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Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips #5
Pogo The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips Vol. 5: Out Of This World At Home
Presents the years 1957 and 1958 of the politically progressive, influential newspaper strip. This is the first time Pogo has been complete and in chronological order for the first time anywhere―with all 104 Sunday strips from these two years presented in lush full color for the first time since their original appearance in Sunday newspaper sections. In this volume, the Okefenokee gang decide to dig a canal to compete with the Suez (as soon as they can con one of their own into doing the digging) and consider going back to school. Among other hi-jinx, a flea comes a courtin' Beauregard the Dog. Black & white illustrations with some color.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published October 9, 2018
9 people are currently reading
49 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 7, 2019
My favo-rite critter from the swamp is most probapple the natr'l-born houn' dog Beauregard Bugleboy.
O'corse, Miz Ma'm'selle Hepzibah is mighty perty.
And Porky Pine is right nice.
It wouldn't nohow be Wiley Catt nor Ol' Mole nor the Deacon neither. They's DEE-SPICK-ABLE!
I am right fond of Snavely. Ol' snake has some fine kwaltees. He has W. C. Fields's nose and Ted Lewis's top hat, jes' summat the worst for wear.
The one I personal most look like is Barnstable Bear. We's builded about the same. He do dress some better though.
But wait jes' a dogboned minit! Now that I has considered it, I reckon my favo-rite is Pogo hisself.
*********************************
This is Volume 5 of Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, assembling all the strips from 1957 and 1958. The Monday-Saturday strips are all in black and white; they make up 210 pages, with three days of strips on each page. 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 CNN commentator Jake Tapper, some explanatory notes titled "Swamp Talk: Searching for the Obscure amid the Obvious and Vice Versa" by R. C. Harvey (identified as a "comics chronicler"), 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.
Pogo was - 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 never 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 a most engaging tiger, who is not featured in this volume.)
The dialogue in Pogo is, for the most part, make-believe United States Southern. My introductory comments above are an attempt to mimic Walt Kelly's type of dialogue; "DEE-SPICK-ABLE" is a direct quote. The following is the dialogue from the last two panels in this volume. The speakers are Churchy La Femme, a turtle, and Pogo, a possum. The dialogue is always given in all capital letters:
Next-to-last panel:
Churchy:
BUT 1969 GOT A MESS OF BIG OL' FRIDAY-THE-THIRTEENTHS IN IT... IF WE GET A HEAD START WE'LL KEEP A LEAD ON 'EM.
Pogo:
THE MINUTE YOU GETS TO THE INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE YOU IS LOST A DAY AND YOU'S SPANG INTO FRIDAY-THE-THIRTEENTH.
Last panel:
Churchy:
FACT? WELL, WE'LL LET' EM COME THEN... MIGHT AS WELL FACE 'EM ON HOME GROUND.
Pogo:
BUT, SAME TIME, LET'S WORRY ABOUT 'EM...IT'LL KEEP OUR BRAINS GOIN' WHILE US IS BUSY STUMBLIN' THRU THE NEXT YEAR.
And all of the foregoing is really just an introduction. The main things to know about Pogo is that it is brave, beautiful, and very, very funny. One of the things that made Pogo famous is Kelly's bold social and political stances. The most famous, I think, was Kelly's lampooning of Senator Joseph Mccarthy, which occurred before the material in this volume. But that was far from the end of Kelly's stands on issues in this comic strip. It was not unprecedented to express political opinions in comics; Harold Grey in Little Orphan Annie had done this for years, and Al Capp also did so in Li'l Abner. But Kelly espoused more controversial, even dangerous, positions. In this volume, for example, there are a number of references to segregated schools, and schools being closed to prevent integration. Some of these were subtle, some...not so much:
November 14, 1958:
First panel:
Butterfly:
YOU SEEMS TO IMPLY THAT IN NATIONAL EDUCATION WEEK WE AIN'T GOT SCHOOLS ENUFF TO VISIT.
Pogo:
WULL
Second panel
Pogo:
I'D ALSO SAY SOME OF 'EM CLOSES A LI'L EARLY... WHAT YOU'D CALL A SHORT TERM.
Butterfly:
HMM
Third panel:
Butterfly:
I GOT A IDEA..WE'LL MAKE A MILLION BUCKS.. ...SOON AS A SCHOOL IS PADLOCKED OR BOMBED WE'LL OPEN A CELLAR RIGHT NEARBY... THE STUDENT ASKS FOR JOE.. SAYS "BENNY SENT ME."
