James Allen‘s last Mark Trail daily comic strip was Saturday, July 25, 2020:
Monday, July 27, 2020 began a different story, as a years old Jack Elrod story began running.
This reminds me of when Mandrake the Magician stopped mid-story in 2013 when Fred Fredericks abruptly retired due to ill health. And like Mandrake, which went into Fred Frederick reruns, Mark Trail has gone with James Allen reruns, of a sort, since Allen had been assisting Elrod since 2007.
The Mark Trail Sunday comic strips will continue to be by James Allen until his August 16, 2020 tutorial. After that Mark Trail Sundays will also revert to Jack Elrod reruns beginning August 23, 2020.
Unknown if this will be a temporary fix like The Amazing Spider-Man comic strip, that will supposedly be returning to “new adventures in the very near future,” as they told as on March 18, 2019. Or if this will be a permanent situation like the present Flash Gordon.
Speaking of rerun mode: Has anyone noticed that for the past 3 weeks Chip Samson’s Born Loser comic strip has been in daily reruns? Maybe Chip Samson is taking time off the strip if he got positive for COVID-19/Coronavirus.
Lame on the part KFS. Are they giving the papers discounts? Or is Jack Elrod’s heirs getting compensation? SMH
I hope in a Mark Trail relaunch with a new creative team.
Chris – That he was not allowed to finish the current story certainly lends credence to the theory that James Allen was terminated because of crude remarks made on social media under his Mark Trail handle.
If Mark Trail gets a new artist, he better not be a STEENZ or JONATHAN LEMON.
Without a doubt, D.D. And that KFS had no backup plan. At least when Eduardo Barreto on Judge Parker fell ill, they could go to another artist, albeit it wasnt well received, until they got Mike Manley to take over. It will be telling if they find a suitable replacement soon and/or run reruns like Spider-Man, which as I said is lame, for the reader and the client. At some point I suppose it’s a business decision as to when to sunset these strips, like they have done with others, or bring in a new creative team. They say Trail is in 175 papers, whether u believe that is truthful or not, it would mean it is still viable, profitable, I would assume something they want to continue. But, like Spider-Man, get one with it and hire someone.
I thought it was quite rude of Comics Kingdom to just switch stories with no explanation at all. For the casual reader, the abrupt change was disconcerting at best.