Brooks on Books: Beetle Bailey: The First Years

It's been a year since I read this, and it's finally time to ask:

Where the deuce is volume 2?

This attractive hardback collection of the first few years (1950-1952) of Mort Walker's long-running comic strip is a delight for even those who think the long-running legacy strip is hogging valuable real estate on the comic pages. "Beetle Bailey" is not an A+ comic or even an A comic, and I wouldn't say it was at the beginning, either. But the world needs B comics, too, doesn't it? This one in particular has been around so long and had such cultural impact that it certainly deserves a chronological definitive archive series.

And I thought this book was the beginning of that. I'm still waiting for the follow-up, though! Come on, Checker, give us more Beetle Bailey.

Many will be surprised to learn that the famous grunt started out as a college student, and this collection presents all the early "Joe College" strips before Beetle signed up for the army. It's fascinating to see the progression of Walker's little universe as the setting switches. You see the beginnings of notable characters like Killer and Sarge, and you see Walker utilizing different types of gags as he establishes his creation. One he keeps coming back to is a big panel format with a bunch of little lines of dialogue, almost like a snapshot of college (later army) life. Checker reproduces these old strips well and adds some helpful but unobtrusive annotations in the margins. There is some supplemental material to provide additional context.

This book is a winner, no doubt, but Checker has left us hanging. I had hoped this was an ongoing series, but I fear the project is abandoned. Anyone know if more "Beetle Bailey" collections are planned?