Ed Dodd and Mark Trail

Mark Trail is probably the longest-surviving strip of its kind, and maybe the only one of its kind. Part adventure strip, part mystery, part Animal Planet and with plots so simple they make the Hardy Boys seem like James Ellroy. Here’s an easy way to solve any current Mark Trail mystery: The guys with the weird facial hair that travel by small plane are guilty, especially if they’re brothers or cousins.

Still, I’m fascinated that it’s survived long enough to be a legacy strip, carried on by another generation of cartoonists, Jack Elrod. One of my favorite websites, the Comics Curmudgeon regularly pokes Mark Trail and snuffs out his campfire of adventure.

Continuing my series on cartooning and cartoonists, Ed Dodd (or someone credited as such) wrote about himself and his work back in 1964. This is pulled from an oversized saddle-stitched magazine from Allied Publications with the creatively-challenged title These Top Cartoonists Tell How They Create America’s Favorite Comics. It featured an introduction by Beetle Bailey’s Mort Walker and was compiled by Allen Willette.

Here’s Dodd on Dodd:

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