Snark It Up, FuzzBall!

…there must be one, and I’d love to get my hands on it.  Where “fun” is defined as “camping in a swamp,” “watching your step every single waking moment,” and “get a load of that copperhead!”.

Still, it seems Rusty is having a good time.  And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it, Mark?  Mark?

…but it’s sake to me!

Ahem.

Sunday’s Mark Trail was awash (literally!) in information for tsunami awareness and emergency preparedness.  Tsunamis are pretty damned incredible things, made only more amazing by the lovely lasses attempting to Get To High Ground:

Several ‘mudgeons were mightily impressed by the strip.  Mooncattie noted it would’ve been frame-worthy if only Rusty had been included.

Okay, when I come and visit you and Jane the Maine, Mooncattie, I expect to see this hanging over the sofa:

This was suggested by CC’s Aviatrix, and I’m going to include her personal instructions for this lively game!

It’s time to prepare your bingo card for some Mark Trail bingo. Mark off a grid of five by five squares and write the letters T R A I L above the first row. Now for each column choose and arrange selections from the appropriate group.

Under the T: Talking wildlife
choose any five species native to the Lost Forest

Under the R: Redressing problems
choose any five possible guest character woes for Mark to solve, such as: illness, unemployment, grief, disability, marital problems, lost in LoFo, wounded, poor fashion sense, vehicular breakdown, missing pet or family member, chained to a log, fallen in the water.

Under the A: Actions and phrases
Choose any FOUR awkward things for Mark to say and do, such as: mention writing an article about something he encounters, “we can’t have this happening in Lost Forest,” awkward reference to current events, using technology in anachronistic ways, telling a law enforcement officer what to do. Mark the centre square in the column as the FoJ Bonus Square.

Under the I: Incredible powers of speech
Choose five non-mouth body parts (human or animal) for speech bubbles to emerge from, e.g. forehead, butt, ear, elbow, hand, nose, neck, inanimate object.

Under the L: Lots of hair
Choose five types or style of head and/or facial hair, e.g.
sideburns, beard, mustache, goatee, muttonchops, wild eyebrows, mohawk. Note: it is a bad idea to choose any personal hairstyle worn by a normal person after the 1950s, because it just isn’t going to happen.

Now read the strip day by day and place a an Elrod ball-shaped marker over each square as it appears in the strip. The FoJ square is a free square, you may mark it off right away whether Mark has punched anything or not. Because he WILL!

Ready to play? Let’s go!

Mark’s nemesis is inadvertently bonked on the head with a 55-gallon drum of toxic waste and will probably live.  Yay! Crisis solved!

So what do you do for a job well done?  You GO FISHING! Yay! Fishing!

Even if Cherry is sick of having Rusty underfoot and forces you to take the little freak along, it’s still a pretty sweet deal…

Let’s see what’s happening in Lost Forest:

Barrels of toxins dumped…perpetrator found…perp shot by real perpetrators…perp-turned-victim taken to hospital by Mark…Mark returns to the scene of the crime…

real perp loses way in forest…Mark and Andy find him…perp shoots at Mark in a tree and misses…perp shoots at Mark on a ridge and misses…okay, you’re all caught up:

Faithful CCer buckyswife has become quite philosophical (and not just “feel-good” philosophical like Lawrence McChopra, either) about some of the more esoteric aspects of Mark Trail:

As some have noted, The Man Who Tried to Warn Joey Williams looks a lot like… Mark.

So is this the Star Wars moment, when the elder Trail, who veered from good (nature writing, punching hirsute villains) into evil (wearing orange, using his gun as a communications tool), reveals his identity? “Mark…. I am your father, Mark…..”

Of course, the news won’t send Mark into an existential crisis, a downward spiral of self-doubt and depression. No, he’ll just say, “Holy mackerel! What are you talking about?” and forget about the whole thing by the time the pancakes are on the table for dinner that night.

Maybe buckyswife is being a little too critical of Mark’s abilities (or inabilities) to think.  Then again, maybe not:

I think I’ll start a collection of comic books that feature comic strip characters who boldly made the jump out of newsprint (okay, so this was back in the 50s and 60s, but hey).

Mark Trail is a natural:  a comic book with nature stuff is kind of like toting around a bigger, flimsier copy of a Peterson bird guide or a Stebbens herpetology guide:

We’ve  already seen a Rex Morgan publication on behalf of public health issues (I’m sure something like this was given away free):

But then there were Rex Morgan comics that required payment and seem to have dealt with private health matters:

Leading up to the ultimate,  save-your-allowance-for-this-kids! comic book:

Ah, the good old days!

Rex is still asea (for so many reasons!), but things continue in Morganville.  And the assisted health-care facility that Becka is working at seems to have more problems than she’d originally heard about:

No matter the subject matter, Mark Trail manfully wades into the fray, teaching all of us about the natural world, its creatures and its habitats.   The least we can do is listen quietly and not act like a pack of hyperactive howler monkeys.

I’m looking at you, Rusty.

It seems those barrels of toxic waste from the Williams Chemical Company are being dumped in Lost Forest by an unscrupulous waste-removal firm, with dubious links to the gambling community.

Yes, evidently LoFo has a gambling community. And Joey, one of the owners of WCC, is so far in debt that contracting with this waste-removal firm is the only way of preventing him having his acorns removed. If you know what I mean.

As Joey reveals this terrible secret to his sister, a local squirrel hears his confession and reacts with a nigh-on rabid response. Part of the gambling mob? Or a member of the anti-gambling grassroots movement? It’s hard to say with squirrels.

Still, gambling is a fact of life and a source of income in many communities, even in LoFo, where Johnny Malotte’s “We Gonna Win Big Now” casino packs ’em in nightly (from 5:30 until 8 or so, although it stays open all the way until 10 on Fridays and Saturdays). And Johnny makes sure that his guests don’t “overdo” it by posting reminders to game responsibly:

…they’re cartoon characters.

Oh. Wait. So are you.

Carry on. (And thanks to the Comics Curmudgeon’s Hogenmogen for the inspiration! You just know Shady’s up to something…)