10 Classic Beetle Bailey Comics About Army Life Every Recruit Can Relate With

Introduced just a month before Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang, the title character of Mort Walker’s legendary syndicated newspaper comic strip, Beetle Bailey, started out as a college student, but soon enlisted in the army – and never left. Subsequently, Beetle has spent a lifetime in the military, as a private stationed at Camp Swampy, the United States armed forces’ most hilariously unreliable outpost.

Though Beetle Bailey has never been truly disrespectful of the army, it has always depicted the daily doldrums of being a soldier on duty with tongue planted firmly-in-cheek.

This led to the U.S. Army actually instituting a ban on the comic early in its run – something that, according to Bailey’s creator, actually made the cartoon more popular. In the decades since, the irreverent comedy of the comic has made it a favorite for innumerable readers both in and out of the military.

10

“Someone With The Gumption To Speak Up”

First Published: March 25, 1955

In this early Beetle Bailey comic, Beetle’s superior officer Sargeant Snorkel proposes an open forum, offering the troops under his command a chance to lodge any complaints about the service that they might have. Still adjusting to life as a soldier, Beetle Bailey is the lone recruit to step forward, the only one in his unit with “the gumption to speak up” – a blip of individualism which promptly gets him assigned to potato-peeling duty.

This is, perhaps, the perennial theme of Beetle Bailey; countless panels over the decades have derived humor from the clash of its individual characters, and their whims and caprices, against the rigid structure of military life. To a great extent, the universality of this theme is part of what has allowed a wide audience to appreciate Beetle Bailey’s sensibilities.

9

“That’s Camp Swampy, Sir”

First Published: April 23, 1955

In this Beetle Bailey cartoon, Sgt. Snorkel frantically instructs Beetle and other recruits to get the barracks ready in time for the inspection by “the Pentagon General” – who, in the final frame, checks out Camp Swampy with binoculars from his airplane window, and decides to move on “to the next camp.”

Much is made of Beetle Bailey’s view of authority, as expressed by its lower ranking characters toward the military’s higher-ups and decision makers, but in truth, the strip was at its most satirically insightful when poking fun at the people in charge’s view of the lower ranks. That is exemplified here by the high-ranking official’s casual disregard for the actual soldiers on the ground, in effect literalizing a common sentiment among the “grunts.”

8

“If They Just Didn’t Give Us All This Work To Do”

First Published: September 8, 1958

This cartoon is another instance in which Beetle Bailey’s humor is rooted in a universal sentiment, which is expressed using characters who happen to be in the Army. That is, Beetle and his fellow private opine that their jobs wouldn’t be so bad, if it weren’t for all the work they have to do – a highly relatable idea that this punchline encapsulates effectively.

Even during times when America was at war, Beetle Bailey was always a depiction of army life outside active combat, where the greatest dangers were boredom and stagnation. This highlighted for many readers that the Army is, the majority of the time, just another job – albeit one with more rigid rules than even the most stringent civilian workplace.

7

“Start By Cutting Down On The Men’s Food Rations”

First Published: October 28, 1960

This strip is another powerful example of Beetle Bailey’s ability to identify hard truths about bureaucracy with lighthearted humor. The cartoon’s tone and style were never confrontational, but creator Mort Walker did not shy away from calling out the inequities of power as he saw them. Here, budget cuts are imposed on the Army from the top down – and naturally, as Camp Swampy commander General Halfrack sits behind a huge desk, in a lavish office, smoking a cigar, he suggests cuts can begin with “cutting down on the men’s food rations.”

Though the joke is innocuous enough on the surface, readers wouldn’t be wrong to think that this was precisely the kind of authority-challenging humor that made the Army uneasy about Beetle Bailey during the initial years of its run.

6

“I Haven’t Accomplished A Durn Burn Thing”

​​​​​​​First Published: July 22, 1962

This Beetle-less Beetle Bailey comic stars Sgt. Snorkel, and it conveys another incredibly relatable feeling, one that military officials and civilians alike will find all-too-familiar. That is, the feeling of being so consumed by one’s career that they are left bereft of knowing what to do with themselves on their day off.

