Beetle Bailey turns 50 -- And Sarge Plans Early Retirement?

Entertainment Editors

NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Aug. 30, 2000

Ultimate Irony: World's Laziest Private to Celebrate

Golden Anniversary On Labor Day - September 4, 2000

Private Beetle Bailey has always seen it as his duty to buck Top Sergeant Orville P. Snorkel at every turn. But has he slept through one too many roll calls? Disappeared on work detail once too often? Thwarted Sarge's spit-'n'-polish directives for the last time? Maybe so. As Mort Walker, the dean of American cartoonists, prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his classic Beetle Bailey comic strip on Sept. 4, 2000, Sarge Snorkel announces his plans for an early retirement from the army.

Can Beetle, Otto, Zero, General Halftrack, Miss Buxley and the rest of the troops at Camp Swampy survive without Sarge? Readers of more than 1,800 newspapers worldwide will just have to wait and see as the unthinkable scenario unfolds in a special comic strip series, which began earlier this week.

"Top non-coms like Sarge have always been considered the backbone of the army," said Walker. "As tough as he likes to sound when he's chewing out Beetle and the boys, Sarge really has a heart of gold. After 50 years, I thought it would be fun to see how Sarge fares if he doesn't have Beetle to kick around any more.

"Besides, as someone who's dedicated his life to humor, I can't help enjoying the irony that Beetle is celebrating his golden anniversary on Labor Day, particularly since he's never done an honest day's work in his life!" said Walker. "Without Sarge to keep him in line, he might well sleep through all the festivities!"

Beetle at 50: A Yearlong Celebration

Earlier in 2000, the Beetle Bailey cast of characters provided the inspiration for a brand-new line of Beetle Bailey 50th anniversary commemorative merchandise currently available in retail stores, including apparel, gift, novelty and stationery items, toy collectibles, limited-edition framed artwork, multi-state Beetle Bailey lotteries and a special Beetle Bailey 50th anniversary anthology organized by decade. Beetle Bailey and his friends also celebrate every day in Toon Lagoon at Universal Studios Orlando's Islands of Adventure theme park. Beetle, in a proud military salute, was then featured as a new 45-foot tall helium parade balloon that made its television debut in this year's Fourth of July Parade in Philadelphia. The Beetle balloon will also highlight the Thanksgiving parade this year on Nov. 19 in Stamford, Conn., where Walker makes his home.

Prestigious Awards at the Pentagon

A World War II veteran himself, Walker has volunteered his time and talent this past year to the effort to help the American Battle Monuments Commission build the National World War II Memorial. He created two special Beetle Bailey comic strips that ran in newspapers nationwide featuring Beetle and Sarge on the same side of an issue -- a rare occurrence, as any comic strip fan knows. Walker first fell in step with the World War II Memorial Campaign in September of 1999, working closely with CSM Ron Bedford and the Non-Commissioned Officers Association (NCOA) Honor Walk to raise money for the Memorial.

In May, Walker was honored by the United States Army at the Pentagon with The Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service, the highest award the Secretary of the Army can bestow on a civilian. The military brass didn't always appreciate Beetle Bailey and his messmates, which made Walker, as he noted in accepting the award, "persona non grata" around here (the Pentagon) for many, many years." But Walker's Army experience gave him the basic training for a lifetime of lampooning. "All of my characters are based on real people, both from my Army days and my everyday life," Walker said. "I'm thankful for their inspiration and the chance to draw from it all these years."

Walker was also lauded at the Pentagon ceremony by the Association of the United States Army, the National World War II Memorial Campaign and the Non Commissioned Officers Association for his efforts to help build awareness and raise funds for the National World War II Memorial. In addition, Walker was the guest of honor a Twilight Tattoo sunset parade hosted by the Office, Chief of Public Affairs and the Military District of Washington.

Beetle Bailey Retrospectives

The University of Missouri, Walker's alma mater, is mounting a Beetle Bailey 50th anniversary exhibition in the grand concourse of the Elmer Ellis Library from Sept. 1-30, 2000. The exhibition includes original daily and Sunday strips, copies of published reprints of the strips, and poster-size lithographs of selected strips. The retrospective also includes a section on Walker's days on campus, focused primarily on his editorship of a campus humor magazine that was regularly in trouble with the campus administration. And the exhibition looks back at a visit Walker paid to the campus in 1992 for the dedication of a life-sized Beetle Bailey statue, which resides in front of the University alumni center on a busy campus street.

On November 11, Veterans Day, 2000, a retrospective exhibit commemorating 50 years of Beetle Bailey will open at the International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca Raton, Fla. The exhibition there will feature original comic strips and character art, special interactive exhibits for children, animated Beetle Bailey cartoons, Beetle and Sarge costumed character appearances, and a 16-foot-high birthday cake display, complete with animatronic Beetle and Sarge characters.

