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Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips #4
Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Vol. 4
In addition to presenting all of 1955 and 1956’s daily Pogo strips complete and in order for the first time anywhere (many of them once again scanned from original syndicate proofs, for their crispest and most detailed appearance ever), Pogo: The Syndicated Comic Strip Vol. 4 also contains all 104 Sunday strips from these two years, presented in lush full color for the first time since their original appearance in Sunday sections 60 years ago. Plus: the usual in-depth “Swamp Talk” historical annotations by R.C. Harvey, spectacular samples of Kelly’s work scanned from original art, and a whole lot more!
344 pages, Hardcover
First published November 21, 2015
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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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September 23, 2021
Part of the opening of this review is taken, with some adjustments, from my earlier review of Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Volume 5.
********************************
This is Volume 4 of Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, assembling all the strips from 1955 and 1956. The Monday-Saturday strips are all in black and white; they make up 212 pages, 210 pages with three days of strips on each page and two pages with one strip each. The Sunday strips are longer and in color. Each Sunday strip gets a full page in this book; there are 104 of these. The Monday-Saturday strips and the Sunday strips are separate continuities and either set can be read without reference to the other.
The book also contains an "Editor's Note" by co-editor Mark Evanier, a "Foreward" by author Neil Gaiman, some explanatory notes titled "Swamp Talk: Annotations and Historical Data" by R. C. Harvey, a brief biography of Pogo cartoonist Walt Kelly, also by Mark Evanier, a list of "Noteworthy Quotes" from the comics in this volume, and a fine index. There is also a two-page feature about Pogo characters appearing on the cover of the December 26, 1955 issue of Newsweek, illustrating the article "As America Sings at Christmastime." The book is dedicated to Carolyn Kelly, daughter of Pogo creator Walt Kelly; Ms. Kelly was a co-editor of the previous volumes of this series who died during the preparation of this volume.
Pogo is a "funny animals" comic, in which all the characters are some variety of animal life. Everyone represented can speak and has feelings; this makes the strips where animals catch fish, which they then eat, using worms for bait, somewhat awkward. In many cartoons and comics of the time, cats chased mice and canaries but seldom caught and ate them. However, the main characters in Pogo, even the wicked ones, rarely attempt to kill and eat each other. The only reason that the lion does not lie down with the lamb is because there are no lions and lambs in the strip; the possum frequently lies down with the alligator and then goes on to wake with him as well.
There are no lions or lambs because the strip is set in the Okefenokee Swamp in the southeastern United States. (Although non-swamp dwellers do put in occasional appearances, including in this volume a most engaging tiger, some kangaroos, a wombat, a bandicoot, and a very large pig who seems to be visiting from the Soviet Union.)
The dialogue in Pogo is, for the most part, make-believe United States Southern. The dialogue is always given in all capital letters. Some of the characters' speech appears in special lettering. P. T. Bridgeport, for example, is a bear with a background in the circus; his dialogue is in lettering that might have appeared on a circus poster.
The following is an example of Pogo dialogue, from the February 15, 1955 strip. The speakers are Howland (an owl) and Churchy (a turtle):
Second panel:
Howland:
SO FAR ALBERT IS THOUGHT OF 19,206 "PEEPS" BY SPRING BABY FROGS AN' HOUN'DOG IS THUNK OF 21,957 "POPS" OF POP CORN.
Churchy:
IT LOOKS LIKE BEAUREGARD'S BRAIN IS OVER POWERIN' ALBERT'S.
Third panel:
Howland
NOT SO FAST..ALBERT'S WAY OUT FRONT, MY DEAR FELLOW JUDGE, EACH FROG GOT FOUR LIMBS,,, RIGHT? AN' EACH LIMB GOT FIVE FINGER OR TOE-BONES..RIGHT? SO ALBERT IS THINKIN' 'MOST TWENTY-TIMES AS FAST AS HOUN'DOG, ANYBODY WITH HALF-A-EYE KIN SEE THAT!
