Bob Schwartz

Today is Earth Day.

Looking for comic book illustration for today, I found two options.

Everyone knows, or used to know, Smokey Bear.

Smokey Bear was created in 1944, in the face of wildfire threats during World War II. He was depicted pouring water on a campfire. The slogan “Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires” was introduced in 1947. Popular ever since as a conservation influencer, kids could at one time become Smokey Bear Junior Forest Rangers, receiving a membership kit that typically included a membership card, a Smokey Bear badge and a certificate. For city kids who lived far from any forest, this was exciting.

If you want to take a selfie with Smokey Bear, National Park Service bookstores sometimes display full size models.

If you are wondering why the theme song (below) is “Smokey THE Bear”, which is what he is often called now, it was to add an extra syllable for a musical beat. But “Smokey Bear” is his legal name.

Speaking of city kids learning about conservation, there is Mark Trail.

Mark Trail is a comic strip created in 1946 by Ed Dodd, an outdoorsman with a passion for nature and wildlife conservation. Mark Trail is a writer and photographer working for Woods and Wildlife magazine. The strip focused on environmental and wildlife conservation, with stories about poaching, habitat destruction, endangered species, and other ecological concerns woven into the plots. Mark Trail was known for punching out villains who were harming the environment. Reading the Sunday color comics, long before Earth Day, gave those same city kids their first introduction to conservation, just like Smokey did. The strip continues to run to this day.

Happy Earth Day from Smokey Bear, Mark Trail and me!