To Our Cheerful Charlie

To our long-time friend-in-Kelly, charlie, wishing you all the best! Thank you so much for all your many 'cheerful charlie' comments. Looking forward to many more!

The First Wrist Teevy Set in Comic Strip History

Let's go all the way back to 1963, the year that I first started collecting Pogo Sundays.

October 13, 1963

Happiness is a Warm Book

A couple weeks ago, when I posted the Pogo Puce Stamps, there was a little discussion about how just the mere sight of Kelly's artwork could fill one with happiness. And for Kelly fans there is no doubt to that claim.

When I'm down and out, I pull out one of the old Simon and Schusters and sit quietly, breathing in the aroma of the old paper and ink, and fill my soul with the warmth and humor of Kelly's Whirled.

Below, I love this book cover. It just makes me happy to look at it.

SVMPS!

Izzit Sunday agin already? Yow.

Printers' ink din't allus cover the printing plate proper-like, so Grundoon's face drops out a bit, but it's still a fair dinkum strip.

October 11, 1970

Oh Boy! Another One!

Some readers of this blog are jes' fine fans of all things Pogo. Some are fanatical fans of ALL things Kelly. I'm one of the latter — and if you are too, then you probably like to see the evolution of his art style, even back to the days of Kelly's general comic book work, emanating from his time at the Disney Studio.

His work on the Fairy Tale Parade series gave Walt Kelly a chance to broaden his own developing style, but his journeyman work for Dell Comics had him straddling house styles for several different features.

For Walt Disney's features he had to work within the constraints of the studio style. For Leon Schlesinger's Warner Brothers features he worked within a different set of studio style constraints. But even with those boundaries, Kelly's style was still recognizable, as here in Pat Patsy and Pete, from the June 1943 issue of Looney Tunes.

These scans were sent over by our great friend OtherEric of the Digital Comic Museum, and were touched up a bit by me. It's only two pages, but anything is a treasure for us fanatical fans of Kelly.

I pulled up the cover of this particular outing for us to enjoy, and noticed that portions of the art are reminiscent of Kelly's style as well, especially the left side border with lattice work, which Kelly utilized throughout his comic book work — but also the character portraits and the general approach to inking. I know a lot of 'funny animal' inking utilized the thick/thin brush strokes that give punch to the drawing, but I can't help but wonder if Kelly pitched in to do thankless uncredited chores throughout the Dell line.

Looney Tunes — June, 1943

Season's Over

I think this is the last of this baseball arc.

Puce is the Color of MacTruloff's Heir

Even as a big ol' Pogo fan, when's the last time you actually gazed on the big zero, absolutely guaranteed worthless Puce Stamps themselves, and not just the book?

Well these may not be the stamps in the flesh, but here you can take a look at 'em up close and personal, courtesy of DJ David B. Thank you kindly, sir.

© 1962 Walt Kelly

Oh, and then I scanned the stuff below to round out the experience.

I Wonder How Many

A little Easter game, devised by Mr. Kelly for all you chillun:

Chumley Hit a Wangaroo

It may not be an Easter strip, but at least we've got a bunny in here with some special art.

Happy Easter, y'all.

April 12, 1970

Take a closer look at the labor of love that Kelly put into his work:

Play Ball!

Man, man, man, we gotta skip one here. I swear it was here in this stack to be scanned, but the Sunday dated 3-29 has gone missing. Why, how, I dunno. But ain't no time to waste lookin' for it. Gotta get the next one up so's I can go to bed. I think ya still gets the gist of what's goin' on in the storyline. Hah, yeah, storyline.

Suffice to say, the team has got all its equipment and is ready to play.

April 5, 1970