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
that little birdy tells me you are still working past midnight.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your dedication !
Sleep well now and have a great sunny Kelly Sunday!
LLK!
Hun
One thing that’s been on my mind is a speculative future where Kelly had lasted into the 1990s instead of being lost to us on the twilight of lavish newspaper comics. What would the next 20 (dare I say 30) years of Pogo have taken the shape of? Obviously, there’s some hints. It seemed Kelly was decidedly reinvesting in the animation medium. Sadly, the Chuck Jones collaboration from insider observation seemed to have gone fairly bitterly awry. I wonder if all the stress of trying to find a medium that could support his beautiful work eroded his fortitude. He was able to make some progress on his own piece before his health failed. I really don’t want to imagine what my childhood would have been if Kelly’s warm and intelligent vision had managed to strongarm his way into 80’s Saturday Morning cartoons, because it makes me a little sad for what I had to spend it with. I would have been inseparable from the TV any time that cartoon alligator strutted on. (There’s a cute newspaper story from 1947 about a North Carolina girl that went to visit Albert - she made it to Chattanooga before someone caught her on the way to Okefenokee.) Chances are though, I would have imagined lavish Disney-like movies to have been the ultimate destination. I suspect Pogo would have continued in the newspapers and possibly moved back to comics just to keep public awareness up and appeal to nostalgic fans - Kelly was pretty savvy about these things, but as Selby noted accurately that newspapers were, by the mid-70’s trends, no longer capable of encompassing the true range of the work.
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Hi Hun!
ReplyDeleteThat part of the prayer, "if I should die before I wake" has always instilled dread in me as I close my eyes.
I hate going to bed at night. Even after working, I putter around looking at books or doing some sketching or straightening up the turmoil of the day. And then in the morning I don't want to get up. I love the dozing part of sleep, being a bit aware of the real world, but skimming the edges of dreaming, solving problems in heroic ways.
Alimentary, that is a most intriguing question, one that may have been answered in some parallel universe.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I feel that given those extra years of life and productivity that yes, Kelly would have made an effort to make the animation true to his vision. BUT, I think two things would have happened. One is that Kelly would have been vastly frustrated by compromises made to his vision and two, that the results would have failed to enchant the general public, partly beCAUSE of the compromises as well as that the swamp would have been a limiting factor. Mickey and Donald played all sorts of roles and were not tied to one locale, likewise with Bugs and Daffy et al. True, Pogo could have been lead in a fairy tale theater sort of concept, but I just think the general public would not take to something that didn't have Kelly's touch in every last detail.
I think that having lost formatting impact in the newsprint arena, Kelly could have, would have, should have moved back into book illustration, with SOME Pogo projects, but also spreading wings into uncharted territory, with his hard-earned mastery of the graphic arts. We saw some of that developing in the Pogo Poop Book. I just think that the freedom of the large canvas of a double spread book and beautiful color treatments would have given Kelly a new chapter in creation magnificence.
And having said that now, I have fully depressed myself that it never happened that way, except perhaps in some parallel universe.
Alas, the combination of somewhat dicey health to start with, the old-time journalist's lifestyle, and perhaps the vices prone to those of us of Celtic descent (myself included) worked against this. All one can do is hope someone else takes up the mantle, although this is easily one of those on order of pulling a sword from a stone. It's just somewhat displeasing to know that some art-culture institutions persist in undead forms that don't even have a tenth the substance or soul, yet continue to permeate the culture while Kelly becomes a subject for cartoon historians. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky for the voluminous amount of work he left at least.
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Artform Substance & Soul — an essay concept that I will take on one day in Pictorial Arts Journal. And nice metaphor of sword from a stone. Thank you Alimentary — LLK
ReplyDeleteI think a Pogo Saturday morning cartoon (particularly one produced in the '80s) would have been woefully disappointing. There have been a few beautifully-written cartoon shows over the years (Rocky & Bullwinkle, The Simpsons), so it's possible the right team could have come close to Kelly's subversive, charming storytelling. But could Kelly's visual flair ever be approximated on a TV budget? The great Chuck Jones couldn't do it once, let alone on a weekly basis! Perhaps John Kricfalusi (of Ren & Stimpy) might have come closest. Stylistically he's a world apart from Kelly...but he's the only guy I can think of who brought consistently great animation to episodic television. (And he only managed to produce a few episodes a year).
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget that, in all likelihood, a large part of the reason Kelly died when he did was the strain of trying to animate 15 minutes of footage all on his own. Kelly was notoriously protective of his characters, and I think the thought of exporting animation to Korea would have sent him through the roof.
~Craig
Hi Craig!
ReplyDeleteI just can't imagine Pogo succeeding as an animated project. The voices wouldn't have worked, Kelly's thick/thin inking and feathering would have been totally lost, the story lines would have worn thin very quickly. Without Kelly at the wheel and in full command...oy. Speaking of voices, Kelly would have been the best and only choice, in my opinion. His narration and voices for the 15 minute footage, together with his ACtual art from the storyboards was absolutely charming. No one else could pull it off like Kelly did.
