Lazy varmint-hatin' Snuffy Smith and lazy enlisted man Beetle Bailey would seem to have very little in common. In fact, they don't. But that hasn't stopped whoever it is that pens "Snuffy Smith" these days from coming up with some flimsy excuse - in this case, the 60th anniversary of "Beetle Bailey" - to put the work-avoiding soldier in his comic today.
We always imagined Camp Swampy, the broken-down army base which has housed Beetle and his war-avoiding soldiers for 60 years now, was somewhere near a bustling medium-sized town. How else to explain all those scenes in which the soldiers - who have conveniently managed to avoid fighting in Vietnam, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else over the years - go out for drinks or hit on girls. Turns out we were wrong.
Camp Swampy is clearly situated right next to whatever hollow Snuffy and his indigent hill people inhabit, and frankly, we're stunned that these two haven't come upon each other any time before this.
Will Snuffy continue to show up near the Camp? Will he start selling the soldiers moonshine? Will Beetle come over for dinner or start courting Miz Prunelly or any of the other single gals who inhabit Snuffy's environs?
Lan' sakes, as Snuffy might say, who cares? We'd bet half of Snuffy's poker winnin's from last night that these two won't meet again for another sixty years. Ah,.comics! In no other medium can convenience triumph logic without anyone saying a word.
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