Sounds like Ken and Kelly have been on a shark stake-out, waiting for Mark Trail to get permission from Bill and Cherry, and then for Mark to board a plane and motor out to the “middle of the Gulf of Mexico…” I guess we now know why Mark needed a boat. Ken wasn’t coming back to port and he shur couldn’t swim out to the site…
Thanks for all the thought bubbles… if Mark were to talk aloud to himself under these circumstances, he would have to yell… which would certainly be awkward to witness…
…is the size and price of their toys…
Or is it Mark Trail meets Miami Vice??
Northwest Florida Beaches international Airport? Serving Panama City / Panhandle Florida… and Laguna Beach where Cigarette boats are apparently stacked up like cord-wood and ready for hire… compensating for something, Mark?? He leaves Cherry in a puddle of tears, yet has no problem letting out a “Woo-hoo!” How do you really feel, Mark?
And what about the carbon footprint (not to mention cost) of a boat that burns probably 20-40 gallons of fuel every hour at cruising speed? Oh, all right, let him have his fun… Won’t Mississippi Ken and Foxy Locks Kelly be surprised when Mark pulls up in this baby?!?
Cherry, that’s right, and there always will be, otherwise there’s nothing to write about…
It’s not like he’s going off of Afghanistan or something. He’s going to the freakin’ Gulf of Mexico, for crying out loud… if anything I would be worried about Mark coming face to face with a bevy of bikini-clad double-breasted bed thrashers…
Speaking of which, check out today’s installment on Billfish, Sailfish in particular. Where would one buy a tiger-print bikini these days??
Holy Crap! Enough already! Remember, Cherry that Mark doesn’t age (or you for that matter…) no harm will come to him and that he will always return because his public (small as it might be…) demands it…
“Other people… people who are not good and virtuous like us… have it out for you, Mark. Even if they don’t know you right now, they will get to know you and want to do you harm…” Good-byes were never this long or arduous in the past… more like Jon Lovitz in A league of Their Own… he made no bones about how he handled his life on the road as a professional baseball scout…
Mark, you really are Bill’s Bitch aren’t you? Can’t make a move without his approval. But really it’s more like you can’t make a move without his bankrolling you…
Boats? Really? What Cherry really doesn’t feel good about are all the apex predators that roam Lost Forest 100 feet outside the front door… Mama Griz is probably done digesting Rusty and is back for more!
Phew! for a minute there It looked like Mark was going to be trapped in Lost Forest, his usual ticket out appeared to have lost faith in him… But let’s be clear, it would seem that Bill Ellis has him on a short leash, despite the fact that Mark is being given permission to rent a boat!
Mark is so pleased with this result that he has gone back to his old, “I don’ know how to hold a cell phone” ways… So with the blessing and the funding of what is clearly the only profitable print publication left on the planet, Mark will now have to break the news to the Fam- he’s out of there!
What High Tech Equipment? Mark, you are out of your league, here, buddy-boy… and when’s the last time Doc examined a shark? Ever? OK, let’s just go with this… anything to get this story moving. But high tech equipment? Email? What? Is Doc house-bound? Couldn’t make the trip with you? Cramp your style? Afraid he might report back to Cherry what’s really happening here?
So as Bill Ellis offers a supporting thought- “Good thinking Mark” – we look at the tall buildings of Manhattan and wonder whether the I.M. Pei creation to the right of the Woods and Wildlife Tower is going to accordion down like a giant origami sculpture…
… or more politely, “taking the mickey…” out of someone. American version/response- “Hey there, Bill, you really had me going there for a minute…”
“Look Bill,” Mark would seem to be saying, “I know this ulcerated Shark lead is flimsy as Hell, but you have got to get me out of Lost Forest! I really don’t even need a boat, I just need an excuse to hit the road!!”
Whatever Bill was drinking in that nice crystal glass is either meant to keep his right hand from going into a palsy, or is maybe causing it to… hard to tell…
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure that Mark can’t quite believe his ears… it’s almost a conspiracy, against which a chorus of “not my fault” is building in his head… like Han Solo or Lando Calrissian from Star Wars… he simply can’t believe that he is being held to account, implicated in the blowing up of the SWAN, when it’s clear that he was on the side of GOOD, not EVIL…
Not unlike the “Trail” of lawsuits that followed Mr. Incredible… for all the good he did, there was a “Trail” of destruction and reprisal that followed, until he had to go into what amounts to Witness Protection… moving all the time, under a new identity, being forced to work a 9-5 desk job, getting bossed around by a Napoleon-like figure…
Well, let’s see if Mark has to actually rely on his own pluck, here, and not on some would-be limitless cornucopia of corporate advance money! This is actually pretty entertaining!!
…but it looks like the magazine business is treating you well… have you been promoted to publisher or have you jumped ship and turned into an investment banker?? No more walnut paneling, mahogany desk, heavy drapes and overstuffed chairs… Now it’s new office, Manhattan, veranda, million dollar view, cocktail in hand… it would seem that life is good!
As far as getting to the Gulf, Mark’s as good as there… Bill will never be able to resist his feature writer’s request!
Not my FAULT! NOT my fault… Just keep saying that. Not Mark’s fault that trouble follows him wherever he goes… But seriously, KEN has a boat… Remember the Shur Ketch3? Why won’t you use that? Why do you need your own? C’mon, Cherry you have a least one more argument to offer…
But Mark is determined to get the hell out of Lost Forest, and he’s going to do whatever it takes to get that done. Enough goodbyes! Time to hit the road and see what ‘Mississippi’ and ‘Foxylocks’ have going on- certainly more that what is the reality at Lost forest!
