Addison Morton Walker was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954.
24 Facts About Mort Walker
2.
Mort Walker's siblings were Peggy W Harman, Robin Ellis Walker and Marilou W White.
3.
Mort Walker attended Northeast High School, where he was a cheerleader, school newspaper editor, yearbook art editor, stage actor in a radio show and ran neighborhood teen center that belonged to several organizations.
4.
Mort Walker had his first comic published at age 11 and sold his first cartoon at 12.
5.
Mort Walker's physical presence in Columbia is noted by The Shack, which was a rambling burger joint behind Jesse Hall on Conley Avenue.
6.
Mort Walker visited the Shack on return trips to Columbia with the last being to the original structure in 1978.
7.
The Shack was destroyed in a fire in 1988 and Walker returned in 2010 for dedication of a replica of the building in the student center with dining area now formally called "Mort's".
8.
In 1943, Mort Walker was drafted into the United States Army and served in Italy, where he was an intelligence and investigating officer and was in charge of an Allied camp for 10,000 German POWs.
9.
Mort Walker was discharged as a first lieutenant in 1947.
10.
Mort Walker graduated in 1948 from the University of Missouri, where he was the editor and art director of the college's humor magazine, Showme, and was president of the local Kappa Sigma chapter.
11.
Mort Walker began doing Spider, a one-panel series for The Saturday Evening Post, about a lazy, laid-back college student.
12.
In 1954, Mort Walker and Dik Browne teamed to launch Hi and Lois, a spin-off of Beetle Bailey.
13.
Under the pseudonym "Addison", Mort Walker began Boner's Ark in 1968.
14.
In 1974, Mort Walker opened the Museum of Cartoon Art, the first museum devoted to the art of comics.
15.
For example, Mort Walker coined the term "squeans" to describe the starbusts and little circles that appear around a cartoon's head to indicate intoxication.
16.
In 1974, Mort Walker founded the National Cartoon Museum, and in 1989 was inducted into its Museum of Cartoon Art Hall of Fame.
17.
Mort Walker received the Reuben Award of 1953 for Beetle Bailey, the National Cartoonists Society's Humor Strip Award for 1966 and 1969, the Gold T-Square Award in 1999, the Elzie Segar Award for 1977 and 1999, and numerous other awards.
18.
In 1978, Mort Walker received the American Legion's Fourth Estate Award, and in 2000, he was given the Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service by the United States Army.
19.
Mort Walker received the Sparky Award for lifetime achievement from the Cartoon Art Museum at the 2010 New York Comic Con.
20.
On September 29,2017, Mort Walker was honored at Yankee Stadium, during the 7th-inning stretch, for his service in World War II.
21.
Mort Walker was married in 1949 to his first wife, Jean Suffill, whom he had met during his time at the University of Missouri.
22.
Mort Walker had three stepchildren via Cathy and her previous marriage to cartoonist John Prentice.
23.
Mort Walker died from complications of pneumonia on January 27,2018, at his home in Stamford, Connecticut.
24.
Mort Walker was interred at Willowbrook Cemetery in Westport, Connecticut.