Let Nothing You Dismay

I'm pleased as punch to be back online properly and able to bring forth another Kelly beauty from exactly 61 years ago today—with thanks a billion to DJ David B for the scans that I had fun editing to 'near-mint' condition. Amazingly, I'm STILL having computer problems—so I may or may not be able to pick up the pace with more posts any time soon. Believe you me, I'm trying.

I A-DORE the strips from this era of early '50s!

  

December 30, 1951

Mary Crispness

For those of you that don't know, I've had computer problems for the longest time now, not able to post scans that I've had ready for a long time. I'm also doing a bit of traveling, so I'm writing to you now on my iPad--- a little gizmo that I think Kelly might've liked. Ah, well.

ANYway, I wanted to wish you a jolly holly, and thank those of you who've been leaving good wishes in the comments gallery.

I really think that your patience will be rewarded within a week or so, the Apple gods willing.

In the meanwhilst, Mary Crispness to you and yours!

Seein' As It's So Near to Christmas

I was thinking tonight that Walt Kelly is my favorite cartoonist in the history of great cartoonists. And I was going to say that Pogo is ALmost my favorite comic strip. Then I tried to think of a strip that was more of a favorite than Pogo . . . and I couldn't think of one! Kelly and Pogo are my candidates for BEST cartoonist and strip of all time! And that includes Hal Foster, Milton Caniff, and Alex Raymond!

Here's an early Christmas present for you'n'me — a be-you-tiful Christmas Sunday from the early years of Pogo. Thanks again, so much, to DJ David B for the raw scan!

December 23, 1951

Nibblin' Desultory-Like

How can it be December already? So glad to be back online!

The early Pogo strips were so gorgeous in any number of ways. A wagon-full of thanks to DJ David B for sharing scans. I still need to tell you a bit of the history of where these came from, but I've got to get back to my deadlines.

LLK!

 

December 16, 1951

Party Kids

Hey there, hi there, ho there, we're as happy as can be, we're back on line, everything's fine and we've got an old Sun-dee . . . er, uh, Sunday. 

Yep, functionality is a good thing, and perhaps we can stay this way for a while. I need to work on a backlog of missed deadlines, and then—look out—more wonderful Kelly/Pogo stuff will continue coming your way!

Kelly allus had a thing about critters eating other critters, showing up all throughout the run of the strip. Can't be sure if that's what tickled his ribs, or if maybe he had a therapist who could conjure up all kinds of theories for his cannibalistic shenanigans (anyone who can talk and plans to eat another being that can also talk is a cannibal in waiting, in my book).

Notice the lettering on this early, 1950 strip. It's not as bold and perfectly integrated as it later would be. Kelly is credited with incredible lettering on the strip over the years, but I believe much of it may owe calligraphic gratitude to Kelly's later assistants.

For these early, early Sundays, once again a hearty thank you to DJ David B for scans! Again, I did some art editing to clean it up, yet I left a number of existing artifacts so as to keep it authentic to newspaper printing.

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

December 17, 1950

Wored My Feets Off Up to the Cuff

Well, things are a little bit mizable over here—not being able to scan for awhile, and having the computer machine still acting up somethin' fierce. But that's no reason to keep you thirstin' for more Sunday Pogo. No sir. Not when this blog has friends like DJ David B. who has come to our rescue with  some fine examples of EARLY Pogo. I did a bit of editing and wahlah, we have a HAPPY SUNDAY, KELLY SUNDAY.

This particular strip was, I believe, in the excellent Fantagraphics volume, but shown as a 3 tier format. Happily I have some others from David that will take us a bit beyond that volume. I will get some of those up as soon as I can, but first I have to haul the computer BACK to the shop and ask them PLEase make it a reliable machine again.

Next post I'll tell you a little history of how David has come by these lovely lovely strips that he is generously sharing with us.

November 19, 1950

A Public Dump is a Public Trust!

