Even when Kelly fell back to 'talking heads', his art was satisfying to look at. And leave it to these two lunkheads allus trying to make a cool million while Pogo remains the calm voice of sanity.
April 9, 1972
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I think Kelly made a great sacrifice with Pogo by championing causes that needed to be. The sacrifice being some of the timelessness of the comic, like Berke Breathed would later rue with Bloom County, for addressing the immediate concerns of the time. This makes for powerful relevance, but ultimately costs a comic dearly in its long term accessibility to the future general public. This of course is a bitter shame since otherwise I’d think Kelly’s creations would stand as cultural icons alongside of (and possibly more deserving than) the more proliferative Disney and Warners characters that Kelly seems to inhabit the middle territories between in terms of warmth and slapstick. I don’t personally think I would trade for a moment his brave challenging of modern witch hunts for the moments of comfort and timeless comedy, though I would have gladly taken much more of the later. Thankfully the body of work is large enough that there certainly is plenty, especially in the earliest years, but it seems most people get daunted by the later period content and avoid the whole thing unfairly.
ReplyDeleteMind you, pollution is not actually one of those ‘dated’ causes - it’s only increasingly relevant now. Also, I was watching the storyboard edition of "We Have Met The Enemy" recently. Kelly didn't pull punches when he was out to make a statement, but I don't recall his world ever becoming this dark. Albert’s nightmare visions are soul-wrenchingly apocalyptic, and will haunt me forever: http://imageshack.com/a/img30/1341/i9l5.png
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It is true that some of the Jack Acid-type stuff leaves certain strips at best dated and at worst incoherent to modern readers discovering the strip now. But (for me, nerd that I am), a lot of the fun is Googling and trying to figure out what exactly Kelly was satirizing. I'm also a bit of a '60s culture buff to begin with, so that probably helps.
DeleteKelly was truly ahead of his time on the pollution stuff, though. It was just coming into vogue in the years before his passing, and has only become increasingly relevant in the decades since. He really did get in on the ground floor of something that (unfortunately) was here to stay. Howland woulda been proud.
~Craig
As owl a number of times before this strip had to experience: hardly do you come up with a brilliant (millio-making) idea, there comes one of those sober fellows (usually:Pogo) and throws a spanner into the works.
ReplyDeleteWell, back to usual business after this nice Sunday present
Thanks, Thom!
Hun
You know what would make a great game? One where you try to see how much stuff you can get Albert to swallow in a Tetris-like fashion to fit inside his weird food-tube of a body.
ReplyDeleteWhat's this? You're still reading?
Well here's a prize then. I rebuilt the landscape for last week's ball shenanigans in color:
http://imageshack.com/a/img28/282/dzun.jpg
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Speaking of talking heads:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTucJ9x2X4M
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this Walt here from 3:55 to 4:01 quipping about Al Capp?
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Alimentary, you are good, and have caught a good one. Indeed, that's Uncle Walt...for only 6 seconds? Milton Caniff is in there, Spain Rodriguez and of course Trina Robbins. Nice snippet of Capp and his values. He actually makes some good points.
ReplyDeleteWas there ever a documentary on Walt and his art? If not, then that's a pity and a half.
It seems the closest thing I could find is the 14th episode of the 1st season of Edward R. Murrow's Person-to-Person where he "interviews Jeanmarie, a French ballerina, and the creator of the comic strip, "Pogo", Walt Kelly."
Deletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1028835/
I wonder if it still exists?
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That's right! I do remember seeing still photographs of Kelly and Murrow on location for Kelly's interview. Location might have been Kelly's office or home. That interview must exist out there somewhere on Kinoscope at least. Oh, the search is on!
ReplyDeleteSound like this photo in question:
Deletehttp://popculturesafari.blogspot.com/2010/04/photo-pogo-artist-walt-kelly-with.html
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Yeah, that's one of them. I've seen another couple as well.
Delete