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MU honors Beetle Bailey cartoon, native son

Thursday, August 26, 2010 | 7:16 a.m. CDT; updated 2:25 p.m. CDT, Thursday, August 26, 2010

This stamp depicting sad-sack soldier Beetle Bailey and his longtime foil, Sgt. Orville Snorkel, is part of the new "Sunday Funnies" series released by the U.S. Postal Service. The Beetle Bailey stamp, initially unveiled in July, is being honored for its connections to MU and mid-Missouri. Beetle Bailey's creator, Mort Walker, is a 1948 graduate of the university.   ¦  The Associated Press

BY The Associated Press

COLUMBIA — The U.S. Postal Service is honoring a classic cartoon character with mid-Missouri roots at a ceremony Friday at MU.

A stamp depicting sad-sack soldier Beetle Bailey and his longtime foil, Sergeant Orville Snorkel, is part of the new "Sunday Funnies" series released in July. Other stamps feature Archie, Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield and Dennis the Menace.

The 60-year-old cartoon's creator is Mort Walker, a 1948 Missouri graduate. He based many of the early characters on his fraternity brother. The cartoon's setting of Camp Swampy is loosely based on Walker's Army stint at Camp Crowder near Neosho.

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  In this 1984 letter from King Features, a newspaper syndication service, Mort Walker writes about the creation of his Beetle Bailey comic strip. This letter comes from the Columbia Missourian archive.

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A ceremony is set for 11 a.m. Friday outside the Reynolds Alumni Center, where a Beetle Bailey statue welcomes visitors.

 

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