American comic strip character. Created in 1946 by
Ed Dodd and currently drawn by
Jack Elrod, the strip currently appears in 175
newspapers. The main character,
Mark Trail, is an
clean-cut, sparkly
outdoorsman who has various
adventures against
evil, often-
unshaven villains who shout
bad dialogue and commit a host of
crimes, often
environmental ones.
Nominally better than his daily strips, the
Sunday Mark Trail comics tend to
spotlight interesting facts about
animals,
plants, and
nature in general. It often
instructs readers about how to properly care for
natural resources and stresses the importance of the preserving the
environment for
future generations.
Elrod has also produced
educational material for the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Mark Trail is the official
spokesman--uhh,
spokescartooncharacter--for the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Though I like and
respect the comic strip's
attitude toward nature and environmental concerns, I must stand by my long-standing opinion that "Mark Trail" is a
god-awful comic strip. But at least it's aged better than crap like "
Mary Worth" and "
Judge Parker"...
Research from
http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/mtrail/about.htm