The Best of Beetle Bailey Book

Mort Walker is one of those cartoonists who's easy to take for granted. When I was a kid, just starting to get interested in the comics section of my parents' newspaper, Beetle Bailey had already been around for about twenty-five years. Walker represented old school cartooning. I was more interested in the modern stuff: Bloom County, Doonesbury, the Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, even Garfield. I certainly didn't hate Beetle or anything, just didn't think much of it one way or the other.

But then this book came along in the early 80's, and I got a look at the strip's genesis, and at how Walker's drawing style shifted over the years. There actually used to be more detail in the art. Heck, there used to be backgrounds. As the size of the average comic strip shrank, Walker dialed back on the artwork and on the amount of dialogue. The strip today--is it still running today? I haven't bought a newspaper in years--is decidedly different from what it once was. Still recognizable, sure, but different.

The fact is, for the first year or so, Beetle Bailey was a college student. After about a year of college gags, Walker decided to have him enlist in the army. The Korean War was just starting up at the time. The strip took off in popularity, so Walker stuck with the army theme, and the rest is history.

The book gives all sorts of behind the scenes details. We get a glimpse of the writing process, tons of classic strips including the first appearances of the various characters (as well as several characters who fell by the wayside), a selection of strips that were never run (mainly due to content issues), a look at various controversies over the years (Beetle was actually banned from the Tokyo edition of Stars and Stripes.) The book even includes a strip done for Mad magazine, in which Walker parodies soap opera style strips.

One interesting bit of trivia: Hi and Lois actually made their debut in Beetle Bailey. In a sequence in which Beetle returned home on leave for the holidays, his sister Lois is also there, along with her husband, Hiram--Hi, to his friends--and their baby. Obviously their appearance was tinkered with--and their family was expanded by two children--for their debut in their own strip.

Needless to say, this book gave me a new respect for Mort Walker's talents. Yes, there are comic strips out there that I like better, but Beetle Bailey certainly deserves its classic status. Recommended!