That's a fair representation of Pogo dialect. Now to quote some better examples of Pogo humor. The following is quoted from four consecutive strips, August 9-12, 1955. The two main characters in this sequence are a mouse, usually just referred to as "Ol' Mouse," and Snavely, a snake. Mouse wears a derby and a suit jacket and carries a cane. Snavely has a battered top hat and the shaded nose given to comic strip drunks. In addition to those two, there are appearances by Churchy, Beauregard, Albert, and the star of the strip, the possum Pogo. The mouse has come up with a plan for edible money, printed on cheese:
8/9/55
First Panel:
Mouse and Snavely are walking (and slithering) along.
Snavely:
WHAT IS THIS FOURTEEN KARAT STERLING IDEA 'BOUT WHAT KIND OF A DOG ALBERT OUGHT TO BE?
Mouse
NO - NO - YOU BELITTLED MY MONEY PLAN! CLAIMED BILLS PRINTED ON ANYTHING BUT PAPER WAS DE RIGUEUR MORTIS FOR WHOMSOEVER WAS CAUGHT.
Second panel:
Snavely:
BUT, DEAR BOY, THE MONEY CONCESSION IN THE GUMMINT IS GUARDED VERY JEALOUSLY.
Mouse, gesturing with cane:
WHO ELSE EVER OFFERED TO PRINT IT ON CHEESE? NOBODY! NOT EVEN HOLLAND!
Third panel:
Snavely:
TALKIN' WITH YOU MAKES A MAN WISH HE HAD AN ARM TO WAVE... WHERE WOULD YOU GET THE CHEESE?
Mouse:
FIRST OF ALL, WE'D EMPTY EVERY MUNICIPALLY HELD MOUSE TRAP IN THE LAND... THEN WHEN THE BALL WAS ROLLIN'...
Fourth panel:
Mouse:
WE'D CALL IN THE COWS... THINK OF THE EMPLOYMENT IT WOULD GIVE COWS.. TO SAY NOTHING OF GOATS..
Snavely:
OR CAMELS.. YOU COULD BE HEAD OF THE DEPT. OF CURDS AN' WHEYS AN' MEANS.
8/10/55
First panel:
Mouse and Snavely come across Churchy sitting, leaning against a log, writing something.
Mouse:
HERE'S A IMPARTIAL OBSERVER, WE'LL ASK HIM WHAT HE THINKS OF EDIBLE MONEY..
Second panel:
Mouse, talking to Churchy:
S'POSE US GOT A JOB PRINTIN' MONEY ON CHEESE INSTEAD OF PAPER.. WOULD YOU TAKE OF'N US 'STEAD OF THE GUMMINT CONCESSIONAIRES?
Churchy:
CHEESE? WHAT KIND?
Third panel:
Mouse:
OH, WHATEVER WE COULD SCARE UP.. PORT SALUTE, LIEDERKRUNTCH, CAMEMBURKE, SWISS, JACK, STORE OR MOUSE TRAP...
Snavely:
YOU WOULDN'T TAKE CHEESE OUTEN TRAPS, SIR?
Fourth panel:
Snavely
YOU'D BE ACCUSED OF STEALING FROM THE MICE OF OUR LAND.. BAD PUBLIC RELATIONS.. YOUR MONEY WOULD BE BOYCOTTED!
Churchy, returning to what he is writing:
I GOT A SMACKER OF A POEM GOIN' HERE! WHAT RHYMES WITH LIVERWURST?
8/11/55
First panel:
Pogo enters.
Churchy:
HEIGHDY, POGO... YOU IS JES' IN TIME. I IS LOOKIN' FOR A RHYME FOR LIVERWURST AN' THESE TWO LI'L SCAPERS WANT TO GET INTO THE MONEY BUSINESS-PRINTIN' IT ON CHEESE.
Second panel:
Pogo is now sitting next to Churchy.
Pogo:
HOW COME YOU WANTS TO PRINT MONEY ON CHEESE?
Mouse:
TO MAKE IT MORE ATTRACTIVE THEN US'D GET ALL THE BUSINESS.