Well, hi there! I'm glad to be back in your company, here with an 'early' edition of Sunday, Kelly Sunday. It's been a helpless feeling, being without computer for so long. Who woulda thought in my youth that I'd be addicted to an electronic gadget such as this when I was an old fart (though in my mind I'm still a dapper 24 year old). 

My computer has risen again, but it's full of glitches, still giving me the twitches. I've restored my basic files, but the other hundred thousand files are all out of order and hard to reorganize. Another problem is that the scanner doesn't want to coordinate with the new hard drive, refusing to do its job. For my other blogs, that's no problem as I have hundreds of images already scanned. But for the Whirled of Kelly, I usually scan the next strip just before posting. We're lucky here, cuz I had just scanned this post's strip just before the computer crashed. So I was able to stitch the two pieces together and clean it up just now, but wottle I do for next Sunday? I'll try to figure it out this week, but I'm playing catch-up with deadlines and may not have time. IF that's the case, I'll post some other kool Kelly stuff that I do have already scanned. 

Little by little I'll get back in your good graces, Mac willing.

June 18, 1972

Oh, and 'Hun', I owe you a letter soon's I can.

Down and Out

So sorry that my computer is still down and out. I expect it to be up SOMEtime this week, and I'll try to make it up to you. Aye yi yi, I thought I was behind on deadlines before!

Please Stand By

Well, here's the bad news, my friends: My main computer has crashed repeatedly today and is entirely unreliable at the moment, so I do not have a Pogo Sunday ready for you bright and early Sunday morning. The good news is that I've been told that the problem is hopefully correctable, meaning that I hope to post the Sunday Pogo in a day or so. 

I'm posting this note from my i-pad, trying not to panic, as all my deadline material is waiting to be reawakened.  Please stand by.

The Cool Quiet of a Good Dump

Seeing as how late in the day it was for Kelly back in 1972, what with his diminishing style, this looks to me like it could be one of the reprints that started to run during his illness. But I haven't had the time to look through the archives to see if that is so, and if so, from when. Still this is part of the canon and is the start of another sequence that runs right into some strips that definitely reflect the toll that diabetes exacted from Kelly.

Kelly's explosions are always graphically fun.  

Good morning to you across the Atlantic, as it is still night-time here in the U.S., as I toddle off to bed. Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

June 11, 1972

Season of Peace

Still got the deadline blues. Looking forward to posting all kinds Kelly stuff. In the meantimes, happy etcetera.

April 4, 1971

Rowrbazzle to Freshen the Mind

Woosh, you don't know how close it came to not having a Sunday strip waiting for you on this Sunday morn. I've got a horrible deadline with multiple illustrations and cartoons that have to be done by Sunday evening and fired off to the client by internet express. But I couldn't leave you Pogo-holics in the lurch, so I sped through the scan and cleanup just so's you can have a happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

March 28, 1971

Logger Slang His Rutabagles

I've been working on deadline non-stop, I have one of my worst headaches ever, and this new blogger interface is a booger (hmm, booger blogger — I like that), so I'm amazed that I've been able to scan up and clean up this latest post. BUT, I can't wait for Sunday morning to post it, I've gotta go collapse right now.

Enough about my grumbling, I'm still a lucky man in so many ways. So, Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday once again to all you Pogoholics!

 March 21, 1971

A Subversive Left-Handed Tide

Good morning world! Happy Sunday Kelly Sunday, Hun (that's not my honeybunch, it's our friend-in-Kelly in Germany).

Woosh, what I don't go through sometimes. This particular strip was in a bad way, with bad registration, ink smears from the printer plates being dirty, and excessive bleed from the other side because of too much ink penetration. The pressmen were really sloppy on this one. But it's no fun reading Pogo like that, so here ya go:

March 14, 1971

Ain't Only One Frog in the World, Y'Know

I'm pret-ty darn busy, but not so much as to miss a Sunday, Kelly Sunday greeting to you all. I've got a lot to share soon's I can.

July 7, 1971

Mr. Presidump

I believe this is the last of this particular arc — Grundoon showing us once again the fearlessness of children. This Sunday strip is somewhat toward the end of Kelly's great run and is just ever so slightly starting to wear thin, though many people would argue with that.

