Kelly's Donald

A query came in the last post's comments, asking about any Kelly credit for this German edition of Duck reprints. You can reference that question in that post's comments, and the general answer is that the German cover is a modern 'tracing' of the Kelly cover on WDCS #101, changing a few details (fez, slippers, patterns, and even 'hatch' lines [Kelly's lines on the side of the chair indicate that Donald puts a bit of weight on the chair], etc). 

Part of the question was, is that the work of Jippes on the modern cover?  I'm guessing no, because I think Jippes would change it all a bit more to fit his lovely style, but ya never know.

And YES, we will have more new Pogo stuff, it's just stuck somewhere in the pipeline. I'm working on it!

WDCS #101

Never Say Never

Sorry for the dry spell. I'm still hoping and waiting for a new set of scans of vintage 1953 Pogo tear sheets.  But in the meantime, here are a couple of Kelly rarities shared by our friend-in-Kelly David Burd. 

First you see a set of decals that are a bit strange, seemingly from the long-haired hippy era of my youth. And secondly some cards that show Kelly's work from his Donald Duck years in the comic books. It looks like maybe these cards are teaching kids to play Gin Rummy.

Well, Long Live Kelly, and hope to have some new tear sheets relatively soon.

Go Away, You Frighten Your Children!

 As noted by famed illustrator James Montgomery Flagg, "cartoonists make people see things!"

My favorite cartoonist, Walt Kelly, died over 40 years ago, yet he left us this Pogo story, as if in a time capsule to look at now, as a moral tale for our American society.

Polls is a Matter of Interpretation

Sorry to have dropped the posting schedule for a while. I'm awaiting more wonderful scans of vintage tear sheets and I can't be pushy when someone as generous as David Burd is making time in his busy schedule to accommodate us.

In the meantime I'll try posting some other Kelly goodness here and there. This from one of the latter day Pogo books.

There were plenty of issues in Kelly's day that are still haunting us today, making his satire just as relevant as we look at it fresh. Man, he would have had a field day with the political climate of nowadays. 

A Giddy Yap

It's awkward trying to line up the book version of this story line with the tear sheets, as some of the book panels overlap with last week's and next week's vintage Sundays. So I'm hoping you realize that as you compare the edits. I'm still fascinated to see actual vintage color on this storyline that I read over and over in the book, as a kid.

January 18, 1953

Woz Go On?

Whoosh! I got too much going on hereabouts. Not enough time to scan from the Pogo book to compare to this week's Sunday tear sheet. I'm sure you will survive.

January 11, 1953

This just in! A scan from the Pogo Sunday Book that references this Sunday tear sheet was sent over to us by Frits van der Waa, all the way from Amsterdam, since I didn't have time to mess with it this week. It's fun, once again, to compare panels and see edits.

Thanks Frits!

Natural Like By Golly As You Kin Betcha Yo' Life

Here we are again, better late than never. And WHOOSH, a fine bit of cartooning, starting in on the classic Sam Handwich episode.

Once again, I'm including this particular segment from the Pogo Sunday Punch book so you can see how the page was creatively edited to fit the format of the book, for better or worse, slicing through panels and all. Whoosh!

January 4, 1953

By Gorse!

Shown here is the last Sunday of 1952, still  a fantasy within a fantasy, still part of my second favorite Pogo storyline (the first being the Prehysterical Pogo saga of the mid '60s). And it's still fun to compare to the Simon & Schuster version.

Most all of these 1952 era tear sheets have been courtesy of David Burd, sharing the Tony Peters collection that he inherited, and I (and you, I assume) are ever grateful to David. David has recently started sharing some 1953 Sundays with us, which will let us continue the story into the classic Sam Handwich episode. 

THANK YOU DAVID, for these marvelous tear sheets!

December 28, 1952

Under the Bamboozle Bush

Here's the news from Mark Evanier, who if anyone knows the reality of things, it should be him. In his words:

Coming Soon…For Real!

Published Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at 1:21 AM

As readers of this blog are aware, my lovely friend Carolyn Kelly left us on April 9. She fought cancer until the end but there came a day when I knew she knew she wasn't going to survive. It was when she said to me, "If I don't make it, will you make sure the Pogoseries is completed, just the way we planned it?" I promised her it would be.

I also promised we would maintain the same high standards she had set for the project, which was the most important non-medical thing she ever tackled in her life. Understand please that by "important," I mean important to her. The series, which is reprinting her father's classic newspaper strip in full, may also be important to you but I didn't promise you it would be finished. I promised her. Either way, there will be no more delays.

Volume 4 will be out well before Christmas of this year. It will include a remembrance of her, a foreword by Neil Gaiman and some of the most brilliant cartooning ever done. Here's the cover…

Honor One Big Lovin' Cousin!

Sorry to keep running late on postings, things are even busier around here than most ever before! 

Once again, we can compare the original Sunday tear sheet with the S&S b&w reprint book to see how editing was done, taking out panels, cropping, etc. Notably the last two panels of the Sunday excised from the book, presumably not wanting to be seasonal in the book, but here seen as a lovely and cheery heart warm. Looks more and more for these gnomes being Cajun.

Vive le bon soir! Vive le merry! Vive le Christmas! 

VIVE LE WALT KELLY!

December 21, 1952

Snoor Snumma Coco Unna Wim Bimble

More stuff to compare and think about Gnomic ways.