Third panel:
Pogo:
I DRUTHER PRINT IT ON SAUSAGES - I JES' LOVE SAUSAGES -
Churchy:
PANCAKES IS MY FAVORITE! IF MONEY WAS PRINTED ON PANCAKES, I'D USE IT ALL THE TIME.
Fourth panel:
Pogo:
HOW ABOUT IF IT'S ON WATERMELON?
Churchy:
THAT WOULD CREATE A REAL DEMAND FOR IT!
Mouse, going away from Pogo and Churchy with Snavely; Mouse looks furious:
SEE!? COME UP WITH A GOOD IDEA AN' IMPRACTICAL DREAMERS WILL ALLUS MAKE A MESS OUTEN IT!
8/12/55
First panel
Mouse:
THE KIND OF A DOG ALBERT OUGHT TO BE IS A BOXER.
Snavely:
I'M SURE HE'LL APPRECIATE THE SUGGESTION.
Second panel:
Beauregard and Albert are sitting on the ground, leaning against a log. They are coming up with jokes for a television show they are writing.
Beauregard:
YOU SAY ALBERT OUGHT TO BE A BOXER? AN' BARK IN GUTTURAL REMARKS! THAT REE-MIND ME OF SOMETHIN' WE GONE USE ON THE "FLOSSIE, THE NOBLE DOG" SHOW!
Albert, stifling a laugh:
MUMF!
Third panel:
Beauregard:
FELLOW WINS TWO ELEPHANTS IN A RAFFLE AN' BRINGS 'EM HOME TELLIN' HIS WIFE THEY IS DOGS... "WHAT KIND OF DOGS IS THESE?" SHE ASKS.. "BOXERS," HE SAY, "CAN'T YOU SEE THEIR TRUNKS?"
Albert, convulsed with laughter:
WOW
Fourth panel:
Mouse and Snavely are leaving, rolling their eyes.
Beauregard
HOW ABOUT A LITTLE COURTEOUS "HA-HA"?
Albert, helpless with laughter:
WOW WOW
Mouse:
RIDICULOUS ON THE FACE OF IT... WHO WOULD RAFFLE OFF A PAIR OF ELEPHANTS?
Snavely, bemused:
[tiny print] ONE MEBBE, BUT TWO?
Obviously, this is much more effective with the pictures, but I think it is very funny still. (For both this volume and the subsequent one, my choices for funny dialogue involve Snavely. Jean Kerr once wrote a book titled The Snake Has All the Lines. Walt Kelly doesn't give Snavely all the lines, but he does get some of the best ones.)
I think that the last few months of the 1956 daily strips are not quite as good as much of the other material. The Nikita Khrushchev/pirate pig sequence that runs from 8/27/56-11/5/56 doesn't seem very funny to me now, although it may well have been when it first appeared. The end of the sequence is certainly quite poor. In the 11/8/56 strip, Pogo asks Howland Owl, "What happened to Mr. Pig and his talky cockadoodle ?" Howland replies, "Took a boat home... but nemmine that! I got news!" And the pirate pig vanishes from the strip.
I think that Pogo's voyage to Australia (11/15/56-12/20/56) is unquestionably silly rather than truly funny. The methods of traveling in each direction are especially poor.
I tend to like the Sunday strips a little less than the dailies, but the color does add a lot.
Two things I particularly liked as I read this in August, 2019 are the material about a presidential election, as one currently looms, and the first daily strip of 1956, in which one of the bats says, "It's Leap Year.. the year we elect a president.. the year of decision.. the year the Red Sox win the whole kaboodle." Another bat replies, "You say that ev'ry year." I live in Boston and I also say that every year, and, I'm very glad to say, some times in the past few years I have (finally) been right.
Neil Gaiman's "Foreward" is a tribute to both Pogo and to Carolyn Kelly. It is brief but touching. (He does get the name of one of the characters wrong, though; the lovely skunk is Miz [or Miss] Ma'm'selle Hepzibah, not Miz Hebzibah. He also gets the date wrong for the quote with which he begins the Foreward; it should be September 15, 1955, rather than September 12.)
