Pogo

by Walt Kelly

Book Overview

Walt Kelly's POGO, a satirical masterpiece commonly acknowledged as one of the three greatest comic strips ever published, is finally back in print in this series from Fantagraphics Books! This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560972629
• ISBN13: 9781560972624
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 10.2" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A veritabobble treasure!

This isn't a review so much as an expression of personal sentiment. I grew up in the fifties and Pogo was very much a part of that experience. Somewhere in the family albums there is a picture of me reading this book with a look of complete absorbtion on my face. I got older and, I guess, the book had literally disintegrated and was thrown away. I am now 54 and the book has returned to me (OK. OK. I bought another copy...) and I'm feeling very happy right about now. All the sight gags convulse me with laughter as they once did and I'm also old enough now to understand all the word play I had missed fifty years ago. I can see now how some of the phrases entered into my speech. "Another day, another dullard". That came from the book. And here I thought I was being so clever on my own. Oh well. You would have had to have grown up with this book to truly appreciate it. It was, as another reviewer mentioned, a product of the times but it was also a part of my personal experience and that is where it is most valued. If you were there, then get the book again and relive a few sweet moments. If you didn't grow up with Pogo then, sadly, you won't really know what all the fuss was about.

Wonderful. Just wonderful

Pogo has been in my life ever since I could read, maybe before. It's probably what gave me my taste for comics and illustrated fiction of all kinds, for which I am deeply grateful. If you don't already know, Pogo is a `possum, living in a hollow tree in the Okeefenokee swamp. He's friends with Albert the cigar-chomping alligator, self-important Howland Owl, the ever-inept Churchy la Femme (turtle by trade), pup dog, and a bunch of others. There's a lot of running around, slapstick humor, and personality stereotyping, all in a deep-south-rural vein. Saying that says almost nothing, though. Pogo is always a comment on Walt Kelly's times, and the time was the early years of the Cold War. Atom bombs were on everyone's mind, as was the Soviet threat. More mundane insanity entered the swamp, too, in the form of kangaroo courts (no real kangaroos, though), overly-upright political figures and cultural standards, and lots more. Later Pogo became more pointed, but there's plenty of point here, too. It's an artifact of a different time, though - half a hundred years ago, now, and the problems always resolved happily, in a generally gentle spirit. It makes me nostalgic for times I never actually experienced. Words fail me. Walt Kelly created a wonderful family of characters, right down to the tadpole apprenticed to daddy frog's cake-stirring business. There's nothing like it being written any more, and our time is poorer for it. Pogo was topical, to a point, but is still sweet and enjoyable, and it leaves me wondering just where and when we lost the basic civility Kelly drew in these comics. Pogo and the rest are all worth knowing, even today. //wiredweird

The mere beginnings of one of the comic strip greats...

Reading George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" can evoke the response "this is from the first half of the twentieth century?!?!" In like manner, reading Walt Kelly's "Pogo" evokes the response "this is from the 1940s!!?!?!" The reality hits home when various animals (Albert the alligator, Pogo Possum, and Chug Chug Curtis the traveling duck) discuss the Dewey/Truman election of 1948 around page 15. Then Kelly's achievment really hits home: even early "Pogo" hasn't really dated itself for almost sixty years. The jokes (and even most of the puns) still smell fresh. The characters couldn't be more intriguing and the social and political undertones (though not as prevalent in this volume) couldn't be more inspiring. It only takes a few pages to understand why "Pogo" repeatedly receives accolades such as "one of the best comic strips ever". So many highlights appear in this volume that listing them would take bajillions of words. Some of the standouts include: Albert drinks the "Frog Child"; The campaign for sherrif; Howland Owl's School (which includes the book critic "Orville the Scrooch Owl"); Porkypine's "Don't like anybody!" (which appears twice). The introduction includes a load of useful background information on Walt Kelly. It also explains why some strips seem like repeats in this volume. Fantagraphics dug back into "Pogo's" pre-syndicated days. The strips that appeared in the ill-fated "Star" newspaper provide interesting juxtaposition with Kelly's syndicated work. The artwork improves. Some of the jokes improve. Basically, sometime between January and May of 1949 Kelly polished "Pogo" and sold it to a syndicate. In the latter he reused and refined some of the strips that ran in the "Star". Fantagraphics prints them all. The introduction also helps readers sort through the morass of characters that pervade "Pogo". Apparently the cast ended up numbering into the thousands (counting all the insects and animals that appeared over the years); but the strip mainly revolves around a base set of characters. The list and promise (i.e., to continue tracking the cast throughout successive volumes) on page viii will help readers sort through some of the strip's complexities. Fantagraphics has become one of the best and most respectable publisher of classic comic strips. Not only have they continued cranking out volumes of the classic "Krazy Kat", they have taken on the Golden Fleece of comic strips, "Peanuts". The "Pogo" volumes were published throughout the 1990s and Fantagraphics made it through 11 volumes. "Pogo" well deserves its reputation. It influenced many subsequent strips such as Berke Breathed's "Bloom County", and Jeff Smith's "Bone", to name a few. In fact, "Pogo" helped to shape comics for the latter half of the twentieth century. This volume contains the seeds for what would become one of the best comic strips ever. Start here and continue on.

Who but lovable ol' Pogo with the soft brown eyes

Witty word plays and the sagacity of swamp critters; Walt Kelly's masterpiece re-edited for our delight by the good folks at Fantagraphics (God bless'em).

You call this a children's book?

OK, I guess I started reading Pogo when I was a child, way back when it was still being written by Walt Kelly. But I find it most amusing that you have catagorized this book as ages 9-12. Here I am pushing 55 and still finding it very entertaining. I didn't understand who his characters were until I was old enough to recognize our politicians in his comic strip. I got better at that after I was 12.