Impollutable Pogo

by Walt Kelly

Clean, bright used copy with tight binding. NEVER a library book./lh

Genres: Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels, Fiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

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

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo. So many of us 'of a certain age' have fond memories of the possum and his friends, even if we may have been too young to understand all the references to the adult world that filled the strip.

One thread running through this collection is a solution to air pollution. According to Churchy: It's the inhalin' and exhalin' that causes trouble...people should do one or the other...not both! This would certainly be a slick trick, and the gang get involved in one of their usual goofy projects to try to convince everyone to choose which they will be, an inhaler or an exhaler.

I was still puzzled about the political references in this 1970 collection, and I went to wiki to find out more about Pogo and Spiro Agnew, who was portrayed in these pages as a hyena in a fancy suit. I remember Agnew, but I don't remember much about what he did. I was around 11 when he became vice president. I was never one of those children who paid much attention to politics, other than listening to the evening news with my parents. But after reading the Wiki section about his time in office, I could see that Kelly portrayed Agnew to perfection.

Here is one exchange between the Agnew character and Mole (a nearsighted and xenophobic grifter, according to wiki) who have arrested Owl and Churchy LaFemme (the turtle) as 'a preventive measure ~~ they look as if they could be lawbreakers.' (The lines in caps belong to the Hyena.)

'Now, as to these two prisoners, you must recall the law considers each man innocent until....'
'CAUGHT'.
'A fascinating new interpretation of the law ~~ How'll it hold up in court?'
'EXCELLENT ~~ ANY REASONABLE JUDGE WHO LISTENS TO REASON WILL REASONABLY AGREE~~'
'Listens to whose reason?'
'OURS ~~ WHOM'S ELSE IS THERE?'

Now doesn't that feel modern and up to date?! Was Walt Kelly psychic?

I wonder what Pogo would say these days? Most likely he would repeat what Porky Pine calls out in the final panel of Impollutable Pogo:

"We have met the enemy and he is us!"

[Mark Lisac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded down from 4.5 stars only because I found the range of subject matter more limited than in some other Pogo collections. Much of the action centres on Deacon Muskrat, his vulture pal Sarcophagus MacAbre, and a transparent version of Spiro Agnew, who was Richard Nixon's lamentable vice-president before resigning after getting caught in grubby legal troubles (another character at first refers to the Agnew figure as a bear, but it quickly becomes apparent he is depicted as a spotted hyena). Nevertheless, even when he was concentrating more heavily on political satire, Kelly was creating a heartwarming atmosphere and highly engaging artwork. He also had a genius for having story themes run for months, circulating through many of the denizens of his beautifully imagined version of the Okefenokee Swamp.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

We ran across this book while moving things from my mother's house a couple weeks ago. I bet you thought I was going to say, "while shelving books in the library," didn't you? I remember this book from many years ago, but apparently not as long ago as I thought, because this Pocket Book was published in 1976, the year I graduated from high school. But I do remember reading it.

Walt Kelly was a genius, in my opinion. The antics of Pogo and company are outright hilarious. Pogo is a possum, and cavorts with his friends, Albert the alligator, Churchill La Femme the turtle, Owl, Porcupine, Sarcophagus the buzzard, Deacon (I'm not sure what he is), and others. There's a bear who appears in this book as a newcomer, who takes a major role in one of the plot lines in this book.

Oh, and for anyone not old enough to know, Pogo was a comic strip, which I read religiously on the "funny page" of the newspaper.

One of the plot lines in this book is that Owl and Churchy are planning a demonstration of sorts to get people to stop breathing, because they have decided that breathing is the main cause of air pollution. At one point, one of them is open to the idea of only half of breathing, either in or out, opining that if people would simply stop breathing out (thereby breathing poison into the atmosphere), that would solve the problem.

They enlist the help of the three bats (nameless, as far as I can remember), who plan to have a seance and put it on "teevee," interviewing dead people, who, of course, are "non-breathers."

The other plot line involves Churchy and Owl somehow getting thrown in jail by the bear and Sarcophagus, "on suspicion." A trial is planned, but only to make their guilt official. They plan to give them a "fair trial" before finding them guilty. The interesting thing is that the bear, Owl, and Churchy all show up at Sarcophagus's "digs" at the same time. But at some point, the bear convinces Sarcophagus that Owl and Churchy should be locked up, because "they look as if they could develop into lawbreakers." After throwing wigs on them, they are given twenty years each "on suspicion," and the bear says, "Get 'em into jail before they do something."

The hilarity goes on and on. Churchy is deathly afraid of Friday the 13th, to the point that every month has one. It just falls on a different day each month. For example, as I am writing this in June of 2022, he would say that "Friday the 13th falls on Monday this month!"

One of the best lines in the book, though comes when Pogo and porcupine are out walking, trying to get to Sarcophagus's digs (everyone eventually winds up there). They turn and look back in the direction from which they came and the porcupine says, "Looking back on things, the view always improves."

I love the title of the last chapter of the book, "Alls Well that Ends." The whole crew (I don't see the bear, however) winds up sitting around a picnic table. Nothing has been resolved, except that Churchy and Owl have managed to escape the jail cell, but they are having a grand ol' time. Albert is still upset about pollution, and says (as he tosses his used cigar into the lemonade), "All them characters what dumps anything anywhere . . . THEY IS ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE!" After which porcupine proudly declares the line that Pogo may be most famous for.

"We have met the enemy and he is US!"

It's great fun. If you can manage to get your hands on a copy of this book, check it out. I feel relatively sure that there are a number of made-up words included in Sarcophagus's grand legal speech preceding the "trial" of Churchy and Owl.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walt Kelly had a fantastic Sixties and this volume, in which a Spiro Agnewesque hyena (I think) joints the cast, bring it to an appropriately poignant close: We have met the enemy and he is us. The jail images are hilariously on point as is the campaign to solve the pollution problem by convincing folks to quit breathing.

[Al McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

1970 first printing.
A dog who looks a lot like Spiro Agnew is hanging around with Deacon Mushrat, Mole, and Sarcophagus MacAbre. Hijinx ensue. Kelly's cartooning is increasingly perfect, even as he ages.

[Frank McGirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This starts out a five, but gets a little ponderous on the "trial" storyline.

When Kelly is hitting, though it's truly magical stuff.

[the Skrauss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though political, these strips still share their vibrant humor.