July 12th, 2015

Beetle Enlists – Bonus

by Mort Walker

We recently discovered a rare King Features sales brochure from 1951 in our archives.

King Features sales brochure, 1951 (front side).

King Features sales brochure, 1951 (back side).

This promotional piece represents a significant turning point in the history of Beetle Bailey.

The copy on the front page explained the reasoning for the change: “With millions of men going into the service, leaving behind families that represented millions of more readers vitally interested in G.I. life – a good, humorous take off on the army is a comic-strip investment with a guaranteed return for any newspaper.”

“Get on the BEETLE BAILEY bandwagon now,” the sales pitch continued. “Win new prestige for your newspaper by being able to say – when Beetle is top kick in the army humor business – ‘We had him when.’”

These were prophetic words.

– Brian Walker