Please note: that sweet little butterfly just said "soon as a school is BOMBED." That is emphatically not something that would show up in Blondie or Bringing Up Father (both of which, by the way, I love). This, ladies and gentlemen, is bravery, in a comic strip.
I can't demonstrate "beauty" without showing examples from the strip. Look at a copy of this book. See, for example, the last panel on page 316 or the strip from August 28, 1958 on page 175. The last panel of that strip was adapted into the gorgeous wraparound dust jacket of this volume. (And a further word or two about the dust jacket: the colors, on my copy at least, do not at all resemble the much inferior coloring shown here on Goodreads. However, the cover Goodreads shows for the Kindle edition is much more accurate.)
And that takes us to "funny." There are 314 pages of genuine mirth in this book and I can't put them all in this review.
Are there problems with the book? A few. There is a lot of violence; it is comic strip violence and no one ever seems to be actually injured, but I wish there had been less. I also strongly wish that Kelly had never come up with the May 26, 1957 strip, in which Churchy, feeling rejected, contemplates suicide. I realize that this may be no more somber than a reference to schools being bombed, but the bombing reference makes a point; the suicide theme is just used for a couple of inconsequential jokes.
R. C. Harvey's "Swamp Talk" notes are informative and funny in their own right, but they could have been much more complete. I will mention two items which are connected and certainly would require an explanation for most readers. In the February 23, 1958 strip, Pogo brings medication for another character while a third character says, "BALTO IS BRUNG THE SERUM." In the May 19, 1958 strip on page 146, Albert the Alligator is pretending (for reasons much too complicated to explain here) to be a dog. Albert says, "IF I'D OF BEEN A DOG I WOULD OF BEEN LEAD HUSKIE..BRINGIN' THE SERUM FROM GHENT TO NOME.. STOUT HEARTED... BRAVE... DRAGGIN' ALL OTHERS WITH ME, THE LAZY BUMS."
From Wikipedia:
Balto was a Siberian Husky and sled dog who led his team on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which diphtheria antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nenana, Alaska, by train and then to Nome by dog sled to combat an outbreak of the disease
There is a statue of Balto in Central Park.
So how did Ghent, a city in Belgium, get in there? I think that this was just because British author Robert Browning had once written a poem titled "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix." This has nothing to do with Alaska, sled dogs, or serum. It was just the words "bring," "bringing," and "brought" that united the two subjects; Balto brought serum to Nome, people brought news from Ghent to Aix. Kelly just conflated the two.
And just one more note, because I think it's funny and I am sure that many missed it. From November 9, 1958 on page 309:
Albert:
WHAT'S YOU SELLIN' THIS TIME, OWL?
Howland Owl:
I'M INVITIN'ALL US GROWED-UP MENS TO GET TOGETHER AN' BECOME PALS TO OUR YOUTH... BE DADS TO ALL.
Pogo:
BEDADS TO WHAT?
"Bedad" is an Irish exclamation, meaning "by God."
There are quite a few other references like these that might have deserved explanatory notes.
I said that I wouldn't quote all the things in this book that I think are funny but I will quote one more strip, the one for November 18, 1958 on page 198. A lot of the humor is in the drawing, but the dialogue is funny as well:
First panel:
Pogo Possum and Snavely the alcoholic snake are moseying along.
Snavely:
THE FELLOW I WORKED FOR DURIN' PROHIBITION WAS A MR. TEXAS J. O'REILLY WHO EVOLVED THE FAMOUS "LONG TOAD EVENIN'."
Pogo
[small print] UM?
Second panel:
Pogo and Snavely are still going along, but this time they are shown in silhouette.
Snavely:
MR. O'REILLY RAN A DAMP DUGOUT KNOWED AS THE INK PIT AN' ALONG TO'AD EVENIN', AS HE PUT IT, HE'D START A REPTILE RACE... THE PLACE WOULD BE ALIVE WITH ROACHES, FISH, LIZARDS, CHICKENS, FROGS, TURTLES AN' OTHER REPTILES.
Pogo
[small print] REPTILES?
Third panel:
Pogo and Snavely are crossing over a body of water, walking (or slithering) on a narrow branch.
Snavely
YEP, HE CLAIMED I WAS THE LONGEST TOAD IN THE WORLD AN' HE MATCHED ME AGAINST OTHER TOADS... ONE DAY A FELLOW BROUGHT IN THE FRONT END OF AN ELEPHANT.
