Mark Trail
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''Mark Trail'' is a
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
comic strip created by the American cartoonist Ed Dodd. Introduced April 15, 1946, the strip centers on
environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
and
ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
themes. As of 2020,
King Features King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial ...
syndicated the strip to "nearly 150 newspapers and digital outlets worldwide." When ''Mark Trail'' began, it was syndicated through the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...
'' in 1946 to 45 newspapers. Dodd, working as a
national parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...
guide, had long been interested in environmental issues. The character is loosely based on the life and career of Charles N. Elliott (November 29, 1906 – May 1, 2000). At the time a U.S.
forest ranger A ranger, park ranger, park warden, or forest ranger is a law enforcement person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks. Description "Parks" may be broadly defined by some systems in thi ...
, Elliott would go on to edit ''
Outdoor Life ''Outdoor Life'' is an outdoors magazine about camping, fishing, hunting, and survival. It is a sister magazine of ''Field & Stream''. Together with ''Sports Afield'', they are considered the Big Three of American outdoor publishing by Money ...
'' magazine from 1956 to 1974. Dodd once said that the physical model for Trail was John Wayt, his former neighbor in north Atlanta.


Characters and story

Mark Trail, the main character, is a photojournalist and outdoor magazine writer whose assignments lead him into danger and adventure. His assignments inevitably lead him to discover environmental misdeeds, most often solved with a crushing right
cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...
. Trail lives in the fictional Lost Forest National Forest with his St. Bernard, Andy; veterinarian Doc Davis; Doc's daughter, and Trail's girlfriend and eventual wife, Cherry, and their adopted son, Rusty. "Mark reflects a reverence for God's creatures, nature, and the conservation of woods, water and wildlife" (Hill, 2003). His assignments in later story arcs tended to involve more sleuthing than wildlife photojournalism. *Mark Trail – Wildlife photographer and writer for ''Woods and Wildlife Magazine''. In his early 30s; honest and upright; his strongest imprecation was famously "What th'?!" *Rusty – Introduced in 1981, Rusty Wilson is an orphan and the nephew of an abusive alcoholic named Joe. Rusty bonds with Sassy, one of a litter of Dalmatian puppies, against his animal-hating uncle's wishes. When Joe abandoned Sassy in the woods, Rusty went looking for her and became lost as well, until he was discovered by Mark and Cherry. Mark's intervention saved Rusty's life, and he was taken in as one of their own. Rusty was officially adopted into the Trail family in 1993, when Mark and Cherry married. *Andy – Mark's faithful Saint Bernard. *Cherry Davis – Longtime (47 years) girlfriend of Mark until they married in 1993, living with Mark and her father (Doc) at Lost Forest. She is usually a supporting character, but she has sometimes (e.g., 1998) had her own wildlife adventures. *Tom "Doc" Davis – A veterinarian who is Cherry's elderly father. *Johnny Malotte – A presumably French-Canadian outdoorsman friend of Mark's since the 1950s, living with his family in the Quetico area of western Ontario, and recently reintroduced into the strip. *Kelly Welly – Pretty wildlife photographer whose flirtations with Mark, and competitiveness with him, land both of them in trouble; a semiregular character. *Bill Ellis – Mark and Kelly's editor at ''Woods and Wildlife Magazine'', appearing intermittently when sending Mark on another assignment. *Ranger Rick Rogers – Wildlife ranger (2006), one of Mark's ubiquitous friends and contacts around the country who tend to appear in single adventures (possibly named for the National Wildlife Federation's mascot
Ranger Rick ''Ranger Rick'', originally ''Ranger Rick's Nature Magazine'', is a children's nature magazine that is published by the United States National Wildlife Federation.Kenneth B. Kidd, ''Wild things: children's culture and ecocriticism'' (Wayne State ...
)


