Beetle Bailey
American comic strip From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American comic strip From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beetle Bailey is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Mort Walker, published since September 4, 1950.[2] It is set on a fictional United States Army post. In the years just before Walker's death in 2018 (at age 94), it was among the oldest comic strips still being produced by its original creator.[1] Over the years, Mort Walker had been assisted by (among others) Jerry Dumas, Bob Gustafson, Frank Johnson and Walker's sons, Neal, Brian and Greg Walker, who are continuing the strip after his death.
| Beetle Bailey | |
|---|---|
| |
| Author(s) | Mort Walker (1950–2018) Neal, Brian & Greg Walker (1982–present)[1] |
| Illustrator(s) | Mort Walker (1950–2018) |
| Current status/schedule | Running daily and Sunday |
| Launch date | September 4, 1950 |
| Syndicate(s) | King Features Syndicate |
| Genre(s) | Humor, Gag-a-day |
Beetle was originally a college student at Rockview University, as of September 4, 1950. Although he was as lazy in college as he would be in the service, he did have a broken down jalopy and was the star of the track team (apparently on a scholarship).[3] He had four friends: Bitter Bill; Diamond Jim; Freshman and Sweatsock.[4] He also smoked a pipe.[5] The characters in that early strip were modeled after Walker's Kappa Sigma fraternity brothers at the University of Missouri. On March 13, 1951, during the strip's first year, Beetle quit school and enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he has remained ever since. His reason for enlisting was because he was running away after being nearly trapped by both his angry jealous first girlfriend "Buzz" and a second girl who was chasing him.[6]
Most of the humor in Beetle Bailey revolves around the inept characters stationed at Camp Swampy (inspired by Camp Crowder, where Walker had once been stationed while in the Army), which is located near the town of Hurleyburg[7] at "Parris Island, S.C." (a real-life Marine Corps base).[8] Private Bailey is a lazy sort who usually naps and avoids work, and thus is often the subject of verbal and physical chastising from his senior NCO, Sergeant Snorkel. The characters never seem to see combat themselves, with the exception of mock battles and combat drills. In fact, they seem to be in their own version of stereotypical comic strip purgatory (initially basic training, they now appear to be stuck in time in a regular infantry division).
The uniforms of Beetle Bailey are still the uniforms of the late 1940s to early 1970s Army, with green fatigues and patrol caps as the basic uniform, and the open jeep as the basic military vehicle. Sergeant First Class Snorkel wears a green dress uniform with a heavily wrinkled garrison cap; the officers wear M1 helmet liners painted with their insignia. Despite this anachronism, modern weapons and equipment do make rare appearances. While Beetle Bailey's unit is Company A, one running gag is that the characters are variously seen performing activities associated with different types of units in the Army, such as artillery, armor, infantry and paratroops. Occasionally dream sequences have appeared where the characters see themselves as seasoned combat veterans, such as Sarge having a dream he was General "Storming Snorkel" briefing on Operation Desert Shield, or Beetle imagining himself leaving the Army and returning to school on the G.I. Bill, where female students all know him as "Bombshell Bailey, the famous war hero".
Beetle is always seen with a hat or helmet which covers his forehead and eyes. Even on leave, his "civvies" include a pork pie hat worn in the same style. He can be seen without it only once—in the original strip, when he was still a college student. The strip was pulled and never ran in any newspaper. It has been printed only in various books on the strip's history.[9] One daily strip had Sarge scare Beetle's hat off, but Beetle was wearing sunglasses.[10] In a 3/27/1966 dream sequence by Sgt. Snorkel (a parody of the 1960s Batman, with Sgt. Snorkel as "Fatman" and Beetle as "Slobber"), the heroes try to stop the infamous "Pizza Pete"; Beetle/Slobber wears a mask but his eyes can be seen[11] The only acknowledged picture of Beetle Bailey's eyes (two black dots on a piece of paper held by Beetle and Snorkel) was published in 2000.[12] In his 1975 memoir Backstage at the Strips, Walker addressed the question of Beetle's eyes, saying:
I constantly get inquiries as to the color of Beetle's eyes. As if I knew. Black as ink, I suppose, if he has any. Maybe there's nothing under the hat. Why should there be? There is nothing until I draw it, and I've never drawn his eyes. Why, then, should he have any?[13]
One running gag has Sergeant Snorkel hanging helplessly from a small tree branch after having fallen off a cliff, with the first instance running on August 16, 1956. While he is never shown falling off, or even walking close to the edge of a cliff, he always seems to hold on to that same branch, yelling for help.
