Beetle Bailey

Beetle Bailey
Author(s)	Mort Walker (scripts, 1950–198?) Mort Walker (art, 1950–present), Brian, & Greg Walker (scripts, 198?–present)[1]
Current status / schedule	Running
Launch date	September 4, 1950
Syndicate(s)	King Features Syndicate
Genre(s)	Humor

Beetle Bailey (begun on September 4, 1950)^[2] is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Mort Walker. Set in a fictional United States Army military post, it is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator.^[1] Over the years, Mort Walker has been assisted by (among others) Jerry Dumas, Bob Gustafson, Frank Johnson and Walker's sons Neal, Brian and Greg Walker. The latter is currently credited on the strip.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Characters and story 2.1 Main characters 2.2 Supporting characters 2.3 Unseen 2.4 Retired 2.5 Extras, one-shots and walk-ons 3 Censorship 3.1 Self-censoring 4 Animation 4.1 Beetle Bailey episodes 5 Licensing 6 Further reading 7 Beyond the strip 8 References 9 External links

Overview

Beetle was originally a college student at Rockview University. The characters in that early strip were modeled after Walker's fraternity brothers at the University of Missouri. During the strip's first year, Beetle quit school and enlisted in the U.S. Army on 13 March 1951, where he has remained ever since.

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). 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 supervisor, 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 baseball caps as the basic uniform, and the open jeep as the basic military vehicle. Sergeant First Class Snorkel wears a green Class A Army dress uniform with heavily wrinkled garrison cap; the officers wear M1 helmet liners painted with their insignia. While Beetle Bailey's unit is Company A, one running gag is that the characters are variously seen in different branches of the Army, such as artillery, armor, infantry and paratroops.

Beetle is always seen with a hat or helmet covering his forehead and eyes. Even on leave, his "civvies" include a pork pie hat worn in the same style. He can only be seen without it once—in the original strip when he was still a college student. The strip was pulled and never ran in any newspaper. It has only been printed in various books on the strip's history. One daily strip had Sarge scare Beetle's hat off, but Beetle was wearing sunglasses.

One running gag has Sergeant Snorkel hanging helplessly to a small tree branch after having fallen off a cliff. 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. This gag may have spawned the segment of the children's show Between the Lions featuring a person named Cliff Hanger, who, like Sergeant Snorkel, is hanging from a cliff in each feature.

Characters and story

Beetle Bailey is unusual in having one of the largest and most varied permanent casts of any comic strip. While many of the older characters are rarely seen, almost none have been completely retired.

