Exceptional America's Longest Serving Soldier Funny Pages : Beetle Bailey's Mort Walker by Brett Matthew West Artwork by MKFlood at FanArtReview.com

Born on September 23, 1923, and the creator of "Beetle Bailey" in 1950, as well as "Hi and Lois" in 1954, Addison Morton Walker was an American comic strip writer. He would occasionally sign his strips with the psuedonym "Addison." His father was an architect, and his mother a newspaper staff illustrator. Walker had an early claim to fame in that one of his ancestors was a doctor on the Mayflower. While in elementary school, Walker drew for a student newspaper. Later, at Northwest High School in Kansas City, Missouri, Walker was the editor of his school's newspaper, the art director of its yearbook, and a radio show performer. His first comic was published when he turned eleven years old. Walker sold his first cartoon when he was twelve. At fourteen, he regularly sold his cartoons to Child's Life, Flying Aces, and Inside Detective magazines. The bi-monthly Child's Life magazine began publication around 1921 and ceased to exist about 2007. The magazine featured stories, articles, and activities for children ages 9 to 11. The Flying Aces monthly periodical of short stories about aviation was popular from October 1928 to April 1945. Many of their stories, by authors of the day, were set against the background of World War One. Later issues of this magazine added non-fiction aviation articles, and those concerning model airplanes. The magazine renamed itself Flying Models, and catered exclusively to aeromodeling hobbyists, as a result of the popularity of its model airplane articles. With a tagline of "Every Story True," the Inside Detective magazines contained true crime stories and real-life mystery stories. When Walker reached the ripe young age of fifteen, he drew "The Lime Juicers" comic about British sailors. This strip became a weekly feature of the Kansas City Journal newspaper. He was also a staff artist. At eighteen years old, Walker became a Chief Editorial Designer for Hallmark Brothers/Hallmark Cards. He heavily influenced Hallmark's change in cards from cuddly bears to gag cartoons more suitable for soldiers. While Walker atended Kansas City Junior College, and the University of Missouri, a local hamburger hangout called The Shack became an influencer of his. Images from the restaurant appeared with some frequency in Walker's "Beetle Bailey" cartoons. The September 14, 1950 "Beetle Bailey" strip mentioned the eatery by name. The Shack was destroyed by a fire in 1988. Walker returned to the site in 2010 for a special dedication of a replica of the building, with a dining area called Mort's. A life-sized bronze statue of "Beetle Bailey" stands erect in front of the University of Missouri's Alumni Center, near The Shack's old location. Walker graduated from the University of Missouri as the editor, and art director, of the college's humor publication Showme. He started his cartooning career drawing "Spider" for The Saturday Evening Post. "Spider" was about a lazy college student that morphed into "Beetle Bailey," which was eventually distributed by King Features Syndicate to 1800 newspapers, in more than 50 countries, with more than 200 million daily readers. The Bailey surname is a nod to a supportive editor Walker had at the Post. "Beetle Bailey" was banned at one time by the United States military's Stars And Stripes newspaper because they felt the strip disrespected officers. With a warning for smut, which Walker sometimes dabbled in during the early days of "Beetle Bailey," the strip's Swedish edition once contained "Knasen: Varning for Snusk." In 1954, Walker and Dik Browne created "Hi And Lois," a spin-off of "Beetle Bailey." Lois is Beetle's sister. Walker's sons Brian and Greg, along with Robert "Chance" Browne, now produce the "Hi and Lois" comic strip. Brian Walker was the Founder of the International Museum of Cartoon Art. Greg Walker is now the official co-writer of "Beetle Bailey." He previously wrote episodes of the "Bugs Bunny" newspaper comic strip, and was a co-writer of "Betty Boop and Felix" from 1984 to 1988. Robert "Chance" Browne is the main cartoonist of "Hi and Lois." Under the name "Addison," Mort Walker created "Boner's Ark" in 1968. He also created the comic strips "Sam's Strip," "The Evermores," "Gamin and Patches," and "Mrs. Fitz's Flats." Containing a title which was a direct reference to Noah's ark, Walker debuted "Boner's Ark" under his "Addison" pseudonym. The strip began on March 11, 1968. It concluded on May 27, 2000 when the ark reached dry ground. The comic depicted a menagerie of animals trapped on the ark helmed by Captain Boner. A hippo ran the restaurant and a hyena its complaints department. The hyena also operated a marriage counseling service and staged frequent mutinies against Captain Boner. Main animal characters included a male penguin named Duke, a dinosaur called Rex, a Kaola bear named Cubcake, and Aarnie the aardvark. He was also the ark's First Mate. Other animal characters featured included the duck known as Dr. Quack, Priscilla the pig, Dum-Dum the gorilla, and Lookout the giraffe. He was in charge of searching for land. Debuting on October 16, 1961, Mort Walker, and the Greenwich Times daily newspaper columnist Gerald John "Jerry" Dumas, co-created the "Sam's Strip" comic. This strip relied heavily on metahumor, or self-reflective humor, and appearances by famous comics characters. Blondie, Charlie Brown, Krazy Kat, Happy Hoolihan, Tillie the Toiler, and Ignatz Mouse were among them. Strip readers did not always grasp what "Sam's Strip" attempted to convey. "Sam's Strip" never reached publication in more than sixty newspapers and was cancelled on June 1, 1963. However, "Sam's Strip" did lead Walker and Dumas to co-create "Sam and Silo" about two bumbling cops in a quaint little town. Walker co-created "The Evermores" comics with cartoonist Johnny Sajem. The strip ran from 1982 until 1986. "The Evermores" was about a family that Walker placed in different time periods with each new episode. These included being knights, cavemen, cowboys, pirates, musketeers, and Ancient Egyptians. Readers did not like the constant changes. Eventually, Walker placed them in Ancient Rome based on a poll of the strip's readers. About a street urchin and his dog, Walker co-created "Gamin and Patches" with his assistant Bill Jamocha. The strip ran a year or so, from 1987 to 1988. Published from 1957 to 1972, Walker co-created "Mrs. Fitz's Flats" with his first assistant Franke Roberge. The strip featured a little old lady who ran an apartment building. Originally located in Greenwich, Connecticut, the Museum of Cartoon Art was established in 1974 by Mort Walker. This museum was the first museum devoted to the art of comics. In 1989, Walker was inducted into the museum's Hall of Fame. Mort Walker received the Reuben Award in 1953 for "Beetle Bailey." He garnered the 1966 and 1969 Humor Strip Awards from the National Cartoonists Society. He also received their 1999 Gold T-Square Award, and their Elzie Segar Awards in 1977 and 1999 for outstanding contributions to the profession of cartooning. These name a few of Walker's many crowning accomplishments. Walker was presented the Charles M. Schulz Museum's Sparky Award. This distinction is provided "In honor of the lifetime achievement of prominent creators in the fields of cartooning and animation who embody the talent, innovation and humanity of Schulz." This award includes a statuette of Snoopy holding a pen and leaning on an inkwell. In 2000, Walker was presented the US Army's Decoration For Distinguished Civilian Service. Next Time: Carl James "Beetle" Bailey Author Notes Freedom, by MKFlood, selected to complement my posting.

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