You want to know how I became Mr. Nature? Mark Trail color comics in the Sunday papers, that’s how! I never missed ’em.
During the week, the daily Mark Trail comic strip in black and white concerned itself with story lines. I can’t say I remember any of those. The real action was on Sunday, when the story was set aside and Mark Trail discoursed on spiders, lizards, birds, butterflies, rodents, and every other kind of animal you could think of. How else does a kid find out about the four-eyed fish, the archerfish, the chuckwalla (that’s a lizard, for us Eastern folks), ants “milking” aphids like miniature cows, and all sorts of other cool stuff? And the artwork was superb!
God’s creation is an inexhaustible source of inspiration, and it’ll last you all your life–as long as you don’t let other aspects of our benighted pop culture dry up your brain.
I sure miss those days.
Wow! I remember Mark Trail 🙂 Haven’t thought about that for years. Thanks, Lee!
I don’t remember this comic strip at all. We used to get the Philadelphia Sunday Inquirer, The Evening Bulletin, and The Philadelphia Daily News. What years did this comic strip run? It looks like something that would have appealed to me and perhaps I did read it but, sheesh, I think I would remember if I did.
It started in 1946 and it’s still in syndication today.
All of the newspaper I read as a kid was the Sports section and the comics. I guess my paper didn’t carry Mark Trail for I have no recollection of him. Too Bad Ed Dodd had such a short life – I’m sure he would be amazed at how widespread it has become.