Ding Nibbit!

We're back to the 3 tiers for a while, for continuity sake, which surely even old-time fans don't mind. I jes' love seeing these comics on the screen, where they can be called up instantly, in order, and blown up to examine details.

And cute?! Land sakes, Kelly could do cute without sugar.

August 10, 1952

Absolooly No Pain

Let's pop an authentic vintage tear sheet into the continuity!

I jes' loves the '52 vintage!

August 3, 1952

Obtuse NUMPS of Stultified Hebetude

Kelly's dialogue is delicious, like cookies and milk. 

July 27, 1952

Oh 🎵 3,679,40 and 1 🎵

Now, where was we, before being interrupted by one of the most divisive and ugly American politiwockle events, which is far from over. Indeed, what would Kelly have made of all this? But also knowing that he reserved Sundays for fun and frivolity for children and children at heart. 

So,  we plunge ahead with our continuity!

July 20, 1952

So You Despairs of Things

Some men are wise beyond their years. Walt Kelly left us over 40 years ago, yet his words live with us today!

Trump of Doom

And we thought Kelly wouldn't be making a comment on the current election — this an unretouched panel from days of yore.

A Grand Old Tradition

1956

If You Can't Vote My Way

ARE WE DOWNHEARTED?!

Back in 1972, the New York Times ran some cartoons for the first time, and Pogo was one of them. Knowing how Kelly could capture politicians at their looniest, you have to wonder how wonderful it would be if Kelly could have taken on this year's looniest/saddest campaign ever. 

Wonderful, because that would mean Kelly was still with us. Sigh.

New York Times — 1972

Wow! Everybody's Talkin' About It!

Kelly knew when we needed a break from tomfoolery by giving us a cute intermission, enchanting us with charming characters and charming dialogue. 

Meanwhile, the subject of a character index has surfaced, making me wonder if this bunny would be listed as: 

Beast, man-eatin' 

or

Beast, bug-eatin' 

By the way, regarding an index of characters, did ya happen ta notice that I've been assembling a resemblance of one, bit by bit, over there on the right?  For what it's worth...

July 13, 1952

WODDAWEDOO?

Well, this particular strip is chock full of excitement, pathos and humor! Yummity Smackeroo! And the continuity booms along!

July 6, 1952

Din't Name this the Grizzly Flats Fer Nothin'

And the continuity keeps careening along!

Note that Kimbo Catt is based on Ward Kimball, Kelly's fellow animator and buddy from Disney days.

June 29, 1952

Nephew Barberry Got a Pointy Quality

Yay, it's a landslide! Continuity wins! If only all voting could be this simple and dignified! As a bonus feature, I'll try posting these fill-ins every couple of days for a while, so as to hurry back to vintage newspaper tear sheets!

Pogophiles are great people! LLK!

June 22, 1952

Need Your Opinions

Okay folks, I need your opinions. At this point in the current continuity, there is a break in the collection of original Sunday newspaper strips, a fairly long break of 6 weeks.

Would you rather that I continue with what I have of the newspaper strips, with that break . . . or fill in the continuity with modern reprints in order to keep the storyline unbroken? You Pogo addicts have already seen all these strips, but casual fans prolly haven't.

Please speak up and let your opinion be heard!

I is Right Be-HOOG!

That footnote is the best footnote of all time!

June 15, 1952

Usual Bright Personalities

This is a forwarded note from David Burd, the grand fellow that has kept us supplied with vintage 1952 Pogo Sundays:

"I've searched for one of these since 1976 and I finally got one! That's 40 years. By comparison Kasper Gutman searched just 17 years for the Maltese Falcon."

Yay, David, I know how you feel!

And that's one of the nicest renderings of Ma'amselle that I've ever laid eyeballs on. Miz Beaver ain't bad neither!

Hurdy McGurdy Hoofaraw

I just have to imagine that, all those years ago, Kelly had a grand time as he traipsed through each panel, being silly and sassy, writing and drawing as he pleased, making it up as he went.

June 8, 1952

Figgly Mortis, Sir

We're missing a strip from the Tony Peters collection, so here's a fill in, for all you completists out there.

June 1, 1952

Perfessional Duty Calls!

These boys are always doin' something re-dickledockle! This is a fine looking Sunday strip from so long ago, thanks to David Burd and the Tony Peters Collection! One of these times I'll take the time to tell you about that collection.

By the way, I dedicate this Sunday strip to Larry Kuenning, who took the time to write a nice email with some information. Thanks Larry!

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

May 25, 1952

Is That Ol' Lady Sneaking' Up On Me Again?

Good ol' Kelly shenanigans! LLK

May 18, 1952

A Old Negative Proverb Somewheres

Kelly could make each and every panel fun to look at and read, which is of course the objective of a master cartoonist, Kelly being strip-meister of them all.

Long Live Kelly

May 11, 1952

No Room in this Perfession for Quackery

Sorry it's taken me so long to post up another vintage Pogo strip, but life's got all kinds of DIS-tractions, don't it? 

This Sunday strip isn't part of my favorite arc, but it's Kelly, it's vintage and it's original Sunday color. Good enough for me, sez I.

Besides, when this was published I was just 2 days from entering this ol' world.

And HAPPY (as happy as it can be, under the circumstances) 

103rd BIRTHDAY, WALT KELLY! 

May 4, 1952

Wake Up! Wake Up!

