In 1950, amid the Korean War, King Features began syndicating Mr. Walker’s comic strip, and Spider morphed into Beetle Bailey, in an Army uniform. Mr. Walker substituted barracks buddies for dorm mates, sergeants and generals for professors, and the military bureaucracy for academic pronouncements. Mr. Walker later gave the character deriving from Spider the surname Bailey to honor the editor who inspired his college-themed cartoons. “There was an initial fuss from people who either thought I was propagandizing or ridiculing blacks,” Mr. Walker remembered. A life-size statue of Beetle Bailey, cast in bronze, stands outside the alumni center at the University of Missouri.

Source: New York Times January 28, 2018 03:35 UTC