Corpse and Robbers

By popular demand (well, nine of you—but there were so many 'please please pleases' that counted for more), I give you Muckey Spleen's The Bloody Drip. Some of you may have seen this a millyum times (as I have), and still it's enjoyable. So, turn the lights low, cozy up to your computer and enjoy this publication of The New National Treasury of World Culture:

The World's Serious Condition

I have a headache and need to get to sleep, so I'm posting on Saturday nite so's you have this first thing on Sunday.

Here is another gorgeous Sunday strip that is also in the new Fantagraphics volume (if you haven't yet, go buy it!), but here we showcase the handsome tabloid format, courtesy of my friend and yours, DJ David B.

As Chris points out in the previous Pogo Sunday post, Deacon sometimes spoke without Gothic lettering in some early strips. When he first became a cast member he started out all Gothic, so I think somebody just forgot.

October 1, 1950

"One more word and you'll be sold to the Milwaukee Brewers!"

Now, he's not talking about the big league Milwaukee Brewers that was formed around '69 or'70, but the minor league baseball team that played in the American Association from 1902 through 1952 with a Triple-A class-level from 1946 to 1952. They hadn't been doing all that well at the time of this strip in 1950, but the following year they held their class and league titles. Among notable managers were Casey Stengel and Red Smith. Among notable players were Alvin Dark, Johnny Logan, Rudy York and Jim Thorpe.

Baseball was an ongoing ritual in Kelly's Okefenokee.

Muckey Spleen

Transatlantic Hun reminds us in the last post that Albert was being auditioned for the role of Meat Hamburg, Private Eye—the kindly, steely-eyed, laughing, tough minded, heart-of-gold old pro.

As fortune would have it, he landed that role in at least two spying tingler features—The Bloody Drip, and GoreBlimey - The Bloody Drip Writhes Again.

These have to be some of Kelly's funniest parodies. Many of you already have these, but if anyone wants to see large, crisp and clear scans of those stories that you can magnify on your screen and stuff like that, I would be glad to oblige . . . but ya gotta ask, I can't read your mind.

Black, Wet or Indiffermints

Another spin of a 'toon from the grade A DJ — DJ David B.

If it's Deacon you're seekin', you've come to the place where this is the case.

Hey Chris! Swish, Ploop! More slapstick!

September 17, 1950

Mysterious Wizard

These are exciting times here at Whirled of Kelly (not that it's ever been comPLETEly dull around here), with Kelly treasures being brought into the light of day after decades of isolation in dark dusty archives.

Between the new collection series offered by Fantagraphics, and some really old Sunday strips coming up for sharing by DJ David B., and still more episodes of The Adventures of Peter Wheat still being unearthed and shared by OtherEric of The Digital Comic Museum, not to mention I've still got some swell stuff from the '60s — well, it's a winning scenario for Kelly fans everywhere.

Speaking of which, why aren't there more Kelly fans 'tooning in and leaving comments about their thoughts and feelings and memories and inspirations regarding Walt Kelly? Thank you to all who are following and commenting, but this blog has been around long enough that there ought to be more of you enjoying the fruits of our labors. Your comments are the rewards for us, and we'd like to hear from more of you more often. Tell us what Kelly's work means to you. There's no limit to the length of your comments, so weigh in.

For those of you who have shared materials and not yet seen it posted, hang in there, I've been on a fast track, and I will get those materials up and running in the next few months. And those of you who have made requests, fear not, you have been heard and they will be honored as soon as I can arrange them.

In the meantime, thank you once again to OtherEric, our intrepid correspondent in the faerie kingdoms of the wheat fields, with another dispatch that ties into other episodes that have been posted previously. I hope you're keeping track by issue, 'cause this is issue #25, part of a continuity.

I'll point out in advance that a cloak of invisibility is in use in this episode, long before JK Rowling pulled one out for Harry Potter. Yes, it has been a device used before Kelly in the history of fiction, but this one almost seems like a direct inspiration for Rowling. Possibly not, but between wizards and magic throughout these tales, you never know . . .

Happy Year of Dragon

Kelly drew a number of dragons in his time, many small and cute. This is one 'has teeth', figuratively and literally.

If you cannot master the dragon, you must let it go . . .

Walt Kelly

A Genuine Bare Nose

Another beauty from 1950, that is also in the new Fantagraphics collection, but is scanned from DJ David B.'s wonderful collection.

This is Kelly just wandering around his characters and having fun.

August 13, 1950