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Once upon a time, that was a pretty clever comic strip. It hasn't been cute, clever, or funny in ages.
Agreed. I think the decline in quality can be directly linked to Mort Walker's age and his diminished involvement in the comic strip. It appears to be a case of Greg Walker not being as being as talented and creative as his father was.
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I think the decline in quality can be directly linked to Mort Walker's age and his diminished involvement in the comic strip. It appears to be a case of Greg Walker not being as being as talented and creative as his father was.
Undoubtedly, but I would add the new political correctness to that. General Halftrack is nowhere near as inappropriate as he used to be, and I suppose that makes sense, but comic strips nowadays have to follow rules that don't apply to the rest of the paper or even to prime-time television. When Walker added Corporal Yo in 1990 (an interesting move, but somewhat misguided, if you ask me), he did it with a kind of stereotypical slant that didn't really take advantage of the possibilities adding an Asian character could bring. Where Lt. Flap was made to be cool and hip, Yo was annoying. Yo could have been smarter than everyone without being so irritating (imagine the talks he could have had with Pvt. Plato). Walker went for the annoying stereotype, then he caved in to pressure from ethnic groups, and now Yo's a useless character who seldom appears.
Quick example of what I'm talking about: in an old strip from the seventies (I think), Pvt. Blips tells Miss Buxley the general wants to see her. Buxley asks why. Blips says, "He's been reviewing the troops all day and has 'khaki eyes.'" In the third panel, Buxley is standing in front of the general's desk. The general is slouched in his chair, obviously tired, and is saying, "Just stand there a while."
Pretty funny, and pretty inappropriate. I think maybe that one would fly nowadays, but it couldn't get much more lecherous than that. Once the strip lost that bit of naughtiness, it became pretty boring.
Sorry - Cpl. Yo. Didn't mean to mess with his rank.
And I'm looking for his Japanese name, not the Americanized one (Joe). Even though the last name of "Yo" would imply Chinese ancestry, the character has a Japanese name.
No more hints for now. Have fun.
Last edited by Leo Lakio; September 4, 2010, 04:15 PM.
Undoubtedly, but I would add the new political correctness to that.
Good points you make. Although in the past, there were many good Beetle Bailey strips that didn't rely on sexist or stereotypical humor. Mort Walker is a WWII vet, so he was able to make light of his previous experiences serving in the army. I wonder if after so many years after being discharged, the ability to offer fresh humor from a G.I.'s perspective has all but dried up.
It's not unlike what happened to Peanuts. In that strip's earlier years, Charles Schulz was often inspired by the actions of his own children and the neighborhood kids, and it provided much of the fodder for the antics of Charlie Brown and his friends. But after his kids grew up and left the nest in the 1970s, Peanuts began to focus more and more on Snoopy and the Walter Mitty fantasies of being a WWI flying ace or Joe Cool. Fantasies that were, in fact, Schulz's.
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