Walt Kelly, 1963, Pogo Puce Stamp Catalog, Simon and Schuster. This is a Pogo book that is dualistic in a way different from most of the others. Most of the books have a theme, which affects part of the book, and the rest of the book is made up of various kinds of silly nonsense. In this case, the theme is the Pogo puce stamp catalog, which is mentioned in at least one other book. This book actually came with a page of puce stamps. However, the books with the stamps cost so much more than the books without stamps, used, when I was looking for one, I got the book without stamps. I bought these books to read, not as an investment, so I didn't need the stamps. It is possible to find them with the stamps if you want to. This is why I didn't try to buy every edition of each book.<br><br>
In another way this book does have two parts. The first part is a breathtaking hard sell for the benefits of puce stamps. Even though they are worthless, this is explained in excruciating detail. In this sense they are a lot like other kinds of trading stamps. The second part is the history of the rise and fall of puce trading stamps.<br><br>
The story begins with a thousand-year-old egg, and the chick that hatched from it. Actually, the egg was only a thousand days old, but that's not bad for a chick. After some nonsensical doings, the trading stamps are conceived as a way to save time for housewives and other customers who, because the stamps are worthless, don't have to save them. Various things happen, or don't happen in the case of the dramatic TV debut of Churchy's trading stamp jingles, and in the end all the stamps are used up. The end, more or less.<br><br>
Kelly has pointed out the ridiculousness of trading stamps, but this is not one of my favorite Pogo books. It has a lot of good gags, but the subject of trading stamps doesn't have as much comic potential as the things he usually wrote about. It's still funny and worth reading, just not as much so.<br><br>
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