And I'm not a purist. I think that the revival of the comic strip by Doyle and Sternecky had some real highlights and was pretty darn good at times. But animation ...eh... animation works best for characters created from the very beginning to be animated, with no expectations from the viewers.
I still dream of a revival of Kelly Koncepts for a comic book, with me as editor, with those thick/thin feathered ink lines, as rendered by a number of talented modern cartoonists. I swear, it could have a successful run of at least 25 issues! Who wants to help me start a kickstarter campaign for such a comic? Funding to obtain rights, pay for talent and do justice to the printing. I've got too much going on right now to do it alone, but if it could happen, yow.
I finally obtained a copy of the Claymation "I Go Pogo" movie and watched it for the first time today. It reinforced my belief that Pogo could probably never work in animation. Kelly's fast-paced dialogue and multi-layer jokes (sometimes 2 or 3 puns in one word!) either get lost or become obnoxious when you're listening to them rather than reading them. In terms of voices, I agree that Kelly is (was) the best man for the job. His Albert and P.T. Bridgeport in the 1969 'Birthday Special' are wonderful. Exactly how I envisioned the characters sounding. (In the Claymation movie, Jonathan Winter's Porky is charming. Vincent Price is also really good as the film's version of the Deacon, even though his interpretation isn't the way Deacon "should" sound, based on the font Kelly used. Most of the other characters are just obnoxious).
ReplyDeleteI'd certainly buy every issue of that revival comic! I'm sure there are many professional artists who would be chomping at the bit to get a crack at these characters. Even though the general public's awareness of Pogo is fading, I think in the cartoonist community, Kelly's work is still VERY popular. And I can't think of a better man to shepherd the franchise than you, Thom.
~Craig
I very faintly recall seeing it on HBO back in the 80's once or twice. I thought it was okay, but not overly gripping sadly. It's a little odd cause the characters sort of have that simple physical 3d quality to them, but lack the particular fluid charms of conventional animation. A nice try with some highlights, but sadly more a curio than anything else. I think it frustrates me because these earnest but misdirected attempts make it harder to 'sell' the idea of any Pogo Revival, when the issue really is that they are grasping at the style and missing the substance of the work. And with such a huge legacy and range, it's a little hard capturing that substance. It's not what a lot of people think it is, in my humble opinion. Everyone notes the art and sophistication, but I think there's something more visceral going on that I see in the even the earliest stories. I do think we're more likely to capture it in a comics medium than any other, since that's where Kelly started it all.
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Alimentary— You can access my email by going to my profile over there on the right bottom. No rebus.
ReplyDeleteThomas,
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad about those dreams of a new Pogo collection coming out, and waking up finding them evaporating in the morning light. A few weeks ago, after perusing this blog heavily, I had a dream.
I met Walt Kelly excitedly - and after a while I suddenly realized, "Oh, wait, you died when I was a tad..."
I don't think I ever cried in an actual dream before quite like that. He seemed sympathetic and maybe a touch embarrassed, like maybe he'd let me down.
It's okay, Uncle. I'm just mourning 40 years later, is all, when I can do it properly.
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Alimentary, I've had those kind of dreams about my ma and pa, but never about Kelly. Next time that happens to you, call me over from my dreams. I'd like to sit and chat with you both, and then you and I can cry together. I would imagine that Kelly's kids may have had that experience too.
ReplyDeleteY'know A, I was just thinking a few minutes before I read your note (really!) that the new books from Fantagraphics are sort of like new collections in a dream that stick around after waking up. The next one is scheduled for, what, February or March? I, for one, am looking forward to that.
Well, it's more that I commonly have strong emotions in my dreams. This was possibly the only time I've felt tear-worthy sadness within one. I honestly think I distanced myself from his work and avoided it for a long time because I actually feared I'd have the sort of intense connection that it turns out I do now with it. I think the combination of American deep south iconography (the alligator especially) with decidedly Irish heritage aspects is part of the strong lure for me. There's a price for that, of course. I treasure your story of meeting him greatly, especially that recaptured fire of him wanting to pursue that 'fairy tale magic' of his earlier works.
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A—Can we establish email connections?
DeleteAmazon now has Vol. 3 scheduled for 4/19. Fantagraphics still doesn't have any set release date on their site besides the clearly out-of-date "2013."
ReplyDeleteOne of the most exciting things for me with each collection is the cover image. I wasn't crazy about Carolyn Kelly's art when she took over the '90s comic strip, but the way she paints her father's artwork is a thing of true beauty. Her covers really capture the magic of Kelly's swamp, with its strange, almost hallucinatory colors. I'm very excited to see what kind of cover they do for the Prehysteria years (I know, I'm getting way ahead!).
~Craig
Y'know Craig, I may just take a crack at MY version of a colorized Prehysteria cover, not years from now, but maybe a couple months from now...
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