Exceptional America's Longest Serving Soldier Funny Pages : Beetle Bailey - Part One by Brett Matthew West Artwork by avmurray at FanArtReview.com

On September 4, 1950, Carl James "Beetle" Bailey was a student at Rockview University. Holding a scholarship for the sport, he was the star of the school's track team. Beetle owned a broken down jalopy and smoked a pipe. He stopped smoking when he joined the military service. Beetle had four friends at Rockview who were modeled after fraternity brothers Cartoonist Mort Walker, who originated the "Beetle Bailey" comic strip, had at the University of Missouri. They were known as Bitter Bill, Freshman, Sweatsock, and Diamond Jim. Beetle Bailey stopped attending college on March 13, 1951 during the first year of the "Beetle Bailey" comic strip. His reasons for joining the Army were because he ran away from his angry and jealous girlfriend "Buzz," as well as a second girl who chased him. As lazy in college as he proved himself to be in the Army, inept characters stationed at Camp Swampy provide most of the humor for "Beetle Bailey. Camp Swampy was inspired by the real life Army's Fort Crowder, that was located south of Neosho, in the southwestern portion of the state of Missouri, from 1941 to 1956. Fort Crowder was named in honor of Major General Enoch H. Crowder, the primary author of the Selective Service Act of 1917. This law raised an American army during World War One. At that time, General Crowder held the positions of Judge Advocate General of the United States Army and Provost Marshal. Some famous Personalities were stationed at Fort Crowder in their military days. These included Carl Reiner, who created The Dick Van Dyke Show, which was televised from 1961 until 1966. Reiner acted in the big-named movies It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are coming, and the Oceans Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, and Eight film series. Reiner directed the Hit movies The Jerk, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, All Of Me, The Man With Two Brains, Oh, God!, and others. In addition, Reiner penned more than two dozen books. American Author Jean Shepherd, Junior, who narrated and co-scripted the A Christmas Story movie, and Cartoonist Mort Walker, who created the "Beetle Bailey" comic strip, were others stationed at Fort Crowder during their Army time. Perpetually stuck in time in their infantry unit, the characters of "Beetle Bailey" never appeared to see any actual combat. However, they did participate in combat drills and mock battles. Consisting most often of green fatigues, and patrol caps, the military attirement in the "Beetle Bailey" comic strip were of the real world US Army uniforms of the late 1940's to the early 1970's. An open jeep was the "Beetle Bailey" comic strip's basic military vehicle. Beetle's food-obsessed Platoon Sergeant, and arch nemesis, Sergeant First Class Orville P. Snorkel, frequently wore a green battle dress uniform and a heavily wrinkled garrison cap that could be folded flat when not worn. The officers in the comic strip sported M1 combat helmet liners painted with their insignias on them. These were real world liners worn by the US Army from World War Two until 1985. These helmet liners inspired the armies of several other countries around the world to adopt similar ones. Modern military weapons and equipment made rare appearances in the "Beetle Bailey" comic strip. Company A is where Beetle Bailey was assigned. However, the unit's functions periodically changed throughout the history of the strip. These included being armor, artillery, infantry, and paratrooper outfits. Some of the "Beetle Bailey" characters had dreams in which they were seasoned combat veterans. For instance, Sergeant Snorkel once dreamed he was General "Storming Snorkel" who gave a briefing on Operation Desert Shield (which this author happened to be a combat veteran of in Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.) Beetle dreamed he left the Army and returned back to Rockview University on the G.I. Bill. Female students there knew him as "Bombshell Bailey," a famous war hero. In a March 27, 1966 dream sequence that parodied "Batman" of the 1960's, Sergeant Snorkel appeared as "Fatman," and Beetle as "Slobber." They had to stop the infamous "Pizza Pete." In this strip, Beetle wore a mask but his eyes could not be seen. A hat, or helmet, always covered Beetle's eyes and his forehead. Even while on Leave, Beetle's civilian clothes included a pork pie hat, with a flat crown, worn in the same manner as his military hat or helmet. Only in the original "Beetle Bailey" comic strip, while he was still a college student, had Beetle been shown without a hat of some kind. This original strip was pulled and never ran in any newspapers. It has been printed in multiple books about the history of "Beetle Bailey." The only acknowledged picture of Beetle's eyes was published in a 2000 strip. They were shown as two black dots on a piece of paper held by Beetle and Sergeant Snorkel. From 1950 to 1952, the first two years of the "Beetle Bailey" comic strip, Mort Walker wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered the strip. In 1952, Cartoonist Fred Rhoades became Walker's first assistant. Fred Rhoades also contributed to the comic strips "They'll Do It Every Time" by Jimmy Hatlo and "Barney Google and Snuff Smith" by Fred Lasswell. Perhaps Fred Rhoades most well known contributions to comic strips were his efforts on "Sad Sack" by George Baker. Several other cartoonists have served as assistants to Walker over the years. Since 1982, Walker's sons Greg, Neal, and Brian Walker, along with Jerry Dumas, have drawn the "Beetle Bailey" comic strip. Gerald John "Jerry" Dumas was well known for his "Sam and Silo" comic strip. He was also a columnist for the Greenwich Time newspaper in Greenwich, Connecticut. About the misadventures of a porkpie hat-wearing sheriff and his deputy in the small town of Upper Duckwater, a place so peaceful they spent most of their time napping in their squad car or eating at the local dining hangout. There, Rosie, who is regarded sort of like the Mother Hen of Upper Duckwater, dispensed one-liners. The lawmen also contended with Mayor McGuffey, who frequently saw crimes where there were none or invented red tape for the fun of it. "Sam and Silo" began on April 18, 1977. One of the most famous "Beetle Bailey" comic strips had Sergeant Snorkel dangling helpless from a small tree growing out of the side of a cliff. Sergeant Snorkel had never been shown falling off a cliff or walking close to the edge of one. However, he always appeared to hold onto that same branch, yelling for help. This strip first ran on August 16, 1956. Mort Walker's extensive comic strip portfolio included the popular "Hi and Lois," which he co-created with "Hagar the Horrible's" cartoonist Dik Browne. "Hi and Lois" was a spin-off comic strip of "Beetle Bailey." The strip featured Beetle's sister, his brother-in-law, and their family. "Hi and Lois" is now drawn by Chance Browne, the son of Dik Browne, and Mort Walker's sons. While stationed in the United States Army during World War Two, Richard Arthur Allen "Dik" Browne drew the "Ginny Jeep" comic strip about the Womens' Army Corps. This strip appeared in Army and Air Force newspapers. In the 1940's, Dik Browne worked as an illustrator for the Johnson & Cushing advertising company. In 1944, he created the Birds' Eye frozen foods bird logo, a Mounds candy bar advertisement, the Carmin Miranda-inspired Chiquita bananas trademark, and a Campbell Soup kids redesign. From 1950 to 1960, Dik Browne drew "The Tracy Twins" comic strip for Boys' Life, the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America. In 1973, Dik Browne created the "Hagar the Horrible" comic strip about an ill-mannered, red-bearded, medieval Viking. "Hagar the Horrible" was a caricature that commented on Modern-day life in the United States through the interpretation of Viking Age Scandinavian life. King Features syndicated "Beetle Bailey" in 2016. The comic strip appeared in about 1800 newspapers around the world. Next Time: "Beetle Bailey" - Part Two: The Censorship Of "Beetle Bailey" Author Notes The Soldier and his dog, by avmurray, selected to complement my posting.

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