Cartoonists

In the mid-1940s, Ed Dodd was employed in advertising. Dodd and Jack Elrod met when they were with the Boy Scouts; Dodd was a Scout leader and Elrod was a Scout. In 1946, after Dodd sold ''Mark Trail'' to a syndicate, the strip was launched on April 15 in the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...
.''''Mark Trail''
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on February 13, 2016.
In 1950, Dodd hired Elrod to work as the strip's background artist and letterer. During the late 1940s, the cartoonist Jack Davis worked one summer inking ''Mark Trail,'' which he later parodied in '' Mad'' as "Mark Trade." In addition to Davis and Elrod, Dodd also hired Tom Hill, Barbara Chen (who did the lettering) and secretary Rhett Carmichael. The strip's popularity grew through the mid-1960s, with ''Mark Trail'' appearing in nearly 500 newspapers through the North America Syndicate. Artist and naturalist Tom Hill, who joined Dodd on ''Mark Trail'' in 1946, drew the Sunday strip, which was devoted to natural history and
wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted ...
education until 1978. Hill drew most of the
daily strip A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays. Bud Fisher's ''Mutt and Jeff'' is commonly regarded as the first daily c ...
art too after 1950, freeing Dodd to specialize in the scripting. Tom Hill's son, Jack Hill, recalled life at Dodd's studio in the Lost Forest outside Atlanta: :The art studio where Tom Hill (my father), Jack Elrod and Barbara Chen worked was on the second floor, where they had a great view of the Forest. There was also a homesteader, groundskeeper Hubert Hamrick and his family, who lived at Lost Forest and maintained the ranch and animals. Besides native wildlife which abounded on the Forest, there was riding stables, guinea fowl, caged pigeons, a 10-acre fishing lake and of course, Andy, the great Saint Bernard who appeared as Mark’s companion in the comic strip. I would visit Andy every time I went to visit Ed Dodd or to go fishing at the Lost Forest lake. Andy never had the freedom of his fictional counterpart and was kept in a running pen bounded by chain links. Ed’s other dog, Mose, was usually found at his master’s feet as Ed smoked his afternoon pipe. Famous people would visit Lost Forest, such as
Marlin Perkins Richard Marlin Perkins (March 28, 1905 – June 14, 1986) was an American zoology, zoologist. He was best known as a host of the television program ''Wild Kingdom, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom'' from 1963 to 1985. Life and career Perkin ...
, sharpshooters, big game hunters and newspaper/magazine journalists. Ed Dodd was a personal friend of Daniel Beard, one of the founders of the Boy Scouts in 1910 and a fellow naturalist and illustrator. They both attended the Art Students League in New York City. Dodd retired in 1978, shortly after Hill died. Elrod then continued the strip, adding new characters and taking over the Sunday edition. Based on the complaint of a reader in 1983, Elrod had Mark Trail abandon the trademark pipe that had been part of him from the beginning under likewise pipe-smoking Dodd; and in 1993, Mark and Cherry finally married. In 2010, after years of tutoring, Jack Elrod brought on the assistance of artist James Allen. Allen initially began assisting on the weekly Sunday page, continuing the themes of wildlife education and natural history and also alerting readers to endangered species and notifications of newly discovered species as well. Starting with the strip dated April 11, 2014, Elrod retired as the strip's primary artist, and Allen formally took over the position, though Elrod-drawn Sunday strips continued to appear for two months. Elrod died on February 3, 2016, at the age of 91. By mutual consent with the syndicate, Allen abruptly left the position as Mark Trail's artist and writer in 2020. The feature was right in the middle of a story arc, which was left unresolved. Beginning July 27, 2020, ''Mark Trail'' began rerunning daily strips from the Jack Elrod era. New Allen-penned Sunday strips continued through August 16, 2020, after which point Jack Elrod-era Sunday pages were rerun. After several months of reruns, Jules Rivera, creator of the webcomic ''Love, Joolz,'' took over the strip. Rivera's run began on October 12, 2020. Although Rivera said, "I want to respect the legacy," she also said, "There are going to be jolts galore." Characters have been thoroughly redesigned, and the Sunday strip title no longer has the same lettering from week to week. Instead, titles are designed in tune with the topic. In one strip about butterflies, the "MARK TRAIL" title was almost hidden in the vein pattern of a butterfly's wings.


Reception

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, "Elrod's comics typically present information promoting public awareness of imperiled species." A notable exception is the strip that ran on March 11, 2007, which depicted the African Elephant not as imperiled, but as a peril itself. Letters appeared in numerous papers taking issue with the strip's contention that, "The two main killers in East Africa are
HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
/ AIDS and wild animals, particularly elephants." Several papers ran letters to the editor objecting to this assertion. Jack Hill has criticized the strip for declining in quality since 1978. According to Hill, the earlier versions of the strip featured well-written plot and character development and a detailed art style, whereas later versions were marked by a loss of accuracy and detail and "a free-floating approach to perspective." In addition, time froze: scenes and plots have been recycled from the past. According to King Features, Mark now stays "forever 32". Ironically, these changes, along with the uneven art work and misplaced speech balloons (often pointed at foregrounded animals), attracted a new following among fans called "Trailheads". In some cases, daily strips have recycled art and slightly updated plots from 20- or 30-year-old strips. Updating includes deleting pipes and ashtrays, and rearranging panels. Close-ups of recycled animal art are added to cover extraneous word balloons or to create a new panel to add new dialogue. Soon after being brought in to assist on the Sunday strip in 2010, James Allen also started assisting on the daily stories as well. Some readers and fan sites noted a realistic change in the characters' anatomy and the sense of perspective in both longshots and landscapes.


