Beetle Bailey Sales – July 1956

The King Features sales brochure, shown above, was mailed out in July 1956 and marked a new milestone for Beetle Bailey. The syndicate boldly predicted that, “At his present rate of 20 papers a month, Beetle will zoom past the 1000 paper mark in about two years.” Mort Walker’s strip would not pass that number until 1965.

In the interior of the brochure, shown below, was the following testimonial from Roderick J. Watts, Managing Editor of the Houston Chronicle: “Beetle Bailey is one of the funniest and best comics in circulation today. The Chronicle was one of the first papers to try this comic, and we have been publishing it every day since, with the exception of a week’s trial period at the very beginning. We left the strip out of the paper to test reaction. We received telephone calls and letters and personal visits and knew then that the little comic strip soldier had captured our readers.”

The Houston Chronicle never regretted their decision and is still publishing Beetle Bailey today.

– Brian Walker