‘Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles’ (review)

Written and Edited by Brian Walker
Published by Fantagraphics

Brian Walker grew up in comics.

By the time he was born in 1950, his father, cartoonist Mort Walker, was already taking his signature comic strip, Beetle Bailey, into a permanent place alongside the most popular humor strips of all time.

Over the years, Brian has become known as one of the preeminent comic strip historians, with multiple well-respected books on the history of newspaper comics—and not necessarily his father’s.

This one, though, Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles, is all about Dad and one of his other most enduring creations. One could argue that this is the book Brian Walker was born to write…and it’s a good one!

There have been a number of books about Beetle Bailey, and several really good ones about and/or by Mort Walker.

What makes this one different? Perspective.

Mort, himself, died in 2018 at the ripe old age of 94, after decades of heading up a sort of empire of comics that included, along with Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Hagar the Horrible, Boner’s Ark, Sam’s Strip, and others that came and went. Only now is it possible to look back and see how everything fell into place with Beetle, which made everything else possible.

In his introductory “Appreciation,” the late R.C. Harvey, always a perceptive critic, refers to Mort Walker’s “complete mastery of the medium.” I think that about sums it up. In one of his own books, Mort even came up with names for all the little dots and squiggles and other symbols used in humor strips, and the names stuck!

Beetle Bailey means a lot to me personally as, when I was an optimistic youth, I just naturally assumed that I would someday write and draw my own newspaper comic strip and it was Beetle on which I based both my art style and my style of humor for the strip. Half a century later, I also had to do some deep dive research into Beetle and his long comic book career for an article I wrote for Back Issue magazine.

Of course, Beetle Bailey means a lot to a lot of folks, which is why the strip is still running, even after its creator left us.

Beetle means a lot to soldiers and veterans, who easily relate to Walker’s exaggeratedly accurate portrayal of army camp life. It means a lot to the rest of the world, too, though, simply because it is so often genuinely hilarious. Sure, there have been plenty of missteps when you consider it’s been running every single day for three quarters of a century, but overall, Beetle Bailey has brought a lot of readers a lot of smiles, and that’s what this book is about.

The book starts out, as one might expect, with biographical info and lots of pre-fame artwork, leading up to the debut of Spider—he who would become Beetle. We see a number of the pre-military strips but then, as early as page 26, he’s in the Army now! A series of annotated strips follows, both Sundays and dailies, but the real treat is seeing so much of King Features’ promotional materials, too.

We meet Beetle’s sister Lois and her husband, Hi, as well as later strip characters like Lt. Fuzz, Lt. Flap, Sarge’s dog Otto, and the controversial Miss Buxley, the General’s secretary.

We learn about Beetle Bailey games and toys, cartoons, and other merchandising. We revisit Mort’s other projects—new strips, children’s books, reference books, statuary, collectible prints, specialty art, etc. and meet Mort’s friends and collaborators, including Jerry Dumas, Dik Browne, Bill Janocha and others. Every step of the way, though, we are treated to Beetle Bailey strips, often reproduced from the original art or from various types of syndicate proofs.

Add lots of photos, a complete list of Beetle Bailey books, a list of the strip’s many awards, and a list of pertinent articles and interviews (which sadly doesn’t include mine) and you have here in Brian Walker’s Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles the ultimate book for a fan of Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey.

Booksteve recommends.