080326

we are alone 

among carbon-based life forms 

in our system

Review of The Fort Mudge Most 13

The Pogo Fan Club, January 1990, The Fort Mudge Most 13. An adorable cover by JM Urbanovic. The cover breaks the fourth wall in a dramatic way that Kelly never employed. I don't see that as a problem though. <br><br>

This issue contains early notice of the upcoming biography of Kelly, also a photographic essay about Pogofest in Waycross. The letter column is pretty extensive in this issue, which also contains quite a few of the strips made by Walt Kelly's successors, called Walt Kelly's Pogo. Can I see you show all, some opinions, pro and con, are expressed in the letters. I have to say that these post-Kelly strips do not fit the Kelly canon. Not so much th2e drawing, but the behavior and dialogue are not true to Kelly's model. <br><br>

In previous issue of the fanzine contained a defective detective story ending starring Albert and Pogo. There was a competition among fans to write and draw a better ending. Some of these were pretty funny and quite a few of them are printed in this issue. There is also a historical review, mostly using Kelly art from past years, of Churchy Lafemme's hate hate relationship with Friday the 13th (because this is the 13th issue of the fanzine).<br><br>

Review of Pogo Volume 2

Walt Kelly, October 1994, Pogo volume 2, Fantagraphics. This volume covers June 27th 1949 to December 10th 1949. This is the second of 11 large-format paperback volumes of daily syndicated strips that were published by Fantagraphics. Unfortunately, Pogo was published for well over 20 years, which would have taken more than 40 volumes like this. However, the same publisher is currently reprinting all of the daily strips and the color Sunday strips, and has so far published eight of 12 planned volumes in hardback format. These books (the series reviewed here) that were published in the 1990s are long out of print, although still available used. The new series is in print, though one or two volumes may be temporarily out of print. <br><br>

RC Harvey's introduction to this volume includes a lot of information about Kelly's time at the Disney studios from 1936 to 1941. It also compares gags from the New York Star, shown in volume one, with the same gags repeated in different forms in this volume in the syndicated strips. In the early days of Pogo, Kelly pretty much stayed away from political satire, which was such an important feature in the strip from 1952 on into the 70s. Instead, he pretty much stuck with vaudeville and slapstick, which of course played a major role throughout the entire run of Pogo.  <br><br>

One of the most remarkable things about the early Pogo strips is that in 1949 Walt Kelly was already breaking the fourth wall routinely. This occasionally included the characters specifically referring to their world as a comic strip or as something that was drawn. In other cases, characters would light matches against the borders of their panels, or lean against them. Also, the word balloons often extended out of one panel and into the next. All three of these techniques were used as early as 1949. <br><br>

One of the characteristics of the Pogo strip is the abundance of puns. For instance, in this book, Mr Weevil says that he knows the Chinese weevil trick. Speak no weevil, and people put their hands over their mouths, hear no weevil, and they put them over their ears, see no weevil, and they put them over their eyes. Mr Weevil then picks up the picnic lunch hamper and takes off in a hurry, while everybody else says now what? <br><br>

In this book Albert uses a line that he uses again later in the strip. "Funny how a good lookin' fella looks handsome in anything he throw on!" This is part of a sequence in which Churchy and Howland trick him out of a box of cigars. The brand? El Falfa, priced at 20 for 5 cents. <br><br>

Note that the cover illustration shows a Thanksgiving dinner, with a turkey as special guest. <br><br>

 

Review of Pogo volume 5

Walt's Kelly, July 1995, Pogo Volume 5, phantographics The dates covered by this book begin with November 1st 1950, and end with. April 28th 1951. There were 11 of these books published, and the original plan was to reprint all of the daily pogo strips. Not the Sunday ones, which were printed in color in the newspapers. I'll ask, each book contains about 6 months worth of action, so 11 books takes care of less than 6 years of the comics, which lasted for will over 20 years. I don't know why phantographics gave up on the project, but they have started a new and have published eight of a planned 12 volumes that include both daily strips and Sunday comics and are published in hardback. <br><br>

RC Harvey's introduction to this volume includes a detailed explanation of Kelly's work after he left Disney and before syndicated pogo strips appeared. He did work in many comics produced by several different publishers, and you can learn about those here.<br><br>

For the most part this book contains cartoon sequences that were intended just for fun. There is a little political satire, but most of that came later. Here we have sea serpents, Christmas carols, duels to the death, and everything in between.<br><br>

Review of Pogo volume 4

Walt Kelly, December, 1995, Pogo volume 4, Fantagraphics. The cartoons in this book cover the period from May 23rd 1950 to October 31st 1950.<br><br>

