Sad Sack is an American comic strip and comic book character created by Sgt. George Baker during World War II. Set in the United States Army, Sad Sack depicted an otherwise unnamed, lowly private experiencing some of the absurdities and humiliations of military life. The title was a euphemistic shortening of the military slang "sad sack of shit", common during World War II. The phrase has come to mean "an inept person" or "inept soldier". Comic strip Originally drawn in pantomime by Baker, The Sad Sack debuted June 1942 as a comic strip in the first issue of Yank, the Army Weekly. It proved popular, and a hardcover collection of Baker's wartime Sad Sack strips was published by Simon & Schuster, Inc. in 1944, with a follow-up, The New Sad Sack (1946). The original book was concurrently published as an Armed Services edition mass market paperback, in that edition's standard squarebound, horizontal, 5 5/8" × 4" format, by Editions for the Armed Services, Inc., a non-profit organization of The Council on Books in Wartime; it was #719 in the series of Armed Service editions. After the war ended, The Sad Sack ran in newspaper syndication in the United States from May 5, 1946, until 1958. Baker then sold the rights to Harvey Comics, which produced a large number of commercial spin-offs. Comic book Harvey Comics published original Sad Sack stories in the Sad Sack Comics comic book series, which ran 287 issues, cover-dated September 1949 to October 1982. Sack was a civilian until he re-enlisted in issue #22 (February 1953). Harvey also published the one-shot comic The Sad Sack Comes Home in 1951. Spin-off series were: Sad Sack's Funny Friends #1–75 (Dec. 1955 – Oct. 1969) Sad Sack and the Sarge #1–155 (Sept. 1957 – June 1982) Sad Sack Laugh Special #1–93 (Winter 1958/59 – Feb. 1977) Sad Sack's Army Life Parade #1–57 (Oct. 1963 – circa 1975) Little Sad Sack #1–19 (Oct. 1964 – Nov. 1967), featuring a child version of the character Sad Sad Sack (Oct. 1964 – Dec. 1973) commonly known as Sad Sad Sack World Sad Sack Navy, Gobs 'n' Gals #1–8 (Aug. 1972 – Oct. 1973) Sad Sack USA #1–7 (Nov. 1972 – Nov. 1973) Sad Sack USA Vacation one-shot (Oct. 1974) Sad Sack Fun Around the World one-shot (1974) Sad Sack's Army Life Today #1–4 (circa mid-1975 to Nov. 1975, and May 1976) Supporting