From the Fridge Magnet Collection #2

[collisionwork]

The second selection from the gallery is part of a sub-section on our fridge, "Final Panels of Recent Beetle Bailey Strips, Out of Context."


Since Mort Walker's son (?), Greg, has taken over the strip, the stodgy, reliably inoffensive and enjoyably unfunny Beetle Bailey has at times just gone slightly . . . weird. Often this manifests in a final panel of a singularly surreal quality, which is, however preceded by a first panel that (in an attempt to keep the classic "form" of the strip intact) makes the finale "make sense" (Greg Walker appears to prefer a two-panel layout for his strips, a less-traditional, though not unknown, format for a classic strip). The first panel however, is just a ruse, a commercial tactic to allow the final punch its place in newsprint.


And in this case, even having first seen the preceding panel, which "explains" this unsettling image, this panel still stunned me when I encountered it in the New York Daily News:


The Passion of The Beetle



Unfortunately, I may have started with the finest of this series, but there will be more to come.

Comments

[nico-shalom.livejournal.com]

That's great!