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>

Cataract surgery

This morning! Wish me luck.

Review of The Fort Mudge Most 19

The Pogo Fan Club, January 1991, The Fort Mudge Most 19, Steve A. Thompson editor. Even though I have been a Pogo fan since the '60s, I did not know about this fan magazine until about a week ago. It apparently is no longer published, but if anybody knows differently please let me know. <br><br>

Unlike The Okefenokee Star, this fanzine looks like a real fan magazine. Production values are not the best, but definitely good enough for us to enjoy the artwork. <br><br>

They had a contest for the best fan art picture of the swamp, and one of the two winning entries adorns the magazine. I like it. The artist is Don O'Sullivan. It is actually a wraparound cover, I'm only showing you the front side below. <br><br>

The Fort Mudge Most is full of unpublished Kelly artwork, and also artwork from the newspaper strips that did not make it into any of the books. In addition, the images are accompanied by commentary, which adds a great deal to the reader's enjoyment. We also find illustrated public service announcements, maze puzzles, and other rarities. This issue contains quite a few Sunday pages and even more daily strips done after Kelly died. The art is about as good but the humor is a little inferior, and sometimes the characters seem to deviate from canon. <br><br>

These fanzines now cost $20 or more, including shipping, but for some this will be worth it. <br><br>

072626

one more asteroid<br>

nudged across Earth's orbit<br>

dirty pool

Review of Pogo volume 10

Walt Kelly, November 1998, Pogo volume 10, Fantagraphics. This is the penultimate volume of Pogo reprints in this paperback large-format edition. This book contains the newspaper strips from March 16th through August 29th of 1953. Each book covers roughly 6 months of Pogo syndicated newspaper strips, not including the Sunday strips, and since the strips were published for 23 years before Walt Kelly died, you can see they didn't get very far. I can only assume that they didn't sell enough copies. <br><br>

As I have mentioned elsewhere, the same publisher is now doing the same thing in a large format hardback edition, in which 12 volumes will cover the entire run of Pogo, including this Sunday strips in color. The 9th volume is currently scheduled for publication next year. There have been delays with every volume, but so far they are still going strong. I won't say that this older series, now out of print, isn't worth reading. RC Harvey's long and insightful introductions can't be found anywhere else. I'm not sure that you will think they are worth the price of admission all by themselves. <br><br>

This volume includes what is probably Kelly's most famous satiric sequence, in which Simple J. Malarkey, much better known as Joseph R. McCarthy, comes to the swamp, but fares rather poorly. Things start out pretty well for him, as he takes over the boy birdwatchers and renames them the Bonfire Boys. Then he starts running the whole show, backed up with a shotgun named Betsey. Eventually, just like in real life, things started to go wrong. Tar and feathers anyone? Even though Fantagraphics didn't reach their completist goal, it is a wonder and a joy that they got this far.  <br><br>

In his introduction, Harvey reviews the entire sordid history of McCarthyism, which occupied basically the first half of the 1950s. This book was published long before the Orange Menace rose to power, but the parallels are obvious. While McCarthy was at his peak of popularity, Walt Kelly struck one of the most devastating blows McCarthy ever received.  <br><br>

The first part of the book contains the entirety of the Simple J. Malarkey story, except for a couple of reprises that come significantly later. The second part of the book consists of pure nonsense, and includes the all-October calendar and Albert swallowing the prognosticating amoeba. Not to mention the Louisiana perches. <br><br>

Sadly, two daily strips are accidentally duplicated and appear both where they belong and at a later point, instead of the strips that should be there. <br><br>