November 19th, 2018

Timeline – 2002 Part 4

by Mort Walker

Beetle Bailey Sunday page digital proof, September 29, 2002.

In this Sunday page, Lt. Flap, who first appeared in the strip on October 5, 1970, looks back at the heroes he had when he was growing up – Magic Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, and Sidney Poitier as well a contemporary role model.

Two years before this episode ran, four-star Army General Colin Powell was mentioned as a potential candidate for the 2000 presidential nomination, but decided against running. Once Texas Governor George W. Bush secured the Republican nomination, Powell endorsed him for president and spoke at the Republican National Convention.  Bush eventually won, and Powell was appointed Secretary of State.

As we mentioned in the previous post, on June 25, 2002 Mort Walker and Colin Powell announced the winner of a character-naming contest in Beetle Bailey in Washington D.C.

Here is another photo from that day with Mort, his wife Catherine and Colin Powell.

Mort and Colin discovered they had served, at different times, at the same basic training camp.  They sang the camp fight song together in Powell’s office.

This encounter was probably the inspiration for the gag above that ran three months later.

Next week we will move on to 2003 in our Timeline series, so stay tooned.

– Brian Walker