By this time in the history of comic sections, the quality of printing suffered in most strips—the pressmen being slapdash and screwloose in their registration of color and cleanliness of their ink rollers. I cleaned up a lot of misregistration and ink splotchiness on this scan, though I ran out of time and a bit is still evident here and there.

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

January 30, 1972

Neatest, Correct Answers

You never know where you'll find Kelly stuff from back in the good ol' Dell days. This man was ever so prolific in his art.

Boniest Brain in Captivity

Kelly kinda settled in on hibernational dream waves, di'nt he?

January 23, 1972

So Kelly

Alright! As mentioned a mere less than a fortnight ago, here we go — a fairly good scan of Kelly's give-away rendering of a Disney circus, circa 1947. The mild gags and characterizations are so Kelly.

© Walt Disney Productions

A Friendlier Kind of Rowrargh

Good morning. Yes, Grundoon is still dreaming.

January 16, 1972

A Peanie Bunker Sam-Winch?!

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

January 9, 1972

Kelly Circus Picture

There are so many wonderful Walt Kelly treasures to be uncovered and presented in full resolution.

This back page of a 1940s Dell comic features the ducks by Kelly, but even more tantalizing is the advertised poster that has to be by Kelly, judging from all the style clues — such a magnificent example of Kelly's time with Disney characters!

Does anyone have a lead to a full resolution scan of this poster?

NO!

I have had a loose Pogo image for a long long time, without knowing where it was from or its context. That's the first image below with the big 'NO!', and the little Nubbet Nibble.

Suddenly, the image is reunited with the rest of its material, and I'm treated to Kelly art I have never seen 'til now, perhaps some of you as well, thanks to Samuel, who sent over a link to not only Kelly art, but Kelly's voice singing and reciting the words to this book, in a blustery PT Bridgeport baritone. If you'd like to hear Kelly himself, go to Kiddie Records Weekly, by clicking here.

In the meantime, gaze at this delightful art, drawn at the height of Kelly's late style, post Pogo in Pandemonia.

A big whirled of thanks to Samuel for the heads up!!! And thank you to the website for posting this and other interesting material.

Walt Kelly — NO! — 1969

In a Land Where None are Known to Neatly Knot the Gnu

I posted this pic over on The Pictorial Arts blog, but seeing as this blog is aiming to post all things Kelly, I hafta duplicate it over here for the archives.

— Dedicated to 'Hun', who eats, sleeps, and breathes Kelly.

Long live Kelly!

Walt Kelly — Songs of the Pogo — endpapers

Grundoon's Busy Little Brain

The Sunday strip published prior to this strip was a Christmas stand-alone, and was posted by me quite some time ago. This strip takes up the story from we left off "for the duration". In other words, we ain't really skipped anything.

This go-round seems a bit more fanciful than some of the other hum-drummy strips, with Grundoon taking on this nefarious critter in a way reminiscent of Peter Wheat, with swordplay we hadn't seen Kelly showcase in years. Kelly may have been on meds at this point and mebbee they spiced up his imagination. Whatever, it's a nice change of pace. It was also nice to have Churchy's hat throw in another bit of color accent.

January 2, 1972

South Boundbusses

Thanks, as always, to OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum for supplying more rare Walt Kelly material. I know a lot of you come just for the Pogo stuff, but this is the WHIRLED of Kelly after all, and EVerything Kelly is welcome here.

This particular story is a bit odd, admittedly, drawn in a style that is barely recognizable as Kelly work. But it's there—look at some of the faces and the general demeanor of the characters. And then read the story, delightfully odd, in the vein of George Carlson's delightfully odd Jingle Jangle Comics. But also, as OtherEric points out, who else but Kelly would have his signature joke of locating the story in South Boundbusses?

If all you come for is Pogo, well, see you on Sunday, Kelly Sunday.

Walt Kelly — Looney Tunes #20 —June 1943