From here I need to think out where to go. I've still got lots of Pogo and other great Kelly stuff, but I'm seeing other scans of some of it showing up here and there on the internet. I feel that my scans are lovingly prepared, at a decent resolution, compared to some others I've seen. I'd like to continue on with some really great arcs, but once again I need to hear if there's any encouragement for that. My stat counter shows lots and lots of visitors, but I get so few encouraging comments (Hi charlie, and thanks!) that I feel like maybe the bottom has dropped out of the Kelly market.
Please let me know if you are enjoying the Sunday strips, or I may feel that my time should be spent elsewhere. Lovingly prepared scans are very time consuming, as many of you know.
I'll soon be posting a rare and interesting piece of Kelly history, courtesy of our friend OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum. No, not Peter Wheat this time, but another rarity. OtherEric sent it over quite a while ago and has been patient, waiting for me to prepare it. You'll see it hopefully some time next week.
In the meantime, Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday with this slightly post-Christmas strip from 45 years ago today:
Please keep posting these gems.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your hard work and care in posting these great scans of Walt Kelly's works. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. As familiar as these works are to those of us who have been life long Kelly fans. There is a huge audience of young new potential fans yet to "discover" Walt Kelly. Your contribution is invaluable toward introducing as well as preserving this great legacy of comic art. Personally, I look forward to each and every post. And re-reading arcs in their original order is particularly enjoyable. Keep up the great job.
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteMy own preference would be to see POGO strips that have never been reprinted. Given how long it is taking for the Fantagraphics POGO collection to launch, this might be the only chance I ever get to see these!
Chris
Karl, thanks for the straight-forward advice.
ReplyDeleteJ.P. —You make a great point about the young new potential fans. I would like to hear from a few more of those. Even so, your comments are very encouraging. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteChris, I know what you mean. I would love to see the reprint series done well, and maybe that's what's taking so long. Thanks.
ReplyDeletethanks for this contribution to the internet community.
ReplyDeleteWords of encouragement. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThomas, I checked in every day during the Pogo In Pandemonium arc, and I've been doing the same here, as well. I consider this one of the great pleasures in my life!
ReplyDeleteYour posts are the best thing that's happened to these strips since they were originally printed. I have many of the books, but I love seeing them in the original format, with the original color, yellow backgrounds and all.
Pogo is, I think, one of the highlights of American culture, and you are a wise, industrious and generous man to share these so exceptionally well.
Thank You!
Yes, please know that your posts are vastly appreciated. I remember reading Peanie Brickle's first appearance from the original run in my childhood, but, as the New York Post didn't run their Sunday comics in color, this is the first time I've seen them this way. I'm sitting here in NY, with the snowstorm outside, dreaming about the Okefenokee. Thank you so much for all your hard (and loving) work
ReplyDeleteForgive me for never commenting before. I've watched your blog regularly for a couple years and recently registered. I can still be a bit dense about the internet and was looking for an email link. I finally noticed that each post has a comment link.
ReplyDeleteExcuses aside, yes, please continue posting old Pogos. The Sunday strips in the original living color are priceless. Even if the Fantagraphics books ever get off the ground, I believe they mention that the Sundays will be in black and white.
So please keep posting whatever you can. I've been a Pogo fan since about 1970, and you've got a real treasure trove. I've especially enjoyed this last sequence appearing exactly 45 years to the day after they first appeared.
And thanks.
Hi! I'm one of your silent posters. I'm not one for frequent comments but I want you to know I love what you're doing and hope you'll continue!
ReplyDeleteI love what you're doing here, Mr. Buchanan! I found Pogo almost a year ago and for me it feels like there are almost no modern comics that come close to its quality. Most modern comics seem to cater to some sort of lowest common denominator. Pogo requires a whole lot more of its readers.
ReplyDeleteTo read Pogo, as a non-American, I frequently have to Google for the political references or use a French to English dictionary to decode a certain skunk-lady. It makes it a treasure hunt as well. :)
I don't think Pogo would work today, as comics are no longer accepted to be food for thought or have any complexity. Still, being born after Mr. Kelly died, I just wonder what would have happened if the era of "intellectual comics" had not disappeared.
Your blog has a book mark in my browser and I will check back as often as I can. Keep up your good work!
- StripeCAT
encouragement from me.
ReplyDeletemy bad english is reason why my comments are not here.I'm here every day
You need encouragement to continue.... a small price to pay for these wonderful 'reprints'
ReplyDeleteBE ENCOURAGED Thomas!
