Beetle Bailey will turn 60 on Sept. 4. That's the comic strip and not the character. Like most cartoon characters, Beetle doesn't age. That's not to say that Mort Walker, Beetle's creator, ignores the passage of time. He created a flap with his Afro-wearing Lt. Flap, introduced in 1970. And Ms. Buxley has definitely gotten smarter over the years. Still, I don't expect Beetle to become a grandparent any time soon. He'd have to become a parent first.
Most cartoon characters are stuck in time in more ways than one. The nuclear family is still the norm, and grandparents are in short supply. I do like the grandparents in One Big Happy, who live next door to their grandchildren Ruthie and Joe and their parents.
A few newer strips depart from the nuclear family model, and several include grandparents:
- Agnes lives with her Gramma in a trailer park. A diminutive dreamer, she relies on her Gramma and her tomboyish best friend Trout to keep her grounded.
- In Grand Avenue lively twins live with their grandmother, an active, no-nonsense type.
- Pickles centers around a young boy living with his grandparents. His parents are also a part of the household, but the grandparents are the stars.
- In 9 Chickweed Lane, teenager Edda and her mother Juliette share a home with Juliette's acerbic mother, Gran, who has a lovable beau, Thorax.
In Boondocks, creator Aaron McGruder used a pair of boys living with a grandfather as a vehicle for political commentary. The strip is now defunct, but lives on through an animated series on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
Do you have a favorite comic strip grandparent?
Coming soon: the Grandparents and Grandparenting blog carnival.
I turn 60 this year so Beetle Bailey and I grew up together.