'Beetle Bailey' cartoonist Mort Walker dies at 94

AP ^ | 1/27/18 | Lynn Elber

[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.

[GOPJ]

Prayers for his family and loved ones... great comic ...

[xp38]

Lois was the sister of Beetle Bailey. They crossed over into each other’s strip on rare occasions.

[Intolerant in NJ]

That should have been an exciting discussion - Capp was a strong conservative and outspoken supporter of the Vietnam war, making many appearances on TV talkshows and taking a lot of heat for speaking up about an unpopular issue - at least for a lot of TV types - the left finally brought him down with allegations of sexual harassment and outright assault as I recall - deja vu all over again.....

[Billthedrill]

RIP. At its best military humor is universal humor. Walker got it.

[roadcat]

There are no Sunday comics anymore?! :o

I really don't know. Last time I looked, it was down to one page, with tiny strips. Haven't bought a newspaper in years. My fascination with newspaper reading stopped when Beetle Bailey was replaced by Doonesbury, I saw the leftist turn in reporting was impacting the comics and stopped buying newspapers.

[boop]

IIRC, Al Capp was a conservative who made fun of every liberal trope.

I think he was the one who coined the term "Joanie Phony" about Joan Baez.

Baez tried to sue him, but lost.

He also poked fun at John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "bed-in" for peace.

Which irritated Lennon to no end.

I wager that Capp was probably a democrat, old school.

Any overtly conservative cartoonist would likely be black-balled today.

[boop]

Another fun fact: Originally Beetle Bailey was Lois' brother (from Hi and Lois).

He was lazy and shiftless.

He was a peripheral character, but Mort Walker gave him a strip, and the rest is history.

[Southern Magnolia]

Al Capp is generally credited as almost single-handedly breaking up a meeting to unionize comic creators by ridiculing and shooting holes in their reasoning.

[nutmeg]

Aww... I was always a big fan of Beetle Bailey.

Rest in Peace, Mort.

[nutmeg]

His kids have subtly inserted liberal politics into Hi and Lois. I don’t remember that from Mort.

Wow, really? That's really sad to hear. I don't read comics regularly like I did decades ago. We unsubscribed from our uber-liberal newspaper about 15 years ago.

As others have said on this thread: Liberals ruin EVERYTHING.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I loved when Beetle would be in a pile of twisted arms and legs after the Sarge would kick his ass! Hilarious!

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I’ve got a scrap book of Sad Sack cartoons that my father-in-law cut out of the Stars and Stripes magazine back in WWII.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Who can forget “Icky”, a too thin version of Twiggy who Mammy Yokum ruined by fattening her up to normal looks with good home cooking.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I quit reading comics when Calvin and Hobbes ceased printing.

[Kommodor]

RIP Mort, you gave us some good laughs.

Can’t say as Beetle was my favorite, but it always got read, nonetheless.

[Rastus]

I will allow it could be over-sensitivity on my part, but I believe they had a strip showing support for Obamacare, and just recently, Hi was saying, “Let’s hope 2018 isn’t as awful as 2017 was!” with a “Chaos in Washington” paper in his hand. Now, perhaps you could read that any number of ways, but all of the liberal strips also had characters whining about how horrible 2017 was. I thought it was just fine myself!

[Dr. Sivana]

Pogo, L’il Abner

I meant conservative in terms of being resistant to breaking the continuity of the strip, not necessarily the political content. Al Capp changed over the years, and I never had any use for Walt Kelly, who I consider extremely over-rated.

Blondie, unfortunately, went way downhill when Chic Young passed away, and has lowered itself to self-reference. Dagwood is not supposed to explain or even acknowledge that he has a crazy hair cut or has one big button in his shirt.

Now, there IS an organic exception. Every so often, a new character will take over a comic strip. Three examples come to mind,

1. "Nancy" took over Fritzi Ritz, which had been about a beautiful young woman and her life and romances, ultimately being reduced to an occasional foil in later Bushmiller years, before being somewhat revived (though at the expense of the minimalist Bushmiller art).

2. "Thimble Theatre" had chugged along for years without Popeye, but once the sailor man entered the strip, he pretty much took over.

3. "Barney Google" was mainly about a not-too-with-it bloke who liked to bet and was heavily invested in a nag named "Sparkplug". He was a big deal, inspiring a hit record, and numerous novelty items. Now, it's even hard to Google him! The strip retains his name, but it is 99% hillbilly Snuffy Smith.

[Deplorable American1776]

Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois along with Peanuts and Gil Thrope were my required reading when I was younger...

[Maine Mariner]

WOW! That I did not know. Thank you for letting me know.

[Deplorable American1776]

Beetle Bailey is Lois’s brother. I saw a crossover when Better was visiting Hi and Lois..and the kids said when will uncle beetle get here...