Zitat des Tages von Mort Walker:
Comics have always helped people to read. A lot of people learned to read by reading the comics. And it's our livelihood, after all. If people don't know how to read, they're not reading our comics.
When I introduced a black soldier, Lt. Flap, in 1971, the Stars and Stripes banned the strip. They were having racial problems and thought it would increase the tensions.
When I first started, you couldn't mention divorce or death. You couldn't show smelly socks. You couldn't show a snake. They took a skunk out of my strip one time.
Some people will do schlock or anything, just to get their name on it.
People take a liking to me like I'm a long-lost friend.
When the war was over and the guys were back to shaving every day, the editor thought the Beetle Bailey strips were hurting their disciplinary efforts to get the guys back to routine.
I first sold a cartoon for five dollars. I was in the fifth grade.
None of the established museums were treating cartoons seriously. It was considered a lesser art or no art at all, just a way to sell newspapers. Even the syndicates who were dedicated to the cartoons were throwing them out, figuring they had no value after they were printed.
The people who were against the Vietnam War thought I was attacking the Army. The guys in the Army thought I was representing their experiences. I was on both sides, and I survived.
I've always said that what cartoonists do is create friends for readers.
Seven days without laughter makes one weak.
Laughter is the brush that sweeps away the cobwebs of your heart.
I took Beetle home thinking that after the Korean War was over, I would have to take him out of the Army. I thought, well, what am I going to do with him?
Everything I know, I write about. My only research is what I did.
I say, if you believe what you read in the comic strips, then you believe that mice run around with little gold buttons on their red pants and drive cars.
I was kicked out of The Stars And Stripes twice, and finally got back in.
You learn just by trying and experimenting. By the time I was 14, I had my own comic strip in the Kansas City paper.
If I'm going on vacation, I just work ahead.
At one time Tribune Syndicate emptied out their storeroom. They put tables full of original cartoons down in the lobby and said take one if you want one. The comics were simply a burden to them.
My father was a dreamer who was always broke. He wanted to be a cartoonist.
Belly buttons were a big battle of mine. Down at the syndicate, they would clip them out with a razor blade. I began putting so many of them in, in the margins and everywhere, that they had a little box down there called 'Beetle Bailey''s Belly-Button Box. The editors finally gave up after I did one strip showing a delivery of navel oranges.
About the only way you can find out about the common man, his slang, what he looked like, what he thought, is through the comic strips. It's a powerful way for young people to learn history.
Most people are sort of against authority. Here's Beetle always challenging authority. I think people relate to it.
Beetle Bailey is actually me, in uniform. I've got about 20 characters, and they're all after friends of mine.
I go to the grocery store with my wife. She goes off to buy something. Where is she, anyways? So I ask the manager, 'What aisle do they keep the wives in?'
I like to keep doing something new and different so people can't say I'm doing the same thing all the time. I like to challenge myself.
