By bats | January 7, 2010 - 1:13 pm

Looks like Mark’s globe-trotting again!  And you can bet who’s not invited:

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And, dang! If I wasn’t right on the money!  Woo hoo!

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Still, Mark is a professional Nature Guy, and he has work to do.  It’s often perilous (and usually boring), so he chooses not to endanger his loved ones.  Most of them, anyway:

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So we’ve got Wilbur Weston’s mysterious “illegitimate son” going to meet his father.  Too bad a mustachioed cab driver drove (heh) several Comics Curminions to bad memories of the most famous mustachioed Santa Royalian of them all!

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Sort of like that Christmas ghost story that English dude Dickens wrote, huh?

Over in the Big Apple, Margo’s parents (who never married — yeah, Margo’s a bastard, too, as if that weren’t apparent) are cozying up during the holidays, and her dad Martin presents her mom with ruby earrings. Or something:

new-a3gAnd CC’s own bourbon babe, unbuckled paid tribute to Mark Trail’s daring assault on Otis P. Cornpone, Sheriff of the Law in Backwater County, in an attempt to save Rusty before the tide came in or he was eaten by crabs or pelicans or sand fleas:

(As sung by Mark Trail)

I punched the sheriff
But I didn’t punch the deputy, oh no!
I punched the sheriff
But I didn’t punch the deputy,
Yeah! All around in this beach town,
They’re trying to track me down;
They say they want to bring me in guilty
For the punching of a deputy,
For the nose of a deputy.
But I say:

I punched the sheriff.
But I swear it was for Rusty’s sake.
I say: I punched the sheriff – Oh, gosh! –
And they say it was a big mistake.

Sheriff Stogie always hated me,
For breaking into that store:
Every time that I stole a jack,
He said hey, son, give that back –
He said hey, son, give that back.
And so:

I punched the sheriff.
But I swear it was for Rusty’s sake.
Where was the deputy?
I say: I punched the sheriff,
And I hope that Rusty’s still awake.

Of course, heartfelt lyrics like that absolutely demand chorus of backup singers.  Suitably cute (so Mark doesn’t feel obliged to punch them, too):

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The Holidays are a WHIRLWIND!!!

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I’m not sure about this one.  I had an inkling about two current storylines because of their similar themes sometime while I was in Las Vegas , but I don’t know if this is what I was going for.  I didn’t have PhotoShop available at the time, and yes, IT WAS THE BOOZE, okay?!

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I think I’ve come to the conclusion that a “women in prison” plot isn’t really that interesting, and a “nature writer in prison” is ever less so.  *sigh*

Unlike mopey old Stripey-Butt, however, when Mark sees a problem, he acts on it! Go, Mark, GO!

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By bats | - 11:47 am
Posted in Category: Cameo Appearances, Markin' the Trail

Apparently, there is the occasional time when Mark comes through (sorry, not for you, Rusty):

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By bats | December 13, 2009 - 11:13 am
Posted in Category: Markin' the Trail

Yes, Mark Trail, Santa’s little helper!  And here he is to talk about pets at this most festive time of year!

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By bats | December 10, 2009 - 11:54 pm
Posted in Category: Cameo Appearances, Markin' the Trail

and pinned under a station wagon.

No, I’m not (necessarily) making fun of poor Rusty, only that his current predicament has him being rather a captive audience for japes made at his expense.

A number of folks over at The Comics Curmudgeon have speculated that Rusty’s been exposed to so much peril in his short life that there might be a whole bunch of Rustys waiting in the wings (or, as was so well put in the old TV series Dinosaurs, “Looks like we’re going to need another Timmy.”).  That might be the case, since what kind of “Doc” is Cherry’s dad, anyway?

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And then there’s the dilemma of the Jumble puzzle not making into several publications on 10 December.  Not to worry, though:

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By bats | December 7, 2009 - 9:55 am
Posted in Category: Markin' the Trail

“It was his only defense!”

I see strange seasonal similarities between the current Mark Trail storyline and a favorite of mine:

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[Oh, yeah — “You’ll shoot your eye out.”]

Time passes…

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I guess that Red Ryder Double-Action BB gun is lookin’ purdy darned good right about now.

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By bats | December 5, 2009 - 1:51 pm
Posted in Category: Markin' the Trail

Honestly, for as much as I snark on Rusty and Sassy (and Mark, too), I don’t want bad things happening to them.

Fortunately, folks like CC’s Mardou Fox make suggestions, which I blithely run with–peril be damned! (Sorry, Rusty…)

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By bats | December 1, 2009 - 6:03 pm
Posted in Category: Markin' the Trail, Most maryWorthy

…it must be Charterstone.

Another pool party.  *yawn*

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Oh, hey, about about this for a Christmas card?  I made myself laugh:

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By bats | - 5:47 pm
Posted in Category: Markin' the Trail

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That’s right, Mark — and were not talking about Mary Worth and her cronies at Charterstone! Run!

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