Sunday, August 11, 2013

The Gumbo Birthright

Silliness ala Kelly.

 March 12, 1972

This detail deserves a closer look. Long Live Kelly!


3 comments:

  1. As you wrote: It sure deserves a closer look!
    Small wonder the li'l birdies look surprised: Normally in this swamp earthquakes just happen when Albert is losing at checkers.

    And: LLTHB!

    Hun

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  2. Gorgeous stuff! I think I've said this in comments before, but for my money, late '60s-early '70s Kelly is as great as it gets art-wise, even if some of the dialogue and scenarios weren't quite as fresh as they'd been ten years earlier.

    That bird is interesting as a rare instance of Kelly "animating" the strip. I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a progression of one bird's movement, a la an animation storyboard. Very cute and very cool. Because he didn't do it for long, Kelly's skill as a great animator is frequently overlooked. It's fun to see him playing with motion in the strip.

    Thanks as always for sharing, Thom! The Fantagraphics collections won't get to this stuff for ten years at the rate they're going. And when they finally do, I'd bet money it won't look as good as your cleaned-up scan!

    ~Craig

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