R. C. Harvey's "Swamp Talk: Annotations and Historical Data" is very good as far as it goes, but it does not go nearly far enough. There are a great many places here that cry out in vain for elucidation. I am going to take pages 123-131 (February 23 - March 23, 1956) and mention some of the items that I think should have been annotated:
2/23/56
Miz Ma'm'zelle Hepzibah says, "Le pays ouvert au talent." This means that the country (in this case, the United States) is open to talent; it is, as Miz Beaver adds, "the land of operatoonity."
2/24/56
Miz Beaver says, "We was as happy as lox swimmin' upstream." Lox is smoked salmon; live (unsmoked) salmon do swim upstream.
2/25/56
Miz Beaver says, "Well, I was all dolled up in a skeeter nettin' potoso-a-samare with tucker an' holster an' reached for my harquebus...." Having looked it up, I now know that a potoso-a-samare is a long robe worn by colonial American women and a tucker is "a piece of lace or linen worn at the top of a bodice or at the front of a low-cut dress." This did not, I am sure, traditionally include a holster, but Miz Beaver obviously wanted to be well prepared. A harquebus is a kind of gun invented in the Fifteenth Century.
2/28/56
Churchy sings what he calls "Ole Folks at Home." He gives the lyrics as:
Wade on a pond
A swan he rover
Farf farfa weigh
Days wormy hardy
Stern an' over
Stairway keyhole
Floats day
This is "Old Folks at Home" and the real lyrics, written by Stephen Foster, go:
Way down upon the Swanee River
Far, far away
There’s where my heart is turning ever
There's where the old folks stay.
3/1/56
Howland Owl, having fallen into cake batter, says that he is leaving "battered but unbowed."
This is a reference to a line from the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
For some reason, references to the last line of this stanza often say "battered, but unbowed."
3/2/56
As Howland comes out from the cake batter, taking most of it with him, Miz Beaver says, "That, more or less, takes the cake."
When something "takes the cake," it is an outrageous example of something bad.
3/3/56
Churchy sings another song, "Carry Me Back to Ol' Virginny," giving the lyrics as:
Caramel bag twofold McGinty
Tear swear tea garden Anna
Corner taker scroll
The actual verse is:
Carry me back to old Virginny,
There's where the cotton and the corn and taters grow
3/14/56
Howland has been covered with cake batter, which, unknown to him and his friends, was mixed with cement. Churchy has gone to get hot water, thinking that will dissolve the batter. On the way back, Churchy meets Porky and tells him that the water is to help Howland, who "got stiff" from "too much of Miz Beaver's cake batter." Porky asks, "The Federals know about this?"
Porky thinks that by "got stiff," Churchy means "got drunk." He is surprised that cake batter could have got Howland intoxicated, and asks if "the Federals" know that this could happen. "The Federals" to whom Porky is referring are Treasury Dept. Revenue Agents looking for illegal, untaxed alcoholic beverages, such as moonshine whiskey.
3/17/56
March 17 is St. Patrick's Day. Snavely says he has been to Ireland and loved it. In legend, St. Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland. That is why Snavely doesn't celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
3/23/56
Porky says that after what was believed to be a statue of Howland has been changed, "It's lost a certain Jenny say quoits."
This is a pun on the French phrase, "Je ne sais quoi," meaning literally "I don't know what." It is commonly used to mean an indefinable quality that makes something or someone attractive or special in some way, but is hard to put into words.
I also note that Harvey says "de rigueur" is a "Latin expression." Ce n'est pas vrai.
Also, he says that in the 7/24/55 strip, "'Farewell, adieu, auf wiedersehen' is from the chorus of a song in The Sound of Music." The Sound of Music opened on Broadway in 1959.
And one more thing: there is no "bamboozle bush" in this book. A line on page vi says "Under the Bamboozle Bush, the title for this volume, was found among Walt Kelly's papers."
Fine title. Fine book.
********************************
This is Volume 4 of Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, assembling all the strips from 1955 and 1956. The Monday-Saturday strips are all in black and white; they make up 212 pages, 210 pages with three days of strips on each page and two pages with one strip each. The Sunday strips are longer and in color. Each Sunday strip gets a full page in this book; there are 104 of these. The Monday-Saturday strips and the Sunday strips are separate continuities and either set can be read without reference to the other.
