Mort Walker - Comic Strips

Comic Strips

He then went to New York to pursue a career in cartooning. He began doing Spider, a one-panel series for The Saturday Evening Post, about a lazy, laid-back college student. When he decided he could make more money doing a comic strip, Spider morphed into Beetle Bailey, eventually distributed by King Features Syndicate to 1,800 newspapers in more than 50 countries for a combined readership of 200 million daily.

In 1954, Walker and Dik Browne teamed to launch Hi and Lois, a spin-off of Beetle Bailey. Under the pseudonym "Addison", Walker began Boner's Ark in 1968. Other comic strips created by Walker include Gamin & Patches, Mrs. Fitz's Flats, The Evermores, Sam's Strip and Sam and Silo (the last two with Jerry Dumas).

In 1974, Walker opened the Museum of Cartoon Art, the first museum devoted to the art of comics, initially located in Greenwich, Connecticut and Rye Brook, New York before moving to Boca Raton, Florida in 1992.

From previous marriages, Walker and his wife, Catherine, have nine children between them. After seven decades in the business, Walker still supervises the daily work at his Connecticut studio, which has employed six of his children.