This strip is more like it, Kelly-wise. And the Okefenokee has a Globe Theatre...how cool is that!
This is the last of the arc that I have lined up, so next week we're on to something else. I'm not sure if I have the strips following this one...I would think I have...but I'm too lazy to go through my stacks to check. Lazy, tired, pooped, exhausted...one of those things. I'm going to bed.
Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday! LLK! And a top of the morning to you, Hun! And hey to A! And cheers to Craig! I appreciate you guys and all the other Pogo-holics!
May 21, 1972
just wondering: Does that guy in panel 6 have a name or is he just one of the bit players drawn in as occasion requires? Anyway, what an arm and aim!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Thom.
Hun
Is that a rare Sunday appearance from Wiley Catt, as the fruit thrower? The shirt and suspenders are the same ones he often wears. He's taller and heftier than his familiar appearances in the '50s, but Wiley does seem to have let himself go in later years (see page 86 of the Jack Acid Society Black Book).
ReplyDelete~Craig
Hi guys! That does look like Wiley Catt in his later (heftier years). But why wouldn't the boys recognize him by name? I don't know that Kelly would have thought to himself, "okay, so here I'll draw in Wiley Catt." But then, who am I to know what Kelly thought as he drew?
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad that Kelly was still in the game at that time.
Something that crossed my mind that may or may not seem obvious...Churchy is something of an anomaly in Kelly's world, because he's nearly always drawn in perfect profile. Kelly generally resisted the standard (lazy) comic strip trope of presenting characters either in profile or front view. This is a large reason that Kelly's work has the 3D, animated feel that it does when compared to other comic strips. The characters can actually move through their world, instead of existing on X and Y axes.
ReplyDeleteSo why is Churchy the one exception? Did Kelly just fall so in love with the (admittedly perfect) character design that he couldn't bear to change it, in order to make it more workable as a 3/4 profile? I've always thought that, despite this limitation, Churchy is one of the most expressive characters in the strip (after Albert, of course).
~Craig
Craig, you keep coming up with such interesting points.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall at least once or twice seeing Churchy's visage from a front angle, which seemed very odd. I think it would be difficult to present Churchy any other way than profile because of his huge honking nose sort of beak, though I'm sure Kelly could have solved the problem.
I am continually amazed how Kelly could pull off the feat of Albert's physical shenanigans in such a small space, with all his ungainly appendages and limbs and still have the viewer accept him as an alligator type person.
But then look how Kelly continually brought in such huge things as elephants, trains, automobiles, airplanes, kangaroos, dinosaurs and what-nots into such little panels.
Yeah, if he wanted to he could have drawn Churchy from any which angle.
Not to be mean to the poor "mud turkle", but his head probably just isn't photogenic from most angles because his head is, as noted, consists two eyes, and a bulbous beak-snout. He literally has a limited photogenic set of angles, most of which tend to resolve as profile when when they aren't completely so.
ReplyDeleteHe does have a certain charm when seen from the front, which seemed to be risked more often in the brief 89-92 revival: https://lh3.ggpht.com/_Tkt_A2r1p6I/ST_NlHSoc2I/AAAAAAAADKg/W0uFO3vcQvA/s1600-h/pogo3-02.png
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It seems like the pig in the lower right portion of the sixth panel, is the culprit.The pattern of his shirt matches the shirt in panel 9. Isn't that the same pig that Kelly animated in "We have met the enemy and he is us" ? I don't think it's supposed to be Wiley Katt...
ReplyDelete//StripeCAT
The ears do look piggish, but the schnoz seems more cat or doggish. Tough to tell from this angle...but the colorist seems to agree. (Not that that's worth a ton...we've seen some funky coloring in these Sunday strips).
DeleteAlso, note the Seminole Sam cameo in the last panel!
~Craig
You know, fan art for Pogo is so rare that when it comes up and is relatively good, I like to point it out.
ReplyDeletehttp://freezingicekirby.deviantart.com/art/Albert-Alligator-1-2-418864050
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