Very Well Then, Alone!

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

'Nuff said.

The Football Special

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

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?

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!

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.

A Bonafide Steal

From week to week, my newspaper would change formats on all the comics. You'd never know whether it'd be tabloid, 3 tier, or sometimes 2 tier, knocking off the whole top row. With this format, at least you got an extra panel than otherwise. In this case the one of Beauregard and Miggle striding along.

Color notes:

Now the brown of Howland and Beauregard is washed out.

Churchy is green again, but a different shade than all his years before.

Blue and green are dominant, not very harmoniously.

But, you know, everythin' startin' to come back to normalcy of sorts.

Miggle's Used Cow Lot

Looking at this strip, you might think that our arc is done. But no, we're sorta on a detour, sorta drivin' along without a map. 'At's okay, Kelly can take us wheremever he wants.

Color notes:

Well, it's lookin' a li'l more normal, but what the heck with Mr. Miggle's green gillfeathers and hands? Somebody's making executive decisions here.

Again, there's just so little harmony in the overall color palette.

The art is still really good—those cows are a hoot.

In a Trice

Color notes:

Still lots o' yellow, though that's pretty typical a lot of other times.

Howland is a light tan from beak to toe, glasses still green.

Churchy's beak is now a reddish brown (purty ugly, sez I).

Beauregard is also that reddish brown, when in years past he's been a pale brown.

In general, in my opinion, the colors are harsh and unharmonious.

I do believe that tree's 'face' is intentional, wild hair and all. Cool, sez I.

What Ho, Pogo

Color notes:

Woof, what a lot of yellow . . . and orange . . . and green.

Howland Owl is now a full body light-orange from beak to toes, with greenish glasses.

Churchy is back to a two-tone face and his legs are the same green as the grass.

Pogo, in every panel, is in a deep shade of orange from hat to toes.

Another white background panel—a rarity prior to this arc.

Overall, the color scheme is a pret-ty jarring.

Cook Them Trolls!

This is a really pretty strip, harkening back to Kelly's love of fairy tales. And it's funny too!

Even the color oddities aren't too distracting. I think by now you can start to see that this wasn't color-blindness at work as much as color-forgetfulness.

Color notes:

Owl is starting to come back to normal, but the values of his colors are off.

Churchy is no longer two-toned, but now the same color as owl.

For once, the yellow is rather effective, contrasting well with the other colors.

The shoe house is now a different color from the last Sunday (and art-wise, the opening shot is the only one that shows it nearly surrounded by water).

That opening shot is such a winner, evoking a sense of distance, let's zoom in on it a bit:

Oh Glory Be

Here's a beauty of a Sunday strip.

Color notes:

Starting to come back to normalcy.

Howland Owl still has these weird white muttonchops and brown beak. He now has green glasses.

Churchy still has a two-tone head, and in the 3rd panel his legs are jaundiced.

Ol' Lady Rabbit brown color is a slightly harsh tone of brown, not quite harmonizing with her red apron.

But that last panel is a beaut, don'tcha think?

Gadzooks and Huzzah

Color notes:

Still lotsa yellow, but what's new about that? Except, notice that the yellow bench is against a yellow background in one of the panels and sorta disappears. Strips in other times rarely did stuff like that.

Lotsa green tree trunks.

Howland Owl now has white muttonchops with his light orangish body. And he's got clear glasses again.

Churchy still has the two-tone face, which to me is really distracting.

Four more white background panels, still a rarity in the Okefenokee.

A patch of blue missing through the 'o' in the Pogo logo.

And there's a big green blotch in panel 7. Things like that happen in high speed printing, but it looks almost deliberate like maybe it was in the color engraver's guide. I can see the engraver scratching his head and drawling, 'well alright, if that's what Mr. Kelly wants . . ."

All this doesn't look like color-blindness to me as much as scatter-brainess.

Oh, and hey! I inserted a photo of original art two posts ago. Go back and check it out.

Knights of Lawn Order

Color notes:

A very buttery yellow abounds.

Howland is now a different shade of brown, sorta orangish. His beak is the same color as his body, but now his feet are deep orange, as opposed to white from last Sunday.

Churchy still has that two-tone face.

But it's cool that they're in costume!

Mythillogical Beasts Don't Exist, Never Did Exist an' Never Won't Exist

Below is the black and white original drawing for this strip, sent over as a photograph from J.P.K., a fan of Kelly. Even in the slightly blurred and low resolution state, you can see, without the distraction of strange color, that Kelly's art is still spiffy. Thanks J.P.!

Oh, and check out the 'extra' panel that the 3 tier format always has.

I know I said I'd shut up about colors, but I can't help it, I have to point out the little weirdities:

First, not only is there yellow in the background, there's more yellow in the foreground than usual.

Second, Pogo's got a solid darker brown coloration than usual, with no whites for the eyes.

Third, there are three panels with blank backgrounds, no colors. Before this arc, I can't recall that happening. That's a lost opportunity for more visual stimulus.

Fourth, Howland is back to his usual brown, but it also covers his nose which is usually orangish, as his feet usually are, only now they're white. And his glasses are now sunglass blue, clear being the usual.

And lastly (same as last couple of Sundays) Churchy has that weird two-tone effect with the yellow on his face. But at least the back of his shell is not purple now, like it was in the last two Sundays.

Of course none of this should prevent us from enjoying this excursion, but at least it gives me somethin' to write about, and some of you have said you don't mind my ramblings.

Come back soon for the next one, wherein we get a costume drama.

Goom Goom Goom

Here's a little update about this arc: I'm calling this the Mythillogical Beasts arc, for reasons that you'll see soon enough. But a trait of Kelly's storylines was that they didn't begin and end with precision. Bits and pieces might stray over a few weeks, and before you know it, we're caught up in a new arc that wanders on.

My point being is that I peeked ahead a bit and realized this arc will run more than 13 Sundays . . . maybe more like 18. Again, it's all fun stuff, so no one's going to suffer here. The color confusion dies down after a few Sundays and then it's almost normal.

I had an email come in from Don that had a theory about the 'off-colors':

I think the strange colors on the Pogo page you posted today result from the work having been done by a color-blind person.

Notice the preponderance of blue and yellow. These are the colors that people with varying degrees of red-green blindness can still see. (Blindness to the blue-yellow axis is very rare.)

As to why Walt Kelly would accept these results - perhaps he was too ill to feel like arguing.

That's certainly a possibility. And it's humorous to think how someone with color-blindness could be put in the position of being in charge of colors.

But as you'll see, in posts to come, the colors change in strangeness that make you think that someone's just not paying attention. The oddest detail is Churchy's two-tone head and beak. But overall the colors are lively, the art is great and the story is fun. So I'll shut up for now about this chromatic anomaly.

Enjoy the show!

Skibrous and Skattle-Minded

Here we start a 13 Sunday arc from 1971, a time when Kelly was ill, yet still producing high quality work. But there's one peculiar trait to this arc—namely that the coloring is as odd as I've ever seen in the Pogo Sundays, starting with this strip and continuing into the 9th week of the arc. You'll notice that especially with Churchy and Howland.

I've tried to reason out the reason, but I'm still flummoxed. I've thought that maybe the pressmen were drunk (but for nine weeks?). I've thought that maybe Kelly had new assistance from someone who was not familiar with the strip's characters, and developed color guides that were made up on the spot. And, of course, I thought perhaps Kelly's illness prevented him from seeing colors as usual as he prepared the color guides.

But I don't know that he normally would perform that duty, and have to lean toward an assistant's culpability, since pressmen usually are loyal in following directives.

Whatever the reason, Kelly's artwork is still spot-on, and as you'll see as we get further into the arc, he brings in funny and unusual elements, making this a high quality arc. His style has that later period look, certainly, but still solid.

To thank you for your patience in the lately slow schedule of posts, I plan to post this arc 2 or three times a week, so that we won't drag it out for a real-time 13 weeks. Do come back every few days, because despite the really odd coloring, this IS a fun arc, as you'll see.