Line #30 ComicStrip/MarkTrail


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mt_5.png]]
2
3	''Mark Trail'' is one of the PrintLongRunners of newspaper comics, first introduced in 1946, initially written and drawn by Ed Dodd (Jack Elrod succeeded Dodd in 1978, and James Allen in turn took over from Elrod in 2014, followed by Jules Rivera in 2020). The comic focuses on Mark Trail, a photojournalist and outdoorsman for a magazine. His assignments always lead him into danger and misadventures in the Lost Forest National Forest. Joined by his friends and family there, most strips had him discovering some environmentally unfriendly evildoer that he would punch out, and then talk about the endangered animal of the week.
4
5	It has a lot of {{green aesop}}s. Also notable for [[{{Demonization}} demonizing]] the endangered elephant into something that ''is'' a danger to all in one strip.
6
7	----
8	!!Provides examples of:
9
10	* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: It frequently featured miscolored animals, such as ducks with green bodies and brown heads (instead of the other way around) and baby-blue chicks. Who often grow to the size of Buicks and talk out of their butts, but that's another issue.
11	* AuthorOnBoard: In Rivera's run, many of the Sunday strips are less "tell the readers about an exotic animal" and more "lecture the readers about environmental crises."
12	* BarbieDollAnatomy: For some reason, Jack Elrod never drew nipples on any of the strip's male characters.
13	* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: In one ludicrous strip, it was said that a man who abuses his wife was under stress from work, and it would be all fixed and he'd a good husband if he adopted a child. Um... [[NoJustNoReaction no]].
14	* BeardOfEvil: Played straight. [[http://www.hickorytech.net/~flapper/trail.html More explanation here.]]
15	* '''BoldInflation''': Often when something {{GASP}}-inducing happens.
16	* DistinguishedGentlemansPipe: Mark smoked a pipe up until the 1980s, when anti-smoking advocates made him quit. The pipe's gentlemanly qualities were the reason he smoked it in the first place, as it gave him an intellectual, Waldenesque air, making it that much more surprising and exciting when he dispensed woodland justice with his fists.
17	* GoodHairEvilHair: Beards are evil, long sideburns are evil, and {{bald\| of evil}} is ''sometimes'' evil.
18	* GreenAesop: The overarching themes usually equate to this.
19	* HappilyAdopted: Mark and Cherry made Rusty their son after they got married.
20	* HappilyMarried: Mark and Cherry finally tied the knot in the 1990s.
21	* HesitationEqualsDishonesty: Played terribly straight. Start your sentence with "Um," and you're a villain.
22	* HypercompetentSidekick: Andy, Mark's [[CanineCompanion Saint Bernard]]. Once untied a captured Mark with his teeth.
23	* IntrepidReporter: For ''Woods and Wildlife Magazine''. His bravery is unquestioned, but sometimes his journalistic tactics are a little suspect.
24	* MsFanservice: Cherry became much fonder of wearing swimsuits and revealing clothing during James Allen's run as artist.
25	* NatureLover: Mark loves the great outdoors.
26	* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Mark Trail used to be allowed to age, but is now caught in a time freeze so powerful that even he can't punch his way out of it. He even occasionally revisits old storylines, trapped in an eternal loop where everything is the same except where censored to match the values of the outside world. His adopted son Rusty is an example of the trope too, although he's sometimes drawn like a teenager.
27	%% * PietaPlagiarism: Happens a few times.
28	* {{Retool}}: Rivera took the strip in new directions on replacing Allen in 2020. Mark is now both more self-aware and self-consciously {{bumbling\| dad}}. ''Woods & Wildlife'' has been bought out, so he now freelances for a handful of click-seeking websites. There have been character design overhauls as well, such as Doc being drawn heavier with a Wrestling/HulkHogan mustache. It's fair to say the changes have been controversial with longtime readers.
29	* SpockSpeak: Contractions and informalities are apparently forbidden in Lost Forest.
30	* StandardFiftiesFather: Mark again.
31	* StockScream: Of the Wilhelm variety. Maybe not in the most technical sense, but [[http://comicskingdom.com/mark-trail/2018-03-06 the writing of the strip and the scream itself]] make it all but impossible not to hear it when you read it.
32	* TakeThat: One of the final storylines drawn by James Allen has Mark Trail joining a social media-obsessed explorer in a search for yeti, who later dies in an avalanche. Many fans pointed out that he looks [[https://joshreads.com/images/20/07/martin_mark.jpg suspiciously like a person]] that Allen was fighting with on Twitter at the time.
33	** After Jules Rivera took over, her first set of strips establishes that the current Mark is actually Mark Trail IV, with his ancestors representing each of the three previous artists who drew the strip. The James Allen version is Mark Trail III (aka Happy Trail), who is depicted as a polluting hypocrite who screwed the current Mark's childhood friend out of their farm land, likely a reference to James Allen being a climate change denier.
34	* TwoDecadesBehind: Possibly [[WebcomicTime literally]]; in one 2008 comic strip he tells the kid he's taking with him to leave his [[strike: mp3 player]] ''cassette boom-box'' at home.
35	* WorstNewsJudgementEver:
36	** In one story Mark Trail loses his beloved puppy. This apparently is so important that an enormous picture of the dog is put on the newspaper's A section, including a two-column story on it.

Context ComicStrip / MarkTrail