Review of Potluck Pogo

Walt Kelly, 1955, Potluck Pogo, Simon and Schuster. This is the first Pogo book I bought myself. I read it so many times that I wore my copy out and had to get another one. <br><br>

This is the second of at least three Pogo books in which Mr Mouse wrestles with a worm child, the same one each time, with disastrous consequences. For  Mouse. The book begins with a bit of almost nonsense verse, which really appealed to me when I first read it as a youth. Not that I ever whistled at girls myself, but it struck me at the time as a powerful way to end a poem. <br><br>

The question arises, but I warn you that it is not answered, how secret is a secret if you don't tell anyone? Next we get a stellar performance from a Kansas Jayhawk, almost certainly the best tall tale in any of the Pogo books. <br><br>

The three bats get confused about who is which, because they absent-mindedly put on each other's pants. Then, Churchy dresses up as a blonde girl to deliver a love letter he wrote from the Deacon to Sis Boombah. About half the people he meets recognize him, and the other half don't. Also, he absent-mindedly uses the letter to start a fire, but for some reason he continues on his journey anyway. Who does the deacon encounter in the "lost" part of the swamp? Sis Boombah and the three bats, boy birdwatchers under the tutelage of the Deacon, head out to find him. The byplay among the bats and their interaction with their companion are reminiscent of a Marx Brothers movie. <br><br>

I couldn't describe all the events that play out in this book, nor would you want me to. Rest assured, this is one of the most consistently funny books in the series. <br><br>

This book contains what I think is the funniest sequence Kelly ever made, the great thinking contest between Albert and Beauregard. Thinking will never be the same. <br><br>

One of the small touches that I like about the Pogo strip is this. Most of the time, the characters act like they are living a real life. But every so often, one will make reference to the fact that they are living in a comic strip. In this book, Churchy says at one point "These silhouettes sure saves a mess of drawin'." Also, frequently, parts of people or vegetation lean against or extend past the borders of the panels. I don't know if Kelly pioneered this, but he was probably one of the first. Stephan Pastis, creator of Pearls Before Swine, has taken a similar technique to extremes. <br><br>

062726

land wiped nearly clean   lungfish start again

062626

the fleet emerges <br>

around a new world <br>

scorched earth already 

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>