The Curious Link Between My Blog and Mark Trail

One of the recurring topics of this blog is Jack Elrod's awesome serial newspaper comic, Mark Trail. For those unfamiliar, the comic revolves around a freelance reporter who works for various outdoorsman magazines. Your typical plotline will involve Mark investigating his new story, uncovering some unspeakable crime against nature, discover the perpetrator of the heinous crime, usually a man with an evil looking mustache and/or mullet, and punch him in the face. If you've ever seen Fire Down Below, you'll know the basic story.

8/16: Mark Trail wraps up the extremely awesome and gripping political drama that was the bird strike storyline. An intriguing new plotline is introduced, involving a shopping center being built at the edge of Lost Forest. I get tantalizing visions of Mark Trail punching the crap out of a construction crew to protect the Lost Forest wildlife preserve.

8/28: In two short weeks, it's obvious that the Shopping Center story is going to be about a depressed construction foreman named Homer who decides to dedicate his life to protecting a duck and her eggs that would be destroyed in the construction. He names the duck after his ex-wife, Shirley. It gets really, really boring really fast. Also, I lose interest in blogging.

9/22: For reasons no one realizes, the duck story refuses to end, despite the fact it has already appeared like it is about to wrap up a couple times. The internet has neither seen nor heard of me in nearly a month.

10/28: The extremely boring and horrible epic of Shirley the Duck finally, finally comes to an end.

10/29: The new storyline appears to involve a French-looking hillbilly named Johnny Malotte and his gigantic family. And by "Gigantic family," I mean "wife and 6 kids," which is the same size as my family. They apparently have to entertain two businessmen.

10/30: I laugh heartily to myself when Malotte tells his oldest son, Paul, "If they like our camp, maybe we can get a lot of business, and you can go to college." "Great!" comes the reply.

10/31: Paul Malotte is in danger of being run over by a boat. Also, I start blogging again.

11/10: After hearing that a competitor swamped his son's boat and stole his customers, Johnny Malotte begins speaking in BOLD PRINT CAPITAL LETTERS, grabs a gun, and jumps in his boat to confront his rival. My posting increases in frequency.

11/17: After a week of fisticuffs, bold print, and goofy dialogue, a strangely-attired Mountie/Park Ranger/Highway Patrolman breaks up the fight by saying, "I don't object to a little brawling, but you two hotheads are getting out of control." Needless to say, I'm back to blogging full time.

UPDATE: And today, there's a sniper waiting for Johnny in the shadows! I tell you, this is looking to be the most awesome Mark Trail storyline ever, and Mark hasn't even entered the plot yet.

One Inappropriate Post

Mark Trail: If you don't pay any attention to the dialogue this week, it appears the plot has taken a turn toward phone sex.

Harry Potter: I repurchased Book 6, since my lame younger brother never returned my copy. Hey Aaron, I still want it back. I'll let you have this paperback copy as a birthday present. Ya tool.

Also, I think the greatest testament to the awesomeness of JK Rowlings is that 5 years ago, when I got into Harry Potter, I would find myself defending my enjoyment of the books to some of my non-Potter friends in college. Now, people who don't read them have to defend their disinterest, as if you'd have to be a freak to not enjoy Harry Potter.

Radio: "Dance With Me" came on the radio again today, and solely because Lindzy said she liked it, I listened to it again, and am now prepared to revise my opinion on it. Previously, I simply said, "This song sucks." Now, I mostly stand by that one. However, I do like the bass line pretty well, and the instrumental arrangement gets pretty cool in the middle, although you wouldn't tell from the boring beginning. However, I maintain that it's still a song that does not make me remotely feel like dancing. This is just to show that I value the opinions of my commenters highly enough to challenge my beliefs.

And now I should stop typing, lest I add something inappropriate to this otherwise happy ending.

More Misused Speech Balloons

Somedays, it's very tempting to turn this space into a Mark Trail-themed blog, as I read it everyday and find it extremely hilarious. Currently, Mark continues to stalk Sally, girlfriend of Dan who faked his death on Mark's property in an insurance scam, presumably so he can punch him in the face, since he has yet to notify any authorities about the situation. Anyways, it culuminates in this scene today:



Note in the second panel, Mark's speech balloon is so obtrusive that it actually covers up part of NotDan's head, as it he's trying to put his words physically between the couple during their embrace. Mark Trail must assume that Sally does not realize that the man she is hugging is not Dan, so he feels the need to SHOUT at her and blow his stalking cover. Either that, or he's firmly rebuking her for wasting his time by leading him to the wrong guy. In the midst of all of this, I didn't notice until the third time I checked it that I don't have a clue who is delivering the other line of dialogue in the panel.

Also, pulling your car right up to the door is not exactly the most covert thing you can do while stalking someone. Not that I have any experience with such a thing. Just doesn't strike me as a good idea. Right. Moving on.