Whirled of Kelly

Corpse and Robbers

2012-01-30T21:29:00.007-07:00

By popular demand (well, nine of you—but there were so many 'please please pleases' that counted for more), I give you Muckey Spleen's The Bloody Drip. Some of you may have seen this a millyum times (as I have), and still it's enjoyable. So, turn the lights low, cozy up to your computer and enjoy this publication of The New National Treasury of World Culture:

The World's Serious Condition

2012-01-28T23:17:00.006-07:00

I have a headache and need to get to sleep, so I'm posting on Saturday nite so's you have this first thing on Sunday.

Here is another gorgeous Sunday strip that is also in the new Fantagraphics volume (if you haven't yet, go buy it!), but here we showcase the handsome tabloid format, courtesy of my friend and yours, DJ David B.

As Chris points out in the previous Pogo Sunday post, Deacon sometimes spoke without Gothic lettering in some early strips. When he first became a cast member he started out all Gothic, so I think somebody just forgot.

October 1, 1950

"One more word and you'll be sold to the Milwaukee Brewers!"

Now, he's not talking about the big league Milwaukee Brewers that was formed around '69 or'70, but the minor league baseball team that played in the American Association from 1902 through 1952 with a Triple-A class-level from 1946 to 1952. They hadn't been doing all that well at the time of this strip in 1950, but the following year they held their class and league titles. Among notable managers were Casey Stengel and Red Smith. Among notable players were Alvin Dark, Johnny Logan, Rudy York and Jim Thorpe.

Baseball was an ongoing ritual in Kelly's Okefenokee.

Muckey Spleen

2012-01-27T20:25:00.004-07:00

Transatlantic Hun reminds us in the last post that Albert was being auditioned for the role of Meat Hamburg, Private Eye—the kindly, steely-eyed, laughing, tough minded, heart-of-gold old pro.

As fortune would have it, he landed that role in at least two spying tingler features—The Bloody Drip, and GoreBlimey - The Bloody Drip Writhes Again.

These have to be some of Kelly's funniest parodies. Many of you already have these, but if anyone wants to see large, crisp and clear scans of those stories that you can magnify on your screen and stuff like that, I would be glad to oblige . . . but ya gotta ask, I can't read your mind.

Black, Wet or Indiffermints

2012-01-26T14:16:00.006-07:00

Another spin of a 'toon from the grade A DJ — DJ David B.

If it's Deacon you're seekin', you've come to the place where this is the case.

Hey Chris! Swish, Ploop! More slapstick!

September 17, 1950

Mysterious Wizard

2012-01-24T21:12:00.006-07:00

These are exciting times here at Whirled of Kelly (not that it's ever been comPLETEly dull around here), with Kelly treasures being brought into the light of day after decades of isolation in dark dusty archives.

Between the new collection series offered by Fantagraphics, and some really old Sunday strips coming up for sharing by DJ David B., and still more episodes of The Adventures of Peter Wheat still being unearthed and shared by OtherEric of The Digital Comic Museum, not to mention I've still got some swell stuff from the '60s — well, it's a winning scenario for Kelly fans everywhere.

Speaking of which, why aren't there more Kelly fans 'tooning in and leaving comments about their thoughts and feelings and memories and inspirations regarding Walt Kelly? Thank you to all who are following and commenting, but this blog has been around long enough that there ought to be more of you enjoying the fruits of our labors. Your comments are the rewards for us, and we'd like to hear from more of you more often. Tell us what Kelly's work means to you. There's no limit to the length of your comments, so weigh in.

For those of you who have shared materials and not yet seen it posted, hang in there, I've been on a fast track, and I will get those materials up and running in the next few months. And those of you who have made requests, fear not, you have been heard and they will be honored as soon as I can arrange them.

In the meantime, thank you once again to OtherEric, our intrepid correspondent in the faerie kingdoms of the wheat fields, with another dispatch that ties into other episodes that have been posted previously. I hope you're keeping track by issue, 'cause this is issue #25, part of a continuity.

I'll point out in advance that a cloak of invisibility is in use in this episode, long before JK Rowling pulled one out for Harry Potter. Yes, it has been a device used before Kelly in the history of fiction, but this one almost seems like a direct inspiration for Rowling. Possibly not, but between wizards and magic throughout these tales, you never know . . .

Happy Year of Dragon

2012-01-23T18:00:00.003-07:00

Kelly drew a number of dragons in his time, many small and cute. This is one 'has teeth', figuratively and literally.

If you cannot master the dragon, you must let it go . . .

Walt Kelly

A Genuine Bare Nose

2012-01-23T15:50:00.003-07:00

Another beauty from 1950, that is also in the new Fantagraphics collection, but is scanned from DJ David B.'s wonderful collection.

This is Kelly just wandering around his characters and having fun.

August 13, 1950

Ree-Juvenated

2012-01-22T01:29:00.006-07:00

Here we go, the first of some very early Pogo Sunday strips, courtesy of DJ David B., digging deep into his Kelly Kollection, sending over raw scans where I then jump in to give them a round of processing.

A note about that: David B. is supplying excellent high resolution scans, but they have to be in two pieces and are in raw condition. After stitching the two pieces together, I spend up to an hour on each strip, attempting to give them the look that I think Kelly intended them to have, knowing the limitations of newsprint printing. The colors should be bright and cheerful, but not garish or too contrasty—yet contrasted enough that the printing seems crisp and clean. I have removed obvious imperfections of the printing process, like blobs of ink, or too much mis-registration of colors, or bleed-through from the other side. I'm trying to keep the nature of the newsprint paper intact, as well as a few imperfections so that it feels like it's right out of the Sunday paper.

These first few strips will be familiar to any Kelly fan who has recently purchased the excellent Fantagraphics first volume of The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Pogo: Through the Wild Blue Wonder. But these that we're showing are scanned from the original strips, not from the book. Anyone who doesn't have the book, should go purchase it, and future volumes for your collection. But it's fun to see these newsprint versions and if all goes well, you'll see strips that will not be collected in the books for some time to come.

I'm very grateful to DJ David B. and I hope you are too. We'll still romp around in my collection as well, but these early gems will spice up our view of the Whirled of Kelly!

Oh, and later this week we'll have another Peter Wheat installment, courtesy of our friend OtherEric. Please tell friends to become followers here so that more Kelly fans can enjoy his cartooning genius, and spread the word even further.

June 18, 1950

I'm going to start dating strips so you can appreciate the context of its time

Above is a detail of a panel, so as to appreciate Kelly's cartooning technique, and likewise below from the original art as published in the Fantagraphics Volume 1 collection.

Girl of the Sterling North

2012-01-20T23:58:00.004-07:00

Speaking of nameless turtles, here's a sweet strip from 1950 . . .

Time to Celebrate

2012-01-20T12:31:00.003-07:00

Well, shet my mouf, it's time to celebrate!

In addition to our great blog friend OtherEric, we have another great blog friend, DJ David B. who 'spins comic-tunes' over at I.T.C.H. (International Team of Comics Historians). DJ David B. has generously opened his archive of very early Walt Kelly material, and most notably early Pogo Sunday strips starting as far back as 1950 (can't really go further back than that for those particular items).

Starting this Sunday I will be posting some of those treasures intermittently with the remainder of my stash, and still sharing OtherEric's treasures as well. What a win-win-win for Kelly fans, or at least the Kelly fans that has the knowledge to 'toon in here.

