In a 1984 interview with the Atlantic, Walker told Cullen Murphy..about his ongoing battles with newspapers over the depiction of belly buttons, male and female, which were routinely excised with a razor blade. Behind the scenes, he drew much more racy Beetle Bailey strips, featuring full-on nudity — which ended up being sent to Sweden, where they found a more receptive audience.

Nicola Jennings, whose work has been published in the Guardian, said: "Political cartoons are a sort of running joke between the boys. I wonder whether men find it too difficult to be lampooned by a woman? Men lampooning each other is like an in-joke and they're just slapping each other on the back, whereas if it's a woman it's seen as much stronger criticism."