Remember, Cherry, it’s just (repeat after me) part of his job…
Seriously! It’s like she’s in on the joke! Sure, Mark, I have no doubt Editor Bill Ellis, who is probably still neck deep in paperwork from your trip to the Great Dismal Swamp after the 50-footer he rented for your enjoyment ended up as kindling, would rent you another boat for your next great adventure… This is funny, too, in that we never had a shred of push-back in the past… Mark would announce his plan, Cherry would cry and hug his wooden body, and Mark would explain that “this is his job, and that his job takes him away from home periodically…”
Looks like the snowshoe rabbit, still out of range, has yet to take on his summer coat (still?!?) and is toying with a Lynx, still no doubt famished after whiffing repeatedly in his attempts to eat Beaver…
Rule #1- Make the lie believable but do go into such great detail as to appear rambling and nervous about the whole thing…
Rule #2- Make awkward hand gestures to accompany and enhance your story
Rule #3- Don’t ask permission, just say what you are going to do…
Now that’s the Mark Trail I grew up with… Welcome back, Mark!
Never mind the fact that this could all be taken care of by someone imminently more qualified than Mark Trail… But we do need to get him out of the house and adventuring again…so get out of here you big lug- hit the road!
First call, Woods and Wildlife Magazine… from whence money for travel and special equipment springs… Who else is Mark going to call in on this mystery, though? While he has a knack for sniffing our poachers and other bad humans, he drew the line at bugs and called in the USDA, so now we are to believe that he can properly diagnose a dead and ulcerous shark?
Well, it looks like Barney and Betty got Busy! Time can stand still or it can fly by in the Trail-verse… Now we have a whole beaver village going on…
“Well, I suppose I could come down and take a look… not like I have a thousand other things pulling at my apron strings here at Lost Forest… You do realize, old friend, that if I do choose to engage on this, it will be for a while and trouble will surely follow my every step or my name’s not Mark Trail…”
Big eyes Ken is pouring it on thick… he wants the Trail so badly I am sure you can hear it in his voice…
So… Mark is a Marine Biologist now? Specializing in shark mortality? Well, it seemed to work for George Costanza… I don’t think Mrs. Moose is buying any of it…
Fishing, like a tonic, like a cold drink after a long, dusty walk, Mark can feel his pulse quickening, his hopes rising, his prospects burgeoning…
But oh, the buzzkill… The tone in Ken’s voice can’t even be imagined. There must bet something eco-awful going down, otherwise he wouldn’t be calling! What, does it have two heads? Three eyes? Some awful mutation borne of man’s continued impact on Mother Earth??
Nice Smartphone by the way… and he even knows how to hold it now! Welcome, Mark, to 2015!
… it’s the green geese that are unnatural here… fresh in from northern climes, they land in the gulf with the same hue reserved for jeeps, boats, motors and other inanimate objects…
And it looks like Ken and Kelly are in a longer term relationship- one that would allow them to have “history” in Mark’s mind along with another incredibly unfortunate nickname… Foxylocks? that’s straight of of the 70’s (along with her hairdo and general style sense) it sounds like something one would hear over a CB radio… kcchhh… breaker one nine, breaker… Foxylocks, you out there? What’s over your shoulder, sweetheart? come on back now??”
And Ken, you’d be living on the Gulf, not in it, not unless you sprouted gills…
Wonder if they got the hanging sign from a traveling band of Gypsies specializing in making stuff out of random scraps of wood… Have router, will sign… cash only please, we don’t believe in banks… all the money stays with the head of the family…
Next we see Andy recoiling in horror at the site of yet another mound of slop dished up in a giant red bowl with his name boldly emblazoned upon it… Like it would be another dog’s bowl? Like there could be another dog?? Sourced from the same Band of Gypsies? Does Rusty have one just like it only it says “RUSTY” on it?
But for the main course, here’s Mark talking to his old friend, “Mississippi Ken…” Who is about to tell Mark all about the dead shark he caught, which Mark will no doubt consider fascinating- much more fascinating than feeding the dog, and off he will go… “Still growing your hair long?” Mark wants to know… but what he’s really asking in the presence of Cherry is “I know you are with some underage babe… she got a friend? I’ll be right there, even though it means a drive from northern Georgia all the way to the Gulf Coast!!”
Did someone really write Mark Trail’s Name all over the body of this shark? Or is Ken speaking in euphemism?
Wow. That Shark died quickly. This is very disturbing- a species known for surviving the epochs with little change and this one gave up on life after one look at Ken… appears to have its fins, so not a victim of those who would supply the Asian market with fins to make soup…
Well, we need not wonder any longer boys and girls. Ken must know Mark or at least know of Mark and his need to get the heck out of Lost Forest…
We see in panel one that Kelly still hasn’t found her pants, and in panel two, James Allen is borrowing from the artistic style of Margaret Keane, famous for the “big eyes” school of portraiture… made recently more famous by the movie of the same title…
Such sadness and concern from Ken… the shark is fully submitting to his obvious and apparent dominance, and this isn’t what he had in mind at all! No-sir-ee-bob! Well at least we now have a mystery on our hands… but how on earth do we connect Mark Trail to this? What good would a wildlife feature writer have to offer this situation?? Safety tips? Fashion sense? Let’s stay tuned…
The Daily Trail 