Main characters

• Private Beetle Bailey — the main character and strip's namesake; a feckless, shirking, perpetual goof-off and straggler known for his chronic laziness and generally insubordinate attitude. Slack, hapless, lanky and freckled, Beetle's eyes are always concealed, whether by headgear or, in the rare instance of not wearing any, by his hair. In early strips, it was revealed that he is the brother of Lois Flagston (from the Hi and Lois cartoon, which Mort Walker also draws).
• Sergeant 1st Class Orville P. Snorkel — Beetle's nemesis; introduced in 1951. Sarge is known to frequently beat up Beetle for any excuse he can think of, leaving Beetle a shapeless pulp (one of the most iconic images in the strip). Sarge is too lovable to be a villain, however. Obese, snaggle-toothed and volatile, Sarge can be alternately short-tempered and sentimental. He and Beetle seem to have a mutual love/hate relationship; much of the time there's an implied truce between them. They share an uneasy alliance that sometimes borders on genuine (albeit unequal) friendship. He's from Pork Corners, Kansas.
• Private "Killer" Diller — the notorious ladies' man, and Beetle's frequent crony—introduced in 1951.
• Otto — Sgt. Snorkel's anthropomorphic, look-alike bulldog whom Sarge dresses up the same as himself, in an army uniform. Otto is fiercely protective of Sarge, and seems to have a particular antipathy towards Beetle. Originally he was a regular dog who walked on all fours, but Mort Walker finally decided to make him more human-like. As Walker put it, "I guess he's funnier that way." As the Sarge is often found hanging on a branch protruding from a cliff face, so once was Otto.
• Cookie Jowls — the mess sergeant, who smokes cigarettes while preparing the mess hall's questionable menu (infamous for rubbery meatballs and tough-as-rawhide steaks). Except for the presence of cauliflower ears, a prominent heart tattoo, hairy shoulders and perpetual beard stubble, bears a striking resemblance to SFC Snorkel—and has also been known to occasionally beat up on Beetle. Like Sarge, he also loves food.
• Brigadier General Amos T. Halftrack — the inept, frustrated, semi-alcoholic commander of Camp Swampy; introduced in 1951. Loves to golf, much to his wife Martha's dismay. Occasionally engages in harassment of his secretary, Miss Buxley. He's 78 years old, from Kenner, Louisiana—though according to Capt. Scabbard he was born in China (April 28, 1971).
• Miss (Sheila) Buxley — Halftrack's beautiful, blonde, buxom civilian secretary—and occasional soldier's date (as well as a constant distraction for Halftrack). She used to live in Amarillo, Texas.^[3] She appears in every Wednesday strip, with the exception of November 4, 2009; February 16, 2011; March 2, 2011; and April 6, 2011; why on Wednesdays is unknown. (However, a possible prototype for Miss Buxley, a very similar-looking "new stenographer" for General Halftrack, appeared on January 22, 1970—a Thursday.) Miss Buxley has an apparent interest in Beetle, later becomes his girlfriend, but is constantly pursued by Killer.
• Private Blips — Halftrack's competent, jaded, feministic, not-at-all-buxom secretary ("blips" are small points of light on a radar screen). Resents Halftrack's constant ogling of Miss Buxley.
• Lieutenant Sonny Fuzz — very young (with noticeably pointy eyebrows and very little facial hair), overly earnest, anal-retentive and "by the book", and highly susceptible to squeaky furniture. The apple-polishing Fuzz is always trying to impress uninterested superiors (especially Halftrack), and "rub it in the noses" of his subordinates. He was introduced in 1956. Mort Walker said he modeled the character and personality of Lt. Fuzz on himself, having taken himself too seriously after completing Officer Training.^[4]
• Lieutenant Jackson Flap — the strip's first black character, often touchy and suspicious—but effortlessly cool, introduced in 1970. Originally wore an afro hairstyle.
• Private Zero — the buck-toothed, naïve farm boy who takes commands literally, and misunderstands practically everything. Despite all that, Zero is a surprisingly knowledgeable coin collector. In one strip, an anonymous soldier seemingly pulls a prank on Zero by selling him a penny for about ten dollars. Zero has the last laugh by revealing to the reader that it is, in fact, a rare coin worth many times that amount.
• Private Plato — the Camp's resident intellectual (as Tom Lehrer might say, "brings a book to every meal"); bespectacled, given to scrawling long-winded, analytical, often philosophical graffiti. Named after Plato but reportedly based on Walker's pal, fellow cartoonist Dik Browne. Plato is the only character other than Beetle to evolve from the early "college" years of the strip.^[4]
• Chaplain Staneglass — "He's praying... he's looking at the food... he's praying again!" According to Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook, Walker based the chaplain on Irish actor Barry Fitzgerald's priest character, from Going My Way (1944).

Supporting characters

• Martha Halftrack — the General's formidable, domineering wife. She's 70 yrs. old and is from Morganfield, KY. (She has been known to sneak dates without Amos knowing.)
• Bunny (originally "Buzz") Piper — Beetle's seldom-seen girlfriend.
• Private Rocky — Camp Swampy's long-haired, disgruntled social dissident; a former biker gang member and rebel-without-a-clue, introduced 1958.
• Private Cosmo — Camp Swampy's sunglass-wearing, resident "shady entrepreneur" and huckster. Loosely based on William Holden's Sefton character from Stalag 17; almost forgotten in the 1980s.
• Captain Sam Scabbard — hard-nosed, flat-top wearing officer, often as hard on Sarge as Sarge is on Beetle.
• Major Greenbrass — straight man and golf partner to Gen. Halftrack.
• Private Julius Plewer — fastidious fussbudget, who eventually became Halftrack's chauffeur.
• Corporal Yo — the strip's first Asian character, introduced in 1990.
• Dr. Bonkus — Camp Swampy's loopy staff psychiatrist, whose own sanity is questionable.
• Specialist Chip Gizmo — Camp Swampy's resident computer geek, was named by a write-in contest in 2002. The contest sponsored by Dell Computer Corp., received more than 84,000 entries. It raised more than $100,000 for the Fisher House Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides housing for families of patients at military and veterans hospitals.^[5]

