Beetle Bailey Awareness Training 2

Beetle Bailey has been unfairly grouped into the category of has-been comic strips that have nothing left to say and have completely lost any edge they may have had in the creator's angst-ridden young adulthood. I say pshaw and give you this example, where Beetle is shown to loath his life so much that he screams protests at the moment he wakes. Now, I'm not saying I can relate to that, but anyone who says they haven't had a moment like this at some point is a liar or one of those strange, eternally-optimistic people that run associations in charge of hanging decorative fish on the light poles of Main Street, America.

Beetle Bailey Awareness Training

You know, I think we've all became a little complacent when it comes to Beetle Bailey. I too am guilty, although I have to state for the record that for the last several years it has been one of the very few I read in the paper. I'd probably still read Snuffy Smith too, but that's another story. But do you realize that Beetle debuted on September 4th, 1950, an entire month before Peanuts hit the papers? And Mort Walker is still alive and kicking them out every day! Now, there's no comparing the genius of Schultz to the often pedestrian humor of Walker, but there's something to be said for longevity.

So read Beetle Bailey, dammit, and respect your comic strip elders! I plan on doing some extensive non-Wiki-fied research on this subject, so yes, there will be further Beetle Bailey Awareness Training.