Overview of the Collection |
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| Creator: | Walker, Mort. |
| Title: | Mort Walker Cartoons |
| Inclusive Dates: | 1950-1964 |
| Quantity: | 1000 items (ca.) |
| Abstract: | Mort Walker is an American cartoonist and the creator of the Beetle Bailey comic strip distributed through King Features Syndicate. Collection contains original Beetle Bailey drawings for daily and Sunday panels. |
| Language: | English |
| Repository: | Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 http://scrc.syr.edu |
Mort Walker was born in El Dorado, Kansas on September 3, 1923. His cartooning career started early -- he sold his first cartoon when he was 11 and by age 15 he was already working as a staff cartoonist and doing a strip for a Kansas City newspaper. Drafted in 1943, he spent four years in the army where he ran a German P.O.W. camp in Italy, then returned to his studies at the University of Missouri, where he edited the campus humor magazine and received his A.B.
After graduating in 1948 he moved to New York where he worked for Dell as editor of their humor magazine 1000 Jokes and sold his own cartoons to a number of other magazines, earning the position of top selling gag cartoonist in the country. In 1950 he sold a strip to King Features Syndicate that became Beetle Bailey, establishing a relationship with King Features that was to last the rest of his career and produce a number of popular newspaper comic strips. Many were done in collaboration with other cartoonists, among them Hi and Lois (1957) with fellow cartoonist Dik Browne; Mrs. Fitz's Flats (1957-1972) with Frank Roberge; Sam's Strip (1961-1963) with Jerry Dumas; and The Evermores (1982) with Johnny Sajem.
His work is in the permanent collection at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York and he has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In 1992 the University of Missouri erected a life-size statue of Beetle Bailey and in September of 2000 presented a Beetle Bailey 50th anniversary exhibition.
Walker is a member and past president (1959-1960) of the National Cartoonists Society and belongs to the Artists and Writers Association. He has been honored by his peers on numerous occasions, receiving the Reuben (1953), Best Humor Strip (1966), and Silver (1961) and Gold (1999) T-Square awards from the National Cartoonists Society, the Banshee award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year (1955), and the Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service from the U.S. Army (2000). He has written children's books, a stage show and at least one television script, and in 1974 he founded the International Museum of Cartoon Art in Greenwich, Connecticut (now the National Cartoon Museum and located in Boca Raton, Florida).
The Mort Walker Cartoons consists of 1050 panels of the syndicated cartoon strip Beetle Bailey, distributed by King Features Syndicate between 1950 and 1954.
The cartoons are divided into daily strips and Sunday strips, and arranged chronologically within each series.
There are no access restrictions on this material
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
Special Collections Research Center has collections of over eighty cartoonists. Please refer to the SCRC Subject Index for a complete listing.
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
Mort Walker Cartoons
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Library
Created by: –
Date: Jul 1967
Revision history: 20 Mar 2007 - converted to EAD (MRC)
