Sad Sack: A trip down memory lane

Sad Sack do you remember?

If you are a Baby Boomer ( born between 1946 and 1964) or older you should be familiar with Sad Sack an American comic strip and comic book character created by Sgt. George Baker during World War II. Baker also worked on the Disney classics Bambi, Pinocchio, and Dumbo. Perhaps as you age you find that long ago memories easily come to mind and you might even have recently been thinking about this cartoon character.

Sad Sack was a lowly private in the United States Army, who was experiencing some of the absurdities and humiliations of military life. The name was a shortened version of the military slang term "sad sack of shit", which was commonly used during World War II, for soldiers or non-military personnel who were thought to be dim-witted or inept. Think of Sgt. Vincent Carter from the television series Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. (1964-1969). Sarge often yelled "Pyle, you nitwit you lame brain, you numbskull, knucklehead."

Art imitates life

When asked how this character came into being Baker said the following regarding military life: "Simple terms such as K.P. or Inspection drew a blank and needed explanation. In an endeavor to rectify this sad state of affairs and also to occupy my evenings with something constructive for a change, I decided to do some cartoons that would explain pictorially what Army life was like.”

Baker had tried selling his tales of the worthless soldier to newspapers but was rejected, He was about to give up when he entered his comics in a contest and won. He was then asked to submit a cartoon strip every week to an army publication .

The title character in the comics was simply known as Sad Sack and had no other name. The Sad Sack comic strip debuted on June 1942 in the first issue of the Army Weekly titled Yank. It became so popular, that in 1944, Simon & Schuster published a hardcover collection of Baker's wartime Sad Sack strips. In 1944 the publisher released a follow-up, titled The New Sad Sack. (1946). The original book was concurrently published as a mass marketed paperback Armed Services edition.

Sad Sack was misunderstood

After WWII ended, The Sad Sack ran in syndication in United States newspapers from May 5, 1946 until 1958. Baker then sold the rights to Harvey Comics, which published original Sad Sack stories in 287 issues of the Sad Sack comic book series which ran from September 1949 to October 1982.

Perhaps you felt empathy for this character and thought his name meant he was sad because he was mistreated and misunderstood. Maybe you knew the military term and agreed with what it implied. In today’s world, Sad Sack would probably be diagnosed as being on the spectrum of some type of emotional or neurological disorder and mistreating him would be discouraged and considered as bullying.

Initially, Sad Sack was a civilian until he re-enlisted in February 1953 in issue #22. Harvey produced a large number of commercial spin-offs and in 1951 also published a one-shot comic The Sad Sack Comes Home. Harvey comics is also known for Casper the friendly ghost and Richie Rich comics.

Sad Sack goes to the movies

Mel Blanc voiced Private Sad Sack on the radio show GI Journal on April 29, 1944 and later in other episodes. Blanc used a stuttering voice that sounded like Porky Pig. In 1957 Psrsmount released a comedy feature film titled The Sad Sack which starred Jerry Lewis and Peter Lorre.

Lewis portrayed the bumbling fumbling Private Meredith C. Bixby. Many who enjoyed this movie may have had no idea what the title actually meant or been aware of the origin and history behind the term Sad Sack.