Comic strips

Mark Trail Defender Turns Tail

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D. D. Degg August 23, 2018 1 minute 3 comments

Allentown Morning Call columnist Bill White has long been a champion for the Mark Trail comic strip.

If you had access to our archives, you would find that I’ve been defending Mark for 25 years.

And he had high expectations when James Allen took over as cartoonist when Jack Elrod retired.

If anything, my investment in the strip increased when Elrod retired and was replaced by protegee James Allen. I’ve spoken to Allen several times about his ideas for improving and modernizing Mark Trail, including scarier animals, more action and a greater focus on the relationship between a more buff Mark and a much sexier Cherry, who suddenly was shown lounging around in bikinis.

But as time went by, I became increasingly alarmed by its … weirdness.

…there were circus animals loose in Lost Forest as a result of a train derailment, which seemed really stupid until this gave way to the local sheriff’s even stupider tale about the clowns on the train. They were left wandering the countryside, in full makeup and costume, emerging from a cemetery to terrorize children at a bonfire.

Bill finds it harder than ever to defend Mark Trail against its detractors.

But Ralph Graves enjoyed the insane clown posse digression.