December 14, 1952

A Wierdity!

Now we come to one of my topmost favorite Kelly Sunday strips, the holy grail of my childhood, then seen only in black and white in the 'Pogo Sunday Book'. Color makes it so much more fun for me, looking like a page from the best comic book of all time. Imagine Sunday comic sections ever looking this great!

I was, and still am, such a geek for stuff like this. 

 December 7, 1952

Included here are the equivalent pages from the book just so you can compare how the panels were edited, doing some expanding.

I SWAN!

Well now we've reached a point in Pogo continuity that was a HIGH point of my childhood, having seen some of this reprinted in Pogo's Sunday Punch in black & white and edited somewhat, cutting panels, adding panels, changing formats of panels. 

For me, it was WHAM! I was de-LIGHTED to see this fantasy element of human bean gnomes suddenly appear in the swamp. But now all these years later I see this great panel below and realize that it was not in the Simon & Schuster book! And the lovely tree in the first panel of this week's strip was truncated, and now we see the almost watercolor effect as well.

What a cool little episode this was, an early forewarner of Prehysterical Pogo in the mid 1960s. I've included a couple of pages from the S&S book to show comparisons of panel edits.

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

November 30, 1952

Silently Steal Away

You just didn't see this kind of adventure in the other strips. 

Steve Canyon, eat yer heart out!

November 23, 1952

From the Simon & Schuster book, below is the extra panel that would run in the 3-tier horizontal newspaper format.

THAT is SOME Space Ship!

This continuity is moving along into one of my favorite episodes, that of Pogo's first trip to "Mars".  It's lovely to see it unfold in color.

November 16, 1952

It Jes' Take a Li'l' Psycholliwobbles

Lor' luv a duck, I love Kelly's 1952 style.

November 9, 1952

Still Goin' to Mars in that Space Ship

Posting late here on Sunday, lots of stuff going on around here (publishing another book, y'know). But the hits just keep on comin'.

November 2, 1952

A Man of Science is a Man of Honor

Another lovely vintage tear sheet to brighten your Sunday!

October 26, 1952

Is You Ready?

Classic vintage Pogo from a classic vintage tear sheet!

Timeless cartooning!

October 19, 1952

Sudden He Sees a Abandoned Horse

Another strip previously posted, but an essential part of current continuity, you don't wanna miss this dramatic foreshadowing.

Next post: a new old strip!

October 12, 1952

Not Needing Words

Must-keep-continuity-going-for-1952 . . . even though this and next post have been posted before here on WoK (just in case some newbies haven't dug into the archived stuff). Kelly did a bunch of wordless pieces like this for the comic books. His drawing is always so much fun to look at, not needing words.

October 5, 1952

Ain't She a Beauty?

I remember seeing some of this episode when I was kid, abbreviated in black and white, in one of the Simon & Shuster Sunday books, and jes' loving it. I never thought, then, that I'd ever be able to see the original, in full color, Sunday strips, and yet...⭐boing⭐...here they are! The internet has been very good to us comic geeks!

September 28, 1952

The Wee Man with the Big Sneeze

Some of you are only here for all things Pogo, but I maintain that I'm here for the Whirled of Kelly, loving all aspects of his oeuvre. Thus here and there I sprinkle in little tidbits of his other works, though I can't recall which comic book this page emanates from (Kelly's comics are pretty well seen these days and perhaps one of you Kellyphiles can share the info in the comment). 

I love seeing any of his many mice drawings.

Pogo's House is Got a Leak in It

Back for a while with AU-thentic vintage/original tear sheet scans, thanks to David Burd for sharing the Tony Peters collection. I jes' loves the 1952 vintage!

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

September 21, 1952

A Perfect Beautiful Idea

I is addin' in several strips this week to make up for being away so long, even if it wasn't 'zactly my fault. Something about a Pogo Sunday strip to cheer up a person's DE-meanor!

September 14, 1952

WANT TEA?

Moving along into September 1952, a little vaudeville . . .

September 7, 1952

Bones & Bugs

I'm still working out a plague of firewall bugs, but bit by bit, byte by byte, getting back to normal (!?) around the Whirled of Kelly. I think the comments are working again and thank you to you loyal Pogophiles and Kellyphiles for hanging in there and being supportive!

To help catch up a little, here are two Sunday strips that I've posted before, but in the interest of 1952 continuity, I'm posting them again, now, so we can keep moving forward.

More great stuff ahead! Keep tooning in, and I'll keep knocking down the firewall!

 August 24, 1952

August 31, 1952

A Sort of Scourge Is Hit the Swamp

Wellwellwellwellwellwellwellwellwell . . .

It looks like we're back! Some sort of firewall was interfering deeply with stuff coming and going. That and changes with Blogger have been a royal pain.

I apologize to all those whose comments have stayed hidden for several months. It seems that the flood gate has opened to reveal those comments at last! 

I still have lots of Kelly stuff to share, so let's hope that at least THIS swamp doesn't get drained!

August 17, 1952

Testing Testing on Easter Sunday

I've been having the hardest time getting stuff to post here on WoK.

And it seems that getting comments to post has been just as hard.

Let's try it again. Is this post showing up? And can your comments get through this technological tangle we call the Web?

From 4 color (Easter with Mother Goose) #220, 1949