When they began in mid-1962, Gold Key Comics were very "experimental" with graphic design for the period, perhaps to further distinguish them from their Dell Comics predecessors - in ways beyond a cover-price decrease from 15, back down to 12 cents!
Take the cover of BEETLE BAILEY # 41 (Cover Date: May, 1963 - released in February, 1963).
Even if there were no different beat for him to follow, Beetle would still stand out among the line of generic, lookalike soldiers in their more conventional marching. Probably purposely drawn as such, rather then include some of Beetle's identifiable regimental regulars such as Killer, Zero, Cosmo, Plato, and Rocky.
Take the cover of BEETLE BAILEY # 41 (Cover Date: May, 1963 - released in February, 1963).
And, to further call attention to Beetle's drum-beat detour, we have a turquoise sorta line/reverse-checkmark to highlight his breaking ranks with the troops. One of those "early Gold Key experimental design elements" added to better define his path - especially so against the white background.
My guess - and it is just a guess - is that, when Beetle's creator Mort Walker (or his assistant Bob Gustafson) originally drew this cover, it did not include this element. ...But aren't we glad that someone did?
Finally, isn't it just like Beetle Bailey to commemorate March 4th in a post published on March 5th?
4 comments:
Interesting how army comics were a thing in the 60's and 70''s. Not only the more serious ones like Sgt. Rock, but the humor variety such as Beelte Bailey at Gold Key, and Sad Sack at Harvey. Right around this same time there were several Sad Sack titles, and judging by the number of them, the character must have been popular. Not only in comics, but Beetle Bailey cartoons were running on television. (My most vivid recollection is of one cartoon where Zero kept unrolling a red carpet and uttering the words, "The red carpet treatment!" repeated several times.) Inept privates, blustering sergeants, and befuddled generals seemed the order of the day in these sendups of military life. It was even carried out in live action series such as "Gomer Pyle, USMC" and others. Even the Dick Van Dyke Show featured several key episodes revolving around Rob's army days.
I guess most kids of the time had fathers or grandfathers who had served in the military during WWII. That may account for the popularity. All of my friends loved to read these comics, as did I, although we were never a particularly military family.
In those days, Beetle had a girlfriend named Bunny. In more recent years in the comic strip, he started dating Miss Buxley, the secretary to General Halftrack. I miss the Beetle Bailey comic strip. Not sure if it is even published anymore. Our local newspaper abandoned it a decade ago, along with a half dozen other stalwarts, which is why I don't subscribe to the local news.
I wonder if Bunny were watching if Beetle would be pulling that stunt?
This cover reminds me of this East German military march: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2agQiRYqf64
I bet Beetle would have fit right in in the National People's Army!
Scarecrow:
Very good point about the proliferation of military comics during the sixties and seventies!
War comics, movies, etc. never interested me – certainly so during the time when it looked as if I might be serving in Viet-Nam – but I liked Sad Sack, and loved Beetle Bailey, the latter of which I discovered in newspapers before comic books.
As for why Sad Sack was a solid second to Beetle Bailey was that I didn’t much care for the art style of the stories themselves – and wished it was as good and lively as the covers were – and Harvey’s very restrictive format of one-page, five pages, two pages, five pages, and five pages (with another related five-page story to follow) for each of its title characters.
Beetle Bailey’s covers were also better than its interior art, but those were done by Mort Walker or one of his assistants – and I also thought the interior art was fine.
Oddly, the most “authentic” representation of Beetle Bailey in comic books were those published by Charlton!
(…A brief pause, as you recover from shock!)
…Yes, really! …Charlton!
They were entirely handled by Mort Walker’s primary assistant Bob Gustafson and Mort Walker’s son Greg, and were the closest thing to the strip. Also, as inker to Gustafson was Frank Johnson (the creator of “Boner’s Ark”) and the artist I felt was so terrible on Charlton’s Huckleberry Hound comics! But here, Gustafson, Johnson, and Greg Walker do a really fine job!
To digress in praise of Frank Johnson, he also nicely captured the look and feel of DUDLEY DO-RIGHT in the comics published by Charlton! So, maybe Huckleberry Hound was just the wrong property for him to work on – and more blame for those substandard issues might go toward the editor.
It’s been MANY years since I’ve seen the Beetle Bailey newspaper strip. Having been supplanted largely by strips with decent gag writers who draw simple doodles that pass for characters. But there would seem to be a near infinite number of Beetle Bailey paperbacks that collect the strip. I’ve got a bookshelf full of them and I don’t think I’m anywhere near complete.
Finally, a total digression… The Beetle Bailey cartoons of the early sixties would mark the first pairing of the voices of Alan Melvin and Howard Morris – before The Magilla Gorilla Show!
Sergio:
It’s a good thing I came up with such a long reply to Scarecrow, because I don’t even know what to say about this, save letting everyone experience it for themselves! :-) …But, I’ll try!
Perhaps if Beetle had been a member of the East German military, the Berlin Wall might have fallen much sooner!
And, believe it or not, in the final Dell Comics issue, he actually came closer to the Wall than you’d think!
HERE is Sergio’s link for your marching and musical entertainment!
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