Mark Trail - Characters and Story

Characters and Story

Mark Trail, the main character, is a photojournalist and outdoor magazine writer whose assignments lead him into danger and adventure. His assignments inevitably lead him to discover environmental misdeeds, most often solved with a crushing right cross.

Trail lives in the fictional Lost Forest National Forest with his St. Bernard, Andy; veterinarian Doc Davis; Doc's daughter, and Trail's girlfriend and eventual wife, Cherry, and their adopted son, Rusty. "Mark reflects a reverence for God's creatures, nature, and the conservation of woods, water and wildlife" (Hill, 2003). His assignments in recent years have involved more sleuthing than wildlife photojournalism.

• Mark Trail - Wildlife photographer and writer for Woods and Wildlife Magazine. In his early 30s; honest and upright; his strongest imprecation is famously "What th'?!"
• Rusty - Introduced in 1999, Rusty is the son of an alcoholic and abusive father. Mark's intervention saved his life, and he was adopted by Trail in 2001.
• Andy - Mark's faithful Saint Bernard. Neutered 2000.
• Cherry Davis - Longtime (47 years) girlfriend of Mark until they married in 1993, living with Mark and her father (Doc) at Lost Forest; usually a support character, although she has sometimes (e.g., 1998) had her own wildlife adventures.
• "Doc" Davis (Tom Davis) - Veterinarian; Cherry's elderly father.
• Johnny Malotte – A presumably French-Canadian outdoorsman friend of Mark's since the 1950s, living with his family in the Quetico area of western Ontario, and recently reintroduced into the strip.
• Kelly Welly – Pretty wildlife photographer whose flirtations with Mark, and competitiveness with him, land both of them in trouble; a semiregular character.
• Bill Ellis – Mark and Kelly's editor at Woods and Wildlife Magazine, appearing intermittently when sending Mark on another assignment.
• Ranger Rick Rogers - Wildlife ranger (2006), one of Mark's ubiquitous friends and contacts around the country who tend to appear in single adventures (possibly named for the National Wildlife Federation's mascot Ranger Rick)