• Sergeant 1st Class Louise Lugg — hopes to be Sarge's girlfriend, introduced in 1986. Lt. Flap wondered why Lugg was sent to the camp; Halftrack commented that she showed up after he called the Pentagon to request an overseas assignment—"I asked them to send me abroad."
• Bella — Sgt. Louise Lugg's female cat.
• Chigger Bailey — Beetle's younger brother (a chigger, like a beetle, is a kind of arthropod, and commonly mistaken for an insect).

Unseen

• Colonel Cohen, CEO
• Major Burk, CFO
• General Snead, CIO
• Captain Finn, COO

Retired

• Canteen (early 1950s) — always eating.
• Snake Eyes (early 1950s) — the barracks gambler, replaced by Cosmo, Rocky, and others.
• Big Blush (early 1950s) — tall, innocent, and a great attraction to the girls; many of his characteristics incorporated into both Sarge and Zero.
• Fireball (early 1950s) — neophyte who always seems to be in the way; forerunner of both Zero and Lt. Fuzz.
• Bammy (early 1950s) — the southern patriot from Alabama who is still fighting the Civil war.
• Dawg (early 1950s) — the guy in every barracks who creates his own pollution.
• Ozone (late 1950s) — Zero's bigger, even more naïve friend.
• Moocher (early 1960s) — stingy and always borrowing things.
• Pop (1960s) — married private: gets yelled at by Sarge all day and goes home at night for more abuse from his wife.
• Sergeant Webbing — variously described as being from either B Company or D Company. He somewhat resembles Snorkel, except that he lacks the trademark wrinkles in Snorkel's garrison cap, and has wavy hair and thick eyebrows. He has pointy teeth. On at least two separate occasions, Webbing engaged Sgt. Snorkel in a cussing duel.^[6] He also attempted to one-up Snorkel in anthropomorphizing dogs, leading to Otto's first appearance in uniform, and was most recently seen (recognizably, but not mentioned by name) in 1983.^[7]
• Rolf (early 1980s) — civilian tennis instructor, very popular with the female cast (including both Mrs. Halftrack and Miss Buxley, much to the General's consternation). Originally introduced in response to complaints about the constant ogling of Miss Buxley by the male characters. First appearance was in the September 9, 1982 strip, and he disappeared completely by the mid-1980s.^[8]

The early strip was set at Rockview University. When Beetle joined the Army, all of the other characters are dropped (although both incarnations of the strip include a spectacled 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.^[9][10]

Extras, one-shots and walk-ons

• Mr. & Mrs. Bailey, unnamed parents of Beetle, Lois & Chigger.
• Chigger, Beetle's & Lois' younger brother.
• Mr. & Mrs. Piper, Bunny's parents.
• A camp doctor (Dr. Dormond Dingleberry) whose appearance is consistent, but who is apparently unnamed.
• An unnamed officers' club bartender, frequent intermediary between the Halftracks.
• An unnamed Secretary of Defence who has made numerous appearances.
• Lois Flagston (née Bailey), Beetle's sister; she and her husband are the title characters of the Hi and Lois comic strips.
• Hiram "Hi" Flagston, Beetle's brother-in-law and Lois's husband
• Chip, Dot, Ditto, and Trixie Flagston, Hi and Lois's children, Beetle's Nephews and Nieces.
• Popeye the Sailor once made an indirect appearance in the form of a Halloween mask worn by Zero.

Numerous one-shot characters have appeared over the years, mostly unnamed, including an inspector general who looks like Alfred E. Neuman,^[11] and various officers and civilians. Among the few to be given names is Julian, a nondescript chauffeur eventually replaced by Julius.^[12]

Censorship

"For the most part, Walker's relationship with the real-life U.S. 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." (Source: Don Markstein's Toonopedia)

As with most other American comic strips, Beetle Bailey has been censored from time to time. 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.

