Mort Walker, Beetle Bailey Cartoonist

[derrbrad]

Comic strip artist Mort Walker, a World War II veteran who satirized the Army and tickled millions of newspaper readers with the antics of the lazy private “Beetle Bailey,” died Saturday. He was 94.

In 1943 he was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving in Europe during World II. He was discharged as a first lieutenant, graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia and pursued a career as a cartoonist in New York.

 

​RIP Sir, you will be missed.

 

 

[patches]

Wow sorry to here this.

 

You're Dismissed Pvt Bailey.

 

 

[patches]

Here he is in Italy, in a unit of the MTOUSA, that cap device is a bit skewed, that top post/pin, if it's one that has one, has come unfastened.

 

 

[patches]

Mort on his own service. His own service would later inspired one of his characters in the strip.

 

In the Best of Beetle Bailey, Mort Walker remembered his time in the army. “Little did I know when I was drafted in 1942 that I was going to get almost four years of free research. I had no idea or ambition at that time to do an army comic strip but I was constantly sketching and trying to capture the humor that was so prevalent in army life.”

 

“The army thoughtfully sent me to a number of places so that my experiences would be broadest,” Mort continued. “I was in the Air Corps, Signal Corps, the Engineers, the Infantry, Ordnance, Intelligence and Investigating and had amphibious training with the Navy. I ended up in charge of a German prisoner of war camp. I was a private, a corporal, a sergeant and a lieutenant and I was a goof up in every rank.”

 

He also became the inspiration for one of the characters in Beetle Bailey. “When I wanted a young neophyte lieutenant I thought back on all the dumb things I did as a twenty-year-old shave tail and created Lt. Fuzz.”

[bobgee]

He was a great cartoonist and got to the nitty-gritty of some the silliness that occurs in military life in a light-hearted way. R.I.P. Mort