A Happy New Year

Heart-felt wishes for a good year of 2019 to you all!

I hand-colored this beautiful Kelly art several years ago as part of my tribute to his 100th birthday, and, well, it kinda says it all.

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

Thanks and Giving

That address is not valid, but the sentiment and art ARE!

I miss Walt Kelly and new work of his all these years later...

but thankful he was around at all!

Not Quite Dry As a Bone

More sweetness and quietude, from 1952, one of my favorite years in more ways than one. Pup Dog never took on humanish behavior, to his credit. Beauregard, well, he vacillated.

August 31, 1952

Only One Pup Like This

I'm going to start posting, once in a while, individual black and white Kelly panels that are monochromatic gems...in my view at least. These are images that could be poster size on my wall and bring great joy to my eyes (if I had any wall space left, which I don't).

I'd also like to mention that I'm going to, soon, launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for Pictorial Arts Journal official premiere issue. That Journal will be showcasing great art in large and detailed formats and will definitely promote cartooning greats, Kelly among them. I will give more details over the next couple of weeks, but I hope you already know how Kickstarter works. And I hope  you might be in a position to help when the time comes.

Cheers to you all and Long Live Kelly!

Kelly is ahead of his time with his www. (if you see what I mean)

Coloring Book

I'm still not able to function normally (whatever state of reality THAT is). The doctor calls it 'exhaustion', I call it 'too pooped to pop'. I guess I've been burning candles at both ends and beyond. With all the other stuff I've been doing, I haven't used the scanner in several weeks now (it used to be a nightly chore), so for now I need to use other folks' scans to keep the Kelly spirit alive, though we WILL get back to my Pogo Sunday strip collection in time.

You've prolly seen this cover before, but this scan by Jim Engel was too pretty to not show here (with just a teeny color tweak by me). Remember, I'm hoping to live long enough to eventually post nearly everything Kelly's ever drawn, whether we've seen it a thousand times or but never before.

Ain't Only One Frog in the World, Y'Know

I'm pret-ty darn busy, but not so much as to miss a Sunday, Kelly Sunday greeting to you all. I've got a lot to share soon's I can.

July 7, 1971

Girl of the Sterling North

Speaking of nameless turtles, here's a sweet strip from 1950 . . .

Is You a Bug or a Bird?

Onward with the morphing of this arc (we can tell it's a morph, cuz Churchy is still in his knight regalia).

Other than noting that only one little area recognizes Albert's yellow belly, and that his tongue is pale white, no color notes this time . . . I said other than that.

Happy 1951, 1952, and 1953

Yes, I posted this first image last year, but it's too beauty to not pull up again.

Further below are New Year's Day strips from 1951, 1952, and 1953 — my three favorite years of Kelly art and story, not that all the other years weren't great. I know you've seen these before, so sue me (actually don't, I've got too much on my calendar as it is).

Above, yes, at that time Kelly was signing some funny little names — a different one per strip.

Stay 'tooned—cool stuff coming up in 2011.

Thoughts for Thanks and Giving

Here's a nice Thanksgiving promo from Kelly.

If you feel inclined to contribute to the MS associations, check for current address and phone number, as it's likely to have changed since 19 and 58 : )

HAPPY Thanksgiving to everyone! Come back on Sunday.

Special Art

I jes' loves and A-dores Kelly's special art for the books and such—this'n from Songs of the Pogo.

Fly, O, fly Through the Stars

Once again, Kelly's own carol, frolicking and rollicking:

Merrie

Another Walt Kelly Christmas card, this one I think from 1961. Doesn't Kelly's work seem infused with sincere joy? I know I feel happy when I see this kind of work.

God Bless the Master of This House

Kelly mostly used 3 favorite carols throughout the years, and this was one of them, as we've also seen in an earlier post.

Every Year I Sing It

When all is said and done, the best explanation for the Boston Charlie song is this: