Back-to-School Campaign

Much of Kelly's special art was dedicated to educational purpose. Note that his copyright notice is topsy-turvy.

Illustrative Portraiture

This is a fairly rare example of Kelly's illustrative portraiture, this of friend John Lardner. I wonder how many more examples might exist.

The Little Folk Over the Hill

To me this is an exceedingly appealing 1935 page by the 22 year old Walt Kelly — exhibiting influence by Harrison Cady and perhaps other cartoonists who were drawing scenes akin to this. 

These characters are prescient of Kelly's later drawings of Brownies and fairy tale little folk.

A Little Extra Bite

Here's a little blurb about Kelly from way back, either from Time or Newsweek. One has to wonder how he would have handled our current mess if he was alive, kicking and inking now (oh, if only).

Shivers and Shudders the Land . . .

The Prince of Pompadoodle is toot toot tootling even in our day.

Out of This World

Over the years Kelly had a bit of a thing for blasting off for his guys. This is another of his messages for stay-in-school education.

1958

Kerrison T. Gramcragger, or Joe for Short

Time to tell a tiny Tiger Tale told in text . . .

Pogo Possum #7, 1951

Probably Reading One of Our Own Pogo Books

Another lovely Kelly public service announcement 

Kelly On a Run

Kelly on a run as he rummaged around the world in the early '60s, filing reports from hither and yon. Some of his reports have been reprinted here and there, like Berlin and such, but I wonder if there are more to be found.

?

Like most of us are doing these days, Pogo is reading the news (wow, from a newspaper? Are there such things anymore?). And like for most of us, it's all pretty bemildreding.

Ballad of a Hunter of Renown

Once again, Blogger is playing tricks on me so I couldn't post for several days. Things keep changing  here without my input.

Anyway, this one is fun — Kelly's first nationally published work, from St Nicholas magazine, dated November 1935, a beautiful forerunner of his concept, style and technique.

St. Nicholas magazine — November 1935

Chills or Fevers?

Sick or not, ultimately, everyone should test!

All Over the Whole Wide World

As most of you Kelly addicts, all over the whole wide world, know, Kelly did a lot of covers and some stories for Disney Dell Comics back in the '40s. He did some miscellaneous stuff like posters and house ads . . . like this one for Disney comics. It's pretty funny for an ad, somewhat like what Mad Magazine would have done, and pretty inappropriate for its racial stereotype. 

But hey, that was then, this is now.

And later, Kelly returned to the Russian steppes for Pogo.

1946 American Trade Journal

How Cheerfully He Seems to Grin

If this isn't Albert the Alligator disguised as a Crocodile, then it's a doppelgänger. We all have doppelgängers out there somewhere, don't we? Anyway, this is from a Raggedy Ann & Andy comic book, from sometime in the '40s (I just don't feel like looking it up right now).

Kelly once told me that Lewis Carroll was one of his biggest creative influences. But of course.

Y'Know, I B'leeve You're a Fraud

Yep, for a while there I thought Uncle Rip Van Turkle was the real deal, but I too think he went to far with his tall remembrances. But in the land of Kelly you never know.

In the final panel R.V.T. says 'Hey, chief! There's more!' Well actually there is no more (of this particular story). I think the last panels ran on a Friday and the Saturday strip would've been a standalone and then a couple days later the Pandemonia story begins which I have posted long ago. There's a Sunday strip just after these last panels and I'm posting it again down below, just to help bridge the gap.

June 5, 1966

King Sol, the Old Empire Umpire

The Tallest Cemetery Knowed to Man

Show You How to Live 'Til 5,000 A.D.

3,945 YEAR OLD!? Oh, Come ON!

Nero was Lead Fiddle

Ack-HaH-Hoo-Wook HUGGA - - CHOOO!

I woulda thought that part didn't need translating . . .

Beat the Hare in the Olympics, 776 B.C.

 Pogo knows a bit of stuff, too . . .

Protest March all the Way to Adapazari

Wow, Albert seems to know some stuff about geography and history.

All About the Modern Kids an' the Lost Generation

Seeing as how these strips are from 1966, the 'current crop of kids' then are what we call Boomers today (of which I'm one of). I guess it makes sense that every generation has its conflicts, but, well, 
okay Boomer.

Splash Ending on the Dialogue

Yep, I can see why this daily wasn't included in the French/Belgian version. Imagine trying to translate all that dialogue into something comprehensible. Only Kelly could fit this much stuff into a daily.

Put On the Wheels and Set Out for Constantinople

Twelve Million of 'Em Scorned . . . and Marching

We Identified with the Unidentifiable

A Teen-Ager since 1966 B.C.

A Photo Taken 100 Years Before Photography was UN-vented

My Old Uncle Rip Van Turkle

Old R.V.T. — Now there's an interesting character.

HARD-A-LEE, Uncle Pogo