A Vast Army of Bugs

True to the title of this blog, I think of Walt Kelly's artistic creations as being of one whirled, geeky as that is. I imagine an alternate universe where everything is as Kelly imagined it.

So I picture the Wheatfield Kingdom of Peter Wheat as being upriver and across the tracks from the Okefenokee, and one of the common denominators being the bugs. Kelly's bugs are fairly charismatic, and could ALmost sustain a strip unto themselves. They insert themselves into any number of the Pogo strips, with their own little whirld:

The above bugs are roly poly genial little gents, playing out their stories somewhere at grass level. But, as in this whirled, characters abound in many different types and personalities. Across the tracks, north of the Okefenokee, things are more adventurous, less settled, the frontier—so to speak. The bugs are braver and more combatitive in Peter Wheat's realm:

But even in the Okefenokee, bugs get the itch for chivalry, of sorts, and can raise an army:

On Guard! It's the Dragon!

We're trying to build a continuity here of Walt Kelly Peter Wheat postings, but inevitably there must be gaps where we have yet (and I do mean YET) to find missing issues. So here we skip ahead from our initial string of #s 1, 2 and 3. Our next full issue, posted here, is #7— as always courtesy of the ever-generous OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum.

To help bridge the continuity, until we find the missing issues, thanks to Steve Thompson, President of the Pogo Fan Club and author of the Walt Kelly Collector's Guide, I can offer the basic story lines for # 4, 5 and 6:

#4, no image at this time, 'the Hornets attack the grain wagons and dump flour during harvest time.'

#5, low-res cover shown below, 'the Wizard and Dragonel are chained by the little people, but plan to escape.'

#6, low-res cover shown below, 'the little people have a council of war, and Dragonel decides to spy.'

And we can pick up here with #7 in total, with nice scans thanks to OtherEric, with a little clean-up by me:

That Little Old Invisible Weaver

Okay, this week got some more Peter Wheat comin' up.

In the meantime—Sunday, Kelly Sunday.

Norment, the Invisible Weaver

Hey, sorry I'm not posting much lately, what with one of the hardest deadlines of my career. But this particular deadline wraps up this week and then I can deliver some more great Kelly stuff. But in the meantime I wasn't about to overlook Sunday, Kelly Sunday, and bring you the strip from exactly 45 years ago this minute.

Ump Ump Ump

1971 was also a year using the same calendar as 2010. This Sunday strip ran thirty-nine years ago this morning. Kelly was starting to run thin with ideas, but still working—despite serious illness.

Neither Storm Nor Sleet . . .

How neat that sounds on the back cover of Pogo #15, that for a mere dollar, TEN big issues of Pogo would come to your door regular-like.

Don't try sending in that subscription form though. You'd sit back and wait and wait and wait some more for that latest issue to arrive. #16 would be the last Pogo comic book to be published.

Happily though, for the next 20 years, Pogo books would come out regular-like, and Pogo Sundays and dailies would come to your door, courtesy of the paper boy.

4th of Joo-ly

45 Independence Days ago:

Eve of Independence Day Lazy Interlude

Hello to all you Pogo fans in Savannah!