Self-censoring

Sometimes Mort Walker censors the strips himself. This is done at the sketch stage, and those strips are never published in the USA. They "end up in a black box in the bottom drawer", according to Walker. These sketches are sometimes published in Scandinavia, however. In Norway, they've appeared in the Norwegian Beetle Bailey comic book, Billy, with the cover of the comic marked to show it contains 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 afterwards, and the strips today are printed without scrambling.

Animation

A TV version of the strip, consisting of 50 animated cartoon shorts produced by King Features Syndicate, was animated by Paramount Cartoon Studios in the USA and Artransa Film Studios in Sydney, Australia, and was first broadcast in 1963. The opening credits included the sound of a bugle reveille, followed by a theme song specifically composed for the cartoon:

He's the military hero of the nation / Though he doesn't always follow regulation

At the sound of reveille / He is here for you to see

And we know you'll laugh at Private Beetle Bailey—

(Beetle Bailey!)

As the General, Colonel, Major and the Captain,

The Lieutenant and the Sergeant and the Corporal,

They will tell you with a shout / They would gladly live without

A certain Private by the name of Beetle Bailey—

(Beetle Bailey!)

Beetle was voiced by comic actor and director Howard Morris with Allen 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.

Beetle Bailey episodes

Licensing

• Over the years, Beetle Bailey characters have been licensed for dolls, T-shirts, salt and pepper shakers, toys, telephones, music boxes, handpuppets, coffee mugs, cookie jars, neckties, lunchboxes, paperback books, games, bobblehead nodders, banks, lapel pins and greeting cards. The Multiple Plastics Corporation manufactured a 1964 Camp Swampy playset, a tie-in with the cartoon TV show, with character figures accompanying the usual MPC toy GIs and military vehicles.

• In 2000, Dark Horse Comics issued two collectible figures of Beetle and Sarge as part of their line of Classic Comic Characters—statues #11 and 12, respectively. In honor of the strip's 50th anniversary, DHC also produced a boxed, PVC figure set of seven Beetle Bailey characters; (Beetle, Sarge, Gen. Halftrack, Miss Buxley, Otto, Lt. Flap and Cookie.)

• BCI Eclipse has released 20 episodes of Beetle Bailey as part of Animated All Stars, a 2-DVD set (BCI 46952). Rhino Home Video also released a DVD containing 10 episodes, along with a couple of Hagar the Horrible and Betty Boop cartoons. In 2007, Beetle Bailey: The Complete Collection was released to DVD, containing all 50 shorts grouped randomly into 13 episodes, plus a previously un-aired 1989 TV special.^[13][14]

Further reading

(All titles by Mort Walker. Published by Ace Tempo/Grosset & Dunlap, unless otherwise noted.)

Beyond the strip

• Beetle Bailey also successfully appeared in comic books, from 1953–1980. The first series was published by Dell Comics, then Gold Key Comics, King Comics and Charlton Comics. Harvey Comics ran a much later second series, from 1992–1994.

• The comic strip Hi and Lois, co-created by Mort Walker and Dik Browne, is a spin-off from Beetle Bailey. (Beetle's sister is Lois Flagston.) Hi and Lois, also syndicated by King Features, debuted in 1954.^[15] Characters from one strip occasionally make guest appearances in the other.

• A Beetle Bailey parody in Mad from the late 1960s portrays Sarge and Captain Scabbard finally wresting the cap off Beetle's face—revealing the words "Get Out of Viet Nam!" tattooed on his forehead.

• Beetle and Sarge guest-starred in the 75th anniversary party of Blondie and Dagwood in 2005.

• An animated segment featuring Beetle Bailey and the rest was on Sesame Street.

• A life size bronze sculpture of Beetle designed by Mort Walker with his son Neal assisting in the sculpting was unveiled at Walker's alma mater the University of Missouri on October 23, 1992.^[16]

References

External links

• Beetle Bailey at King Features
• BeetleBailey.com
• Mort Walker's site
• Toonopedia
• NCS Awards
• The TV version at IMDB
• Mort Walker Collection at the University of Missouri (primary source material)

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