Addison Morton Walker (1923-2018) was born in El Dorado, Kansas and had cartooning aspirations at a very young age. He started selling freelance gag cartoons in New York City in the late 1940s and one of his characters, a college kid with a hat over his eyes, became the star of a new comic strip. Beetle Bailey debuted inauspiciously in twelve newspapers on Sept. 4. 1950. After six months it had signed on only 25 clients and King Features considered dropping the strip. Mort decided to have Beetle enlist in the Army in 1951. The strip was banned in the Tokyo Stars and Stripes because the brass thought it encouraged disrespect for officers and the sympathetic publicity rocketed circulation of another hundred papers. When Mort won the National Cartoonist Society’s award as the cartoonist of the year for 1953, Beetle Bailey had become a certified success.
Due to increased sales volume during our Fantabucks Sale, orders placed between March 21 and March 23 are subject to additional delays and will not begin shipping until March 26. Thank you for your patience as we work through these orders.