One of the most important characters new to the strip during this time is Ma'm'zelle Hepzibah, the French lady skunk. The beautiful French lady skunk. And possibly the first woman Porkypine has ever courted. In a different way the pup dog is very important. See below.<br><br>

As in all 11 books in this series, RC Harvey's introduction most importantly placed the events in the comic strip in the cont.<br><br>

ext of world and American politics and culture. And, just as a reminder, this series terminated before it achieved its original goal every printing all the newspaper strips, except for the color Sunday strips. The same publisher is currently in the process of producing a large-format hardback series that includes all of the newspaper strips. At this point, 8 of a planned 12 volumes have been published, and 9 is scheduled to come out next year.<br><br>

This book also contains the sequence about the missing pup, dog, possibly eaten, and a kangaroo trial presided over by witchhunters not unlike Wisconsin senator Joe McCarthy. Albert might have accidentally eaten the pup dog, it's the kind of thing he did occasionally in the early days, but this time he was 100% innocent.<br><br>

A character with a great name appears for the second time in this book: a cowboy gopher named Gopher Yerguns.<br><br>

Deacon Mushrat decides to open a school, which is extra funny because he was the chief critic of education when Owl later started a school (volume 11 in this series).<br><br>

A modest amount of political commentary had been evident in this strip before this time, but now it was difficult to overlook. Kelly was risking his reputation and his livelihood by going up against McCarthy's committee. Many innocent people lost both at the hands of the McCarthyites, but for some reason Kelly's pointed attacks were ignored.<br><br>

Review of Pogo volume 3

Walt Kelly, 1995, Pogo volume 3, Fantagraphics. The strips in this book begin with December 12th 1949 and end with May 22nd 1950. This is the 3rd of 11 volumes of Pogo syndicated newspaper reprints. Only the daily strips, not the weekend color cartoons, are included. Also, Fantagraphics gave up long before they had succeeded in reprinting all of the newspaper strips. As I mention elsewhere, they have started again, and this time they are including the Sunday strips too. <br><br>

The long introduction by RC Harvey discusses the cultural background of the strips in this book, as well as individual sequences that he thought were particularly good. In this volume, he wrote a lot about World War II, because that was when Kelly first worked as a professional animator for Disney, and a lot about Kelly's time at Disney. He worked on Dumbo,  Fantasia, and a couple of other full-length movies, as well as several shorts.<br><br>

We begin with a duel between Pogo and a moose, and when that finishes up it's almost time for Christmas. This issue alludes to the politics of the day, but it's mainly concerned with having fun. Mouse conventions, a turtle-run barbershop, and alligators as babysitters are among the topics covered.<br><br>

Review of Pogo volume 11

Walt Kelly, June, 2000, Pogo volume 11, Fantagraphics. This book contains the daily strips from August 31, 1953 to February 12th, 1954. Sadly, this is the last volume of Fantagraphics' first attempt to reprint all of the syndicated Pogo daily newspaper strips. That left us out in the cold from early 1954 to sometime in 1973, when Walt Kelly died. Almost 20 years! The strip went on for a few years after that, with several different artists and writers, but it wasn't the same. Fantagraphics has begun again, and this time tha books are hardbacks and include color Sunday strips. The new series will include all of the strips in 12 volumes, of which 8 have been published so far. I do not know if they plan to include any of the strips that were written and drawn by other people after Walt's death.<br><br>

RC Harvey's  introduction ties the comic strip into the events of the day, and also points out particular humorous sequences that Kelly laid out and that Harvey thinks are particularly funny. Topics range from the Red scare, to assaults on academic freedom, and the baseball world series. This was also when a subcommittee of the US Senate convened hearings aimed at censoring comic books. Kelly and other comic strip artists feared that they and their work would be next. Several comic-strip artists, including Kelly, spoke at the hearing, and the result was that newspaper strips were not considered for any censoring action. According to Harvey's research, this was largely because of Kelly's skillful managing of the event.<br><br>

This book contains the story of Snavely and the apprentice cobra, the second appearance of the bug with the birthday cake, and Owl's famous attempt to start a school, in which sports seems to be the most important subject. Also, the faculty teaches a whole lot of nothing, which is what many public figures prefer schools to teach today, even as they did then. Amusingly, perhaps, while Deacon Mushrat was the main critic of this school, he later founded a school himself, which enjoyed a similar level of success.<br><br>

The old year ends, and the new year begins with a new take on how to be a new man, or at least how to resolve to be. The nonsense continues with lifetime feuds and comic books.<br><br>