Thanks for the hard work and Happy New Year
Thomas!
ReplyDeletePLEEEASE continue posting whatever you can by WK!
My background: I am a rather "rara avis": native german speaker, age just below 70 who latched on to Pogo about 40 years ago during a stay in California. Bought reprints by Simon & Schuster whenever I had a chance later when in the USA. About a year ago got to the internet and in googling happened to your site and COULD NOT BELIEVE my luck...
I literally spent days in absentia fron my spouse just perusing all the Pandemonia.
Question: Is a life without Pogo possible? Answer: Probably; but is it worth it?
So, once again, PLEEASE continue and be sure that at least one hun appreciates all the effort you put into this site
Hunny soit qui mal y pense
I have just read the many comments to your posting Pogo Sundays & dailies,& other Kelly material--they are all saying what I try to say--thanks for this blog 7 your brother blog the pictorial arts--I do visit both each day--charlie
ReplyDeleteI guess I am one of a silent minority because I simply cannot imagine there are many of my kind: native German, (very) senior citizen and dyed-in-the-wool Pogo-fan for almost forty years.
ReplyDeleteThomas, I beg your pardon for being so lazy. I know I should have shown my appreciation for your efforts (and the results !)long ago: But this is what you get for posting free, without having users sign in... So, lots of free-loaders (like me) and no thanks until you have to threaten to close down.
PLEASE DON'T !
I got hooked on Pogo while living in Calif. in the early seventies. It took some getting used to (what about these crazy animobbles?), but it were the puns and the word-play that "drug" me in (apart from Walt Kelly's courage in showing up hypochrisy and cant)
Later, whenever there was a chance on visits to the USA, I bought reprint books, which were ok when it comes to the written humour. But b&w, even the Sunday-strips and nowhere near perfect concerning the graphics.
Then came the internet and with a bit of luck I could find a Pogo-strip here and there until the great day about a year ago, when googling I stumbled into Pandemonia.
I have to confess that for days my spouse got hardly an anwer when addressing me, so engrossed I was in that treasure-trove.
So, please do not throw in the towel just because of us silent lazy-birds. Sometimes I wonder where you find time for so-called normal life.
Question: Is life without Pogo possible?
Answer: Possibly. But is it worthwhile?
Greatings across the Atlantic from an old Hun.
Hunny soit qui mal y pense.
Hi Charlie, and thanks!
ReplyDeleteIn addition to Karl, J.P., Chris, and solutionsby — thank you Glen, rowrbazzle, Jim, several anonymouses, Stripe Cat, Teodor, Norman, and ever so much to charlie. And Mike, um, what's up?
ReplyDeleteThis blog gets a lot of visitors, but you guys are the ones who saved it.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIn my place nobody presented Walt Kelly in detail.
I got a book from Italy that has influenced me a lot.
I will take what Kelly I can get, when I can get it, but I certainly prefer the cleaned-up material.
ReplyDeleteAs to selection of material, perhaps material to display evolution of Kelly's work.
My fiancée preördered that Fantagraphics collection for me when it was first announced. I hope that our grandchildren will not be left waiting.
Anyway, I wanted to draw attention to the background discussion between Porky and Howland. I constitutes a strip by itself; and, with to-day's comics, one would get something like that and nothing more on a Sunday; but Kelly was essentially using their dialogue as grace notes.
Thanks Daniel. We'll be addressing some of Kelly's evolution of work sooner than you might think.
ReplyDeletePogo was before my time, and without the tremendous effort you put into posting these I'd barely know who Walt Kelly was, let alone appreciate his wit and talent. Thanks, and I hope you keep going.
ReplyDeleteYay, thanks Jay. That's really good to hear!
ReplyDeleteKeep posting! We may be the silent minority - after all, who can best what the denizens of the Swamp have to say? - but we still want to see Pogo. Thank you again for so lovingly scanning and prepping these strips for our perusal. I regret we haven't expressed our appreciation for all you've done for us Pogo fans. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you Shannon!!
ReplyDeleteYour silent majority isn't so silent Mr. Buchanan...we're just late reading our favorite blogs sometimes...:D.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just the Kelly or the Pogo we come back here for...as you pointed out, your scans are lovingly prepared and it's YOUR appreciation for this work and the devotion you show to it that makes us appreciate it even more.
Please, please, please keep 'em coming!
Hey Jeff—Now THEM's words of encouragement! Otay, you win.
ReplyDeleteDid my earlier comment not get to you? Everything you offer us here is so monumentally valuable and appreciated!!
ReplyDeleteAll the best.