During the first two years of Beetle Bailey's run (1950–1952), Walker did all work on the strip himself, including writing, penciling, inking and lettering; however, in 1952 he hired cartoonist Fred Rhoads as his first assistant.[14] After that, numerous people would assist Walker on the strip through the years.
As of 2016, the strip was being syndicated (by King Features) in 1,800 papers in the United States and the rest of the world.[15]
In Sweden, the strip received a dedicated magazine in 1970, with a Norwegian version being added the following year, which is published to this day as of 2020.[16] Denmark also has dedicated (albeit not exclusive) magazine,[17] named "Basserne", first published in 1973.
The early strip was set at Rockview University. When Beetle joined the army, all of the other characters were dropped (although both incarnations of the strip include a bespectacled intellectual named Plato). Four characters from the original cast (Bitter Bill, Diamond Jim, Freshman, and Sweatsock) made at least one appearance, in the January 5, 1963 strip.[61][62]
Beetle's family, etc.:
Camp Swampy:
Numerous one-shot characters have appeared over the years, mostly unnamed, including an inspector general who looks like Alfred E. Neuman,[66] and various officers and civilians. Among the few to be given names is Julian, a nondescript chauffeur eventually replaced by Julius.[67]
For the most part, Walker's relationship with the real-life US Army has been cordial. But not always. During the early 1950s, the strip was dropped from the Tokyo edition of Stars and Stripes because it allegedly encouraged disrespect for officers. The civilian press made a huge joke of that, and the ensuing publicity gave the young strip its first big boost in circulation.
In 1962, the comic strip was censored because it showed a belly button, and in 2006, the description of Rocky's criminal past was replaced with a non-criminal past.
Sometimes Mort Walker created strips with raunchy subject matter for his own amusement. This was done at the sketch stage, and those strips were never meant to be published in the U.S. They "end[ed] up in a black box in the bottom drawer", according to Walker. These sketches were sometimes published in Scandinavia, however, with a translation underneath. In Norway, they appeared in the Norwegian Beetle Bailey comic book, Billy, with the cover of the comic marked to show it contained censored strips. To offset any possible negative reaction, the publisher experimented with "scrambling" the strips in the mid-1990s. To see them, the reader had to view them through a "de-scrambling" plastic card. This was discontinued soon afterward, and the strips later were printed without scrambling. In Sweden, some of these strips were collected in the Alfapocket series.[69]
A television series based on the strip, consisting of 50 six-minute animated cartoon shorts produced by King Features Syndicate, was animated by Paramount Cartoon Studios in the U.S. and Artransa Film Studios in Sydney, Australia. The series was first broadcast in 1963 as part of The King Features Trilogy.[70] 50 episodes were produced.[71]
The opening credits included the sound of a bugle reveille, followed by a theme song specifically composed for the cartoon. In the closing credits Geoff Pike was listed as Director.
Beetle was voiced by comic actor and director Howard Morris with Allan Melvin as the voice of Sarge. Other King Features properties, such as Snuffy Smith and Krazy Kat, also appeared in the syndicated series, under the collective title Beetle Bailey and His Friends. June Foray did the voice of Bunny, plus all of the female characters involved.
Beetle and Sgt. Snorkel were featured prominently in the animated television film Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter, which debuted on October 7, 1972, as an episode of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. In the beginning of the show, General Halftrack, and Lt. Flap also appeared in the Chinese Restaurant scene.
A 30-minute animated TV special co-written by Mort Walker and Hank Saroyan was produced for CBS in 1989, but did not air due to management changes at the CBS network.[72] It has been released on DVD alongside the 1960s cartoons. Greg Whalen played Beetle, Bob Bergen portrayed Killer, Henry Corden was Sgt. Snorkel, Frank Welker was both Zero and Otto, Linda Gary voiced both Miss Buxley and Ms. Blips and General Halftrack was Larry Storch. This special was one of a number of specials made in the same timeframe by King Features/Hearst for TV as potential series pilots; others included Blondie & Dagwood (co-produced with Marvel Productions, who had also collaborated with King Features for the Defenders of the Earth series a few years before) and Hägar the Horrible (co-produced with Hanna-Barbera Productions).
In 1988, a musical based on the comic strip premiered at Candlewood Playhouse in New Fairfield, Connecticut for a limited run. Music and lyrics were by Neil and Gretchen Gould. In addition to the familiar characters from the strip, the plot introduced a wayward computer that promoted Bailey to three-star general.[73]
(All titles by Mort Walker. Published by Ace Tempo/Grosset & Dunlap, unless otherwise noted. Year of publication is often based on King Features Syndicate copyright dates for lack of a book date. Book numbers for mass-market paperbacks (from the cover of the earliest available copy) are given before year of publication, for chronological purposes.
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