We'll chat some more on Sunday, but until then here is a little something that DJ David B sent over — a jpeg of original art for the very first Pogo daily. This is dated 1949 for the New York Post, but is slightly recycled from the 1948 New York Star that ceased to exist in 1949, where Kelly had been art director, drawing everything that needed to be drawn.

Note the torturous method of laying in the word balloons, with it's speedball lettering. Quoting Kelly himself, regarding this strip:

"These first Pogo drawings have him formed practically as he is now (1959), but without the dynamic torsion, the fins or the fog lights. The turtle in the strip here is not the notorious Churchy La Femme. He comes in later. This turtle and this worm are probably bit players. I have always felt that the 150 irregulars in the strip have work elsewhere, in other comic strips, on their days off, and probably fare better than we know."

See y'all on Sunday!

The ol' Pogo # one

They Won't Subterfuge Me

2012-01-15T01:36:00.004-07:00

I'm trying to avoid starting another arc for a couple of weeks, but Kelly had so few stand-alones in the final 10 years, or it may be that I've already posted most of them. Anyway . . . happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

Special Indian Snow Dance

2012-01-08T01:39:00.003-07:00

Great news for all you Kelly and Pogo fans! This blog has a new friend that has some older Sunday pages in his collection that he is generously planning to share with us, as well as some other Kelly treasures. He will be sending over the raw scans and I will be doing the painstaking processing, so it may take a while. But oh, I'm looking forward to it, and probably you are too. In the meantime, I still have plenty of pages from my collection to post and other special Kelly stuff as well.

This page is from Kelly's final period of 1973, a valiant hurrah, or there's always a chance that it was a reprint. At this point, I dunno—it's hard to keep track of what was happening in those final months.

Chief Spectator

2012-01-01T17:45:00.002-07:00

Sorry to be so long with getting this Sunday up. Happy to y'all!

First Day of a Brang New Year

2012-01-01T10:27:00.004-07:00

Oh, good golly. I've missed posting a Sunday, Kelly Sunday strip. We had a little party last night, with some guests staying over, rather than risk the roads. I will get the Sunday strip posted later today, but for your trouble of checking in, here is a cute little strip appropriate to the day.

Check back later today for the last strip of the current arc.

With Apologies to a Year Gone By

2011-12-31T12:40:00.005-07:00

Raise your glasses! Here's to another year of Kelly treasures!

These two are repeats, but they're worth bringing to the forefront...

Mr. Knoteven

2011-12-27T19:03:00.006-07:00

It's not often that I get the thrill of seeing Pogo art that I haven't seen before in some form. But this Christmas 1960 page, from the collection of David B, showed up at the "Super I.T.C.H ." site (International Team of Comics Historians), and indeed it was a thrill to not have recognized it.

Viva Kelly!

Paradigm of the EX-plicit and/or IM-plicit Exigencies of Parabolic Thought

2011-12-25T01:27:00.005-07:00

This arc is finally and rapidly coming to a close—one more week, I think. Then we'll move on to something else. But until then, today is Christmas and I'd like to wish you a merry one!

Merry Christmas, Chillun!

2011-12-24T21:41:00.001-07:00

D.U.A.W.B.C.

2011-12-24T15:55:00.001-07:00

Time to break out the carols and start riffing on Boston Charlie.

Gen-U-Wine

2011-12-22T19:06:00.006-07:00

A lot of animators enjoy and appreciate Walt Kelly's work and look to his art for inspiration.

I received a nice note from Bob Scott, an intrepid animator working at Pixar, an amazing place to work I'm sure. On the side, Bob creates a fun online comic called Molly and the Bear.

Bob is also a big fan of Pogo—big enough to slip Pogo and the others into his comic strip as a tribute (it looks like a Little Nemo tribute in the last panel as well). Check out today's Molly and the Bear by clicking here, and then subscribe.

Thanks Bob, for the heads up — and best wishes to y'all at Pixar!

About Molly and the Bear

It can be tough on a family when someone new has moved in, especially if it's a 900-pound scaredy-bear so terrified of wilderness life that he's fled to the burbs. Fortunately Bear was found by Molly, a fearlessly optimistic 11-year-old can-doer who has taken him firmly in hand, devoted to seeing her hirsute BFF cope with modern life. Molly's Mom is happy with the new sibling - Bear's an excellent conversationalist and loves her homemade cookies. But Dad is having a harder time, his role as center of the universe now shared with an ursine behemoth who, unfortunately, adores him.

The Litter Squad is Relentless!

2011-12-18T00:32:00.003-07:00

This arc is headin' for the finish line, but hang on, it's not over yet.

Look, look! Below! Fast acting action!

The Dread Litter Squad

2011-12-11T02:47:00.002-07:00

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

Six Hunderd Thousand Trillion

2011-12-04T01:37:00.003-07:00

STILL we're in the same ongoing arc. Some mighty powerful science goin' on here. And I can't swear that's Waldo the fish in Miz Beaver's arm. Waldo used to talk up a mighty storm and this fish seems mighty mute. Perhaps Waldo expired by this point. Oh don't be sad about that. Fish just don't live long away from mighty moisture.

Boss of the Whole Galaxy

2011-11-27T01:23:00.003-07:00

Yes, this is still the same arc ambling along.

It's About Time

2011-11-20T17:41:00.001-07:00

Here's an exclusive full-blown book review by Jay Black:

The first words in the Editor’s Notes of Fantagraphic new Pogo compilation Through the Wild Blue Wonder are the same words uttered under the breath of Pogo fans for almost ten years: “It’s about time.” The first of what is intended to be a twelve part series has finally arrived. Kim Thompson and Walt Kelly’s daughter Carolyn Kelly have taken the time to give Pogofiles the quality product that that the work deserves. For the first time both the daily and Sunday strips have found a home together.

The first thing a reader will notice after the beautiful dust cover (drawn and colored by Carolyn Kelly) is that the binding of thisbook is superior to similar collections, most notably the catastrophe that was done to Calvin and Hobbs. This is a book that should weather more than an occasional journey back into the Okefenokee Swamp. Opening the book to the first few pages and the reader finds original drawings that are sketched first with blue pencil and then inked. Walt Kelly used the blue pencil for the early sketching of his strips because the color did not show when the strip was reproduced.

The table of contents lovingly breaks the content down into weeks and explains the action in a way that specific strips can be quickly found. I had to smile when I saw the first week’s description began with: “Pogo and Churchy go fishing.” There was never a predicament throughout the run of the strip that could not be solved with a return to the Suwanee River, the only river that runs through the actual Okefenokee, for either a casual float or a communal fish fry. What is surprising here is the lack of political satire. The first year of Pogo in syndication was for the most part politically noncommittal. Kelly first dabbles into political satire inMarch 1950, almost a year into the syndicated run. Even this, as R. C. Harvey points out in a section named “Swamp Talk,” was more puns and vaudeville than hard-hitting political satire. Kelly, like other cartoon artists at the time, avoided any topic that might be deemed controversial. Editors who disagreed could pull a strip they did not agree with resulting in the artist loosing money. The strip would not become overtly political until Kelly retained the copyright on his strips that he had primarily loaned to Post Hall syndicate. This will occur in the second volume in 1952.

The strips are separated into three categories. The daily and Sunday syndicated strips come first and are appropriately divided into different chapters. Kelly wrote the two for different audiences. Kelly believed that adults were the primary audience for the daily strips. This is where you will later find most of the political references. The Sunday strips were strictly for the kids.

The strips speak for themselves. Doonesbury artist and writer Garry Trudeau, certainly no stranger to cultural and political comic strips, said Walt Kelly was a triple threat: Pogo was beautifully drawn, exquisitely written and enormously popular— a true cartoonists’ cartoonist. Pogo began, as readers of this blog well know, as a comic book character. Kelly donated Pogo in strip form to the newspaper where he was working as an art director. The third strip section is comprised of the entire run of that occurred in the New York Star. The only remotely political strips that occurred during the original Star run was an announcement of a Truman victory in 1948, and then a couple weeks later a reference of people having to eat crow. Since the Star was the only major newspaper in New York to support the Truman candidacy, this strip may have been less political satire than a poke at the other newspapers. Nevertheless, these three strips were the only strips in the entire Star run that specifically dealt with national politics. The campaign for sheriff may have been a parallel campaign to the 1948 presidential campaign, but it mostly wordplay and slapstick humor.

No epic Pogo journey could ever be complete without the help of Walt Kelly’s friends and fans. In this first volume, American journalist and author Jimmy Breslin write the Forward. Mr. Breslin was a long time friend of Kelly’s since the time their favorite bar, affectionately referred to as Bleek’s after the longtime proprietor, was located in the back of the New York Herald Tribune building. Many a night was spent drinking until the buildingshook when the morning edition hit the presses.

Long time biographer and fan Steve Thompson, the hero of anyone who ever studied Pogo for academic reasons, wrote the introduction. He wrote, with the help of Kelly’s third wife Selby Daley, what at this point may be the longest biographical study of Kelly, Pogo Files for Pogophiles. Mr. Thompson was the editor of the now elusive Fort Mudge Most, the Kelly fan magazine devoted to digging up ancient Kelly treasures. I recently tried to get copies through interlibrary loan, but I was told that the few libraries that had the issues would not loan them out. This is a shame because if this Fantagraphic Pogo collection is as successful as I believe it will be, morestudents may find their way to Kelly’s work.

R.C. Harvey’s “Swamp Talk” gives annotated historical references of the strips from the beginning, an epic job in of itself. Pogo was more than a political satire.Kelly was in a league of one when it came to social commentary in the comicstrips. By the time Kelly decided to add hard-core political satire to Pogo in 1952, Al Capp was marrying off his title character Li’l Abner to Daisy May. He told Life that social commentary was suicide in a comic strip and he would not do it until the time was right to bring it back. He changed his strip to more of a traditional marriage strip. Thisleft the hole that would be filled by Pogo. Harvey has his job cut out for him starting in the next volume if he is to continue to trace the social commentary and inside jokes of Walt Kelly. Harvey and Thompson are like sponges in the way they have compiled information concerning Kelly’s work. Anything they write is worth reading for the ardent Pogo fan.

It should also be noted that R.C. Harvey also wrote the introductions to Fantagraphic’s previous run of Pogo compilations. This set stopped abruptly at volume 11 with the February 12, 1954 return of “Molester” Mole MacAroney. For ten years, we have waited for this saga to continue. Indeed, this new set is a far superior product. May all the volumes be as beautifully crafted as the one I have in my hand.

-- James Eric (Jay) Black

Mercer University

Journalism and Media Studies

Brang New

2011-11-20T12:34:00.004-07:00

An unretouched page from the brang new book of Pogo, out from Fantagraphics:

LONG LIVE KELLY!!!

First Review

2011-11-19T21:31:00.002-07:00

Yay, we got our first review for the long awaited Pogo book:

I got my preordered copy in the mail yesterday, and it was well worth the wait. It's absolutely gorgeous. The strips look great, and the colorful dust jacket is far superior to the one in the early ads. I've read about a quarter of it so far, and it's pure gold. I'd only ever read Pogo in a few collections from the sixties, so, it's great to see his art and humor was as advanced at the beginning as it was at the end. I especially enjoyed reading the introduction of Beauregard the hound dog. like I said, pure gold. Highly recommended for Kelly fans, Pogo fans, comic strip fans, fans of beautiful ink lines, people who like perfection, people who like to laugh, people who can read, hell, everyone should get a copy! — Anonymous

Would love to hear from anyone else with a review, even if it's similar!

Run Like a Summerin' Finch

2011-11-19T21:00:00.005-07:00

I have to post the Pogo Sunday strip tonight, Saturday nite, cuz I won't be available on Sunday morning. I know how some of you beat it over here on Sunday morns, and I would hate to disappoint anyone.

Besides the usual love of Kelly's art and his characters' shenanigans, I love how the Pogo logo is nestled in the middle of that summer grass. Not many cartoonists of that era took the time to do things like that.

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

The Eagle has Branded

2011-11-19T09:44:00.004-07:00

Daniel tells us that his preordered copy of the loooong awaited 1st volume of the new Pogo reprint series has arrived at his door, but hasn't had time to look at it yet. I haven't had time to order it or to look for it anywhere.

Anyone who has it in their hands and wants to write a review, whether it's a sentence, a paragraph or a page, please write either an email or a comment to me, and I'll print it 'up front' as a post.

Relentless

2011-11-14T16:49:00.006-07:00

Well, I would be a heartless cad if I let down the vocal minority and withheld my little stash of Pogo archives. I wasn't trying to be a jerk about it (or hold anything HOStage, Mykal). Every once in a while I jes' needs to check in to make sure the telegraph poles haven't been cut down and I'm dit dit dotting to the ether. Contrary to the comedian up on stage who can hear you breathing, all I can hear from here are the neighbor kids calling for their lost dog.

I'm a little taken back by the couple of comments disparaging Peter Wheat and his adventures. Though after I thought about it a bit, I agree that Peter is a bit of a prig, though an admirable one, considering he is royalty. I'm enjoying Peter Wheat adventures because of Kelly's art and that it strays deeply into fairy tale country, with goblins and dragons and evil looking hornets. OtherEric is our correspondent from that country, and I'm not going to do anything to discourage his dispatches. Anybody who doesn't enjoy a quick visit to the wheat fields' micro-community, can just wait out in the lobby until we head back over to the Okefenokee. Speaking of which, I need to confess right here to one and all: I think Pogo is a bit of a prig himself, all self-righteous and quiet and sane. The rest of the swamp could be in an uproar and he jes' sits there being homespun and all. Thank the creator for Albert. He's the life of the party.

Well, anyway, thank you one and all who have commented, and even those who wanted to but couldn't or thought better of it. Your passion for the Whirled of Kelly will keep it whirling until I've exhausted my stash (that day will come, I say with tears in my eyes, but not for a while). Charlie, I'll keep em coming for you if nothing else, but yeah for the rest of you too.

Those of you who have commented passionately represent hundreds more who have better things to do than reply to my HOStage demands (Mykal) ;>), so I'm satisfied that Kelly fans are enjoying this stuff as much as I am.

Therefore, relentless onward!

In Durance Vile

2011-11-13T01:51:00.004-07:00

I've heard from some few of you, passionately no less, to keep flinging these posts up to the 'net, but there's so many folks not heard from. Really? You don't mind if these full-color Kelly wonders go away? Oh, I'll finish up this arc, no matter what, but after that . . . well, I need to know that more than a few followers are really following. Peter Wheat? You're not gonna miss more Peter Wheats?

The Psychologiwockles of Marketin'

2011-11-06T01:51:00.002-06:00

Say, y'all wouldn't be taking it for granite that Pogo Sunday strips are posted here regularly every Sunday morn, in consecutive order with color and pithy little comments 'n' everything? It's fine with me to make this an irregular monthly posting if it doesn't make any difference to anybody. I just need to know where yuh stands.

In all the Okefenokee, Churchy's histrionics are surpassed only by Albert.

Grab your hat

2011-11-02T14:01:00.004-06:00

Grab your hats and get ready to hit the comic and book stores. I just received an email from Kim Thompson of Fantagraphics Books, which included this phrase:

The first POGO volume ships tomorrow from our distributor, believe it or not.

Quote, unquote.

The Orderly Ways of Us Elders

2011-10-30T01:40:00.003-06:00

Yessir, Kelly is sticking to his storyline.

Fire-House Five Minus Three

2011-10-23T01:11:00.004-06:00

Yes, still part of the same, long, on-going arc, a Kelly phee-nomanon!

Actually, now that I look at this closely, I wonder if it was a mistake in the next to last panel that Howland has the firehat on and is doling out water—that should have been Bun Rab! Perhaps Kelly was daydreaming and didn't notice or care what he was doing. And who woulda had the dagnab bluster to call him on it. Ding ding.

Rare Old Sauerkraut

2011-10-16T01:57:00.002-06:00

I can't believe it's another Sunday. Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

Santa Sends for Help

2011-10-10T22:18:00.008-06:00

Some time ago, OtherEric, of the Digital Comic Museum, sent over another issue of The Adventures of Peter Wheat, and I'm just now getting around to cleaning and tweaking the scans. I appreciate OtherEric's patience when that happens. He works so hard tracking down rare issues and scanning and sending, and then I just seem to dawdle around with 'em.

This is issue #21, and you may think it's a little early for a Christmas number, but if you'll look closely at the opening narration box, it says "The Christmas SEASON is approaching", and that's SORta now.

Thanks again Eric!

I jes' love to zoom in and look closer at Kelly art, i.e. the panels below:

The panel below 'freezes' the action so perfectly:

Justice At All Costs

2011-10-09T01:33:00.005-06:00

Well, we skipped a Sunday here, cuz it was already posted back to'ard the end of July, cuz it had nothin' to do with this storyline, as this storyline races ahead with A-bandon.

All Kinds Laws

2011-10-02T01:05:00.004-06:00

Yep, the story is still amblin' and ramblin' on. Keep toonin' in.

One of the Greatest Cartoonists Ever

2011-10-02T00:53:00.005-06:00

A tip of the hat to Kip for a Walt Kelly alert, even though I had already clipped and scanned this strip from yesterday's paper (yes, I still read a newsPAPER). I still read the comics, even though I shake my head at some of em, but Pearls Before Swine is definitely one of the better ones for comic content (yes, even his shaggy pig puns).

Mr. Pastis, if you ever 'toon in here, cheers to you. Long live Kelly!

A Indentured Servant

2011-09-25T01:25:00.003-06:00

A old tried, true and tested joke for Kelly, at least once performed with a egg, back in the strip's younger days.

PDQ!

2011-09-18T12:07:00.003-06:00

The continuity is saved, thanks to Jerry Keslensky, who sent over this jpeg of the missing Sunday strip. It's a photo of the original art, and boy, Grundoon is welcome any ol' time.

Jerry sends 'thanks for all you do to keep Kelly's work alive'. Well thank you Jerry and all others who have sent over contributions of material. Some of those contributions have been waiting in the wings for a WAY long time. But they will be forthcoming, I just need to catch up with life.

And thanks to everyone who 'toons in to the Whirled of Kelly!

Shootin' Dice an' Smokin' Mary-Wanna

2011-09-18T01:18:00.003-06:00

I feel just awful in telling you that I seem to be missing the Sunday strip between this one and the last post. I really think I have it somewhere, but it is so mislaid. Argh and rowrbazzle, sorry about that.

It'll Scare the Hick Outta Him

2011-09-11T01:32:00.003-06:00

This post is respectfully dedicated to the Governor of Colorado,

John (Hick) Hickenlooper.

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

Sky-Doodle Like These!

2011-09-04T01:12:00.007-06:00

And Howland was right, Kelly never did draw 82 billion turtles again.

A Cloud of Turtle

2011-08-28T01:36:00.005-06:00

Kelly was always ready to go the extra mile for a Sunday punch!

Below, the 3-tier format, with the extra panel, which in this case is entirely superfluous.

Below, a closer look at those 82 billion turtles . . .

Below, at least one other time (1958), Kelly crowded up panels with multitudes, in this case twenty-two hundred dab slabbed rabbits . . .

The Little People—Irish Tales

2011-08-22T23:09:00.004-06:00

I don't usually repost from other blogs, but this 1936 early Kelly page is too much fun to pass by, from More Fun Comics, as posted by BookSteve. Read about it here.

Gotcha, Miss Ma'm'selle

2011-08-21T01:15:00.005-06:00

Greetings to those of you out there who have a thing for Miss Ma'm'selle Hepzibah. Indeed she is one of the finer females in the history of comic strips. We see her again in a couple of strips from now. Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

A Blessed Event!

2011-08-14T01:32:00.003-06:00

Kelly neatly demonstrates the absurdity of communications media control over life, even blessed events . . . or especially blessed events.

Bird He Never Wert

2011-08-07T02:03:00.004-06:00

Starting a new long arc, a fun one at that, that I'm calling

Churchy's Nephoo.

The Lady Feminists Peace Parade

2011-07-30T21:04:00.005-06:00

As some of you know, from my other blog The Pictorial Arts, I'm on an extended leave from blogging. But I just can't see missing a Sunday posting of a Pogo Sunday strip. I wouldn't miss a Sunday, Kelly Sunday unless it was a case of death or taxes, or something like that. I'm posting it on Saturday night, cuz I'll be busy on Sunday morning.

In checking my records, I notice that I haven't posted even one Sunday strip from 1970 yet, so here's the first of those (with 51 more to come, in time). This is from the middle of a pretty long arc (April to October). You know how Kelly wanders all over the map, yet usually has a thread running for months, and you can't quite tell where and when an arc begins or ends. But this particular strip is seemingly unconnected to the arc it's embedded in, so I thought I'd bring it up here, and then when we get to that arc (soon), it won't distract from the flow.

I know the Formth of Joo-lie was nearly a month ago, but in the Whirled of Kelly, time is irrelephant . . . so . . .

Kelly's strips are the loveliest, are they not? Below, a closer look at that sweet brace of doves:

The Squirrel Squats Low in the Hoorah Bush

2011-07-24T02:44:00.005-06:00

This is the last page of the arc that's been playing out for weeks. Boom, it just ends here, and the following week a whole new arc started, just like that.

Kelly pays tribute to his fellow comic book cartoonist, Dan Noonan, one of Kelly's early style influences.

Our Own People from Okefenokee

2011-07-17T01:33:00.003-06:00

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

The Trap

2011-07-13T18:05:00.007-06:00

YaHoo! More Adventures of Peter Wheat! Thanks as always to OtherEric for the scans and the ever persistent tracking of issues that are consistently hard to find.

This is issue #15, a continuation from one our earlier posts, and with OtherEric's efforts, we're bound to see it continued someday or other in issue #16. But each issue is an adventure unto itself, and this one is pure Kelly (jes' love Kelly's mice!). Have fun.

Created by DaVinci!

2011-07-10T01:59:00.004-06:00

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

Later this week: more adventures of Peter Wheat!

Fainted Out of Love

2011-07-03T07:19:00.005-06:00

Lots of high-pitched emoting going on here.

A Looney Tune

2011-06-28T08:44:00.004-06:00

Walt Kelly certainly paid his dues as a comic book man, creating stories for the middle of many a book, early in his career.

For instance, he created half a dozen stories of Pat, Patsy and Pete for some early Looney Tunes Comics—obscure material and fairly rare to come by. But our blog compatriot OtherEric DID come by one and generously shares his scans with us here.

Kelly's style is quite recognizable, even early on, with his kids cute as ever. His bear bears a resemblance to Carl Bark's bears from this period, but how many different ways can you draw cartoon bears anyway?

It's all part of the Whirled of Kelly, from Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies #24, October 1943:

Hare-Brain

2011-06-26T08:48:00.002-06:00

This storyline seems to wander all over the swamp.

Pooed Out

2011-06-19T01:21:00.005-06:00

"Scurrilous lagamuffins, poltroons, spalpeens"—woosh, lotta name-callin' goin' on here.

Even if it is a case of mistaken identity, sorta grisly thinking them boys are eating bun's two heads.

Giant Red Ants

2011-06-13T19:41:00.008-06:00

Even though this is a site dedicated to Walt Kelly, it still seems to make sense to show the Al Hubbard story art for The Adventures of Peter Wheat, since it's a continuation of Kelly's creation. Here we have issue #54, as always thanks to OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum and his dedication to track down every possible issue of these rare comics to share with the world.

An introduction from OtherEric:

Here's a Connell/Hubbard issue of Adventures of Peter Wheat, #54 from 1955. While this team created fewer issues than Kelly, they actually worked on the book quite a bit longer than Kelly did—it just came out less frequently and on an irregular schedule that I still haven't quite figured out yet. The situation is not helped by the fact that the information line with the issue number and year is frequently blurry or unclear. I've hit several issues that were incorrectly labeled by the sellers and have at least one or two where I'm still only 90% sure I've correctly identified the issue even when it's in my hands.

This is a fairly typical issue by the team, and with one exception Thom and I will get to soon, it seems like they never did continued storylines. One thing I do like is that they only rarely use the Wizard and the Hornet Knights as the enemy—creating an interesting variety of new foes and challenges for Peter & crew to face. Kelly got away with using Dragonel and the Wizard as much as he did because he was constantly letting all the characters, heroes and villains alike, evolve and change. Connell & Hubbard seem to not have had that freedom, and take the series in a slightly different direction. This does allow them to occasionally pull out the Wizard to good effect when he does show up.

Chasin' the Bun-Nappers

2011-06-12T02:04:00.004-06:00

We're skipping past two Sundays now, cuz those two had nuttin to do with this storyline. But if ya gotta see em, I already posted em some time ago. They had somethin to do with Easter eggs that hatched into googley birds, or somethin like that.

Anyway, happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

ARNK

2011-06-10T15:22:00.002-06:00

The horse keep on runnin' A-way, and Grundoon keep on sleepin'.

You folk out there keep on readin'?

My Dear Sir!

2011-06-05T02:00:00.002-06:00

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

Blood! GACK!

2011-06-02T23:17:00.003-06:00

Kelly's Pogo strip is jes' fine when 'nothin' is happening. But it's jes' finer when 'somethin' is happening. I love it when the strip has a storybook feeling.

And of course there's a deja vu thing here, cuz Albert went all googley-woogley some years before over the same Cock Robin lines in The Pogo Peek-a-Book.

Fierce Robins

2011-05-29T01:16:00.002-06:00

Things startin' to pick up here.

Kelly could fit so much into any given panel and still make it look believable. Looking in closer on the panel below, the essence of Kelly is so apparent and . . . comforting.

Power Cookies

2011-05-25T20:36:00.005-06:00

I debated with myself whether to post the below Peter Wheat News material here on Whirled of Kelly or over on the Pictorial Arts blog, just because none of this art or writing is by Walt Kelly at all. But it's a quality continuation of his earlier creation, and this viewership already has a familiarity with the series, so, here it is.

The comic book art is by Al Hubbard, a good choice for emulating Kelly's style. You may recognize his style a bit from the Mary Jane and Sniffles series in the Warner Bros franchise of comics. For completist's sake, I've included the covers, front and back, though they truly stray from Kelly.

As always, this material is brought to us with generosity by OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum. And in fact, here are some words of introduction by him:

Here are two more issues of Peter Wheat News, this time not by Kelly, but by his replacement team of Del Connell and Al Hubbard. As a bonus, these happen to be consecutive issues, 43 and 44, so we can see how the three-parters in News tied together, as well as a look at how the books looked once Kelly left. While the new creators obviously don't live up to the standard that Kelly set, I don't think anybody really could. They do better than most people would, I think — the series remains charming and entertaining, and far better than the average 50s comic book fare. The #43 has been shared as a CBZ before this, but the #44 is new.

I wanted to give a little background on Connell and Hubbard, but ran into difficulty. Connell may have written some of the late Kelly issues of Peter Wheat, and I believe he was on staff at Western. Other than that I really don't know anything about him or his work. Hubbard, on the other hand, I could write about for pages. 99% of what I would write would just be variations of "I love Hubbard's work on Mary Jane & Sniffles", without much real content beyond that. Maybe some other time—it really is one of my favorite series and in my opinion better than any other comics based on the Warner Brothers cartoons by orders of magnitude.

Peter Wheat News #43:

Peter Wheat News #44:

Below, as another bonus, OtherEric has included this full-page back cover to FourColor #474, showcasing Al Hubbard's work on Mary Jane & Sniffles, and REALLY demonstrating the influence that Walt Kelly had on his work, in the composition, characterizations and artistic rendering.

Arrant Nonsense!

2011-05-23T09:55:00.002-06:00

Remember, this 3-tier format has the extra panel that the tabloid format doesn't. In this case, where Albert will borry a comb.

The Very Marrow of My Mortality

2011-05-22T02:51:00.001-06:00

I'll Gump a Wumpit

2011-05-20T09:45:00.005-06:00

For being a strip mostly 'bout nothin', this one takes the cake . . .

with nuts.

Don't worry, a couple strips from now things pick up speed.

Kindred Spirit

2011-05-15T01:45:00.002-06:00

NBXT? GNZ? SNKT! SKM

2011-05-13T11:45:00.004-06:00

Well, I'm reposting this, since Blogger lost it first time 'round, but blog darn it, now I need to repeat my stupid little comment. Alright, here goes:

Shhhh, call J. Edgar Hoover, Kelly's puttin' in spy codes again.

Naw, that's not how I phrased it, blog darn it.

Peter Wheat News

2011-05-09T15:15:00.005-06:00

OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum:

You wait forever for a bus, and then three come along at once: I've recently taken possession of two more issues of Peter Wheat News, one incomplete and one intact; one Kelly and one Hubbard. This recent rush of books has not changed my opinion on how rare the things are, however! I don't even know if this one is the first or second part of a story; the opening panel could either be the resolution of a cliffhanger or a start in mid-story, given how little room these 3-parters have to play with.

As a bonus, I've sent Thom copies of the one complete Kelly issue I have, #19, so those who don't mess with cbz's can see it, and what a complete issue looks like. Not a Kelly cover, other than possibly the Peter Wheat figure grabbed from stock art.

I have to wonder if the creators of Bewitched ever saw this when they were younger, though.

Above, the title card for the Bewitched TV series that started more than a decade after the Peter Wheat News #19, below, was published.

I Am But a Honest Mermaid

2011-05-08T01:59:00.003-06:00

This strip starts a longish arc that is seen elsewhere on the net, but that one doesn't have as much resolution detail as here, so I hope you don't mind my posting it up here as well. It's a fun sequence, and I'll try to post more than one a week, so keep coming back if you will.

Oh, and happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday, as well as Mother's Day!

Magic Coach

2011-05-06T22:17:00.003-06:00

Sorry, I've been tied up, and couldn't post here til now.

We have some more of Kelly's wonderful Peter Wheat, but I'm going to wait until after I post the weekly Sunday, Kelly Sunday strip. Until then, here's a magical panel of Kelly art from the upcoming post. See ya in a couple days.

Only Comic Book Printed in 1812

2011-05-01T01:19:00.002-06:00

A Fairy Tale within a Fairy Tale

2011-04-27T17:41:00.009-06:00

Rounding out our set of consecutive Adventures of Peter Wheat is issue #29, as always supplied ever-generously by OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum:

OtherEric:

You're probably sick of me trying vainly to come up with new words to praise Kelly at this point, so for this issue I'll stick to noting how Kelly plays with scale yet again in this one; using larger panels almost every time the beanstalk or the giant is shown, often going for two tiers instead of three. I also like the extreme perspective and oversized lettering on page 11.

Taken as a whole, these issues show Kelly trying all sorts of different things to contrast sizes and I find it amazing to see. It never gets in the way of telling the stories, though—it took me a while to realize it was even there.

I hope you've enjoyed this run of books. I thank Thom again for doing it, and hopefully I (or somebody else) will have more issues to share soon!

Thom:

And thank you OtherEric for the time, expense, and effort of sharing Kelly's Peter Wheat with us. I'll bet we have some more stories soon!

Regarding this story, I'm ready to say that is Seminole Sam, the fox from Pogo's Okefenokee, wandering afield, showing the proximity of Kelly's Whirlds.

Easter is a Time for Peace

2011-04-24T10:01:00.001-06:00

Making Possible the Comic Strip Industry

2011-04-24T01:13:00.002-06:00

Howland's outfit adds some dash to the hash. And of course Moon Mullins was a comic strip hooroar for many a moon.

Thought I Saw an Otter

2011-04-20T21:55:00.007-06:00

The Adventures of Peter Wheat #28, as always courtesy of OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum. His words come after.

OtherEric:

Here we go back to single issue stories. Kelly continues his playing with scale here, with the Rock-Norse being as small to Peter as Peter is to a normal human, and with the contrast between the Otter and the Shrew. It also features a couple of amazing fight scenes. I've said it before and will probably say it again: Kelly could have been one of the great adventure strip artists if he wanted to; his fights are just perfectly choreographed and executed. And as always his ability to convey emotion in his characters' expressions is unsurpassed.

Thom:

I really like stories where enemies become friends.

Mooza Peegle Ain't a Larf

2011-04-17T08:07:00.001-06:00

Sorry, the paper came a little late today.

Pursuing the Wizard and the Goblins

2011-04-12T21:32:00.006-06:00

The saga of The Adventures of Peter Wheat continues, with so many thanks to OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum. Look for his words after the last page, below.

Lookit that opening panel! Epic!!!

OtherEric:

Hey, Peter finally got his Pegasus! This is probably my favorite cover from the series—since it's also the first page of the story, most of the covers tend to be beautiful but somewhat subdued as the story gets started. This one just pops!

The rest of the issue, while not quite the Tour de Force of the #26, provides a suitably exciting conclusion to the epic, with a three-way fight between the goblins, the hornet knights, and the wheatfield folk as background to a thrilling rescue attempt by Peter.

For all my comments about coloring, art continuity, and excessive captions, this story as a whole really is just an amazing piece of work by Kelly—the small flaws not getting in the way of a wonderful, huge adventure. I really do hope somebody reprints these someday—this story would make an excellent collection in my opinion. (If anybody out there is willing to try and publish a collection, let me know—I'm more than happy to rescan my issues at any resolution required just to see an actual book out there).

Thom:

And I'll be happy to edit, or write an essay or contribute in any way:)

Million Dollar Duel

2011-04-10T01:46:00.003-06:00

These ol' pals are allus gunnin' for each other, one way or t'other . . .

The Caves of Mystery

2011-04-05T23:14:00.006-06:00

Here we have another wonderful chapter of The Adventures of Peter Wheat, courtesy as always of OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum. Look for his afterwords, um, after.

OtherEric:

This is my favorite issue of Peter Wheat—it's one of my all-time favorite comic books. I can still remember just how awestruck I was when I first read it a year and a half or so ago. I'll try not to bore you with my gushing too much, but this just still amazes me.

We start with a wonderful sequence with Peter turning back into himself, with some spectacular dialogue showing Peter figuring out that he's successfully changed back. Then on page 4, we see some monsters and the gnomes—and once again I'm torn on the coloring. I think the face in the tree is a little too emphasized, but at least it shows the colorist is paying attention. I suspect this was originally drawn as another full-page panel, no idea why it was changed. Page 5: the faces in the rocks are more subtle than the tree, and we see a goblin design Kelly has used elsewhere, including Fairy Tale Parade.

The sequence on 6-8 is just amazing in how strong a sense of place it has. We know exactly where everything is. There is such a level of detail in this whole issue; from using the spears to make the stretcher, to tall panels showing the cliff being scaled.

And the expressions on the characters! The gnomes, going from practical when rescuing and moving the queen, to marvelously sad once they have her safe, but cannot wake her, to fierce when they size up Peter; then sad again when they cannot wake her. Utterly amazing work, even by Kelly standards, I think.

Then more games with scale: a human-size door with a lock at gnome level; followed by a full-panel shot of Father Time showing how huge a human is compared to Peter, the Fairy Queen, and Greybeard.

This issue doesn't necessarily have any one bit I can point to as "look at how brilliant this is", but taken as a whole, this issue is a masterpiece. Comic book storytelling simply does not get any better than this.

The Comic Strip Racket

2011-04-03T02:08:00.002-06:00

Good morning!

Imagine! John Kennedy was alive and well when I trimmed this strip from the paper! I don't FEEL that old.

Wicked Wizard

2011-03-30T14:15:00.006-06:00

I'm very sad that we don't have issue #25 of The Adventures of Peter Wheat to share with you at this time, to keep our sequence complete. I was hoping that the comix elves would have taken pity on us poor mortals and materialized a full set of scans.

But the gatekeeper of the realm, OtherEric, has tracked down a bit of material to keep us informed enough to keep moving ahead.

Take it from here, OtherEric:

For an issue that we don't have, we can actually say a surprisingly large amount about this issue. To quote the long-ago auction listing where we found the two low-res pages we have:

"The Fairy Queen is captured by the Wizard; the story contains a cloak of invisibility, flying boots, shape-changing powder, Ooglie-Booglies (scary Goblins), lions, the Bird of Wonderwood, etc. Walt Kelly pulled out all the stops in this issue which is notable for the unusual, great FULL-PAGE PANEL highlighting Kelly's superb rendition of fairies and trees (he was the master of the latter)."

And from the next issue, #26, we can know the cliffhanger for this issue, that it ends with the Fairy Queen captured by the Wizard and his goblin allies, and Peter is turned into a toad!

Two points of note: the character design changes on the Fairy Queen and Durrock. The theory I've heard is that Kelly didn't have reference for them when he moved onto this issue from the last. The colorist doesn't help matters, but it doesn't hurt too much now and it probably mattered far less back when kids had a month between last issue and this one.

And as I mentioned, Kelly is starting to do different things to play with scale; using a full page panel to show the tree in relation to the small characters. Even in the reduced size or the redrawn-by-somebody-else version from the coloring book, we can see just how gorgeous this page must be. I really hope I (or another scanner) can find this issue sooner rather than later. And how many of you thought my comment about Kelly playing with scale in #25—#29 was a typo, since I said we didn't have that issue? :-)

Above and below, tantalizing low-res glimpses of issue #25

The redrawn-by-somebody-else coloring book page

Thom: It's not too late if someone wants to take pity on us poor mortals and share a set of scans of #25. We have a full week until we're scheduled to show #26, and I would be thrilled to bump that back in order to insert #25.

Anybody? A friend of a friend? Comix elves?

Mozart Von Hinkerdump's Sonata

2011-03-27T02:42:00.002-06:00

No matter how busy I am, I try to post Pogo Sundays on Sunday, cuz that's when Pogo Sundays ought to be.

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

Peter Wheat and the Fairy Queen

2011-03-23T07:40:00.008-06:00

Once again we are indebted to OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum for another beautiful and rare installment of Walt Kelly's run on The Adventures of Peter Wheat, this being issue #24, the first of a several part storyline.

Kelly's entire oeuvre really seems to be one big fairy tale world, and here we actually step into Fairy Land for a bit, continuing to see a variety of his mythical characterizations.

Stay 'tooned at the end for comments from OtherEric.

Post-issue comments from OtherEric:

A minor technical note: This is the only issue of Adventures I've seen that was stapled, not glued, at the spine. Again, not bad, just odd—I may be the only person who cares. This starts the "Peter Wheat and the Fairy Queen" storyline that runs for four issues (if anybody has a better idea for a title for the arc, let me know, a naming expert I'm not). While it's not quite on the scale of, say, the Monster Society of Evil, 64 pages is LONG for a comic book story back in the 40s or 50s. And this issue starts the story in somewhat subdued fashion with a mystery.

I think the colorist may not be doing the story great favors by making the door in the tree obvious, but I do think it shows the colorist is at least paying attention to the story.

Kelly's faun is an absolute delight—the range of expressions on him and all the characters throughout this storyline is just amazing. I love how he goes from happy to worried to "this isn't fun anymore, somebody got hurt." Just wonderfully expressive.

I suspect editorial interference with the large number of captions. They're not unknown in Peter Wheat stories, but they're not common, and several here are quite redundant. I suspect there were one or two bits where the action was felt to be unclear—what the marshmallow sauce was, and possibly Peter's state after the fall—and then somebody went overboard clarifying the sequence. None of this really gets in the way of the story, though. Peter's look when he wakes up is priceless, and the Fairy Queen is just beautiful.

On that note, next time we'll move on to tell you what little we know about issue #25.

Captain Freeze Icepot's Discovery

2011-03-20T01:16:00.002-06:00

Yes! Here we are again—at Sunday, Kelly Sunday.

Good golly, Kelly was unique in his tomfoolery. Perhaps the FBI was correct in thinking that Kelly was communicating in code. Question is, to whom and why wherefore whem?

Peter and His Friends Are Hard at Work

2011-03-16T20:50:00.008-06:00

As promised, we're presenting more Adventures of Peter Wheat that are rare and rarified, thanks again and always to OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum, starting here with issue #23. OtherEric has been working diligently to gather chapters of Walt Kelly's fairy tale masterpiece, and it is a long and arduous task—haunting auctions, scraping enough money together, puzzling out the where, when, and why.

He has come up with some wonderful issues that have rarely been seen by Kelly fans—but they're such a special part of a storyline that we felt we needed some context for them, so we're going to include a couple of chapters that some of you may have seen, but have been rescanned and cleaned up a bit.

Unfortunately, we're missing a chapter of the story that we'll just have to jump over, like the big boys and girls that we are.

UNLESS . . . if anybody within the sound of this blog has access to The Adventures of Peter Wheat #25 (that's number Twenty-Five), we would love to hear from you right away, please. We'd like to borrow scans, or we'd be willing to purchase the issue, if a reasonable price.

Really, we'd love to see this continuity unbroken if possible. If you can help us, Kelly fans everywhere will bow down before you. Either way, we'll move ahead in the weeks to come and present most of a run of Kelly's delightful fantasy adventure!

Now some words from OtherEric:

I recently won issues #24 and #27 of Adventures of Peter Wheat on eBay, and Thom has once again generously agreed to let me debut them at Whirled of Kelly before I release the cbz files elsewhere.

Since the issues are the first and last chapters of a storyline, posting the #26 as well seemed obvious (sadly, I don't have a copy of #25). After some discussion, we decided to go ahead and post everything we have of issues #23 through #29; even with one missing issue, it's the most solid block of Kelly's Peter Wheat stories available so far.

I'll have some comments on the issues after we post them, but one thing I will suggest looking for ahead of time is how Kelly plays with scale in the art on the #25—#29. It's fascinating, and I'll elaborate as we go along. But first just enjoy the #23:

OtherEric:

I don't have that much to say about this issue. The opening caption makes me really want to see what happened in #22, but I want to see all the issues, so that's hardly surprising. The lettering is odd on this issue. Not bad, just odd. (It looks possibly like Leroy Lettering, that semi-mechanical process of the time—Thom)

It's fun seeing Kelly draw a Turtle and a Mole; they're not quite identical to their cousins in Pogo, but he's definitely figuring out the general look. And I call your attention to the ad on the back cover—why don't we see Peter riding a miniature Pegasus in the comic itself?

Convenient - Friendly - Thrifty - Fresher

2011-03-14T21:57:00.004-06:00

I'm swamped, swamped I tell ya, with another deadline that's killin' me for the next two weeks. But even though I have to spread posts out more than I'd like, I wanted you to know that we have a very special run of Kelly material coming up, all about a little guy outstanding in his field . . . um, yeah, his wheat field (I think I used that joke before, and I'm pretty sure I'll use it again).

I'm not kiddin' — great stuff comin' up!

I See My Doody an' I Dood It

2011-03-13T03:26:00.008-06:00

Here it is Sunday, and you know that on Sunday I like to post up a Pogo Sunday, cuz Sunday just don't seem right without a Sunday Pogo.

BUT, this week there tain't no color at all, and that's alright, cuz this is a special original Sunday drawing, from Kelly's prime time period of 1953. This detailed scan was sent over from Holland by a new friend, Gerben Valkema—a cartoonist of delightful work, who credits Kelly as an influence, having this art hanging over his drawing board!

I am especially delighted to see this artwork, because it just so happens that it's from my favorite sequence of Kelly's—with elf-like human beans, the Fountain of Youth, and some of the lushest brushwork to come out of the Okefenokee. This is from the fabulous arc reprinted in Pogo's Sunday Punch. I recommend that those of you who have that book to get it out and compare the panels to this strip and you'll see that, as is usual for the books, some of the Sunday panels were edited out—such as this one:

As I told Gerben, Pogo's Sunday Punch is one of the books that I had with me when I met Kelly, and I opened it to this page when we talked about the fairy tale aspect of Pogo. It was the page with this artwork that he held open as he refreshed his memory.

And now we can get close-up to see Kelly's lush brush, layered over his spontaneous blue penciling, and marvel at his comic art genius.

Thanks Gerben! What a treat!

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

While Searching for a Monster

2011-03-09T07:48:00.006-07:00

When I was an older teenager, I had two recurring dreams, both of them lucid and with great detail. One was that I would find treasure, jewels and coins, at various times and places, feeling that my money troubles were over. I'm pretty sure that was triggered by my family's near poverty level when I was younger, aided by my constant rereading of Carl Bark's Uncle Scrooge comics.

The other dream was more precious to me—that I would discover new work by Walt Kelly that I had never seen before. By the time I had these dreams, I, bit by bit, had collected what I felt was the entire output of work by Kelly, and I was hungry for more. The dream was delicious, as I remember seeing details of the art and, for even a few moments after waking up, I actually felt that I had something new of Kelly's.

Well, thanks to OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum, with his fervor for collecting the seemingly long lost ephemera of Kelly's The Adventures of Peter Wheat, a dream has come true for me and hopefully many of you.

OtherEric is on a mission to track down all the elusive chapters of Kelly's epic fairy tale, and has of late assembled some of its finest examples.

I'll let OtherEric take it from here:

The Adventures of Peter Wheat, while decidedly scarce, is not an impossibly rare book to find. I've put together nearly half the run in about two years, and seen somewhere between a third to a half of the issues that I don't have show up for sale, even if I missed them at auction.

But Kelly also did original stories for Peter Wheat News, as I discussed back in the Peter Wheat publishing history post. And THAT series is so rare I honestly wonder if all the issues still exist, at least in complete form. When I started looking for Peter Wheat, I found two issues of News at an online comic shop that could have been there for a day or a decade before I grabbed them—19 and 43. It's worth noting that the two sources that listed the series disagreed on how long the title ran—one said 30 issues, another said 36.

In the past two years, I've seen exactly ONE complete issue come up for sale, #61. I didn't win that one, but the seller kindly sent me good scans of the book, so at least it's available to people. But at this point, the series is so rare that nobody knows exactly how long it ran or how many issues Kelly did! The best guess at this moment is #36, and Hubbard did #43, so it's definitely no later than #42.

I recently won an incomplete issue on eBay—only the comic pages. This is the first time I've seen an incomplete issue show up. Including both complete and incomplete copies, it makes all of four issues I've seen in two years even show up for sale.

What we are showing on this post is the middle part of a story, so it has to be issue 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 23, 26, 29, 32, or 35. Numbers 38 and 41 are theoretically possible, but unlikely. It can't be 20, because it doesn't follow the cliffhanger from 19. Whatever issue it is, it's four pages of exceptionally rare Kelly material. I hope you forgive the lack of a start or end to the story and just enjoy what we do have:

Thom again: In the interest of full disclosure, I edited out some paper creases from these pages that I thought were distracting. We've got more wonderful Peter Wheat stuff coming up. Keep coming back, and please let us know what you think!

Been Workin' Here Quite a Spell

2011-03-07T07:56:00.004-07:00

I hope The Whirled of Kelly is a happy place for you. I'm certainly enjoying it.

Several years ago, I felt I'd grown bored of the Okefenokee, and I was preparing to divest myself of the collection—books, strips and all. But I started scanning a few of my favorite pieces for keepsakes, when I realized I had QUITE a few favorites and wasn't going to be able to do it easily.

And then I started examining the scans close-up and realized I hadn't looked closely at Kelly's work since I was a kid. Back then, I'd snuggle close to the books and microscopically enjoy each ink line. As I grew older I'd look at it all quickly and not take the time to savor Kelly's whirled.

Now, with the scans, I saw details that brought me right into the artwork again. And when I started sharing the scans on the blogs, I saw them through visitor's eyes, fresh and new. I now believe that even if and when the reprint series finally fills our shelves, I will want to continue savoring the artwork on the large computer screen, to immerse myself into Kelly's artwork.

All of what I'm saying is a preamble to a request that I'm making to all fans of Kelly.

I'm requesting that those of you who have Pogo strips in your collection will consider sharing high-res scans of them through this site—especially Sunday strips from the 1950s. Some of you might own only one or two or maybe dozens, scattered through disconnected dates. My personal collection began in 1963, and even in that year were only intermittently saved.

When I was starting the Pogo in Pandemonia blog, I heard from several fans willing to share strips from that era, though I had most of that material already. Thank you to those that had material that supplemented mine. It was a pretty thorough romp through one of the best years of comic strip history.

So, there must be some great collections out there that include the glorious Sunday strips of the 50s. We've seen some of that material repackaged in the black and white reprint books. But that stuff was heavily edited and abridged, and somehow lost a bit of the charm of newsprint and ben-day dots.

So, please email me if you have such material and see if we can work something out. I will give credit where credit is due, and our built-in audience of Kelly fans will thank you as well.

We still have lots of stuff from my collection yet to come. And the very next post will begin a set of outrageously wonderful Kelly material being shared with us by OtherEric, our venerable Kelly agent, outstanding in his field—the wheat field!

. . . meanwhile, back at the swamp . . .

A Sunday strip from the 50s, scanned from the Ten Ever-lovin' Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo volume. Charming, but could be oh so much more so with color!

See ya in the funnies!

Very Well Then, Alone!

2011-03-06T01:24:00.004-07:00

And with this strip, we conclude the Mythillogical Beasts arc that, as you have seen, morphed from one story line to another and from some gosh-awful coloration back to near-norm.

This arc has been funny and fun, but it's time to step aside from Pogo for a bit and see more of the rest of Kelly's whirled. Come back in a few days for the beginning of some really special Kelly material. And actually before then I will be posting a request, so, you know, see you later.

Inasmuch as Our Bus Exploded

2011-03-02T08:17:00.005-07:00

'Nuff said.

Eh? Wot? Speak Up!

2011-03-01T18:15:00.002-07:00

Some folks are having a hard time being heard on this blog. Somehow the comment gizmo is not kerflunkterating properly. If you are having this problem, please email me and let me know so I can somehow whine about it. . . I mean fix it. Thanx.

The Football Special

2011-02-27T01:59:00.002-07:00

What a fun strip to look at. What a beautiful opening panel. Kelly's vehicles had a character of their own, and the 'Ka-Flang' panel is so believable in its deconstruction.

Color is back to normal and effectively fun, even if Churchy's shade of green is slightly off.

A Mighty Slippery Scat Back

2011-02-24T15:44:00.003-07:00

That fish is probably Waldo, from several years before, but they're all acting like he's a soo-prize, so maybe he's a relative of Waldo's. Can you tell that I'm thinking this stuff out too much?

Color, well yeah, fairly normal, but the shades are off just a touch. That could be the pressmen's doing, as quality control for all the comics was in flux during this time. At least Albert has his yellow abdomen back, but Howland Owl is looking darker than he used to.

Is You a Bug or a Bird?

2011-02-22T22:36:00.006-07:00

Onward with the morphing of this arc (we can tell it's a morph, cuz Churchy is still in his knight regalia).

Other than noting that only one little area recognizes Albert's yellow belly, and that his tongue is pale white, no color notes this time . . . I said other than that.

Don'twannabelateforschool!

2011-02-20T02:08:00.003-07:00

Color is coming back to almost normal, but just to keep us aware that something ain't right, Albert is entirely green, when normally he's got a yellow belly-side. And little Alabaster went entirely yellow for one panel. I know color errors sneak into the funnies all the time, but with the recent history of color snafus, I'm still watching it closely.

Love the red birds perched on the logo!

This strip is what I earlier thought would be the end of the current arc. But Kelly's arcs overlap and morph and I realize that I should continue on with another five Sundays. So keep comin' round.