Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips 6: Clean as a Weasel

Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips #6

by Walt Kelly

This is the first time Pogo has been complete and in chronological order anywhere—with all 104 Sunday strips from these two years presented in lush full color for since their original appearance in Sunday newspaper sections. In Volume 6, Albert Alligator and Beauregard Bugleboy fend off a man-from-Mars, and Howland Owl investigates Communist espionage in the postal system. Then, it's election year and Okefenokee Swamp gets a new presidential candidate, Fremount the Bugboy. His campaign slogan, "Jes' Fine," sparks political debates about just who can and should be president — maybe even a woman!

Genres: Humor, Comics, Graphic Novels

344 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

American 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."

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

"BESIDES 'POGO' IS VERY CHILDISH... HARD TO UNDERSTAND FOR THE AVERAGE INTELLECT OR EVEN FOR SUPERIOR ONES LIKE MINE.

"A COMIC STRIP WITH GOOD-LOOKIN' GIRLS... BIG CARS... FLASHY FIREARMS DRAWED QUICK AN' COOL FROM THEM UNDERARM UPHOLSTERS. THAT'S WHAT FOLKSY FOLK UNDERSTAND."

-----Barnstable Bear, planning a rival comic strip to Pogo.


This is Volume 6 of Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, assembling all the strips from 1959 and 1960. The Monday-Saturday strips are all in black and white; they make up 209 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 editor Mark Evanier, a "Foreward" by cartoonist Jim Davis, some explanatory notes titled "Swamp Talk: Searching for the Obscure amid the Obvious and Vice Versa" by R. C. Harvey, a short article by Jim Kokris titled "Don Morgan: A Remembrance," a list of "Noteworthy Quotes" from the comics in this volume, a very brief discussion of how Walt Kelly might have responded to the current presidency of Donald Trump, and a fine index. There is also a lovely photograph of Walt Kelly and his children Carolyn, Peter, and Kathy, from around 1951.

Pogo is a "funny animals" comic, in which all the characters are some variety of animal life. Everyone represented can speak and has feelings, including worms, fish, and a great many insects.

The dialogue in Pogo is, for the most part, make-believe United States Southern. The dialogue is almost 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. In this volume, the dialogue of Bridgeport and Deacon Mushrat, whose speech is printed in a Gothic font, does include both upper and lower case letters. Some of the dialogue throughout is shown in bold. Occasionally some is larger or smaller than usual. Very occasional material, untranslated in the actual strips, is in Cyrillic; translations do appear in the notes in the back of the book.

When I have written about collections of other comic strip such as Barnaby or Mary Perkins: On Stage, I have discussed the story arcs in the material. Pogo does have such arcs, but they are amorphous and not well-defined. For example, a sequence about the 1960 presidential election begins on page 106 with the 12/28/59 strip and continues (with a great many interruptions) until the 12/29/60 strip (and perhaps beyond). Material about contacts with the Soviet Union wind through the entire book.

In my comments on previous volumes in this series, I have stated that R. C. Harvey's "Swamp Talk" notes are pleasant but they leave out a lot of explanations that I think should be included. Some of those are:

⏺️Small boats frequently appear in these comics, and many of them have names on them. Harvey mentions to whom the names on the boats refer when he can identify them. Some not included in the notes though are:

◾p. 52 - 6/23/59
"Charlie Brown"/"Charles Schulz" - the main character & the artist, Peanuts comic strip

◾p. 120 - 2/16/60
"Terry Sanford"/"NC" - a governor of North Carolina, who also ran for president

◾p. 262 - 11/29/59
"Ralph McGill"/"City of Atlanta"/"S. S. Constitution" - McGill was publisher of The Atlanta Constitution newspaper

⏺️Other notes:

◾p. 34-35, quotes from Deacon Mushrat. (Some of this material does not seem to make much sense, probably deliberately.):

▪️4/20/59
"proliferous profligate" - an extravagant production of buds (?)
"Après midi le deluge" - this is obviously an intentional error. "Après-midi" is French for "afternoon." There are, however, French phrases, "Après nous, le deluge" and "Après moi, le deluge," meaning "After us, the flood" and "After me, the flood."

▪️4/21/59
"anguis in the herba" - snake in the grass, treacherous enemy [Latin]
"All is lost - or Toujours Perdrix" - not the correct definition; toujours perdrix means "too much partridge"; too much of a good thing [French]
"Punica fides" - reliability of a Carthaginian; treachery [Latin]
"Perfidy" - deceitfulness

▪️4/22/59
"Daedalian" - cunningly designed; complex; deceitful
"Puseyism" - a theological doctrine
"Icarian" - pertaining to Icarus, particularly in being excessively ambitious
"coup de soleil" - sunburn
"lackadaisy" - a lack of spirit
"pusillanimous" - lacking courage

▪️4/23/59
"amicus humani generis" - friend of humanity [Latin]
"cum very laude" - with a lot of praise [Latin mixed with English]
"bavardage" - idle gossip
"bouffant buffoon" - clown with raised, rounded hair (?)
"Mirabile dictu" - marvelous to say [Latin]

▪️4/24/59
"brutum fulmen ein plein jour" - "brutum fulmen" is Latin for meaningless lightning; "plein jour" is French for broad daylight. I suspect that the "ein" is intended to be "in."
"barratry" - fraud or gross negligence by a ship's master or crew at the expense of the owners
"pettifogging" - placing undue emphasis on petty details

◾p. 50-51, gnats' baseball jargon:

▪️6/15/59
"Bosox" - Boston Red Sox
"frames" - innings
"blank" - shut out; keep the opposing team from scoring
"Pale Hose" - Chicago White Sox
"Yanks" - New York Yankees
"triple play" - the rare act of making three outs during the same continuous play.

▪️6/16/59
"Tribe"-Cleveland Indians

▪️6/17/59
"K.C." - Kansas City Athletics (who later became the Oakland Athletics)

▪️6/18/59 & 6/19/59
"Lardner" - John Lardner, a sportswriter
"Card/Cards" - St. Louis Cardinals

◾p. 61 - 6/25/59
"Summit Smoke" "Have Goodwill Travel" - I am guessing that the first may be a variation of the title of Tennessee Williams' play Summer and Smoke, but that might well be wrong. The second refers to the Western TV series Have Gun, Will Travel.

◾p. 64 - 8/4/59
"gay deceivership" - "gay deceiver" meaning either "pads of material in women's clothing used to increase the apparent size of the breasts" or a "man who used his charm for personal gain."

◾p. 67 - 8/15/59
"shoot the works" - the phrase means to use all one's money or to make the greatest possible effort; here it also means shooting a cannon at the sprocket factory, using "works" as a synonym for "factory"

◾p. 76 - 9/15/59
The bear - the notes on p. 326 for this strip say that this is "Kelly's first representation of Nikita Khrushchev." That is incorrect. Khrushchev appeared in Pogo, not as a bear but in the guise of a pirate pig, from 8/27/56 - 11/8/56.

◾p. 78 - 9/21/59
"And as Shakespere said, 'Denmark ain't alone.'" - reference to the line from Hamlet, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

◾p. 90 - 11/4/59
"Robinson Crueshove" - combining the literary character Robinson Crusoe with Soviet Union leader Nikita Khruschev

◾p. 97 - 11/17/59
"Put another kopek in... In with Khachaturian" - Khachaturian shows up at least three times in this book. Aram Khachaturian was a Soviet Armenian composer. This is a parody of the song lyric, "Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon."

◾p. 111 - 1/16/60
"By George Y. Wells" - notes say "George Y. Wells is apparently an entirely fictitious person." I have a feeling that this is meant as a joke of some kind. George Y. Wells was a New York Times staffer who died in 1963.

◾p. 168 - 8/1/60
"You, too?"
"U what? Care, sir, would be prudent." -
reference to the American U-2 spy plane shot down over Russia in May, 1960.

◾p. 183 - 9/23/60
"I've opened some eggs and found 'em full of Funny Putty" - the children's toy called Silly Putty or Funny Putty came in plastic eggs.

◾p. 185 - 9/29/60
"Oh, Pushkin Natchka Nicolin
Ynvitch Khachaturian
Olga Wanda Lovkin U. N.
Muzhik! Muzhik! Muzhik!"

This is another parody of the song mentioned above with the lyric "Put another nickel in."

The song is actually titled "Music, Music, Music." It was written by Stephen Weiss and Bernie Baum and published in 1949. The verse that is parodied here is:

Put another nickel in,
In the nickelodeon.
All I want is having you
And music, music, music.

Much of the lyrics of the parody appears to be meaningless. A "muzhik" is a Russian peasant.

◾p. 260 - 11/15/59 and on
purple cow - the famous "purple cow" appearing here was based on a poem (referred to in the 11/22/59 strip) by Gelett Burgess:

I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you, anyhow
I'd rather see than be one.

That poem became so famous that Burgess wrote a sequel:

Ah, yes, I wrote the “Purple Cow” –
I’m sorry, now, I wrote it;
But I can tell you anyhow
I’ll kill you if you quote it.

p. 310 - 10/30/60
"HellO, Al!" ("Al" might actually be "A1"; I'm not sure) - obviously a joke in context, but I don't get it.

p. 312 - 11/13/60
"A Peiping Potemkin" - a pun on "peeping Tom." Peiping is a city in [communist] China; Grigory Potemkin was an 18th Century Russian military leader and statesman.

◾p. 314 - 11/27/60
Three song parodies, two of which are already mentioned in the notes:

▪️"While we were Martian thru Groznyy" - parody of the song "Marching Through Georgia" from the American Civil War. It begins:

Bring the good old bugle, boys, we'll sing another song
Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along
Sing it as we used to sing it, fifty thousand strong
While we were marching through Georgia...


There is a suspicion that the character being "played by" Pogo is actually from Mars, which accounts for the "Martian" pun.

▪️"M is for the Murmansk things she gaved me..." - parody of the song "M-O-T-H-E-R," which begins:

"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old...

Murmansk is a city in Russia.

▪️"Put another kopeck in,
In with Khachaturian..." - yet another parody of the song "Music, Music, Music."



Some random thoughts:

◾I thought that the Australian sequence was the worst part of Volume Four. I don't much like the one (8/25/60-10/19/60) in this volume either.

◾p. 72 - 9/1/59
Pogo looks just a trifle awkward in the first panel, but I think that this strip is wonderful. Porky holding his hand up as if checking for rain to tell what month it is is brilliant. The draftmanship is...did I already say wonderful?...amazing!

◾p. 117 - 2/5/60
Try to picture a tiger who is both angry and disgusted. But you don't need to try, because here he is in the last panel. Perfect!

◾p. 148 and on (as well as appearing in other series volumes)
I know it's mostly the eyeglasses, but the Newslife reporter always reminds me of Stan Freberg.

◾p. 165 - 7/21/60
Pogo and Porky balancing on the tree branch in the last panel is terrific. Kelly does his own balancing act here, with perfect proportions of beauty and humor.

◾p. 211 - 12/30/61
I suspect that it's just me, but I think this is a rare, badly-drawn strip, especially the last panel.

◾I don't know if this is a problem in other copies of the book, but in mine the colors of some of the characters in the Sunday sequences occasionally change significantly from strip to strip and even panel to panel. Albert seems to be the only one immune to this.

◾p. 251 - 9/13/59
The top bird in the first panel on the second row looks very Dr. Seuss-ian to me.

◾p. 335-337 - "Don Morgan: A Remembrance"
This is a brief article about animated versions of Pogo and about Don Morgan one of the animators who worked on The Pogo Special Birthday Special, among many other projects. Walt Kelly did not like that film but he did hire Morgan to ghost for him when he was too ill to work.


In my discussions of Volumes Four and Five of this series, I picked out some strips I considered especially funny. They all involved Snavely, who appears to be serpens non grata in Volume Six; he is only in one panel of one strip in the whole book.

My choice for the funniest sequence in this book is the spelling gnats, with Beauregard and Sam (6/8/59-7/1/59). That would truly make no sense without the pictures so I won't try to describe it here.

My single favorite strip in this volume is from 12/31/59. It is on p. 107. I first read this years ago and the very last line has always stayed in my memory. I have spent a lot of time in Rhode Island and that might be part of the reason I love this; mostly, though, it is because I think it is genuinely hilarious.


Pogo is sitting on the ground talking to three insects, a female weevil and a female beetle, both nicely dressed and wearing poke bonnets, and the beetle's tiny son; the son only knows two words, and he says them often.

First Panel:
Pogo:
WELL! MIZ WEEVIL AN' MIZ BEETLE WITH LI'L FREMOUNT, THE BOY BUG.
Miz Weevil:
PERTY SOON IT'LL BE HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT FREMOUNT.
Fremount:
[small print] JES' FINE.
Second Panel:
Pogo, smiling and bending over to shake little Fremount's hand:
JES' FINE! I MEAN, PUT IT THERE ...! YOU GONNA BE PRESIDENT OF YOUR CHEERFUL CHARLIE GROUP, SON?
Miz Weevil:
NOPE, HE'S GONNA BE PRES. OF THE U.S. AND A.
Fremount:
[small print] JES' FINE.
Third Panel:
Pogo, looking surprised:
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. AND A? AIN'T HE KINDA SMALL FER THAT?
Miz Beetle:
O-- SIZE DON'T COUNT.
Miz Weevil:
GLORY, NO ! IT'S WHAT YOU GOT UP HERE.
Fourth Panel:
Pogo:
THAT'S WHAT I MEAN... DON'T YOU THINK HE OUGHT BREAK IN ON A SMALLER JOB? WHY DON'T HE RUN FOR PRESIDENT OF RHODE ISLAND?
Miz Weevil:
[smaller print] AND LEAVE THE OTHER 49 STATES IN THE LURCH ?
Miz Beetle:
[even smaller print] THAT'D BE TEMPTING PROVIDENCE.


Another fine book. Thank you, Fantagraphics, and thank you, Walt Kelly.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason I gave this edition a lower rating than the other volumes is because of the dominant story line of most of the strips, a baby beetle who is made a candidate for president (1960 primaries and Kennedy vs. Nixon) by a pushy mother (JFK's father?) and only says, "jes fine." The schtick got wearing. Otherwise, wonderful humor with great subtly.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should probably put some space between reading volumes of this incredible series of reprints. The strips here are beautiful, funny, brilliant, but they lack the edge of the previous three books. I like Pogo best when it's sharply political and there's not much politickin' here, except a lot of stabs at Russia, beatniks, and comical fellow travelers. After getting his hand slapped over McCarthy and school segregation, I suppose it's natural that Kelly retreated to folk humor, layered puns, and (yuck) sports for his material but this approach leaves the strip - for me at least -- bereft of its best features. It's hard to believe that, with Nixon vs. Kennedy at the forefront of the US's attention, the best he can manage are jokes about a candidate's age and (maybe) some mild commentary on JFK's Catholicism. So, it's sort of a trough era for me, biding time until the electrifying strips of the mid and late 60s are reprinted. Fortunately it's an easy, fun ride.

It's worth noting that the pokes at Russia underscore just how amazing a time we have arrived at, when one of our parties acts as an apologist for the worst sort of hi-jinks from a country that has never been our friend. In 1959 and 1960, we knew who the bad guys were. Shame we've forgotten.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the time you get to volume six, it's pretty clear that you're a Pogo fan. So, if that's your thing, here are the daily and Sunday strips from 1959 and 1960.

Yes, you get a presidential election issue. And it comes complete with a candidate, Fremont, who refuses to concede that he lost.

But let us hope Kelly has only a fuzzy view of the future because a few weeks later we get the news that a scientist has announced that the world is coming to an end on Friday, November 13th, 2026.

"Before or after lunch?" And that's why I love Walt Kelly and the Pogo strips.

[Kaoru · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is lovely as always, but it's pretty much the last volume I'll go through, I'm afraid to say. The deja vus are piling up, for the jokes have gotten quite repetitive at this point, and the running gags have run their course, too. The same can be said about the election storylines. Every time one comes up, it's so much weaker than the one that came before, never able to repeat the success of the first one.

I don't know, "Pogo" might be one of the most beautiful newspaper strips to look at, but actually reading it is a little tedious.

[Deborah Cleaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still relevant after all these years.