'ALLO!

Whew. Last one in this particular continuity. And actually, I was getting tired of typing 'February' under each strip.

February 28, 1962

So Mens Go Mad Out of Minds

Gack, indeed!

February 27, 1962

Eeh! But No!

We're getting closer to ending this particular continuity, thank goodness. I dunno, Miz Beaver is just wearing thin on me.

And just so ya know, I'll post those Jan/Feb Sundays soon.

February 26, 1962

A Heart-Shaped Liverwurst Pancake

That was pretty clever of Bastille . . .

February 23, 1962

Why Be Worries?

February 22, 1962

A Whole Week Past Valentine's Day

Oh ho! Now we know there are 11 husbands in the area and they...um...they...hmm...well...

February 21, 1962

Thing What's Wrong with Them Men

I love everything that Kelly ever did as a cartoonist, but to be perfectly honest, I'm a little tired of Miz Beaver at this point.

February 20, 1962

Them Blagstaggin' Google-Eyed, Sluff-Offin' Gol'Brickers!

I dedicate this post to Frits van der Waa, in Amsterdam, not because this strip is associated with him, but because he periodically sends me emails of appreciation and encouragement (his comments don't seem to have functionality on this site).

February 19, 1962

A Happy New Year

Heart-felt wishes for a good year of 2019 to you all!

I hand-colored this beautiful Kelly art several years ago as part of my tribute to his 100th birthday, and, well, it kinda says it all.

Replete with Nuances an' Subtle Undershadings of Philosophy

This post (and really, posts to come) are dedicated to my good cyber-friend Loren, who, in our correspondence, was instrumental in convincing me to return to regular blogging here on Whirled of Kelly. She is a young art & animation student, whose love of animation finds great inspiration in the art and writing of Kelly. 

Her enthusiasm for Kelly's cartooning genius; her appreciation of my curation of this site; her encouragement of the benefit to art students and pros, animation students and pros, and enthusiasts of all kinds has persuaded me to keep up with the hard work of sourcing, scanning, cleaning and curating Kelly's wonderful work.

I've written previously of my (and other people's) recurring night-time dream of wandering into an old bookstore and finding a Pogo book that I had never seen before, though I thought I had completed my collection long ago.

In reality, that dream came true just a few years ago. 

I had not made a checklist of Pogo books to check off, but I really thought that I had them all. So when I saw The Pogo Sunday Book on a dusty book shelf, I did an actual double take and poked myself to see if this was one of those dreams. 

I don't think the book is all that rare, but I've not seen one before or since the day that I grabbed it up to pay only a few dollars for. It's mostly a reprint of some of the earliest Pogo Sunday strips, heavily edited and in black and white. It was only very recently that I read the intro page by Kelly to realize that the first 10 pages of the book was a 'new' story of 1956 vintage. Looking at it now, I wonder if it was slated to be a story in the Pogo comic books, or 'just' one that Kelly and his assistant George Ward did just for this book.

And it's funny. I haven't had that recurring dream since.

I show the story here for all of you, and especially for Loren!

 The back cover portrays the iconic portrait of Pogo

Yoo Hoo! M'sieur le Butch!

Since our brick-throwing cat named Butch took leave of the Sundays, I thought it'd be fun to get a glimpse of him over in the dailies and how he spoils Pogo's usual good nature.

I love how Kelly can fit a detailed automobile into a daily panel!

Only One Pup Like This

I'm going to start posting, once in a while, individual black and white Kelly panels that are monochromatic gems...in my view at least. These are images that could be poster size on my wall and bring great joy to my eyes (if I had any wall space left, which I don't).

I'd also like to mention that I'm going to, soon, launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for Pictorial Arts Journal official premiere issue. That Journal will be showcasing great art in large and detailed formats and will definitely promote cartooning greats, Kelly among them. I will give more details over the next couple of weeks, but I hope you already know how Kickstarter works. And I hope  you might be in a position to help when the time comes.

Cheers to you all and Long Live Kelly!

Kelly is ahead of his time with his www. (if you see what I mean)

Frozen Goo-ed

No time, no time, no time! I am rushed and have no time to post anything but this low circulation Pogo cover that looks much like the Pogo comic book stuff that Kelly was producing at the time.

Love the Hepzibah character rendering on the left.

Long live Kelly!

Walt Kelly — Virginia Spectator  — February 1951

Sky-Doodle Like These!

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

Gotcha, Miss Ma'm'selle

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!

Don'twannabelateforschool!

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.

Forward!

Kelly's latter day chaos at its finest.

During this era, no other cartoonist gave as much 'bang for the buck' as did Kelly.

Other than the green cow (which could have been deliberate for the moon reference . . . but not likely), no color notes this time.

V — Day

Happy Valentine's Day, friends and fans of Pogo! I've zoomed in a bit so you can check out Kelly's lovely ink-work.

Pogo: Prisoner of Love

Happy 1951, 1952, and 1953

Yes, I posted this first image last year, but it's too beauty to not pull up again.

Further below are New Year's Day strips from 1951, 1952, and 1953 — my three favorite years of Kelly art and story, not that all the other years weren't great. I know you've seen these before, so sue me (actually don't, I've got too much on my calendar as it is).

Above, yes, at that time Kelly was signing some funny little names — a different one per strip.

Stay 'tooned—cool stuff coming up in 2011.

Nobody Here but Me

This strip is, of course, out of sequence with our ongoing Sunday sequence, but appropriate for this time of year. From 1971, this is sorta late in the game for Kelly, and deliciously eerie.