Review of I Go Pogo

Walt Kelly, I Go Pogo, Simon and Schuster. This early Pogo book begins with a one-page vignette, which foreshadows the famous presidential campaign of Fremount the boy bug 8 years later. This is followed by a dissertation about the habits and job of Choo-Choo Curtis the mailman, or mailduck. Interesting to see that the notorious Wiley Catt looks quite a bit different in this early book then he does in those published later. The early version looks more like an actual wildcat. This is similar to the transformation that Pogo himself went through a few years earlier. Several other characters also had not yet acquired their final form, including Mr Mouse, the three bats (Bewitched, Bothered, and Bemildred), and Sarcophagus MacAbre. The character who looks most different from her mature form is Miss Ma'm'selle Hepzibah, but the one whose behavior changes the most in later books is Miz Beaver.<br><br>

The scene shifts, and Wiley Catt, Seminole Sam the fox, and Sarcophagus MacAbre the vulture decide they want to have turtle soup, starring Churchy La Femme the natural born turtle. Soon, turtle is on the run, and is being tried in absentia for whatever they can come up with to get him into the soup pot. It is disturbing, but also pretty realistic, how few friends turtle actually has.<br><br>

At this point, the book undergoes one of those dramatic shifts that many of them contain. Tammanany tiger shows up in the swamp looking for a candidate, whose name he can't remember. Pretty soon, many of the swamp critters settle on Pogo as the obvious choice for president. Pogo is not one of them. The book ends inconclusively, as they so often do, but we do know one thing. Pogo was not elected president in 1952.

Review of Pogo for President

Walt Kelly, 1964, Pogo for President, Fawcett Publications, a reprint of parts of I Go Pogo. 

062326

high speed train wreck   I'm flying

Review of The Return of Pogo

Walt Kelly, 1965, The Return of Pogo, Simon and Schuster. 

This book begins with weather prediction and quickly segues into a swamp beauty contest. Kelly is making fun of this aspect of American culture, but it may seem a little close to the bone these days. Your mileage may vary. <br><br>

Mr Pig, Russian, but not the same Mr Pig who looks a lot like a well-known Russian politician of the day, arrives in a spaceship with a two-headed dog. He claims the dog wins the contest, because it was a contest for the greatest beauty in the whole cosmos. Pogo and Porky interview the dog for the Fort Mudge Moan newspaper, but they don't get much. Just enough to decide that there's no story because no one bit the dog. On their way home to write up the non-story for the paper they are accosted by a bunch of TV reporters. They insist on interviewing the two about the incident. Pogo and Porky run away, so the TV reporters begin to interview each other. Only one of the out-of-town reporters actually sees the two-headed dog, and it is for lack of trying on the part of the rest of them.<br><br>

I'm not going to describe all of the things that go on in this book, but it is more than just comedy. Kelly has a lot to say about our society, as it then was. In a lot of ways, problems very much like those of the 1960s continue to plague us, but have gotten worse. Disinformation on the internet is astronomically more harmful than shoddy reporting from the field.<br><br>

An amusing note. In this book there is a frog named Fenster Moop, who is apparently not the same as the frog by the same name who is a congressman from the Okefenokee in other Pogo books. Unless he lost the last election. Because the book has a different congressman frog named Jumphrey.<br><br>

1964 was a presidential election year, and there is talk about the Okefenokee fielding a candidate. As usual, many people think of Pogo, and he thinks of not running. The Newslife reporters show up again and are as ignorant as ever. What's different about this election, from the point of view of the Okefenokee, is that there's no agreement about who should run. Some folks want the Mets to run for president. They feel they would do much better as the chief executive then they did as a baseball team. Plus, they would have plenty of backups to serve as vice presidents, if necessary. Snavely the snake declines. He can't run at all, and how would it look if he crept into office? <br><br>

Review of Pogo

Walt Kelly, 1951, Pogo, Simon and Schuster. This is the first book of Pogo comics. Before the books, and the newspaper strips, there were Pogo comic books. This first book and the early newspaper strips duplicate a few of the gags from the comic books, although the art is better. I have a few of the comics, but I don't recommend buying them unless you are a completist. As for this book, the cover illustration is kind of odd, because as far as I can recall, Pogo almost never carries an umbrella. Deacon Mushrat does all the time, and other characters do occasionally, but not Pogo.<br><br>

This book features Strawberry Shortcut, the Baton Rouge bombshell, and assorted other denizens of the swamp. Some of them never appear in the strip after the early years, and are only found in this book. For instance, in later books, Albert Alligator has a nephew named Alabaster, who hangs out with the other kids in the strip. In the first book, Alabaster from Alabam is an ice cream vendor who is a large black bird. Many of the regular characters already have their mature forms here. Churchy the turtle has a fatter shell than he does in later books. Howland Owl's wizard hat changes from white with black-outlined symbols in the first part of the book to black with white symbols, which he wears to the very end of the strip.<br><br>

There was little or no political content in the early strips. This book includes Albert starting a newspaper, fostering three newly hatched grackles, and similar activities. The newspaper employs two legmen who don't appear in later books.<br><br>

Howland Owl reads a book on nuclear physics, which he says isn't too new and isn't too clear. He decides to make a nuclear bomb, but Porkypine objects. He says "bombs...is no good. They puts everything too everywhere and in li'l bits too."<br><br>

Various other things happen. Porky meets a French lady skunk named Ma'm'selle Hepzibah, and soon all the guys are crazy about her. Later, Pogo and Albert decide to go west, to Milwaukee, with a cow named Horrors Greeley. Miz Beaver is gravely insulted, and there is a duel to recover her honor, but not the one you might expect.<br><br>

A pup dog is found. Then he disappears. During the search some mysterious strangers show up. There is a trial, and somebody must be guilty! <br><br>

We meet the three bats, and the first few times the third one introduces himself he says he's Bewildered, but soon he becomes Bemildred. They rent Albert's mouth to live in, because when they get there he is asleep with his mouth open. Soon, they join the Boy Bird Watchers so the bird watchers won't watch them. Later, quite a few members of the regular crew almost go on a Vaudeville tour. And the book ends, as many of the later ones do, with Christmas, and with some nonsensical carols.<br><br>

Transfusion

they say 

I look much better 

whatever 

061926

tideless<br>

the moonless sea<br>

draws back from lifeless shore<br>

whence this unprecedented haste<br>

I ask