Pogo, Vol. 10

Pogo

by Walt Kelly, R. C. Harvey

Walt Kelly's POGO, a satirical masterpiece commonly acknowledged as one of the three greatest comic strips ever published, is finally back in print in this series from Fantagraphics Books!

Genres: Humor

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

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

[StrictlySequential · Rating 4 out of 5]

March 16th 1953 -> August 29th 1953

i-vi·····R.C. Harvey helps to understand McCarthyism,
vii-x···He ties the happenings in the strip to the whole thing,
xi········The cast tally noting new characters [+4 = 133 total].

(I got bogged down by Harvey because I wanted the history lesson but the reading/reflecting took me too long trying to capture the zeitgeist.)

This covers the layered finale of Kelly's McCarthy allegory with the fairly recently introduced, by "Deacon Mushrat" to be determined "birdwatcher", "Mole MacCarony", who's on the hunt in representative McCarthy fashion, getting up-staged for the role by the re-introduction of the wildcat character as "Simple J. Malarkey"- who then performs the primary personification of the Senator.

[Al McCarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The saga of Simple J. Malarkey is genius satire, Brave and groundbreaking.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pogo was great in general, but this volume contains some of Kelly's most biting political satire, involving armed political coups, the threat of tar-and-feathers as a way of ending political debates, various forms of politics, and the possible demise of an amoeba in the interior of an alligator. With the possible exception of Dan O'Neill, Walt Kelly had the ability to mix reality and surrealism into a comic strip better than anyone else...and I'm pretty sure that O'Neill learned some of his craft by reading Pogo.
Unfortunately, a couple of strips are missing from this book due to paste-up errors. The editor had trouble reading Kelly's handwritten dates apart, it seems.