'Betty Boop and Felix', by the Walker Brothers.
Greg Walker is an American cartoonist and gag writer. From 1973 on, he assisted his father Mort Walker on his signature newspaper gag comics 'Beetle Bailey' and 'Hi & Lois'. Since 1990, Greg Walker is officially co-writer of 'Hi & Lois' and since 2003 official co-author of 'Beetle Bailey' at the family business Comicana, Inc. He has also written episodes for the 'Bugs Bunny' newspaper comic and Guy and Brad Gilchrist's 'Rock Channel' (1984-1985). Greg Walker was additionally the inker of 'Betty Boop and Felix' (1984-1988), a comic strip co-created with his brothers Brian, Morgan and Neal Walker.
Early life and career
Greg Walker was born in 1949 as the oldest of seven children of Mort and Jean Walker. He studied liberal arts and journalism at Syracuse University and has worked in film, commercial photography, newspapers and graphic arts. His main graphic influences are his father and his godfather Dik Browne, who drew Mort Walker's 'Hi and Lois' strip.
Greg Walker started his cartooning career in the 1970s, writing and drawing comic books for Charlton Comics. These included comic books based on animated TV series, such as Jay Ward's 'Rocky and Bullwinkle', 'Underdog', and Hanna-Barbera's 'The Flintstones ('Barney and Betty Rubble'). Greg Walker also worked on 'Sarge Snorkel' (1973-1976), a comic book spin-off of Mort Walker's 'Beetle Bailey' strip, featuring original stories with Walker's creations, but then with art by either Charlton staff artists or Walker's assistants.
'Beetle Bailey', credited to Mort and Greg Walker (6 February 2015).
Beetle Bailey/Hi & Lois
The largest part of Greg Walker's career has been devoted to his father's newspaper comics for King Features Syndicate. He joined Mort Walker as a gag writer for both 'Beetle Bailey' and 'Hi and Lois' in 1973, and by 1984 his brother Brian also joined the so-called "Connecticut laugh factory studio", which is officially operating under the banner Comicana, Inc. Since the 1980s, Greg Walker has been co-writing, inking and lettering 'Beetle Bailey', originally in a steady collaboration with his father until Mort Walker's death in January 2018. Since the 14 April 2003 episode, he has been credited as co-author of the lazy soldier. Since 1987, Bill Janocha has been assisting on the artwork, and in 2001, Mark Brewer joined the team as an inker. In 1990, Greg and Brian Walker officially succeeded their father as the scriptwriters of the family comic 'Hi and Lois', by then drawn by Dik Browne's son Chance Browne.
Other comics
In addition to his father's strips, Greg Walker has worked on a couple of other comic projects. In 1979, he was a writer and artist of the 'Bugs Bunny' newspaper comic for a while, followed by a collaboration with Guy and Brad Gilchrist on the 'Rock Channel' strip (1984-1985), syndicated by Register and Tribune. This short-lived comic attempted to step on the popularity of the upcoming MTV channel, and featured a competing and low-rent music video television station. Greg and the Gilchrist brothers had an equal share in the gag writing, with Guy Gilchrist providing the artwork. Towards the end of its run, ghost artists like Klaus Nordling and Gill Fox took over most of the art chores.
'Rock Channel', drawn by Guy Gilchrist. Note the Michael Jackson caricature on the wall, promoting the 1984 'Victory' tour with the Jackson Five.
Betty Boop and Felix
Under the collective signature "the Walker brothers", Greg Walker and his brothers Brian, Neal and Morgan produced the 'Betty Boop and Felix' strip between 19 November 1984 and 31 January 1988. While Brian and Morgan did the gag writing, Neal and Greg Walker were responsible for the strip's artwork. Based on an original idea by their father, the unusual newspaper comic starred both Max Fleischer's flapper girl Betty Boop and Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer's 'Felix the Cat'. Walker came up with the idea after reading a book about the history of animation. He felt that Betty and Felix were such great graphic characters that they ought to be revived. For the strip, the pair were recast in different roles. Betty was now a housewife, with Felix as her pet. Much like Charles M. Schulz's 'Snoopy' and Jim Davis' 'Garfield', Felix never spoke, but communicated his lines through thought balloons. 'Betty Boop and Felix' was in some ways comparable to 'Sam's Strip' by Mort Walker and Jerry Dumas, in the sense that occasionally other well known animated characters had a cameo, like Fleischer's Koko the Clown and Jay Ward's Bullwinkle J. Moose. Ironically enough, the Walker brothers didn't encounter any copyright issues with these characters, but after a while King Features discovered that they didn't own the rights to Felix. From that moment on, Felix was dropped from the series, which became a vehicle for Betty alone until its cancellation in 1988.
'Beetle Bailey' by Greg and Mort Walker (25 May 2003).