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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One of the joys of “Beetle Bailey” was that everyone who had been in the Army could always “identify” who, what, and where each strip was about ;-)
That’s a shame. The only reason I ever picked up a newspaper as a kid was to read that, Family Circus, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, and a few others.
In 1966 our college had an American Arts Festival. They invited and paid a good price to have performers entertain but the main event was three intellectuals were seated on a flat bed truck in a pleasant park.
One was Al Capp and the other two skip my mind right now. Anyway, Al Capp was about ten times smarter than the others and also more entertaining. Actually I think another one was Walt Kelley. Can’t recall the third.
Also a great balladeer Art Schreader. Also Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys.
There are no Sunday comics anymore?! :o
Miss Buxley informs him, "I'm sorry, the general is out."
He replies, "I don't believe he's really out."
General Halftrack sticks his head out of his office and shouts, "I'm really out!"
Lt. Fuzz leaves saying, "I wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't said so himself."
Every now and then I’ll see a comic that echos something from my life and I’ll cut it out. I’ve got several of his.
RIP Mort. Thank you for your service!
Pogo, L’il Abner
GoComics.com has hundreds of comics daily for free, but not "Beetle Bailey." It has some political cartoons also (mostly liberal but including Ramirez and maybe half a dozen other conservative cartoonists).
“Nancy” has always caused me a great deal of trepidation.
Sluggo never helped matters.
Nice memories!
Hi and Lois was a joint effort of Mort Walker, (Beetle Baily) and Dik Browne (Hagar the Horrible). They started the comic in 1954. I read once they did everything on a handshake and never had a written contract between themselves.
.
I am sure they had contracts with others.
When I was a kid, we called the Sunday comics ‘The Funnies’.
Reading them with my Daddy, while he read the ‘Important News’, is one of my treasured memories.
Loved that cartoon. Hi and Lois, too.
Thanks Mark. RIP Mort.
Cartoonists make some of the best political commentators. Mort was one of those best.
That is what we called them too.
***How about Snuffy Smith?***
Snuffy Smith? No one remembers a comic strip by that name!
OH, you mean BARNEY GOOGLE and Snuffy Smith!
Google rarely showed up in that strip. He was quite famous back in the 1920s.
Barney Google, with the goo-goo-goo-ga-ly eyes.
Barney Google bet his horse would win the prize.
When the horses ran that day, Spark Plug ran the other way.
Barney Google, with the goo-goo-goo-ga-ly eyes.
***L’il Abner***
One of my favorites! Remember the Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything (SWINE)? I still get a thrill thinking of when the Hippie front tooth attacked the Mafia Mob enforcer’s Brass Knuckles.
Beetle Bailey and The Sad Sack were among my favorite cartoons as a kid.
Taps for Mort Walker....
Absolutely. And remember Feel-O-Vision. I want that.
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