Walt Kelly Fans

Walt Kelly—circa 1950

Walt Kelly fans are of a wide variety.

There are those that grew up, from childhood, loving Kelly's world, having great fun absorbing the stories, the language, the art and the characters. To those fans, the whirled of Kelly felt real enough that Mr. Kelly was just the playwright behind the curtain, the play was the thing.

There are those that are . . . well . . . obsessed—needing to at least see, if not possess, everything that Kelly ever created.

Those that admire his art and are inspired by it to create their own best.

Those that just plain admire his art.

Those that admire Kelly's satire, whether they agree with his politics or not.

Those who are comic fans, who can tell from comparison that Kelly is one of the best cartoonists . . . ever.

There are those that are vaguely aware that Kelly's Pogo once said something about 'meeting the enemy and he is us', and Pogo's a cute little guy, and what is he supposed to be, a dog or something?

And then there's you, somewhere on the spectrum, with enough interest in the man and his work to tune into this fan's blog, in the hope of seeing something new and interesting.

Out of all the people on the spectrum of Kelly fans worldwide, I venture to guess that not even one percent of them have laid eyes on what is coming up soon here on Whirled of Kelly.

You may have seen, around the internet and on this blog, some scanned issues of The Adventures of Peter Wheat by Walt Kelly. Most all the scans you've seen have been courtesy of an esteemed friend of this blog who goes by the screen name of OtherEric. The issues are rare and hard to come by (a redundancy, as is that not the definition of 'rare', yet doesn't it help to make the point?). As I've stated before, OtherEric is on a mission, a quest, to locate and share as many of the rare Peter Wheat adventures as he can.

What is rarer than an issue of The Adventures of Peter Wheat?

The very FIRST three issues of The Adventures of Peter Wheat, in consecutive order!!! OtherEric has once again very generously allowed this blog to be the premier venue for this treasure of Kelly treasures.

Before that happens, we want to set the stage for why this is so important, for Kelly fans, and comic fans. To do that, I have requested of OtherEric that he himself give us some background and weighed opinion as to the significance of this material. Over the next few days he will do that, to introduce us to Kelly's Whirled of Adventure.

To whet your appetite, here is the first panel of the first issue of The Adventures of Peter Wheat:

I want YOU to please advise any friends and associates that has even a twinkling of interest in comic and/or children's literature to 'toon in' over the next few days and weeks to see Kelly's rarest of rare.

A Spottled Waggle-Butch

Yes, it's Sunday, Kelly Sunday—a time to hearken back 45 years, to the day, when Walt Kelly was delivering fun and color right to living rooms all over our nation, with a little help from stalwart paper delivery kids (of which I was one). Your computer may not be in your living room, but here I am making Sunday deliveries again, no charge.

Our Retread Prince, Jack Acid

I would be remiss to not follow the last post on The Prince of Pompadoodle with this Pompadoodlish fairy tale. The drawing of the castle/fortress is delicious and the next to last page is tasty as well. Well, the whole tale is a buffet of delight, all about communists and fascists and nazis, oh, and chimps. If only I understood it.

The Prince of Pompadoodle

When I talked with Walt Kelly all those many years ago, a subject that echoes clearly in my mind was his emphasis on the importance of fairy tales to burgeoning minds. With a twinkle in his eye, he bade me to never forsake the tales, as most adults tend to do. He talked of the tales as wonderment that sought to reveal knowledge of the ways of humankind.

Fairy tales may be described in any number of ways*, and by any definition, Walt Kelly's life work was essentially one long fairy tale—including the day to day fables and stories of Pogo and the swampland characters, and of course the Adventures of Peter Wheat, and the scores of traditional fairy tales in his whirled of comic books.

There were times, as below, that he merged his whirleds in an effort to teach us something.

Indeed—Kelly's style, point of view and sense of humor tied all of his work together in a whirled of wonderment that sought to reveal the ways of humankind.

* Think of Kelly as you read of the essence of fairy tales here.

A Post-Prandial Pox

Sunday, Kelly Sunday! Forty-five years ago this morning:

Cilly Stuff

All of Kelly's artwork from Animal Comics has been archived at the Digital Comic Museum, but I've got my own scans of some of the stories to illustrate the menagerie that Kelly worked on in his journeyman days. Case in point: Cilly Goose from Animal Comics #15.

Weather-Beaten Copy

I just HAD to show you what a typical page of the last post looked like before it was digitally cleaned. We could have gone further and made it almost pristine, but while we wanted to make the art viewable, we are still honoring the weather-beating this copy went through to get to our 'modern age'.