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Left with too much time to think and no hobby to occupy himself with, Sgt. Snorkel endures an extended dark Sunday of the soul, asking himself “all this time in the service, and what do I have to show for it?” and lamenting that “all [he does] is wind up taking lonely walks and wondering what went wrong.” In an especially satisfying punchline, Snorkel thinks that maybe a higher rank would give his life more meaning – as General Halfstack slumps against a tree, thinking the exact same thing.

5

“It Doesn’t Seem Fair…”

First Published: November 22, 1963​​​​​​​

Pop was a recurring Beetle Bailey character, notable for the way he was often singled out for abuse by Sgt. Snorkel. Here, he winds up being the envy of the Sargeant, though only as a result of a lamentable string of minor problems that kept him busy the entire night before.

When Snorkel demands to know why Pop missed “the general’s lecture last night,” Pop explains that:

My wife got sick. I had to take care of all the kids and go look for our lost dog and my car had a flat and I had to run to the drugstore and I had to fix the heater in our trailer before we all froze.

Hilariously, in response to this litany of excuses, Sgt. Snorkel thinks, “I doesn’t seem fair” – not that one man would have to deal with so much, without help, but that Pop had a legitimate excuse for missing “the general’s lecture,” when Snorkel and the rest of the Camp had to sit through it.

4

“It’s Part Of The America Nature To Resist Authority”

First Published: June 21, 1964

In this cartoon, author Mort Walker essentially expresses the thesis of Beetle Bailey – that is, there is an inherently paradoxical clash between “the American nature to resist authority,” and service in the U.S. military, which demands unquestioning obedience to the chain of command. It may be that soldiers need to sacrifice a degree of liberty in order to preserve the ideal of freedom, and the freedom and security of the civilian population, but that doesn’t make submitting to authority any easier for the average American solider.

That is simply and effectively illustrated here, as General Halfstack gives a speech to a sea of faceless, identical soldiers, all listening at attention, save for one who holds up a sign that says, “Nyah!” – to which the General’s aid de camp can only say “don’t let it get to you, sir.”

3

“Ever Hear Of Saluting It?”

First Published: April 6, 1965​​​​​​​

Authority and the individual clash once more in this Beetle Bailey strip – except for a change of pace, the individual comes out on top here, as Beetle finds a loophole in the otherwise ironclad rule that superior officers must be saluted. “I’m not required to salute if I’m riding,” Beetle claims in the second panel, after being admonished in the first, with the final frame revealing that he is on roller skates, with the offended officer trying to find any rule in the book to court martial him by.

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“It doesn’t say anything about roller skates, sir,” his aides inform him, giving Beetle a rare triumph, and delivering a solid laugh thanks to the roller skate reveal, which amounts to one of the sillier Beetle Bailey jokes of its kind.

2

“Camp Swampy’s Rockets Blow Up All By Themselves!”

First Published: October 26, 1966

“Camp Swampy’s rockets blow up all by themselves,” General Halfstack bemoans, noting that America’s Soviet enemies don’t even need to attack the base as their new “anti-missle missile” falls apart of its own accord. Again, a surface level gag belies a deeper critique, whether intentional or not. By the mid-1960s, the Cold War was still escalating, and U.S. spending on military technology was continually increasing.

With this cartoon, Mort Walker lampooned the arms race, once more hinting at a counterculture tinge, more in line with the increasingly dissatisfied portion of the public who would become increasingly vocal in their protests in the late ’60s than with the hawks who insisted upon a strong national defense and excessive weapons budget.

First Published: January 14, 2007​​​​​​​

Jumping nearly four decades into the future, this mid-aughts Beetle Bailey cartoon finds the title character and his platoon in full color, and marching in full gear. The comic focuses not on Bailey himself, but rather a long-running side character, Private Plato, who occupies himself and his squad with rhyming couplets throughout their march.

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Over the years, Beetle Bailey has developed a stable of familiar characters, all of whom embody the comic’s themes and motifs in their own unique way. In the same way the members of the Peanuts Gang developed distinct personalities over that seminal cartoon’s fifty-year run, Beetle Bailey has spent three-quarters of a century fleshing out its cast, from the lowest ranking soldiers at Camp Swampy to the brass.