Been Workin' Here Quite a Spell

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!