A Lot of Potential Class

Hi folks! Back (way back) when brang new Pogo strips would come delivered to my door every Sunday, I would almost take for granted that such a thing would go on and on forever. But during the period reflected in this strip I had a hint, just a hint, that Kelly's artwork was starting to diminish—the richness of detail was starting to dry up. At the same time I was distracted by real world details (such as at the time of this strip, it was my first month in basic training), so I didn't think much about it.

I didn't know at the time that Kelly had diabetes and was feeling the consequences of the illness. I empathize with the task of working while ill. 

LLK

March 26, 1972

Good Cheer! Good Cheer!

Well, most of us Pogophiles have seen this selection of Pogo in black and white, published here and there, as well as an early post on this blog. But I, personally, have not seen the colorized version presented here, thoughtfully sent over by Friend-in-Kelly Richard Davidson. 

This, as you see, was printed in the Daily News Magazine in 1987, well past Kelly's passing, but still a legitimate bauble in the Kelly treasure trove of Christmas ephemera.

It's fun to see Kelly's photo looking all curmudgeonly, and the writing in the introduction is nicely done by Jay Maeder.

Kelly's art is equally enjoyed (at least by me) in its lush black and white AND its lush colorized versions. So, this is a lovely stocking stuffer for Christmas Eve.

Open the door, Richard!

Bright Christmas Land

Things have been a little tough around here for a while, and I was dimly prepared to skip over any Kelly Christmas joy this year. But, like out of a Grinchy type story, someone comes along and saves Christmas for Whirled of Kelly. 

Just yesterday, and like a present tumbling from a sack, Richard Davidson sent over some Kelly joy that brightens our spirits. Tonight I can share a rarity that most of us have only seen in black and white — Kelly's carol of a Bright Christmas Land. And the Newsweek cover that we've sometimes seen in color is the best scan I've yet seen of it.

And tomorrow, thanks to Richard, I get to share  another colorful bit of Kelly Kandy that most of us have only seen in black and white.

Thank you Richard! Our spirits have been brightened!

 

Okefenokee Mudwumps

Let's jump to 1972 where I'm not sure if this is the beginning of a new arc, or maybe we've landed in the middle of one—I don't have time to check that out. How-some-ever, for your viewing pleasure, I DID take time to clean up a mess of registration and bleed-through problems.

Happy solstice weekend, y'all.

March 19, 1972

That's What This Country's All About

I don't blame Owl for wondering just what Albert is doing to his unicorn. No other strip in the comic section came close to matching Kelly's Boorawp.

 July 4, 1971

Above, a close-up view of a sort-of complex panel made even MORE complex by having another partially seen Pogo marching behind Seminole Sam. It's the same pose as the seen Pogo, making it seem like it's maybe a paste-up? Anyone have access to a scan of the original art to see what that's all about?

There is something really great about a Kelly original, between the blue penciling that shows part of the thought process and the lush inking that otherwise sometimes get obscured with colored dots and such on the printed page.

This is the original art for the strip just previously posted, along with the 'extra panel' that comes with the landscape format. Last post's comments gave us a link to view it, but Friend-in-Kelly Jerry Keslensky was nice enough to send over a jpeg of it, so we could present it here on the main stage.

Pogo — June 27, 1971 — original art

A Fierce an' Implausible Look!

Kelly could take his silly and implausible storylines and run them to a frazzle. You have to wonder if Kelly knew where he was going from one panel to the next. Nunicorm experts!

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

June 27, 1971

Come Along, Cheerful Charlies!

Hey kids, let's start a chapter of the Cheerful Charlies!

June 20, 1971

Behole! Lunch!

That little bird is still hanging around, seemingly for no purpose, because, well, because Kelly is that kinda kartoonist. Even when the action subsides over the horizon, Kelly still keeps our interest. And that opening panel tree has some nice rendering, with faces almost emerging, storybook style.

Hey, we've got some swell chatter going on in the comments. It's so nice to have that going on without my having to initiate it. Please feel free to join in—your 'voice' is always welcome here.

June 13, 1971

On the Road Again.

Alimentary (nom de plumed after an obscure nephoo of Albert), is our newish and active Friend-in-Kelly. I say 'active' cuz he is taking Kelly art and running places with it, so to speak. This piece of Kelly art, to my understanding, was for a comic book cover that didn't come to be. Alimentary has taken the black & white drawing and applied some nice color to it to give us a pre-holiday treat.

Thank you A! You've got the Kelly spirit, no doubt about it.

© Walt Kelly Estate

Crazy Horse

Hit and run shenanigans, Kelly at high speed.

June 6, 1971

Tongue-Grabbin' Goodness

Shet ma mouf, lookit what a bored alligator tad by name of Alimentary has done did with his Photoshop thingie—he reassembled the portrait oriented recent strip into the landscape oriented format by inserting the 'extra' panel from an original art scan, that he colorized to fit right in.

Very nice Alimentary! To quote from you directly: "Enjoy that tongue-grabbin' goodness".

A Shatterpated Ninnyhammmer

Wow, here's an action-filled Sunday strip — once again Kelly not scrimping on bounteous detail.

May 30, 1971

GENERAL UPDATE:

Our friend-in-Kelly that goes by commentary name of Alimentary has worked with our esteemed F-i-K, Hun, to give us English-only readers a break in reading the French dailies that Michel Francois sent over and that I posted a while ago. I will post that workup sometime this week, if the gods are willing and the creeks don't rise.

Looks like we've got a little Kelly community thing going on here.

That Cronks Your Hippo-Critical Oaf!

Two cartoonists of the 20th century, no, let's make that three, gave us more pleasure per panel, consistently, than any other comic stripper. Let's see, that's Winsor McCay, Harold Foster, and of course Walt Kelly. 

Loving care crafted each panel that the medium did not require. Case in point, this panel, that feels completely believable in Kelly's whirled, yet is full of detailed whimsy—the whole setup bouncing through the air, the horse with exaggerated features, an alligator and an owl and a bug in relative sizes with human postures, wheels that shouldn't be rollable, lettering on the side of the van that isn't just a simple font and contains its own gag. Kelly gave us our money's worth almost every time!

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday y'all!

May 23, 1971

Aha! Ahee! Ahoo!

Hi folks!

Kelly certainly did give us our money's worth for the cost of a Sunday paper (over 40 years ago). He gave us more than a comic book page worth of tomfoolery every Sunday, PLUS such things as a frog in the lower right corner of the opening panel, and lookit! It looks like he drew in a bit of reflection of the Pogo logo (say 'Pogo logo' fifteen times real fast...it sounds like the natives are restless in an old Tarzan movie).

Looking this post over, it looks like I got it pretty well cleaned up from bleed-through and mis-registration. I left a few errors just to keep it natural looking.

Oh, BTW, it may look like we've skipped a Sunday 'tween this'n and last'n. But no, it's already been posted somewhere here on Whirled of Kelly. It was a stand alone page, not part of this arc.

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday and LLK!

May 16, 1971

Civic Culture Down the Drain

Hully gee, Kelly certainly had the boyish spirit.

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday.

Good morning Hun, LLK!

May 2, 1971

Wrang Bo Deedy!

Well now, I'm feeling somewhat better, but I need to be honest with you. As much as I love Kelly and his work, I got a little burned out doing his birthday tribute. I looked at so much of his stuff, for so long, that I felt like I needed a break from it. It will all come back to me, I know, because I've been through this before with a number of artists and was able to rise to the top again. But at last I've felt up to doing another scan.

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

April 25, 1971

Slalom & Shuss!

Michel Francois kindly sent over the misplaced, mischievously missing page 21 that should reside in the midst of the previous post's sequence, parlezed in French. It's a lively page with Churchy's uncle shussing down the country side.

I think I can get back to an arc of Sunday strips next week. Thanks for your patience!

Translate It in Our Imagination

Greetings and hallucinations! I am slowly getting back on track, but still haven't felt like doing any scanning. I DID take time to pull up an interesting item that has been in a deep file for YEARS now. This was sent over so long ago by Michel Francois (Hi Michel! Thank you for your support, encouragement and patience!). This is a 30 page supplement presented in Spirou magazine, in France. The text is in French, so it's perfect for our Friends-in-Kelly-in-France, and for all you Francophiles. For the rest of us, well, we could wear out Google Translator or we can just enjoy the drawings themselves and translate it in our imagination.

I believe this is a daily run in the late '60s, that has not yet been reproduced in an American edition. I used to have every daily from 1964 on, but I tragically divested myself of them before ever knowing that personal scanners existed—so I can't confirm any information about this run. We can tell, though, that Churchy's bearded uncle is bouncing around and Pogo takes a dive into the air.

So, I'm sorry we're still not up to Sunday speed here, at least we have this segment out of deep storage and up for viewing. I had to extract the pages from a PDF, modify them, put a border on each page and get them loaded into this blog. Sorry Michel that it took so dodblamed long to do all that, but ever so much thanks for sharing!

Profitez!