Monday, January 19, 2009

Love of "Nature"...Oh, Yes

The titular character of Mark Trail has, at long lost, embarked on a new adventure. Fresh from fighting a dragon-like creature and being tempted by the devil, Mark has become enmeshed in a tragic tale of forbidden love. Poor Patty is clearly having an affair with Bucky; when her husband appears, she rushes the deer out the back door while addressing him as "honey."* Mark and Cherry, themselves animal lovers,** are not shocked by Patty's tragic and doomed relationship with the woodland creature. When Mark is not punching someone in the beard, he is quite open-minded.

One might also see a common medieval story type emerging here. Bucky may very well be an incubus disguised as a deer. Knowing Patty's predilections, he has cleverly wormed his way into her affections and will soon impregnate her with a half-demon child who will go on to advise King Arthur on the running of his ki--no, wait, that's Merlin. All right...the half-demon child will become a great king and eventually go off to the Holy Land to eat Saracen brains for di--no, that's Richard the Lionheart.*** Fine: the half-demon child will grow up to rape and burn alive all the nuns in one convent before he repents and is ordered by the Pope to crawl on the ground like a dog until--oh, damn, that's Gowther. At any rate, the child will be unusual and probably heroic.****

I am rooting for the half-demon child. If he appears, Mark Trail may actually become halfway interesting.



*Considering the context, I just had to translate "honey" as "dereling."
**I.e., people who love animals, not people who looooooooooove animals. Or so I assume.
***I am not making this up. There's a verse romance and everything.
****In the non-Disney sense of the word "heroic." I could tell you about medieval heroes. It would take a rather long time.

5 comments:

Brian said...

"Dereling."

*snort*

Unknown said...

God help me, I think Mark looks kind of sexy in that last panel.

Michael said...

Thank you, Kem, for introducing me to Gowther. I didn't know about that lay.*

BTW, someone should warn Patty about nursing her child. Perhaps having little Edfilth (or whatever the kid is named) bottle fed would be best for all concerned.

*My ignorance of things medieval is gargantuan.

Angry Kem said...

Sir Gowther is a truly fantastic romance. I was sad that I had no room to work it into my Ph.D. thesis.

(Note to Confused People: Gowther suckles nine wet nurses to death and bites his mother's nipple off.)

dmontag said...

Anyone else who wants to worry about the dangers of breastfeeding should read "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire. Young Elpheba has sharp pointy teeth at birth, and isn't afraid to use them.