Radio

On January 30, 1950,
Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...
launched a radio adaptation, ''Mark Trail'', featuring
Matt Crowley Matt Crowley (June 20, 1905 – March 7, 1983) was an American film, television and radio actor. Life and career Matt Crowley was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a student of George Pierce Baker at Yale University. As an actor, Crowl ...
in the title role. The 30-minute episodes aired three times weekly, and 174 episodes were produced, running until June 8, 1951. A second radio series, starring
Staats Cotsworth Staats Cotsworth (February 17, 1908 – April 9, 1979) was an actor in old-time radio.DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 64. He is ...
, was broadcast on
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
beginning September 18, 1950, with 51 half-hour shows that ran thrice weekly until January, 1952. The series then switched to a 15-minute format, producing 125 episodes that aired weekdays through June 27, 1952. Only a handful of the 15-minute episodes are known to have survived. The Minneapolis-St. Paul, public radio station
KFAI KFAI (90.3 FM Minneapolis) is a community radio station in Minnesota. The station broadcasts a wide variety of music, and also airs programming catering to many of the diverse ethnic groups of the region. KFAI has frequently been honored by lo ...
hosted ''Mark Trail Radio Theatre'' starting in 1991. Produced by Babs Economon, its 17 adventures aired in 228 weekly installments on Friday evenings through September 2002. In 1997, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
(NOAA) began using Mark Trail as its official mascot, making him the voice of the National Weather Service and
NOAA Weather Radio NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States (U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Servi ...
. A television pilot for a "Mark Trail" series was filmed in Australia and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
in 1969, starring Todd Armstrong as Trail, and Robert Dunlap as Scotty. Produced by Bob Stabler, the pilot also featured
Michael Pate Michael Pate OAM (born Edward John Pate; 26 February 1920 – 1 September 2008) was an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer, who also worked in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. Biography Early life Pate was born in Drum ...
, Gordon McDougall, and Susan Lloyd.


Books and magazines

Between 1955 and 1959, ''Mark Trails adventures were reprinted in comic books by
Fawcett Publications Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford Fawcett, Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett (1885–1940). It kicked off with the publication of the bawdy humor magazine ''Captai ...
and then Standard/Nedor/Pines. The strip spawned numerous books and
coloring book A coloring book (British English: colouring-in book, colouring book, or colouring page) is a type of book containing line art to which people are intended to add color using crayons, colored pencils, marker pens, paint or other artistic media ...
s, including: *''Mark Trail's Book of Animals (North American Mammals)'' by Ed Dodd (1955) *''Mark Trail's 2nd Book of Animals: (North American Mammals)'' by Ed Dodd (1959) *''Mark Trail's Hunting Tips'' by Ed Dodd (1969) *''Mark Trail's Cooking Tips'' by Ed Dodd (1971) *''Mark Trail's Camping Tips'' by Ed Dodd (1971) *''Mark Trail in the Smokies!: A Naturalist's Look at Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Southern Appalachians'' by Ed Dodd (1989) For the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
, Elrod wrote and illustrated coloring books which have been distributed to students throughout the U.S. They include: ''Wetlands Coloring Book'', ''Take Pride in America with Mark Trail: A Coloring Book'', and ''Mark Trail Tells the Story of a Fish in Trouble''. The 1950s magazine, ''Mark Trail: The Magazine of Adventure for Boys'', merged with ''The American Boy'' and '' The Open Road for Boys''. The magazine was aimed at boys in the 9-17 age group to guide them in natural history and conservation.


Awards

''Mark Trail'' has won more than 30 conservation awards from private organizations and government agencies, including the American Waterfowl and Wetland Association, the Georgia Wildlife Association, the National Forest Association, the National Wildlife Federation, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. An annual Mark Trail Award is presented to individuals, organizations or corporations that assist in expanding the radio network, or recognizing courageous effort in saving lives during weather or civil emergencies. Mark Trail has also appeared in a number of publications by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
in efforts to educate children concerning conservation and environmentalism. In 1991, Congress allocated 16,400 acres (67 km2) of former logged forest along the
Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian ...
in Georgia to be designated the Mark Trail Wilderness. As of 2006, Mark Trail remains the only comic strip character to be recognized in such a manner, although an official association between Walt Kelly's '' Pogo'' and the
Okefenokee Swamp The Okefenokee Swamp is a shallow, 438,000-acre (177,000 ha), peat-filled wetland straddling the Georgia–Florida line in the United States. A majority of the swamp is protected by the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and the Okefenokee ...
was established in 1987, with an Annual Pogo Fest, followed by ''Pogo'' and the U.S. Postal Service's 1989 inauguration of a National Wetlands postcard dedicated to the Okefenokee Swamp.


See also

*
Smokey Bear Smokey Bear is an American campaign and advertising icon of the U.S. Forest Service. In the Wildfire Prevention Campaign, which is the longest-running public service announcement campaign in United States history, the Ad Council, the United St ...
* Woodsy Owl *
Johnny Horizon Johnny Horizon was a mascot used by the Bureau of Land Management in the United States in the 1970s primarily for its anti-litter campaign. First used in 1968, and resembling a cigaretteless Marlboro Man, Johnny Horizon reached his greatest use ...


References


Sources


King Features Syndicate.


*Gunn, Jerry. 2007
Mark Trail, alive and well and now 60
AccessNoGeorgia.com, NE Georgia History Center.
''Mark Trail'' radio log by Dick Judge and Frank M. Passage


External links


New Georgia Encyclopedia: Ed Dodd
{{King Features Syndicate Comics 1946 comics debuts Adventure comics Trail, Mark American comic strips Comics adapted into radio series Trail, Mark Educational comics Trail, Mark Trail, Mark Trail, Mark