The book also contains an "Editor's Note" by co-editor Mark Evanier, a "Foreward" by author Neil Gaiman, some explanatory notes titled "Swamp Talk: Annotations and Historical Data" by R. C. Harvey, a brief biography of Pogo cartoonist Walt Kelly, also by Mark Evanier, a list of "Noteworthy Quotes" from the comics in this volume, and a fine index. There is also a two-page feature about Pogo characters appearing on the cover of the December 26, 1955 issue of Newsweek, illustrating the article "As America Sings at Christmastime." The book is dedicated to Carolyn Kelly, daughter of Pogo creator Walt Kelly; Ms. Kelly was a co-editor of the previous volumes of this series who died during the preparation of this volume.
Pogo is a "funny animals" comic, in which all the characters are some variety of animal life. Everyone represented can speak and has feelings; this makes the strips where animals catch fish, which they then eat, using worms for bait, somewhat awkward. In many cartoons and comics of the time, cats chased mice and canaries but seldom caught and ate them. However, the main characters in Pogo, even the wicked ones, rarely attempt to kill and eat each other. The only reason that the lion does not lie down with the lamb is because there are no lions and lambs in the strip; the possum frequently lies down with the alligator and then goes on to wake with him as well.
There are no lions or lambs because the strip is set in the Okefenokee Swamp in the southeastern United States. (Although non-swamp dwellers do put in occasional appearances, including in this volume a most engaging tiger, some kangaroos, a wombat, a bandicoot, and a very large pig who seems to be visiting from the Soviet Union.)
The dialogue in Pogo is, for the most part, make-believe United States Southern. The dialogue is always given in all capital letters. Some of the characters' speech appears in special lettering. P. T. Bridgeport, for example, is a bear with a background in the circus; his dialogue is in lettering that might have appeared on a circus poster.
The following is an example of Pogo dialogue, from the February 15, 1955 strip. The speakers are Howland (an owl) and Churchy (a turtle):
Second panel:
Howland:
SO FAR ALBERT IS THOUGHT OF 19,206 "PEEPS" BY SPRING BABY FROGS AN' HOUN'DOG IS THUNK OF 21,957 "POPS" OF POP CORN.
Churchy:
IT LOOKS LIKE BEAUREGARD'S BRAIN IS OVER POWERIN' ALBERT'S.
Third panel:
Howland
NOT SO FAST..ALBERT'S WAY OUT FRONT, MY DEAR FELLOW JUDGE, EACH FROG GOT FOUR LIMBS,,, RIGHT? AN' EACH LIMB GOT FIVE FINGER OR TOE-BONES..RIGHT? SO ALBERT IS THINKIN' 'MOST TWENTY-TIMES AS FAST AS HOUN'DOG, ANYBODY WITH HALF-A-EYE KIN SEE THAT!
That's a fair representation of Pogo dialect. Now to quote some better examples of Pogo humor. The following is quoted from four consecutive strips, August 9-12, 1955. The two main characters in this sequence are a mouse, usually just referred to as "Ol' Mouse," and Snavely, a snake. Mouse wears a derby and a suit jacket and carries a cane. Snavely has a battered top hat and the shaded nose given to comic strip drunks. In addition to those two, there are appearances by Churchy, Beauregard, Albert, and the star of the strip, the possum Pogo. The mouse has come up with a plan for edible money, printed on cheese:
8/9/55
First Panel:
Mouse and Snavely are walking (and slithering) along.
Snavely:
WHAT IS THIS FOURTEEN KARAT STERLING IDEA 'BOUT WHAT KIND OF A DOG ALBERT OUGHT TO BE?
Mouse
NO - NO - YOU BELITTLED MY MONEY PLAN! CLAIMED BILLS PRINTED ON ANYTHING BUT PAPER WAS DE RIGUEUR MORTIS FOR WHOMSOEVER WAS CAUGHT.
Second panel:
Snavely:
BUT, DEAR BOY, THE MONEY CONCESSION IN THE GUMMINT IS GUARDED VERY JEALOUSLY.
