Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles

Brian Walker

Book cover for Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles
Image for variant 9798875001338
Book cover for Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles
Image for variant 9798875001338

Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles

Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles

Brian Walker

View full details

Description
"Old cartoonists never die. They just erase away..." This was one of Mort Walker's favorite sayings, and until his final days, he lived by his motto, engaging millions of readers through his beloved comics. Walker had the longest tenure of any cartoonist on his original creation in the history of comics. He produced Beetle Bailey for 67 years, 3 months and 12 days - that's 24,576 strips. He penciled his last week of daily strips on December 16, 2017.

Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles is a coffee table retrospective commemorating Mort Walker's long and dedicated commitment to cartooning, spotlighting the anniversary of his most popular and beloved creation. In addition to the 75 Sunday pages reproduced from color syndicate proofs, 135 daily and Sunday strips scanned from original artwork, and close to 200 additional images, this beautifully designed volume, impeccably researched and written by his son Brian, also includes rare photographs, historic debut character appearances, syndicate promotional materials, posters, merchandise, personal drawings and memorabilia from the family archives, as well as biographical sketches and anecdotes.

Dubbed "The Dean of American Cartooning," Walker was one of the most prolific cartoonists in the comics business, with the creation of nine different syndicated strips during his lifetime, including Beetle Bailey, one of the most widely syndicated strips in the world. Beetle Bailey remains a popular feature in newspapers today and is currently produced by his sons Greg, Brian and Neal.

Critical Reviews

You can get lost just reading the strips or you can get lost just reading all the annotations. That's what I love about these books. They're history books as much as they are comic books and that's fun for me.-- "Comics Are Dope"

Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles is a testament to the talented individuals who worked on the comic strip. Fantagraphics and all involved in this book's creation have done a great service for the history of comic strips and for readers, no matter whether a longtime fan or those just discovering the strip.-- "Cinema Sentries"

The American comic strip has long been a hallmark of the newspaper industry. The first, appearing back in 1895 when fierce newspaper rivalries ruled the day. Even with the golden age now over, some characters are as popular as ever. Among them, Beetle Bailey, now celebrating 75 years. An all-in-operation drawing on a future firmly planted in the 21st century.-- "CBS News Saturday Morning"

Beetle means a lot to soldiers and veterans, who easily relate to Walker's exaggeratedly accurate portrayal of army camp life. It means a lot to the rest of the world, too, though, simply because it is so often genuinely hilarious.-- "Forces of Geek"

Publishing Information

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Pub date: 2025-09-16
Length: 276 pages

The Allstora Membership

Membership Perks:

  • Save 30% on all online store purchases
  • Exclusive access to author's content
  • You pay less, but authors still earn double

Membership Terms:

First Month: $0.00
Monthly price: $5.00
  • To access membership discount simply log in and add to cart, discount applied automatically.
  • One month free trial, cancel anytime. Membership renews on the 15th of each month.