{"id":354,"date":"2008-05-21T12:36:22","date_gmt":"2008-05-21T17:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?p=354"},"modified":"2012-02-25T19:10:13","modified_gmt":"2012-02-26T00:10:13","slug":"mort-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/mort-walker\/","title":{"rendered":"Mort Walker (BSS #216)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mort Walker is the creator of <i>Beetle Bailey<\/i>.  A forthcoming volume of the first two years of <i>Beetle Bailey<\/i> is coming next month.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/beetle.gif\" alt=\"\" title=\"beetle\" align=\"center\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5356\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-354-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3\">http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Listen: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?powerpress_pinw=354-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"segundo216.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Running Time: 28:34 &#8212; 26.1MB)<\/p>\n<p><b>Condition of the Show:<\/b> Observing fifty years of development.<\/p>\n<p><b>Author:<\/b> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mortwalker.com\/\">Mort Walker<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Subjects Discussed:<\/b> Walker&#8217;s drawing pace, the <i>Beetle Bailey<\/i> production cycle, filtering through the gags, rejected strips sent to Sweden, Beetle&#8217;s early days as a slacker in college, the military as the common experience, Walker&#8217;s relationship with the syndicate, the curly hair look of Buzz and Lois, portrait-like illustrations of women, early attention to background, the shrinking space of newspaper comics, Berkeley Breathed and Bill Watterson&#8217;s fights for space, appealing to the greatest number of readers, the development of Sarge&#8217;s girth and teeth, Plato as the only other character carryover, covering the eyes of characters, Dik Browne, Beetle&#8217;s early square form and perpendicular limbs, Walker as Lt. Fuzz, Lt. Jack Flap, African-American characters in comic strips, being confronted by editors by <i>Ebony<\/i>, Colin Powell&#8217;s approval of Flap, code numbers associated with the comic strip, writing a military-based comic strip without reference to Iraq, General Halftrack&#8217;s skirt-chasing and later sensitivity training, the circumstances that will cause Walker to change his strip, why Walker hasn&#8217;t included women soldiers, aborted cliffhangers, and characters staying the same in the Beetle Bailey universe.<\/p>\n<p><b>EXCERPT FROM SHOW:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> Here we have a military strip.  But there&#8217;s no reference to Iraq.  And I wanted to ask you about this kind of balance. <\/p>\n<p><b>Walker:<\/b> I try to avoid anything controversial.  Because if you do something pro-Bush, fifty percent of your readers are going to get mad, fifty percent of your readers might like it.  But I&#8217;m after the whole broad spectrum.  So I&#8217;m really avoid those things.  <\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> But to talk about the broader audience, I mean, Bush&#8217;s approval rating isn&#8217;t exactly the best in the world.  It&#8217;s under 30%.  So you have 70% of the audience if you were to play around with this kind of thing.<\/p>\n<p><b>Walker:<\/b> Yeah.  Well, anyway, I try not to get too topical or controversial.  That&#8217;s why I&#8217;ve avoided the war pretty much.  I don&#8217;t mention Iraq very much.  Very seldom.<\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> Even though this war has lasted longer than World War II?  I mean, doesn&#8217;t it seem&#8230;?<\/p>\n<p><b>Walker:<\/b> But there&#8217;s so many people that are angry about it that I&#8217;ve got to be really careful about how I treat it.  Mostly, I just ignore it.  People say, &#8220;Well, when is Beetle going to go to Iraq?&#8221;  I said, &#8220;Jesus Christ.  I hope never!&#8221;  You know, I don&#8217;t want to send him there because it&#8217;s very difficult to deal with.  I&#8217;m just keeping him in basic training.  It&#8217;s the common experience that all soldiers have.  If I take him out somewhere and specify into some particular kind of work, I&#8217;ll lose a lot of my readers there.  They won&#8217;t be interested or they won&#8217;t understand it.  But everybody understands basic training.  That&#8217;s where I keep him.<\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> I mean, you had this similar situation with Jack Flap. That&#8217;s why I present this as well.  I mean, that didn&#8217;t hurt you.  In fact, that got <i>Beetle Bailey<\/i> more attention, you know?<\/p>\n<p><b>Walker:<\/b> Yeah, but it was a common experience.  Anyway, that hasn&#8217;t hurt me.  <\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5357\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-354-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3\">http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Listen: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?powerpress_pinw=354-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"segundo216.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Running Time: 28:34 &#8212; 26.1MB)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mort Walker is the creator of Beetle Bailey. A forthcoming volume of the first two years of Beetle Bailey is coming next month. Condition of the Show: Observing fifty years of development. Author: Mort Walker Subjects Discussed: Walker&#8217;s drawing pace, the Beetle Bailey production cycle, filtering through the gags, rejected strips sent to Sweden, Beetle&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5358\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-354-3\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3?_=3\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3\">http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Listen: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?powerpress_pinw=354-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo216.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"segundo216.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Running Time: 28:34 &#8212; 26.1MB)<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1087],"tags":[384,171,9,385,386],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2303,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions\/2303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}