Posted on 01/27/2018 5:37:28 PM PST by markomalley
Comic strip artist Mort Walker, a World War II veteran who satirized the Army and tickled millions of newspaper readers with the antics of the lazy private "Beetle Bailey," died Saturday. He was 94.
Walker died at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, said Greg Walker, his eldest son and a collaborator. His father's advanced age was the cause of death, he said.
Walker began publishing cartoons at age 11 and was involved with more than a half-dozen comic strips in his career, including "Hi and Lois," ''Boner's Ark" and "Sam & Silo." But he found his greatest success drawing slacker Beetle, his hot-tempered sergeant and the rest of the gang at fictional Camp Swampy for nearly 70 years.
The character that was to become Beetle Bailey made his debut as Spider in Walker's cartoons published by the Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. Walker changed Spider's name and launched "Beetle Bailey" as a college humor strip in 1950.
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I started reading Beatle Bailey in the old Washington Star back in the 50’s. LOL
He had a good run, saddened to see him go.
Boy, isn't that the truth.
My Mother once mentioned to me that her favorite comic strip when she was a girl was “The Katzenjammer Kids”. She was born in 1918 just South of the Alabama line.
Grandpa Mac subscribed to the Montgomery Advertiser.
RIP, Mort. Thank you for your patriotism and humor. May God keep you and comfort your family.
God rest his soul. I’ve been enjoying his comics since I was a wee lass! :-)
Those Sunday morning comics were how I started to learn to read. I would bring the paper in from the front porch and take it to my parents bedroom and sit between them in bed and they would read me the comics before breakfast.
RIP
I heard Walker would draw Miss Buxley in tie-off and half-shirts so he could reveal her belly button. . .only to have “censors” razor blade them off.
A common thread was General Halftrack getting caught eyeing Miss Buxley, by his wife.
I lived near Ft. Stewart for a couple of years.
Everyone called it “Camp Swampy”.
How about Snuffy Smith?
There was another one about an (unmarried) farmer and his sister but I’ll be damned if I can remember what it was.
It was Roscoe Sweeney. That strip was a take off from Buzz Sawyer. Roscoe had been Buzz’s rear gunner on a dive bomber in WWII.
All these old comic strip references are bringing back memories.
One of my favorite’s was “Our Bording House” with Major Hoople.
I guess boarding houses are nearly a thing of the past too.
Read Beetle Bailey regularly when I was between 5 and 10 years old, very funny.
Be great if there was a modern cartoonist that could use Walker as an inspiration to keep this humor going.
I read them in the 70's and 80's and then newspapers shrunk physically and intellectually. Ronald Reagan shaped who I am as a Conservative. Clinton made my blood boil and here we are today. We are not immortal and we need to keep the torch on fire.
“Thin Garbage”
Strongly agree with your post.
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