Fourth panel:
Pogo, looking disgusted, has fallen in the water. Snavely is still on the branch.
Snavely:
O'REILLY PULLED ME OUT TO THREE QUARTERS OF A YARD BUT THE OTHER FELLOW HAD US.. THEN WE NOTICED THE REST OF THE BEHEMOTH.. TEX SAID THAT WAS STRETCHIN' THINGS TOO FAR... AN' I AGREED.
I think that joke, and this whole book, are stretched just exactly far enough. I love it.
O'corse, Miz Ma'm'selle Hepzibah is mighty perty.
And Porky Pine is right nice.
It wouldn't nohow be Wiley Catt nor Ol' Mole nor the Deacon neither. They's DEE-SPICK-ABLE!
I am right fond of Snavely. Ol' snake has some fine kwaltees. He has W. C. Fields's nose and Ted Lewis's top hat, jes' summat the worst for wear.
The one I personal most look like is Barnstable Bear. We's builded about the same. He do dress some better though.
But wait jes' a dogboned minit! Now that I has considered it, I reckon my favo-rite is Pogo hisself.
*********************************
This is Volume 5 of Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, assembling all the strips from 1957 and 1958. The Monday-Saturday strips are all in black and white; they make up 210 pages, with three days of strips on each page. 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 CNN commentator Jake Tapper, some explanatory notes titled "Swamp Talk: Searching for the Obscure amid the Obvious and Vice Versa" by R. C. Harvey (identified as a "comics chronicler"), 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.
Pogo was - 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 never 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 a most engaging tiger, who is not featured in this volume.)
The dialogue in Pogo is, for the most part, make-believe United States Southern. My introductory comments above are an attempt to mimic Walt Kelly's type of dialogue; "DEE-SPICK-ABLE" is a direct quote. The following is the dialogue from the last two panels in this volume. The speakers are Churchy La Femme, a turtle, and Pogo, a possum. The dialogue is always given in all capital letters:
Next-to-last panel:
Churchy:
BUT 1969 GOT A MESS OF BIG OL' FRIDAY-THE-THIRTEENTHS IN IT... IF WE GET A HEAD START WE'LL KEEP A LEAD ON 'EM.
Pogo:
THE MINUTE YOU GETS TO THE INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE YOU IS LOST A DAY AND YOU'S SPANG INTO FRIDAY-THE-THIRTEENTH.
Last panel:
Churchy:
FACT? WELL, WE'LL LET' EM COME THEN... MIGHT AS WELL FACE 'EM ON HOME GROUND.
Pogo:
BUT, SAME TIME, LET'S WORRY ABOUT 'EM...IT'LL KEEP OUR BRAINS GOIN' WHILE US IS BUSY STUMBLIN' THRU THE NEXT YEAR.
And all of the foregoing is really just an introduction. The main things to know about Pogo is that it is brave, beautiful, and very, very funny. One of the things that made Pogo famous is Kelly's bold social and political stances. The most famous, I think, was Kelly's lampooning of Senator Joseph Mccarthy, which occurred before the material in this volume. But that was far from the end of Kelly's stands on issues in this comic strip. It was not unprecedented to express political opinions in comics; Harold Grey in Little Orphan Annie had done this for years, and Al Capp also did so in Li'l Abner. But Kelly espoused more controversial, even dangerous, positions. In this volume, for example, there are a number of references to segregated schools, and schools being closed to prevent integration. Some of these were subtle, some...not so much:
November 14, 1958:
First panel:
Butterfly:
YOU SEEMS TO IMPLY THAT IN NATIONAL EDUCATION WEEK WE AIN'T GOT SCHOOLS ENUFF TO VISIT.
Pogo:
WULL
Second panel
Pogo:
I'D ALSO SAY SOME OF 'EM CLOSES A LI'L EARLY... WHAT YOU'D CALL A SHORT TERM.
Butterfly:
HMM
Third panel:
Butterfly:
I GOT A IDEA..WE'LL MAKE A MILLION BUCKS.. ...SOON AS A SCHOOL IS PADLOCKED OR BOMBED WE'LL OPEN A CELLAR RIGHT NEARBY... THE STUDENT ASKS FOR JOE.. SAYS "BENNY SENT ME."
Please note: that sweet little butterfly just said "soon as a school is BOMBED." That is emphatically not something that would show up in Blondie or Bringing Up Father (both of which, by the way, I love). This, ladies and gentlemen, is bravery, in a comic strip.
