The Perilous Path

This is, of course, a blog about Walt Kelly and his art, not just Pogo. So I feel the need to slip in some other cool Kelly stuff here and there to sweeten the pot.

Kelly created several editorial cartoons for Life magazine back in the 50s, and they tended to be quite complicated, as Kelly was most adept at.

This is a beautiful rendition of Adlai Stevenson's perilous path to the 1956 Democratic nomination for President. From November of 1955, it is a gauntlet of woe, though he be spurred on by the springy enthusiasm of Hubert Humphrey, and aided by Truman's elixirs of hope (though Truman did not endorse him). After jousting with contenders Estes Kefauver and Avrell Harriman, he needed to cross the perilous bridge of Civil Rights, at the risk of being dynamited by southern senators. And lastly to win the nomination (the fair damsel), he had to overcome himself, as the reluctant dragon, in the California primary.

Stevenson had been nicknamed 'an egghead' by Richard Nixon in 1952, and Stevenson even joked about it, and so we see little eggheads scurrying around and cheering him on.

It's sort of horrible seeing Albert, or his kin, lifelessly skinned. But wow, what a drawing!