HOORAY
Mark Trail, 2/13/06
It’s troubling times in the soaps: Mary Worth has been reduced to thought-ballooning platitudes to herself; Rex Morgan has managed to make a plotline about war, drugs, and gambling boring. Therefore, it’s nice to see that, after a long time of losing his way, Mark Trail has finally delivered the goods. There’s been a lot of awesome stuff in this storyline — half-brother-on-half-sister leering, Mark naked and nippleless, a skinny bumpkin thrown to the pigs, a St. Bernard fighting an alligator — but this scene, in which our hillbilly triumvirate is brushed back with a lusty ZZIP! like so many inbred bowling pins, brings everything to a pinnacle that we won’t reach again for many moons, so take a moment to enjoy it now.
February 13th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
In defense of the hillbillies, perhaps they were convinced that Mark had spotted the rare ivory billed woodpecker.
February 13th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
“I DON’T see a woodpecker,” Otis yelled, just moments before a big wood pecker takes him out. Very enjoyable. And that shotgun looks looser than Dead-Eye Dick Cheney’s. Back on track, America.
February 13th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
I liked the way Mark says “Surprise!” like it’s a wonderful birthday party gag. Pretty soon they’ll all be back-slapping and guffawing like old pals.
I must say…you all have seduced me into reading comic strips I would have otherwise. Mary Worth, Mark Trail, Judge Parker. It’s warping me hideously. Thanks alot.
February 14th, 2006 at 8:38 am
I keep staring at the way that tree trunk effortlessly melds into the first hillbilly’s gut. It certainly confirms my theory: hillbillies = liquid metal.
February 14th, 2006 at 8:43 am
Three hillbillies with guns against a hot in-bred chick, a St. Bernard and an outdoor magazine writer isn’t even a fair fight. Might as well throw in a fake Spiderman and GayJusticeGuy.
February 14th, 2006 at 8:58 am
I like the way hillbilly #3, in the back, goes flying, even without contact with any material object. It’s because when hillbillies get hit by a flying branch there’s a momentary polarization of the hillbilly virtual vacuum state that produces a collective ‘hillbillon’ excitation, so that they all have to move together. Or something.
February 14th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Whack-a-hick!
Don’t forget the ultimate pay-off for this Mark Trail story. The utterance of “What Th’!” by the thick hick.
February 14th, 2006 at 9:41 am
Work that wooodpecker knife like a claw, and call me Mark Randy
February 14th, 2006 at 9:43 am
Cool Josh, I tried to post a comment while you were testing and it went to the Paypal page instead of the comment page – charging for the right to comment – could be a huge revenue stream!
February 14th, 2006 at 10:46 am
#3 – It seems more like an angry kind of “surprise”, though I do agree that surprise is probably the wrong thing to be yelling here. “Gotcha suckers” would be more appropriate.
A3G – Scott’s shiny hair, his perfect part on the side of it, and his hankie coming out of his suit pocket – it’s like People’s Sexiest Man of 1958 has come to life!
BC – It takes a lot to insult me, and Johnny Hart-less has somehow managed to pull it off. Yeah, the guy can’t ski because he has a wooden leg. Hah, hah, very funny. Lotsa laughs, making fun of the handicapped.
JP – That lipstick smear on Randy’s face is gross – it looks more like a malignant growth than lipstick. Perhaps her kiss is a sign from the heavens, Randy. Run, run for the hills, before this she-devil does more than just warp your face!
February 14th, 2006 at 11:13 am
“Though-ballooning”?
February 14th, 2006 at 11:36 am
A bit late, but I was quite disturbed by the image in Sunday’s Fox Trot. Do all people in comic strip land store cupid costumes in their closet? Would two ten-year-old boys really strip down to nothing but underwear and angel wings just to torment one guy’s sister? Jason we know to be insane; it’s his a-little-too-loyal friend I worry about.
February 14th, 2006 at 11:43 am
“Bubba and the inbred bowling pins” = great name for a rock group.
Great work, Josh!
February 14th, 2006 at 11:52 am
Not to change the subject, but does anybody else wonder if Mallard Fillmore is related to “Duck” Chaney?
February 14th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
#4 — I think that big hillbilly is related to that guy we’ve all seen on film stopping a cannon ball with his gut. MT better look out: Bubba’s gonna squash him like a bug.
February 14th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
14: I’m sure he’s a fine fellow so I mean no disparagement, but Thorax from 9 Chickweed Lane has a bit of a Dick Cheney vibe going too.
February 14th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
It looks like some tropical undergrowth is present. Perhaps the purple-tighted one can help Mark best the transported hillbillies. Kind of blows the ivory billed woodpecker theory out of the water. A few days ago I thought they were in southern Arkansas. Geez, no wonder it’s hard to find a hillbilly when you need one.
February 14th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
Only a genius could figure out a way to make a 15 pound tree branch knock three full grown men, one of them morbidly obese, right off their feet. I am in awe.
February 14th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Lessons I have learned from Rex Morgan…
1. If you are a compulsive gambler, the trick is to keep gambling until you hit that ONE BIG SCORE…then you can quit.
2. Don’t worry if this takes a while, ’cause some guy in the back room of a bar will usually let you win a few thousand when things get really tight.
February 14th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
I just love fat hillbilly’s overalls-a wonderful and necessary cliche’. How many days old do you suppose his boxers are? After his “branching”, he may never have a wood pecker again-even for his hot relatives! Oh well, I’m sure he’ll turn his attention to more cerebral pursuits.
February 14th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
I’m curious to know how the large hillbilly in panel two would have finished his “what th’…” exclamation had he not been stifled mid-thought by a branch: “What the deuce is going on here, chaps? It seems we’ve been bamboozled by Mr. Trail’s clever gambit. Well played, sir! Well played!”
February 14th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Tommyp, you’re hopelessly optimistic thinking Bubba or his in-bred family even owns any undies.
February 14th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Good Point, RBF. That probably means he doesn’t wear a bra either! God knows he needs it…
February 14th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
Yes, Pa could really use a mansiere and he wears manties, not underwear.
http://manties.net/
February 14th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
RBF- you know, dear, I don’t even want to think about any of these hillbillies “going commando.” That might lead to speculation about what’s under those bib overalls, and I really, really don’t want to go there. That said, I’ll just go pour acid on my brain now, thank you very much.
February 14th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
(#10) King Folderol, I’ve been reading a lot of John Callahan lately — that guy’s hilarious!
February 14th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
It seems like a near tragic missed opportunity and waste of a speech balloon that Mark Trail doesn’t say something involving the word ‘peckerwood’.
February 14th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
“I DON’T see a woodpecker!”
“Here it comes.. WOOD, meet PECKERS!”
A sadly missed opportunity for an action quip. C’mon, you’re whacking them in the collective nuts with a log. Quip a little.
February 15th, 2006 at 11:35 am
It’s really astonishing how poorly drawn that branch is. I mean, even the Zzip! doesn’t make it look at all like it’s in motion.
And, I haven’t been following this closely at all, but why are the evil hillbillies the least bit interested in woodpeckers? (How is this different from if Mark had said, “Look, a rock!”?)
February 15th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Man, I only wish I had a dollar for every time in my life I’ve uttered the phrase, “I don’t see a woodpecker!”
February 15th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve said, “Look – a rock!”
February 10th, 2008 at 5:52 am
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links: