Beetle Bailey Sunday page color proof, August 25, 1974.
In the Sunday page featured in last week’s post, Beetle was the camp cartoonist. This episode showcases the artistry of a different character in the cast.
The drawings were done purposely in a simplistic, childlike style to contrast with the clean line professional rendering in the rest of the strip.
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Beetle Bailey Sunday page color proof, Dec. 9, 1973.
The Sunday page above shows what it would look like if Beetle drew the comic strip that he stars in. This type of self-referential humor is called, “metacomics” by cartoon scholars. Over a decade earlier, King Features announced something new.
Sam’s Strip was ahead of its time when it debuted in 1961. Mort Walker and Jerry Dumas’ offbeat creation took the inside joke to a new level, playing with the basic elements of the cartoon form, experimenting with different art styles and featuring famous characters from other strips. Sam and his cartoonist assistant owned and operated the comic strip they inhabited. The Yellow Kid, Jiggs, Krazy Kat, Dagwood and Charlie Brown were among the many familiar faces who made walk-on appearances. Sam and his assistant discussed the inner workings and hidden secrets of life within the panel borders. This type of self-referential humor, called “metacomics” by scholar Thomas Inge, had been explored previously by Al Capp, Ernie Bushmiller and Walt Kelly and has been used on a more regular basis by such contemporary cartoonists as Garry Trudeau, Berke Breathed and Bill Griffith. Sam’s Strip never appeared in more than sixty papers and was terminated by its creators in 1963. It is considered a cult classic among comic-strip aficionados today.
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Beetle Bailey Sunday page color proof, July 15, 1973.
Beetle Bailey has one of the largest casts of any syndicated comic strip, with the possible exception of Doonesbury. The conflicts that are generated by these distinctive characters are a great source for gag material.
Two characters that don’t often butt heads are Rocky and Plato. 
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