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Incompleat Pogo
Book by Kelly, Walt
- GenresComicsHumorComic Strips
191 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1954
46 people want to read
About the author
Walt Kelly
394 books53 followersAmerican animator and cartoonist best known for the classic funny animal comic strip, Pogo. He won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1951 for Cartoonist of the Year, and their Silver T-Square Award in 1972, given to persons having "demonstrated outstanding dedication or service to the Society or the profession."
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 7, 2025
Excellent Pogo collection from 1953 and 1954, before the strip became too political and less funny. Several laughs and many smiles in this volume. I read many Pogo books from the 1950s from my father’s shelf, and probably this one too, so this is technically a re-reading.
March 3, 2020
cute and funny, I know it inspired Jeff Smith but it wouldn't surprise me if Disney took influence from it when making Winnie the Pooh.
August 26, 2022
Classic early Pogo.
December 17, 2025
I found this among my father's books. Apparently he was a great fan. At least he quoted it from time to time, as I now realize. There are a few good lines in it, but mostly I don't get the humor.
August 3, 2020
Paperback collection of 1953/1954 strips. Gorgeous cartooning by Kelly, as always. Unfortunately, the age of this book has forced the opening of pages in the volume to be a arduous affair. The pages want to quit the binding. I'll be keeping this as a collector's item, and re-read it from the recent hardcover collections.
December 19, 2011
The fourth collection of strips, published in newspapers in 1953-54, my first two years on the planet, is not as good as I Go Pogo or The Pogo Papers but it’s pretty good nonetheless. The others set a pretty high bar and we shouldn’t hold them harshly against this fine anthology. Like the others its stories are divided into chapters, such as “From Here on Down It’s Uphill All the Way,” “In Which It Is Seen that It Is Hard to Hold as Much as a Pelican,” “A Form of Hire Education” and its follow-up story, “Nothing Taught Here Fearlessly.” And perhaps the most prescient one of all: “Who Is Now and Ever Has Been a Member of The Tea Party?” Here is the first tip to readers who find one of the Pogo books in their hands (available, alas, primarily through used book outlets but at not unreasonable prices), read everything. The table of contents is pleasurable by itself. The notes from the publisher and the author’s afterword are witty and inventive. If there are words on the page there is reason to peruse it for wordplay, puns, non sequitors or sage remarks or both. Indeed, if Yogi Berra and Casey Stengel didn’t exist, Walt Kelly could have invented them, or at least written for them.
But what really matters are the strips themselves, the drawings, characters, the dialogue, the wonderfully convoluted plots and conversations. “You said, Owl, that your college was teachin’ em NOTHIN’ What KIND of nothin’?” Requiring minds, it seems, want to know. Howland Owl replies, “I’m standin’ up fer ACADEMIC FREEDOMS! I’ll teach nothin’ as I pleases.” The cowbirds egging on the Preacher are suspicious. “You heard him…who know what kind of nothin’ he will teach? He may be an advocate of ANONYMOUS ANIMOSITISM!” The Preacher goes back at owl. “Professor Owl, do you mean you’d even teach em nothing about Alien Ideologies?” Howland looks down the barrel of the Preacher’s umbrella, “Anythin’ I happen to know nothin’ ‘bout, I’ll teach if I got the stren’th!” The Preacher departs saying, “This is a new approach…controlled ignorance…we must give this thought.” The cowbird fires at owl, “Academic Freedoms, my eye!” Howland sniffs back, “Sir, my freedoms is as academic as they come.” When you can skewer Church, State, and Academia in one set of panels you are doing a good day’s work as a satirist.
But what really matters are the strips themselves, the drawings, characters, the dialogue, the wonderfully convoluted plots and conversations. “You said, Owl, that your college was teachin’ em NOTHIN’ What KIND of nothin’?” Requiring minds, it seems, want to know. Howland Owl replies, “I’m standin’ up fer ACADEMIC FREEDOMS! I’ll teach nothin’ as I pleases.” The cowbirds egging on the Preacher are suspicious. “You heard him…who know what kind of nothin’ he will teach? He may be an advocate of ANONYMOUS ANIMOSITISM!” The Preacher goes back at owl. “Professor Owl, do you mean you’d even teach em nothing about Alien Ideologies?” Howland looks down the barrel of the Preacher’s umbrella, “Anythin’ I happen to know nothin’ ‘bout, I’ll teach if I got the stren’th!” The Preacher departs saying, “This is a new approach…controlled ignorance…we must give this thought.” The cowbird fires at owl, “Academic Freedoms, my eye!” Howland sniffs back, “Sir, my freedoms is as academic as they come.” When you can skewer Church, State, and Academia in one set of panels you are doing a good day’s work as a satirist.
February 21, 2015
"This comic book I bought off'n ol' fox shows how we goes up to Mars, brings back some Martians an' they DEE-stroys the whole EARTH!
"What nonsense! Bringin' Martians back. We'll never need their help."
"Boy! That's a relief!"
"What nonsense! Bringin' Martians back. We'll never need their help."
"Boy! That's a relief!"
July 7, 2012
Old & wonderful! Yay Pogo!
May 17, 2016
If you like funny, high-paced, clean humor I highly recommend any one of the Pogo books
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews