Beetle Bailey turns 75: the Army’s lovable slacker marches on
By Clay Beyersdorfer
Sep 4, 2025, 08:00 AM
When “Beetle Bailey” debuted in 1950, it was a college strip about a lanky underachiever who wanted to do as little as possible. Six months later, creator Mort Walker had Beetle enlist in the Army during the Korean War.
From that moment on, the reluctant private became one of the most recognizable characters in American comics, embodying the frustrations, absurdities and humor of military life.
Sept. 4 marks the strip’s 75th anniversary, a milestone few comics have ever reached. For the Walker family, it is both a celebration of their father’s creation and a continuation of a legacy that has outlived the man who drew it for more than six decades. Mort Walker died in 2018, but his sons Greg, Brian and Neal have kept the strip alive, publishing new gags every day in newspapers and online through Comics Kingdom and King Features Syndicate.
“It’s our entire life, almost,” Greg Walker said. “The strip was created soon after I was born. I’ve been here from the beginning. I started writing when I was in college more than 50 years ago, and it’s always been a part of us.”
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2025/09/04/beetle-bailey-turns-75-the-armys-lovable-slacker-marches-on/
