Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker has passed away at the age of 94.

Walker began cartooning at a young age, creating cartoons for a student newspaper. He sold his first professional comics work at the young age of 11. Before launching the cartoon that would define his career, Walker had a varied career, working for Hall Brothers (the progenitors of Hallmark Cards) and contributing gag cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post.

After serving in the Army during World War II and after, Walker created Beetle Bailey, a satirical look at life in the military, in 1950. He would draw the adventures of the lazy GI and the dysfunctional characters of Camp Swampy for 68 years, longer than any other syndicated cartoonist. Notably, the U.S. military paper Stars and Stripes banned Beetle Bailey from its pages for a decade, boosting the popularity of the strip. At its peak, Beetle Bailey was printed in 1,800 newspapers, reaching 200 million readers in 50 countries.

Walker also wrote several other strips, including the hit syndicated cartoon Hi and Lois, which launched in 1954 and was originally illustrated by Dik Browne (Hagar the Horrible). Walker’s sons Brian and Greg assumed duties on Hi and Lois in the 1980s and have assisted him with gags and inking for Beetle Bailey since the 1970s. The younger Walkers will continue to produce the latter strip.

Walker was honored by the National Cartoonists Society with the award for outstanding cartoonist of the year in 1953, and he received the best humor strip award in 1966 and 1969. In 2000, he received the Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service from the Secretary of the Army, the highest such distinction for a civilian.

Walker was also devoted to the history of the comic strip, opening the Museum of Cartoon Art in Connecticut in 1974. The museum moved locations and changed names several times over the years before closing in 2002. In 2008, the 200,000-piece collection was donated to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University (see “Ohio State Gets IMCA”).