I can't demonstrate "beauty" without showing examples from the strip. Look at a copy of this book. See, for example, the last panel on page 316 or the strip from August 28, 1958 on page 175. The last panel of that strip was adapted into the gorgeous wraparound dust jacket of this volume. (And a further word or two about the dust jacket: the colors, on my copy at least, do not at all resemble the much inferior coloring shown here on Goodreads. However, the cover Goodreads shows for the Kindle edition is much more accurate.)
And that takes us to "funny." There are 314 pages of genuine mirth in this book and I can't put them all in this review.
Are there problems with the book? A few. There is a lot of violence; it is comic strip violence and no one ever seems to be actually injured, but I wish there had been less. I also strongly wish that Kelly had never come up with the May 26, 1957 strip, in which Churchy, feeling rejected, contemplates suicide. I realize that this may be no more somber than a reference to schools being bombed, but the bombing reference makes a point; the suicide theme is just used for a couple of inconsequential jokes.
R. C. Harvey's "Swamp Talk" notes are informative and funny in their own right, but they could have been much more complete. I will mention two items which are connected and certainly would require an explanation for most readers. In the February 23, 1958 strip, Pogo brings medication for another character while a third character says, "BALTO IS BRUNG THE SERUM." In the May 19, 1958 strip on page 146, Albert the Alligator is pretending (for reasons much too complicated to explain here) to be a dog. Albert says, "IF I'D OF BEEN A DOG I WOULD OF BEEN LEAD HUSKIE..BRINGIN' THE SERUM FROM GHENT TO NOME.. STOUT HEARTED... BRAVE... DRAGGIN' ALL OTHERS WITH ME, THE LAZY BUMS."
From Wikipedia:
Balto was a Siberian Husky and sled dog who led his team on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which diphtheria antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nenana, Alaska, by train and then to Nome by dog sled to combat an outbreak of the disease
There is a statue of Balto in Central Park.
So how did Ghent, a city in Belgium, get in there? I think that this was just because British author Robert Browning had once written a poem titled "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix." This has nothing to do with Alaska, sled dogs, or serum. It was just the words "bring," "bringing," and "brought" that united the two subjects; Balto brought serum to Nome, people brought news from Ghent to Aix. Kelly just conflated the two.
And just one more note, because I think it's funny and I am sure that many missed it. From November 9, 1958 on page 309:
Albert:
WHAT'S YOU SELLIN' THIS TIME, OWL?
Howland Owl:
I'M INVITIN'ALL US GROWED-UP MENS TO GET TOGETHER AN' BECOME PALS TO OUR YOUTH... BE DADS TO ALL.
Pogo:
BEDADS TO WHAT?
"Bedad" is an Irish exclamation, meaning "by God."
There are quite a few other references like these that might have deserved explanatory notes.
I said that I wouldn't quote all the things in this book that I think are funny but I will quote one more strip, the one for November 18, 1958 on page 198. A lot of the humor is in the drawing, but the dialogue is funny as well:
First panel:
Pogo Possum and Snavely the alcoholic snake are moseying along.
Snavely:
THE FELLOW I WORKED FOR DURIN' PROHIBITION WAS A MR. TEXAS J. O'REILLY WHO EVOLVED THE FAMOUS "LONG TOAD EVENIN'."
Pogo
[small print] UM?
Second panel:
Pogo and Snavely are still going along, but this time they are shown in silhouette.
Snavely:
MR. O'REILLY RAN A DAMP DUGOUT KNOWED AS THE INK PIT AN' ALONG TO'AD EVENIN', AS HE PUT IT, HE'D START A REPTILE RACE... THE PLACE WOULD BE ALIVE WITH ROACHES, FISH, LIZARDS, CHICKENS, FROGS, TURTLES AN' OTHER REPTILES.
Pogo
[small print] REPTILES?
Third panel:
Pogo and Snavely are crossing over a body of water, walking (or slithering) on a narrow branch.
Snavely
YEP, HE CLAIMED I WAS THE LONGEST TOAD IN THE WORLD AN' HE MATCHED ME AGAINST OTHER TOADS... ONE DAY A FELLOW BROUGHT IN THE FRONT END OF AN ELEPHANT.
Fourth panel:
Pogo, looking disgusted, has fallen in the water. Snavely is still on the branch.
Snavely:
O'REILLY PULLED ME OUT TO THREE QUARTERS OF A YARD BUT THE OTHER FELLOW HAD US.. THEN WE NOTICED THE REST OF THE BEHEMOTH.. TEX SAID THAT WAS STRETCHIN' THINGS TOO FAR... AN' I AGREED.