Mouse, gesturing with cane:
WHO ELSE EVER OFFERED TO PRINT IT ON CHEESE? NOBODY! NOT EVEN HOLLAND!
Third panel:
Snavely:
TALKIN' WITH YOU MAKES A MAN WISH HE HAD AN ARM TO WAVE... WHERE WOULD YOU GET THE CHEESE?
Mouse:
FIRST OF ALL, WE'D EMPTY EVERY MUNICIPALLY HELD MOUSE TRAP IN THE LAND... THEN WHEN THE BALL WAS ROLLIN'...
Fourth panel:
Mouse:
WE'D CALL IN THE COWS... THINK OF THE EMPLOYMENT IT WOULD GIVE COWS.. TO SAY NOTHING OF GOATS..
Snavely:
OR CAMELS.. YOU COULD BE HEAD OF THE DEPT. OF CURDS AN' WHEYS AN' MEANS.
8/10/55
First panel:
Mouse and Snavely come across Churchy sitting, leaning against a log, writing something.
Mouse:
HERE'S A IMPARTIAL OBSERVER, WE'LL ASK HIM WHAT HE THINKS OF EDIBLE MONEY..
Second panel:
Mouse, talking to Churchy:
S'POSE US GOT A JOB PRINTIN' MONEY ON CHEESE INSTEAD OF PAPER.. WOULD YOU TAKE OF'N US 'STEAD OF THE GUMMINT CONCESSIONAIRES?
Churchy:
CHEESE? WHAT KIND?
Third panel:
Mouse:
OH, WHATEVER WE COULD SCARE UP.. PORT SALUTE, LIEDERKRUNTCH, CAMEMBURKE, SWISS, JACK, STORE OR MOUSE TRAP...
Snavely:
YOU WOULDN'T TAKE CHEESE OUTEN TRAPS, SIR?
Fourth panel:
Snavely
YOU'D BE ACCUSED OF STEALING FROM THE MICE OF OUR LAND.. BAD PUBLIC RELATIONS.. YOUR MONEY WOULD BE BOYCOTTED!
Churchy, returning to what he is writing:
I GOT A SMACKER OF A POEM GOIN' HERE! WHAT RHYMES WITH LIVERWURST?
8/11/55
First panel:
Pogo enters.
Churchy:
HEIGHDY, POGO... YOU IS JES' IN TIME. I IS LOOKIN' FOR A RHYME FOR LIVERWURST AN' THESE TWO LI'L SCAPERS WANT TO GET INTO THE MONEY BUSINESS-PRINTIN' IT ON CHEESE.
Second panel:
Pogo is now sitting next to Churchy.
Pogo:
HOW COME YOU WANTS TO PRINT MONEY ON CHEESE?
Mouse:
TO MAKE IT MORE ATTRACTIVE THEN US'D GET ALL THE BUSINESS.
Third panel:
Pogo:
I DRUTHER PRINT IT ON SAUSAGES - I JES' LOVE SAUSAGES -
Churchy:
PANCAKES IS MY FAVORITE! IF MONEY WAS PRINTED ON PANCAKES, I'D USE IT ALL THE TIME.
Fourth panel:
Pogo:
HOW ABOUT IF IT'S ON WATERMELON?
Churchy:
THAT WOULD CREATE A REAL DEMAND FOR IT!
Mouse, going away from Pogo and Churchy with Snavely; Mouse looks furious:
SEE!? COME UP WITH A GOOD IDEA AN' IMPRACTICAL DREAMERS WILL ALLUS MAKE A MESS OUTEN IT!
8/12/55
First panel
Mouse:
THE KIND OF A DOG ALBERT OUGHT TO BE IS A BOXER.
Snavely:
I'M SURE HE'LL APPRECIATE THE SUGGESTION.
Second panel:
Beauregard and Albert are sitting on the ground, leaning against a log. They are coming up with jokes for a television show they are writing.
Beauregard:
YOU SAY ALBERT OUGHT TO BE A BOXER? AN' BARK IN GUTTURAL REMARKS! THAT REE-MIND ME OF SOMETHIN' WE GONE USE ON THE "FLOSSIE, THE NOBLE DOG" SHOW!
Albert, stifling a laugh:
MUMF!
Third panel:
Beauregard:
FELLOW WINS TWO ELEPHANTS IN A RAFFLE AN' BRINGS 'EM HOME TELLIN' HIS WIFE THEY IS DOGS... "WHAT KIND OF DOGS IS THESE?" SHE ASKS.. "BOXERS," HE SAY, "CAN'T YOU SEE THEIR TRUNKS?"
Albert, convulsed with laughter:
WOW
Fourth panel:
Mouse and Snavely are leaving, rolling their eyes.
Beauregard
HOW ABOUT A LITTLE COURTEOUS "HA-HA"?
Albert, helpless with laughter:
WOW WOW
Mouse:
RIDICULOUS ON THE FACE OF IT... WHO WOULD RAFFLE OFF A PAIR OF ELEPHANTS?
Snavely, bemused:
[tiny print] ONE MEBBE, BUT TWO?
Obviously, this is much more effective with the pictures, but I think it is very funny still. (For both this volume and the subsequent one, my choices for funny dialogue involve Snavely. Jean Kerr once wrote a book titled The Snake Has All the Lines. Walt Kelly doesn't give Snavely all the lines, but he does get some of the best ones.)
I think that the last few months of the 1956 daily strips are not quite as good as much of the other material. The Nikita Khrushchev/pirate pig sequence that runs from 8/27/56-11/5/56 doesn't seem very funny to me now, although it may well have been when it first appeared. The end of the sequence is certainly quite poor. In the 11/8/56 strip, Pogo asks Howland Owl, "What happened to Mr. Pig and his talky cockadoodle ?" Howland replies, "Took a boat home... but nemmine that! I got news!" And the pirate pig vanishes from the strip.
I think that Pogo's voyage to Australia (11/15/56-12/20/56) is unquestionably silly rather than truly funny. The methods of traveling in each direction are especially poor.
I tend to like the Sunday strips a little less than the dailies, but the color does add a lot.
Two things I particularly liked as I read this in August, 2019 are the material about a presidential election, as one currently looms, and the first daily strip of 1956, in which one of the bats says, "It's Leap Year.. the year we elect a president.. the year of decision.. the year the Red Sox win the whole kaboodle." Another bat replies, "You say that ev'ry year." I live in Boston and I also say that every year, and, I'm very glad to say, some times in the past few years I have (finally) been right.
Neil Gaiman's "Foreward" is a tribute to both Pogo and to Carolyn Kelly. It is brief but touching. (He does get the name of one of the characters wrong, though; the lovely skunk is Miz [or Miss] Ma'm'selle Hepzibah, not Miz Hebzibah. He also gets the date wrong for the quote with which he begins the Foreward; it should be September 15, 1955, rather than September 12.)
R. C. Harvey's "Swamp Talk: Annotations and Historical Data" is very good as far as it goes, but it does not go nearly far enough. There are a great many places here that cry out in vain for elucidation. I am going to take pages 123-131 (February 23 - March 23, 1956) and mention some of the items that I think should have been annotated:
2/23/56
Miz Ma'm'zelle Hepzibah says, "Le pays ouvert au talent." This means that the country (in this case, the United States) is open to talent; it is, as Miz Beaver adds, "the land of operatoonity."
2/24/56
Miz Beaver says, "We was as happy as lox swimmin' upstream." Lox is smoked salmon; live (unsmoked) salmon do swim upstream.
2/25/56
Miz Beaver says, "Well, I was all dolled up in a skeeter nettin' potoso-a-samare with tucker an' holster an' reached for my harquebus...." Having looked it up, I now know that a potoso-a-samare is a long robe worn by colonial American women and a tucker is "a piece of lace or linen worn at the top of a bodice or at the front of a low-cut dress." This did not, I am sure, traditionally include a holster, but Miz Beaver obviously wanted to be well prepared. A harquebus is a kind of gun invented in the Fifteenth Century.
2/28/56
Churchy sings what he calls "Ole Folks at Home." He gives the lyrics as:
Wade on a pond
A swan he rover
Farf farfa weigh
Days wormy hardy
Stern an' over
Stairway keyhole
Floats day
This is "Old Folks at Home" and the real lyrics, written by Stephen Foster, go:
Way down upon the Swanee River
Far, far away
There’s where my heart is turning ever
There's where the old folks stay.
3/1/56
Howland Owl, having fallen into cake batter, says that he is leaving "battered but unbowed."
This is a reference to a line from the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
For some reason, references to the last line of this stanza often say "battered, but unbowed."
3/2/56
As Howland comes out from the cake batter, taking most of it with him, Miz Beaver says, "That, more or less, takes the cake."
When something "takes the cake," it is an outrageous example of something bad.
3/3/56
Churchy sings another song, "Carry Me Back to Ol' Virginny," giving the lyrics as:
Caramel bag twofold McGinty
Tear swear tea garden Anna
Corner taker scroll
The actual verse is:
Carry me back to old Virginny,
There's where the cotton and the corn and taters grow
3/14/56
Howland has been covered with cake batter, which, unknown to him and his friends, was mixed with cement. Churchy has gone to get hot water, thinking that will dissolve the batter. On the way back, Churchy meets Porky and tells him that the water is to help Howland, who "got stiff" from "too much of Miz Beaver's cake batter." Porky asks, "The Federals know about this?"
Porky thinks that by "got stiff," Churchy means "got drunk." He is surprised that cake batter could have got Howland intoxicated, and asks if "the Federals" know that this could happen. "The Federals" to whom Porky is referring are Treasury Dept. Revenue Agents looking for illegal, untaxed alcoholic beverages, such as moonshine whiskey.
3/17/56
March 17 is St. Patrick's Day. Snavely says he has been to Ireland and loved it. In legend, St. Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland. That is why Snavely doesn't celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
3/23/56
Porky says that after what was believed to be a statue of Howland has been changed, "It's lost a certain Jenny say quoits."
This is a pun on the French phrase, "Je ne sais quoi," meaning literally "I don't know what." It is commonly used to mean an indefinable quality that makes something or someone attractive or special in some way, but is hard to put into words.
I also note that Harvey says "de rigueur" is a "Latin expression." Ce n'est pas vrai.
Also, he says that in the 7/24/55 strip, "'Farewell, adieu, auf wiedersehen' is from the chorus of a song in The Sound of Music." The Sound of Music opened on Broadway in 1959.
And one more thing: there is no "bamboozle bush" in this book. A line on page vi says "Under the Bamboozle Bush, the title for this volume, was found among Walt Kelly's papers."
Fine title. Fine book.
December 1, 2018
I first began reading the Pogo comic strip when I was in grade school and continued until its end. However, I got it on only the most superficial level. I found the characters, their mangling of speech, and the predicaments that they got themselves into to be funny. Towards the end I realized that the strip was a reflection of what was going on in the world, but I still didn't have the kind of appreciation that I have after starting to reread them. For one thing, I think that the book format allows for a better flow. Although some of the characters, such as Simple J. Malarkey, represent individuals who are long gone, the character types continue to be represented in our world today. Some of it may not be considered "politically correct" today, but that does not take away from its quality. To have an understanding of the world today, one needs to look at the past. A person can read these books on several levels. The panels often have a number of things going on at the same time, and the wordplay requires some commitment to time to fully appreciate it. One last thing, the drawings themselves are truly a work of art.
April 2, 2020
I think I read too any Pogo collections quickly back to back. This became a little repetitive. I always enjoy the puns and malapropisms, and I know Pogo is a classic strip. Still, too much at once become redundant. Also, the Notes in the back seemed often superfluous. Either I knew the reference, or when I wanted a reference, it was not in the Notes. On the opposite side, for cartooning, this is 5-star volume. Each panel has an animated drawing of each character. I loved this appealing kind of the way of cute, now replaced in nearly all cartooning with a manga style. Walt Kelly was an unmatched master of appealing, expressive drawing.
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