welcome to the Trailverse, everyone!!