I've had this Sunday strip ready for some time now, but this one skips a week in our current 1952 continuity, and I was hoping to find that missing strip . . . but haven't. I almost scanned it from the Fantagraphics book, but decided not to, and just plunge ahead so that you wouldn't need to wait any longer.

April 27, 1952

Them Ears is Blindin'!

Who knows why someone thought Rackety Coon Chile was a white kid, but 1952 is still my favorite Kelly year.

April 13, 1952

Yoicks! Yoicks!

Kelly had a full house when he played the 'cute' card. Cute art, cute characters, cute shenanigans—without being sugary. I can't think of another cartoonist that could out-cute him.

April 6, 1952

Agin All the Rules of Tellin' a Story

Yay, Pup Dog makes a Sunday appearance. 

What a great year 1952 was.

March 30, 1952

This is MUNITY!

Again, sorry to have been sparse and sporadic with postings, but getting ready for a gallery art show is a full-time demand. This is a late Saturday night, here, so I've earned the chance to put up another Sunday strip ... and here it is, as it looked in the Sunday funny pages from 64 years ago.

LLK!

March 23, 1952

Pogo Primer for Parents

Sorry to be prolonged sporadic in posting of late, but I have an art gallery show that opens one week from today, and I'm nowhere near ready. But in the meantime, our #1 Kelly Korrespondent, Hun, sent over a link that should be of interest to you Pogoholics. A lot of you may have seen this item before, but it's nice to see the whole primer again. Thanks Hun!

Click under the picture to link to the Primer...

Click here for Pogo Primer link

The Rest of This Absorbant Story

March 16, 1952

A Cheap Comic Strip

April 1, 1965

Never Argue with a Furry Godmomma

Over the years, Kelly cast the 3 blind mice into a lot of stories and strips, even if they turned out to be the 3 bears, and really they wasn't allus very blind.

Even if in later years we loved seeing the variant trees in the opening panels, it was nice to see other stuff in the opening panels of early strips, and with lovely colors no less.

March 9, 1952

Pogofest

I've had a request to find out if any of you out there have been to the Pogofest in Waycross, Georgia. Can you let me know if you have? Or if you know of anyone that has. 

Thanks!

Ding-Binged RIGHT We're Cold

LONG LIVE KELLY!

March 2, 1952

Pogo by Pretzel Pflug

I jes' loves it when the cast gets to wear silly hats and and act out furry tails and mess with enchanted dragons and such. This period of Kelly's work is, bar none, my favorite (even over Prehysterical Pogo). And I love seeing this stuff straight from newsprint tear sheets! 

What a treat!

February 24, 1952

For anyone interested, some of Kelly's favorite people were newspapermen, so the Hon. Felix McKnight appears to be this fellow:

Denying' Me My Birthright

If Kelly was still producing a Pogo strip today (if only), Li'l' Awry would still only be a week-old girl rabbit . . .

March 31, 1965

A Boon to Womankind

Kelly jes' goes on and on about nothing, but at least we now have Li'l Awry around to make things cute . . .

March 30, 1965

A Strictly Beautifobble Thought

Such wonderful goodness straight from a newsprint scan!

February 17, 1952

Once a Party is Nested, Never Disturb It

I break the current daily continuity to bring up this strip from May 6, 1952—a day that was very important in my life. As Kelly aficionado 'Hun' has pointed out, the stork presence (off stage on this day) is symbolic for me. And the strip just so happens to feature my favorite 3 Kelly characters.

Thanks, as always, Hun! LLK!

May 6, 1952

Not Only Simple, It's Dependable

For those of you who like the Pogo character, you're in the clover, as he shows up in quite a few dailies to come.

March 29, 1965

Old Pogo to New Posts

I know some of you like to see what I'm up against when I bring old Pogo to new posts. This is a sample page of the scrapbook I made as a kid— cutting too close to the borders and slicing every third strip in half so as to make a continuous story to fit the page. I've got more pages to wade through and doctor up a bit, so I hope you're sticking around for those and the new supply of old Sunday strips. 

One way or t'other, lots more Kelly goodness to come!

The Far-Out After-Math System

Owl's allus talking to hisself...

March 27, 1965

Let's Get Down to Bedrock

Just a reminder that this run of daily strips was collected by me when I was a stupid young sprat and I cut too much into the borders and pasted them into a scrapbook. So, they aren't perfectly archived, but better distressed than not at all, hmmm?

March 26, 1965

Advice on Feeding Dragons

Wheeee, we're back in the Sunday strip business for some time to come! Even if they are strips you'll recognize from the Fantagraphics volumes, these are gen-you-wine tear sheet scans that you'll be seeing for weeks and months to come, thanks to the generosity of David Burd. 

David has scanned more of the early tear sheets that were originally in the collection of his friend, the late Tony Peters. I'll tell you more about that collection soon, but in the meantime, David scanned a bunch of strips in two pieces, sending them to me raw. I stitch them together and do some clean-up editing and wah-lah, we see these strips as they were seen in newspapers some 64 years ago!

At some point in the future I believe we will emerge beyond the Fantagraphics limits, but in the meantime please enjoy the color and feel of newsprint from some of Kelly's best years. And not to worry, I will still continue the run of 1965 dailies that I've been falling behind on posting.

Long Live Kelly!!!

February 10, 1952

Neither Comic Nor Tragic but Both

With a great big thank you to Gonechoo Gator for pointing the way to this article, we get to see some rare Kelly spot art and Kelly writing—from the August 30, 1958 Saturday Review.

Pogo sat for the day's review . . . hee hee