Sunday, June 15, 2014

GOO! WOZZAT!

This is coming to you a bit late, today, on Sunday. You can pretend your newspaper was a late delivery like ours was today, here in real life. I was a paper boy in my youth and there were days when problems were incessant. 

This Sunday strip had the usual messy stuff to clean up, but I do like to leave traces of high-speed press problems here and there to back up the newspaper experience. Kelly was fully aware of how his hard work too often took its chances in daily reproduction. I'm amazed that his Sundays were not printed in full-color book form during his lifetime. At that time, the only MAJOR full-color book with the full Pogo cast was the hardback song book, which was lovely, but even there the coloring was screwy.

Bless Fantagraphics for their efforts, even if their production is like waiting for Chug-chug, the Mail Duck, to deliver it.

August 24, 1969

10 comments:

  1. From '69 to '14, it's almost 45 years late. But I'm truly grateful to the (former) paper boy for getting it to us this time!

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  2. This particular series just gets more and more stream of consciousness surreal as it progresses.

    Not that I'm complaining.

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    1. Good point, Gonechoo. This Gleek Viper mystified me way back when in '69, and it mystifies me still. I think Kelly's cigars must have been pretty strong, assuming that was all he was smoking.

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  3. Nobody could mix silliness and chaos quite like Kelly!

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  4. As one who constantly, continuously, appreciates so much everything you do, I wanted to write again on the matter of crowdfunding. Not sure I was specific before. In terms of my spouse's picture book, we looked to Pubslush,com, because they offer crowdfunding exclusively for books. We have been only lightly successful, but others, for whatever the reasons, have done far better. And I recommend it to you--

    --Martin

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  5. Beauregard, attempting (unsuccessfully) to apply some Bugs Bunny-esque logic! The Gleek Monster design is a thing of warped beauty. Those perpetual wall eyes are hysterical.

    Amazing how well Beauregard's fez stays on until the last panel. For that matter, when did that thing become part of Beauregard's wardrobe? Some of Kelly's hat choices are really strange. It seems like he always had a passion for fezzes - I think there are some early Animal Comics appearances where Albert is wearing one around the house. I imagine that even early in Kelly's career, the idea of lounging around the house in a fez was pretty quaint, let alone wearing one outside!

    ~Craig

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  6. The Fez craze was in part due to the early 20th century aristocratic/gentry fascination with the exotic middle east along with its fashion of fezzes. Look at Casablanca. Look at Major Hoople in Our Boarding House. Look at Groening's Jeff & Akbar.

    Kelly had Albert wearing one quite a bit, along with a Full-Bent Billiard Pipe. Kelly even had Donald Duck sporting a Fez once or twice. When I've cartooned, I've had some characters wearing a fez. They're easy and fun to draw!

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  7. I'm certainly not complaining. Fezzes make me irrationally happy (probably at least partially because I associated them with Beauregard growing up!).

    ~Craig

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  8. It may be just the way the fez gets drawn, but I notice the pattern seems to change more than expected. I think Kelly liked to have fun with a non-static design, aside from the presence of the zig-zags.

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