Beetle Bailey

Main characters

• Private Carl James "Beetle" Bailey: the main character and the strip's namesake, a feckless, shirking, perpetual goof-off and straggler known for his chronic laziness and generally insubordinate attitude. Slack, hapless, lanky and freckled, Beetle's eyes are always concealed, whether by headgear or, in the rare instance of not wearing any (e.g., in the shower), by his hair. He is an expert in camouflage as he is often hiding from Sarge. His nickname was given to him by his aunt who thought his freckles made him look like a ladybug beetle.^[12] In early strips, it was revealed that he is the brother of Lois Flagston (née Bailey) of the Hi and Lois comic strip, which Mort Walker wrote, and Dik Browne drew. Beetle's and Lois's grandmother came from Dublin, Ireland.^[13] Beetle has a brother Chigger.^[14]
• Sergeant 1st Class Orville P. Snorkel: Beetle's platoon sergeant and nemesis, introduced in 1951. Sarge is known to frequently beat up Beetle for any excuse he can think of, leaving Beetle a shapeless pulp. Obese, snaggle-toothed and volatile, Sarge can be alternately short-tempered and sentimental. They share an uneasy alliance that sometimes borders on genuine (albeit unequal) friendship. Despite his grouchiness and bossiness, Sarge does have a soft side, which he usually keeps concealed. He is from Pork Corners, Kansas. He is also known to be foul-mouthed, even compared to the rest of the cast.
• Otto: Sgt. Snorkel's anthropomorphic, look-alike bulldog whom Sarge dresses up the same as himself, in an army uniform. Otto is fiercely protective of Sarge and seems to have a particular antipathy toward Beetle. His first appearance was July 17, 1956; originally he was a regular dog who walked on all fours, but Mort Walker finally decided to make him more human-like, believing he would be "funnier that way."^{[citation needed]}
• Brigadier General Amos T. Halftrack: the inept, frustrated, alcoholic commander of Camp Swampy, introduced in 1951. As of April 26, 1980 he was married to his wife Martha for 30 years. He also has a "General Halfrack Fan Club" (1 member) ^[15] An actual "Half-track" is a military vehicle. In a July 1997 story arc, Halftrack attended mandatory sensitivity training and apologized for his sexist behavior.^[16]
• Miss Buxley: Halftrack's blonde, buxom civilian secretary—and occasional soldier's date (as well as a constant distraction for Halftrack).^[17] Miss Buxley has an apparent interest in Beetle and later becomes his girlfriend, but is constantly pursued by Killer. Although she officially became part of the comic in the November 17, 1971 strip, she made an earlier cameo in 1964 as that of woman who refused to date Killer because she dated officers only and wouldn't believe he was an officer himself because of his "dishpan hands."^[18]
• Lieutenant Sonny Fuzz: very young (with noticeably pointy eyebrows and very little facial hair), overly earnest, anal-retentive, "by the book" and highly misophonic, especially where squeaky furniture is concerned. The apple-polishing Fuzz is always trying to impress uninterested superiors (especially Halftrack), and "rub it in the noses" of his subordinates. He was introduced March 7, 1956 and even then he was so naive that Pvt Cosmo actually won Fuzz's uniform in a dice game.^[19] Mort Walker said he modeled the character and personality of Lt. Fuzz on himself, having taken himself too seriously after completing Officer Training.^[20]
• Lieutenant Jackson Flap: the strip's first black character, often touchy and suspicious but effortlessly cool, introduced in 1970. Originally wore an afro hairstyle, but later shaved it off as later regulations disallowed many hairdos. Has often been seen with a beard, and is in most ways the total opposite to Lt. Fuzz, even though they share the same rank. Walker created Flap due to critique of the all-White crew of the comic strip, and was immediately censored by US Army newspaper Stars and Stripes until criticism made the publication revert the decision and publish strips with Flap in them along with the rest.^{[citation needed]}
• Cookie (Cornelius) Jowls: the mess sergeant, who smokes cigarettes while preparing the mess hall's questionable menu. He practices no sanitary food preparation measures aside from wearing a chef hat, and is almost always seen wearing a tank top. Walker once described him as "the sum of all Army cooks I've met in my life."
• Private "Killer" Diller: the notorious ladies' man and Beetle's frequent crony—introduced in 1951.
• Private Zero: the buck-toothed, naïve farm boy who takes commands and comments literally and misunderstands practically everything.
• Private Plato: the Camp's resident intellectual; bespectacled, given to scrawling long-winded, analytical, often philosophical graffiti.^[21] Named after Plato but based on Walker's pal, fellow cartoonist Dik Browne. Plato is the only character other than Beetle to evolve from the early "college" months of the strip.^[20]

Supporting characters

• Private Blips: Gen. Halftrack's competent, jaded, not-at-all-buxom secretary. She resents Halftrack's constant ogling of Miss Buxley, and though envious of the latter's appearance maintains a polite working relationship with her.
• Chaplain Staneglass: According to Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook, Walker based the chaplain on Irish actor Barry Fitzgerald's priest character from Going My Way (1944). He often tries to get Sarge to not beat up Beetle or the men but his efforts either backfire or are futile.
• Martha (Knips) Halftrack: the General's formidable, domineering wife. She is 70 years old. Her brother Sgt Knips is the senior NCO at Camp Swampy.^[22][23]
• Private Rocky: Camp Swampy's long-haired, disgruntled social dissident, a former biker gang member.^[24]
• Private Cosmo: Camp Swampy's sunglass-wearing, resident "shady entrepreneur" and huckster. Loosely based on William Holden's Sefton character from Stalag 17.^{[citation needed]}
• Captain Sam Scabbard: hard-nosed, flat-top wearing officer, commander of A Company and usually depicted as competent. Mort Walker has said that there needed to be at least one normal person in the comic.^{[citation needed]}
• Major Greenbrass: staff officer and golf partner of Gen. Halftrack. He is most often simply a sounding-board for the general, reacting to his superior's shenanigans instead of causing his own. In March 2023 he was redesigned with dark skin, making him Black.^[25][26]
• Private Julius Plewer: fastidious fussbudget, who eventually became Halftrack's chauffeur.
• Corporal Yo: the strip's only Asian character, introduced in 1990, who tries to help Sarge bring efficiency to Company A. After 30 years in the strip he was redesigned with an olive complexion and less slanted eyes.
• Dr. Bonkus: Camp Swampy's staff psychiatrist, a little "crazy."
• Sergeant 1st Class Louise Lugg: a tough female soldier who hopes to be Sarge's girlfriend, introduced in 1986.
• Bella: Sgt. Louise Lugg's female pet cat.
• Specialist Chip Gizmo: Camp Swampy's resident computer geek, was named by a write-in contest in 2002, won by Earl Hemminger, from Springfield, Virginia. The contest, sponsored by Dell Computer Corp., received more than 84,000 entries. It raised more than $100,000 for the Fisher House Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides housing for families of patients at military and veterans hospitals.^[27]

Retired characters

• Bunny Piper—Was Beetle's seldom-seen girlfriend (from 1959^[28]), before he started dating Miss Buxley.
• Buzz—Was Beetle's girlfriend before 1959.^[28]
• Canteen (early 1950s)—always eating.
• Snake Eyes (early 1950s)—the barracks gambler, replaced by Cosmo, Rocky and others.
• Big Blush (early 1950s)—tall, innocent, and a great attraction to the girls; many of his characteristics incorporated into both Sarge and Zero.
• Fireball (early 1950s)—neophyte who always seems to be in the way, forerunner of both Zero and Lt. Fuzz.
• Bammy (early 1950s)—the southern patriot from Alabama who is still fighting the Civil War.
• Dawg (early 1950s)—the guy in every barracks who creates his own pollution.
• Ozone (late 1950s)—Zero's bigger, even more naïve friend.
• Moocher (early 1960s)—stingy and always borrowing things.
• Pop (1960s)—married private: gets yelled at by Sarge all day and goes home at night for more abuse from his wife.
• Sergeant ("Glotis") Webbing—Snorkel outsnore the loudest snoring by Sgt "Glotis"^[29] on one occasion Sgt Snorkel was shocked that Beetle was "cheating" when Beetle allowed himself to be beaten up by Sgt Webbing instead of Sgt Snorkel^[30]
• Rolf (early 1980s)—Originally introduced in response to complaints about the constant ogling of Miss Buxley by the male characters. First appearance was in the September 9, 1982 strip, disappeared completely by the mid-1980s.^[31]

The early strip was set at Rockview University. When Beetle joined the army, all of the other characters were dropped (although both incarnations of the strip include a bespectacled intellectual named Plato). Four characters from the original cast (Bitter Bill, Diamond Jim, Freshman, and Sweatsock) made at least one appearance, in the January 5, 1963 strip.^[32][33]

Self-censoring

Sometimes Mort Walker created strips with raunchy subject matter for his own amusement. This was done at the sketch stage, and those strips were never meant to be published in the U.S. They "end[ed] up in a black box in the bottom drawer", according to Walker. These sketches were sometimes published in Scandinavia, however, with a translation underneath. In Norway, they appeared in the Norwegian Beetle Bailey comic book, Billy, with the cover of the comic marked to show it contained censored strips. To offset any possible negative reaction, the publisher experimented with "scrambling" the strips in the mid-1990s. To see them, the reader had to view them through a "de-scrambling" plastic card. This was discontinued soon afterward, and the strips later were printed without scrambling. In Sweden, some of these strips were collected in the Alfapocket series.^[35]

1989 special

A 30-minute animated TV special co-written by Mort Walker and Hank Saroyan was produced for CBS in 1989, but did not air due to management changes at the CBS network.^[38] It has been released on DVD alongside the 1960s cartoons. Greg Whalen played Beetle, Bob Bergen portrayed Killer, Henry Corden was Sgt. Snorkel, Frank Welker was both Zero and Otto, Linda Gary voiced both Miss Buxley and Ms. Blips and General Halftrack was Larry Storch. This special was one of a number of specials made in the same timeframe by King Features/Hearst for TV as potential series pilots; others included Blondie & Dagwood (co-produced with Marvel Productions, who had also collaborated with King Features for the Defenders of the Earth series a few years before) and Hägar the Horrible (co-produced with Hanna-Barbera Productions).