'Betty Boop and Felix'.
Neal Walker is an American cartoonist, sculptor and animator, and the son of legendary cartoonist Mort Walker. Just like his brothers Brian and Greg, he has participated in the production of his father's signature gag comics 'Beetle Bailey' and 'Hi and Lois' at the family business Comicana Inc. He was also the main artist of 'Betty Boop and Felix' (1984-1988), an oddball comic strip created by four of the five Walker brothers (Greg, Brian, Morgan and Neal).
Early life and career
Neal Walker was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, as the sixth child of Mort and Jean Walker. His brother Roger was born after him. After studying photography at Syracuse University, he began working on his father's comic strips 'Beetle Bailey' and 'Hi and Lois' during the 1980s. Not much is known about his precise contributions. According to articles in The Journal News (26 August 1991) and The Comics Journal (2009), Neal was mostly involved in drawing 'Beetle Bailey' stories for the Scandinavian market. These were made directly for the character's own Danish magazine, Basserne, which was launched in 1972 by Interpresse, and also appeared in other Scandinavian countries through Semic Press. Neal Walker has also maintained the official mortwalker.com website.
Since the death of his father in 2018, Neal Walker has continued to create the 'Beetle Bailey' strip together with his brothers Brian and Greg, with assistance from the cartoonist Bill Janocha.
Two 'Betty Boop' strips from The Waco Citizen of 26 February 1988.
Betty Boop and Felix
Together with his brothers Brian, Greg and Morgan, Neal Walker made the 'Betty Boop and Felix' strip from 1984 until 1988 under the collective signature "the Walker brothers". While Brian and Morgan wrote the gags, Neal was the main artist of the feature, with Greg Walker providing the inking duties. Based on an original idea by their father Mort, 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 their strip, the Walkers recast the pair 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 just 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 cameos, 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.
Later career
In 1992, Neal and Mort Walker designed a bronze statue of America's laziest Army private, located at the University of Missouri campus. The sculpture was unveiled during the university's 1992 homecoming celebration. Neal Walker has served as editor and layout artist on book collections with his father's creations. Between 2006 and 2010, he edited and published 27 issues of his father's humorous monthly newsletter, The Best of Times, distributed freely throughout Connecticut and also made available on the Internet.
Neal and Mort Walker with the clay model of Beetle Bailey.