Beetle Bailey Sunday page digital proof, September 13, 1998.
In the Sunday page above, General Halftrack decides to go outside and select a volunteer for a dangerous mission. For some mysterious reason, the camp is deserted.
Camp Swampy was inspired by Camp Crowder in Missouri, an antique relic from WWI where Mort Walker trained in 1941. There are no army bases that look like this any more.
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Beetle Bailey Sunday page digital proof, November 16, 1997.
In the nighttime scene above, all the characters are shown in silhouette. It is easy to recognize Killer, Sarge, Plato and General Halftrack just by their outlines.
In The Lexicon of Comicana, Mort Walker explained that body shapes or “morfs” should be designed distinctively so the characters can be identified in silhouette. He showed some examples.
Among the characters in the graphic above are Mickey Mouse, Sarge, Krazy Kat, Snuffy Smith, Popeye, Buster Brown, Annie, Jiggs, Beetle, Boner, Little King, Nancy, Smoky Stover, Andy Capp, Dagwood, Dick Tracy, Happy Hooligan, Ferdinand, Tiger, Hagar, Batman and Charlie Brown. Can you identify some of the ones I missed?
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Beetle Bailey Sunday page digital proof, November 3, 1996.
Between 1964 and 1974, a series of seventeen Sunday pages featured Sarge’s fantastic dreams. Most of these episodes involved Sarge falling asleep after eating too much pizza and having fantasies about being a superhero, playing professional sports, traveling back in time or other such hilarious scenarios.
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