Mark Trail is a newspaper comic strip created by the American cartoonist Ed Dodd. Introduced April 15, 1946, the strip centers on environmental and ecological themes. As of 2020, King Features syndicated the strip to "nearly 150 newspapers and digital outlets worldwide."
When Mark Trail began, it was syndicated through the New York Post in 1946 to 45 newspapers. Dodd, working as a national parks 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, Elliott would go on to edit Outdoor Life 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.
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)
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. 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.