| Title | : | Pogo |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 182 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1951 |
Pogo Reviews
-
There was a whole shelf of Pogo books, collections of the comic strip about the swamp-dwelling possum and his pals, old ones from the 1950s and 60s, at my grandparents' house when I was a kid (my grandfather was a big fan). I, knowing that most everyone in my family found them amusing, and a source of catch phrases (we still go around telling each other that we are "jes' fine"), dipped in to them from time to time. I sometimes found them amusing too, and particularly liked the character of Churchy the turtle, who gets some of the best lines. But I struggled with the dialect and the malapropisms, so often reading them felt more challenging than fun. For some reason, I never picked them up as an adult until now. The Pogo books are among the few things saved from my grandparents' house when it was sold a couple years ago, and now they have a nostalgic value; the row of old (but still nicely sturdy!) paperbacks is redolent of childhood days when we'd come over to the big house to go swimming and eat ice-cream cones, and sometimes, sleep in the bunk-beds.
So perhaps it was nostalgia, and thoughts of my dear, loving, grandfather, who would soon be turning 100 were he alive, that led me to pick this up on a recent visit to my mother. I adored it. I hooted with laughter multiple times. I got more of the jokes than I had as a tad, but some of the political satire still went over my head (apparently Walt Kelly used the McCarthy trials for fodder, but all I noticed was that a trial, albeit a farcical one, took place). As a child, I hadn't been quite cognizant of the fact that the books are in fact collections of daily newspaper strips, which explains a tendency every few panels, for a character to make a statement describing the immediately preceding events. This can get tedious if you don't understand why it's happening. But oh, how glorious it must have been to open the newspaper every day looking forward to seeing what would happen next. How bland (and crudely drawn) seem by comparison the comic strips syndicated today. There's a certain manic energy, to Pogo, which, along with the convoluted story lines, and wonderfully detailed art, reminds me of Tove Jansson's collected Moomin strips (the first one is is
Moomin, Vol. 1) which appeared in a British newspaper in the 1950s. Is that how comic strips in the 1950s were? Was there some influence at play? I've no clue how well known Pogo ever was outside the everlovin' ol' USA, so I don't even know if that's remotely possible. -
Kelly’s first anthology of his masterful daily comic strip, sets the stage well for what is to come, introducing Pogo, Albert, Churchy and many of the other primary swampland characters. It’s funny stuff, even if doesn’t yet have the political edge that will soon enter the strip. From the beginning though it has the flavorful dialogue, the deadpan expressions, the puns and plays on words, and the wonderful insights (transposed to critturs) on human nature. “Critturs what runs newspapers make millions.” This fact wakes Albert from a midday slumber. “Well! Notice anything different about me? I is just gone into the newspaper business. You got a spare pencil and writin’ pad to home?” In another story line a duel is required when a marriage proposal is withdrawn, but things go awry. The Hound Dog tries to piece the tale together in conversation with Mam’zelle Hepzibah. “You means Pogo, who don’t want to fight a duel in the first place gotta defend the honor of Miz Beaver who was insulted by the Pigeon who ran away to Washington to be a Ball-headed iggle an’ that leaves nobody for Pogo to duel, so somebody got to stand an’ uphold the mizzable Pigeon’s honor an’ the only one willin’ to do it is…” “Naturellement, Meez Beevair!” “It don’t make sense!” “Sense! Phaugh! We speak of honair, M’sieur, not sense!”
Rumor, mis-information, jealousy, love and rivalry for love, greed, appetite, folly, sloth…all the great human virtues and our many vehicles for confusion are all on display here. Kelly was a gift to 20th Century American culture and his wit and wisdom still speaks brilliantly to our world today. -
This book from 1951 ( which sold new for $1.00 in paperback) is the oldest of the 4 or 5 Pogo books my father had in the 1950s and 60s that I fondly recall enjoying as a child. Thought I’d re-read this 60 years later and see if I still enjoyed them. This original 1951 copy is a bit yellow from age, but still intact. I give the artwork 5 stars and Walt Kelly’s playful use of language 4 stars, but the stories weren’t as funny as I remembered. Gladly though, these early Pogo books lacked most of the political satire I didn’t enjoy much in Pogo’s later years. In summary, not as good as I remembered from childhood, but that may be about me more than the quality of the work. Still enjoyable though.
-
After my Mom & Dad got married, she saved every daily & Sunday Pogo comic strip in a pair of scrap books; and then Walt Kelly and Simon & Schuster released them in a paperback edition. Then she and Dad collected every book as they came out, as well as several of the nickel comics; and I still have all of them.
The were lovingly read and re-read by me and only survived thanks to having the bindings reinforced by brad fasteners. No other strip compares to Pogo's droll humor and the swamp critters' affectionate commentary on the 'human' condition.
The school in the comic strip "Miss Peach" was named Kelly Elementary after Walt Kelly, and flew its flag at half-staff on the day of his death. Thanks to his family and estate releasing and re-releasing up-to-date, revised collections, Pogo remains available in bookstores. -
The first ever paperback collection of Walt Kelly's syndicated "Pogo" newspaper comic strips. I owned this when I was a teenager and foolishly loaned it to a cute young friend named Gena who I had a crush on, and who never returned it. Don't. Loan. Books. You'll never get 'em back, no matter how much they promise they will return them.
Bought one again a few years ago, finding it cheap on eBay. For years, I'd see Pogo collections at bookstores priced way out of my range. Sigh...Thanks, eBay! (I only buy vintage if I can find them cheap, and you usually can if you wait long enough.)
This one appears to be a first printing, though it doesn't say so...if it doesn't say second printing, or any printing, then it is by default a first, right?
So, it's 1949 and almost a year into the strip's history, where we pick up with the adventures of the eponymous possum, his pals Albert, Churchy, Porky, Howland Owl, Beauregard, Miz Beaver, Mam'zelle Hepzibah, and all them. We get Bewitched, Bothered & Bemildred, Deacon Mushrat, Horrors Greeley the cow, various frogs and mice and pup dogs, all the denizens Okefenokee swamp, in all kinds of mix-ups. Beautifully drawn animals engaged in nonsensical horseplay and brilliant wordsmithery.
I've got the eleven paperbacks issued by Fantagraphics in the 90's and the first volume of their hardcover series. So, how many versions of these early strips do I need? I dunno, ...how many stars do you need in the sky? -
This book, originally published in 1951, was the first of a large series of paperbacks which sort of collected Kelly's comic strips, though they were cut up and occasionally excised to create a different reading experience than in the newspapers. At any rate, Pogo remains one of the 20th Century's cultural high spots as far as I'm concerned. These earlier strips had much less political and social commentary, but just as many puns, bizarre poetry, wonderful drawings, creative characters, and plain old smiles. I've seen some of these strips before, but hadn't read them all, or if I did it was decades ago so I didn't remember them. I did however, enjoy them enormously.
-
I was surprised at how often I laughed at this strip. I was expecting the jokes to be very dated (and a lot of the references to then-famous people and events were, understandably), but most of the humor comes from the interactions of the characters, as their various foibles and ignorance bounce off each other. I was impressed that the author never wasted strips on lame puns or one-liners, allowing the humor to come instead from the characters' interactions and snappy dialogue. Instead of being a means to an end, the dialogue itself is the draw here: filled with creative misspellings, malapropisms, and Southern American dialect, reading Pogo is almost like playing a complex but intuitive linguistic game, mentally translating the dialogue into "standard" English while also enjoying Kelly's lovingly-rendered swampscapes and vegetation. I can definitely see the clear influence on Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes (especially in the simple-but-iconic character designs and the author's love for natural settings), and why Watterson would later call Pogo "the last of the enjoy-the-ride strips."
-
Walt Kelly's Pogo is one of the all time great cartoon strips from the mid 2oth century. He uses his characters to lampoon the culture and politics of that time in American life. The results are quite hilarious.
-
Pogo was my father's favorite comic strip so we had this book in the house going back to my earliest memories, in the mid 1950s. I've probably read it ten times over the years and each time it was hilarious - definitely laugh out loud funny.
-
"Swamp critters" running around acting like rubes, mangling the English language with amusing mis-pronunciations and wrong words.
Amusing, but sometimes takes paying attention to figure out what they are really talking about. -
Bought this in '67, for a dollar, at the Navy Exchange in Sasebo, Japan, and I still have it. Still a reliable source of unbridled joy.
-
Pogo is my most recent favorite thing ever. It's written in a southerny style dialect by a Yankee and slyly comments on the 1950/60s political scene!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-
As delightful as ever
-
Old & wonderful! Yay Pogo!
-
They were there so I read them - maybe too young to though.
-
I can't believe I didn't know about Pogo earlier
-
Walt Kelly's wordplay is priceless. Several quotes from the early Pogo strips have worked their way into my lexicon. "Reciprovocation is the spites of life, monsieur!"
