Martin Wright

Martin "Marty" Wright, commonly known to his children as "Dad", is the absent-minded, albeit well-meaning, and overweight father of Nate Wright and Ellen Wright. He is known to be a non-skilled golfer, and uses Nate as his caddy, often requesting him to fish out his played golf-balls, and occasionally his club as well, from the course's ponds and frequently embarrassing them both in front of other people, who usually are hit by Marty's golf balls.

Early life
Marty Wright is son of Vern and Marge Wright. Little is known about his childhood, though in sixth grade, Marty Wright's P.S. 38 homeroom teacher was Ms. Brodie, and he had Nate's science teacher, Mr. Galvin. He attended P.S. 38 as an adolescent, and he was the inventor and first hero of the "Mud Bowl", despite being not being very good with schoolwork. He made friends with Simon and Gayle when they played at the "Mud Bowl" on the same team. He also had a girlfriend named Mindy Glickstein, who he dated about three times before breaking up. He attended Hoover High School.

Adulthood
At an unknown time and occasion, Marty married an unidentified woman, only for them to divorce at least twelve years after. However, this did not happen before the two gave birth to Ellen and Nate. Marty tried to be a good parent to his children, although one part of Nate really doesn't like him. On Halloween, he made a habit of handing out undesirable treats such as prunes and tofu, leading to his house becoming "egged" for his actions. Because of this, his house also has a target painted on it.

Golf
Golf is Marty's favorite sport, even though he isn't remarkably good at it. He always forces Nate to caddy him. Marty also gets very frustrated, even biting and bending his three-wood with his bare teeth. Marty did the same to his Iron 7. He also sometimes gets lost, even once ending up in a man's backyard in a separate town.

He aim isn't very good either, hitting golf balls into places like water hazards, forests, and parking lots. He is also known to hit the ball towards the wrong hole, at an elderly woman, or at other fellow golfers. At one point, he hit the head of a groom at a wedding. He hit another ball into a couple's backyard and the couple had no idea that there was a nearby golf course (probably because there wasn't one).

Once, Marty went golfing with Donald Eustis. While on the green, he missed a putt, where the ball was only a few inches away from the hole. It resulted with Marty bending his putter with his teeth.

Another time, Marty hit the ball to another fairway. Two other golfers asked him which tee he was at, and he replied the "13th". The other guys laughed and told Marty that the course had only nine-holes. Marty is not very accurate.

Dieting
Marty's weight always has been a problem for him, yet he never sticks to a diet with his constant craving for junk food, always stealing off of Nate's stash without permission when he can't get any himself. At one point, it took him a huge effort just to get his weight under 185 lbs.

Personality and traits
Ever since his divorce, Marty has become desperate for love. He always sticks to his ways despite his children's constant efforts to change him and how other people ridicule and reject him. Marty likes handing out healthy foods on Halloween because he doesn't want to contribute to the American obesity epidemic, yet he always keeps all the junk food to himself.

Nate knows that his dad buys several Pop-tarts from the vending machine at his work every day, has a huge secret stash of gummi-worms, and puts four sugars in his morning coffee.

Trivia

 * He was first seen on January 10, 1991.
 * Marty thought Nate and Gina are in a relationship with each other after catching them holding hands in Big Nate Strikes Again, much to their horror and dismay.
 * Nate often parodies him in his comics, where he is a superhero, along with his sidekick, Ellen Wright.
 * He is a terrible golf player.
 * Once, Marty helped Nate built his Pinewood Derby car. He accidentally drilled through the roof of the car, and casually asked "how about a sunroof?". Later on, he cut his finger and got blood all over the car. Nate thought the car looked very cool like that, and brought it to his next scout meeting and called it "Blood Sport".
 * He once handed out Rice Cakes for Halloween.
 * He was in P.S. 38 and was the hero of the first "Mud Bowl".
 * Whenever his children, Ellen and Nate, request him to buy a pet (a cat for Ellen and a dog for Nate) he always refuses.
 * One time, his dad found a cat under their porch and took her in until someone claimed the cat. That freaked Nate out!
 * He usually uses Top Flite 4 golf balls. This is probably since Top Flite 4 balls are sturdy and cheap and the fact that Marty keeps losing his balls to the rookiest of mistakes.
 * He once used Titleist golf balls, which is weird, since they are three times the price of Top Flite 4 and Marty is constantly losing his balls.
 * Marty also used Top Flite 3 balls once.
 * He went as Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps for Halloween one year.

He was the assistant coach for Nate's baseball team at one point, which for some reason always has some humiliating names from humiliating sponsors which surprisingly, isn't because of Marty himself.
 * He is heavier than Nate and Ellen combined together.
 * Two running gags starring Marty Wright appear in almost every year. One is Halloween, when Marty usually buys lame snacks as Halloween candy, leading his house to be egged. Nate says his dad is increasing the "vandalism epidemic."
 * The other gag is Thanksgiving, where Marty would set off the smoke alarm while trying to cook an inedible Thanksgiving dinner. According to Nate, every year's Thanksgiving dinner always sets off the smoke alarm.
 * He claims handing out healthy food is to stop child obesity and “being part of the solution, not the problem.” Despite this, he’s overweight himself and ends up attempting to steal Nate’s candy.
 * Mr. Galvin taught Marty when he was Grade 6, and when Nate asked him if Marty was a good student, Mr. Galvin thought for a while. Later on, when he went home, Nate tells his dad "I have news for you, and it isn't very good." This may be a clue to him being a bad student.
 * On 2015, Marty once ate the entire 15 pounds of candy that were meant to be given out to Halloween trick or treaters.
 * Marty and Gramps his father don't get along very well as seen in the book A Good Old-Fashioned Wedgie
 * He owned a large collection of baseball cards when he was younger, but threw them out. To his dismay, he found out they were worth $1.8 million on August 15, 1998
 * He once chaperoned on Nate's Timber Scouts camping trip, but ended up ruining the experience for everyone after being sprayed by a skunk because he scared it. According to Nate, everyone smelled of skunk for a whole day.