Finally, in December, Walker's autobiography "Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook: Celebrating a Life of Love and Laughter" will hit bookstore shelves across the country. Future projects in development include a Beetle Bailey musical.

Fostering an Appreciation of the Funnies as an American Art Form

Today King Features syndicates Beetle Bailey to more than 1,800 newspapers around the globe and it has become the third most widely distributed comic strip of all time. And, although he's still lazy after all these years, the work-shirking private manages to rate consistently high among fans in newspaper comics polls.

"By many measures, Mort Walker holds an honored place in the history of American cartoon art," says Lucy Shelton Caswell, professor of journalism at The Ohio State University and curator of its Cartoon Research Library. "To have created Beetle Bailey for readers worldwide for fifty years is a grand achievement. His success with this comic strip was acknowledged early on by his peers when the National Cartoonists Society awarded him the Reuben, its highest honor, only three years after it began.

"In more recent years," Caswell continued, "Walker has devoted a portion of his prodigious energy to the International Museum of Cartoon Art. He founded the museum in 1974 and has worked tirelessly to promote the understanding and appreciation of cartoon art through this institution. Everyone who enjoys the comics is indebted to Mort Walker for the years of enjoyable reading he's provided and for the legacy of the museum he founded."

Mort Walker: The Hardest-Working Man in Cartooning

While it may not be Beetle's ideal holiday, Labor Day seems a fitting day to honor his creator, who is believed to be the world's most prolific cartoonist. Mort Walker has created nine comic strips during his illustrious career, including Hi and Lois, Boner's Ark and Sam and Silo, which are still distributed today by King Features. Walker conceived Hi and Lois as a spin-off of a Beetle Bailey strip in which Beetle takes a furlough to visit his sister, Lois, and her family. Launched into syndication in 1954 with artwork by Hagar the Horrible cartoonist Dik Browne, Hi and Lois appears today in more than 1,100 newspapers worldwide.

Born in 1923 in El Dorado, Kansas, Walker published his first comic when he was 11. Walker was drafted into the Army in 1943 and served overseas in Naples, Italy, advancing from Private to Lieutenant in the Air & Signal Corps, the Engineers, the Infantry, Ordnance, Intelligence and Investigating Branches. He was discharged as a first lieutenant four years later in 1946, graduated from the University of Missouri in 1948, and went to New York City to pursue his cartooning career.

Humble Beginnings for a Legend

Beetle Bailey, originally called Spider, made his comic-strip debut as a college cutup on September 4, 1950 in a mere 12 newspapers and, after six months, King Features had signed up only 25 clients. Despite the fact that the strip is noted as the last strip personally approved by William Randolph Hearst, King Features considered dropping it at the end of Walker's yearlong contract. However, when Beetle stumbled into an Army recruiting post in 1951 during the Korean War, circulation began to climb dramatically. The comic strip experienced two other notable jumps in circulation: In the early 1950s, when the Tokyo edition of Stars & Stripes dropped the strip because it supposedly engendered lack of respect for officers, the U.S. press had a field day attacking the maneuver and 100 more newspapers enlisted Beetle Bailey. Then in 1970, when Lt. Jack Flap first marched into Sarge's office, Beetle Bailey became the first established strip to integrate a black character into a white cast. Stars & Stripes and some Southern newspapers quickly discharged the strip, but 100 other newspapers joined up. And the client list just kept growing.

The Future of Beetle Bailey

Today, Walker continues to oversee the 9-to-5 work of the staff at his Stamford, Conn., laugh factory studio, which was unofficially dubbed "King Features East" because the work generated there once rivaled the combined output of the entire King Features Syndicate comics department. He and his wife, Catherine, have 10 children between them from previous marriages. Six of his children, as well as the son of his former collaborator Dik Browne, contribute to the funny business, along with several other artists and writers. The shop uses only the best gags -- there are more than 10,000 unused gags in the vault -- and in 50 years the studio has never missed a deadline, keeping King Features happy and comics fans in stitches.

Mort Walker, who will celebrate the anniversary of Beetle Bailey on the day after his 77th birthday, says he has no plans to retire. In fact, he quips, "Old cartoonists never retire - they just erase away."

King Features Syndicate, part of the Hearst Entertainment and Syndication Group, is one of the largest distributors of comic strips, panels and editorial features to newspapers worldwide. It is also a worldwide leader in merchandise licensing.

Downloadable Beetle Bailey artwork (anniversary strips, classic strips, logos etc.) can be found online at http://www.kingfeatures.com/news/index.htm