Lookit that opening panel! Epic!!!
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:)
just read the Alley Oop over at pictorial arts & now peter wheat--THANKS--charlie
ReplyDeleteAny idea when Walt Kelly drew this? I'm guessing like 1948, around the time he started Pogo. Do you know if he continued to work on this in the late 40s, early 50s? Love that the Big Bug looks like he stepped out of Pogo pages. And a distant relative of Porkypine is in there too!
ReplyDeleteThis story is from 1950. Kelly had been drawing the Pogo comic strip for a couple of years (plus the years in the comic books). Yes, he worked on Peter Wheat from 1948 to 1952.
ReplyDeleteI call this blog Whirled of Kelly because I feel like all his work from all the various series are interconnected, living in the same Kelly universe.