I think that joke, and this whole book, are stretched just exactly far enough. I love it.
February 6, 2020
Man, these books are treasures! Nearly all of these strips were new to me. This era of Pogo isn't as often reprinted because it isn't as overtly political as the earlier or later strips. Most of the sequences here are crazed whimsy, wild flights of verbal and conceptual fancy that, at their best, burn bright with timeless brilliance. You can almost see Kelly working up to the pitch and then delivering dizzying, dazzling sequences of genuine genius. I'm happy to see the frequency kicking up a notch so that, maybe, we will get to the end of the strip's amazing life and all the incredible wit, history, and stunning artistry are preserved in volumes and digitized images forever. God knows they deserve it.
January 6, 2020
"I may be Good...But I ain’t as real as you think." These were the words of Albert Alligator, one of Pogo-s many friends living in the swamp. This is Volume 5 in Fanagraphic Book's project of for the first time reprinting all the Pogo daily and Sunday strips (in color) by Walt Kelly. These are from 1957, and they explore everything imaginable. As a one of the ragged but cute robber mice says, "Mebbe the time to remember a lot of stuff is before it starts." You're sure to pick a favorite critter. Albert was mine, even when tells Churhy Turtle, "Trouble with you is you is too big to swat an’ too small to wrassle.” Churchy replies by launching into some typical Walk Kelly poetry, "Ah, to be in October now what April’s here.” The patter of conversation from these wonderfully-drawn critters is reminiscent of the beats and rhythms of George Herriman's Krazy Kat. At the same time, the animals speak for themselves. An irate bunny tells us, "Well, who’s the only people what can grow rabbits’ feet..Huh? Without rabbits, a rabbit’s foot would be nothin’ but a disembodied handful of unidentified toes.." A flea tells a taper mouse, "Dogs is man’s best friend if that man is a flea." An investigative, analytical mouse makes the claim: "The scientific team of mice have perfected the satellite to carry men into outer space, once an’ for all..." A literary flea exclaims, "I started this life with a will....yearning for wings....a trip thru the wild blue yonder...now it’s ashes...I’m a burned out rocket...I’m gonna write a book....I’ll call it “Look Back from Hunger”...a motorcycle ride through the black jacket of existence." Pogo watches this world go by. and watched the world at the time, as he comments on sputniks and satellites from the 1950's. “Perhaps instead of making’ artificial moons we could make an artificial world an’ then...an’...but..maybe we already got one.” The volume has an index, notes, and quoted nuggets (with none of the above). I don't see how there will ever be another Way Kelly, but these collected editions are a valuable and fantastic tribute to his genius.
February 3, 2022
The so-called "funny animals" side of Pogo with its pun and antics are neat, but whenever Kelly had something to say about politics the strip was on fire. Either the 1957/1958 period had a slow news cycle or the editors made "suggestions", because the strips collected in this book contain almost exclusively content of the former and, if it wasn't for the tail end, almost nothing of the latter. This fact on its own isn't a problem, but it's quite notable that the strip somewhat fumbles in a low energy state for a long stretch of pages and is spinning its wheels a bit. On occasion you'll even get the point proven that it's a thin line between a running gag and a recycled gag.
Yeah well. I still chuckled every now and then, and the art is pretty to look at, as always. However, compared to preceding volumes this really isn't the strongest of them all.
Yeah well. I still chuckled every now and then, and the art is pretty to look at, as always. However, compared to preceding volumes this really isn't the strongest of them all.
January 29, 2019
What can you say? The strip is timeless. It's sad that the issues that were present in 1958 exist today. Politicians who care more about themselves than the people they represent, prejudice, bigotry, and of course Russia. People who have never read Pogo are missing something. I'm looking forward to the next volume.
May 30, 2019
Greatness
Subtracting one star only because the table of contents doesn't work on my Kindle Fire. Haven't tried it on other devices because it would be too small.
My late dad was a Pogo fan and I inherited the fandom. It's the greatest satirical funny animal comic ever. And we love(d) the word play too.
Subtracting one star only because the table of contents doesn't work on my Kindle Fire. Haven't tried it on other devices because it would be too small.
My late dad was a Pogo fan and I inherited the fandom. It's the greatest satirical funny animal comic ever. And we love(d) the word play too.
June 4, 2020
A quiet year at home so the creatures of the swamp get to be themselves.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews