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Ten Ever-Lovin' Blue Eyed Years With Pogo

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Ten Ever-Lovin' Blue Eyed Years With Pogo
I owned an edition of this magical book when first it appeared. I took it for granted that POGO would be around forever. Of course, as with all fine art, Kelly's view is as fresh, funny and inspiring as ever. It is a time machine that delivers one to the here and now. Kelly expressed more with a line (either drawn or written) than can be found in a stack of Sunday "Funnies". This wonderland was not created in a simpler time. Our amusements were not, however, so immediate or flashy. Superficiality was just finding its groove and the citizenry was learning to become consumers. POGO is a whole bunch of things all at once but quaint aint one of em'.

The POGO Principal is simply this: No matter how wacky the situation is that you presently find yourself in, it is just the latest version of the same ol' thing. I take myself too seriously and things begin to unwind in a hurry. Cookies and milk with my friends is always the antidote.

Kelly's genius shines through POGO and his world to reflect that there is indeed no greater wisdom than kindness. Oh yea, some of the bits and dialogue are close-the-book-on-your-finger-to-enjoy-the-moment hilarious. There is nothing on the scene today that comes close.

Pogo was a big part of my childhood, but until I was 12 or so the strip could never be found in my local newspaper. I became acquainted through the Pogo books my father--a big fan himself-- brought home. This one was the biggest and the best one, and it is a lot more than a mere collection of strips. Kelly included some of the best non-strip episodes from the earlier books, stories such as "The Man From Suffern on the Steppes" (Pogo and Albert and pals play ad-men in Soviet Russia--hilarious.) It also contains a generous selection of Kelly's marvelous antic verse. And the cartoonist himself supplies commentary throughout. He talks about the strip, of course, but much of the time he is free-associating on various subjects, political, social, personal. Of all strips, Pogo was indisputably the best written, and this commentary confirms that Kelly was an exceedingly verbal guy. Some of the verbal acrobatics that his characters execute still amaze me. Many of the strips burst at the seams with funny language, some of it contrapuntal to the main theme---Pat Oliphant's penguin character in his political cartoons provides a similar kind of sidebar wit function. This book covers the first decade of Pogo, culminating in 1959. In later years, (the strip continued until Kelly's death in the early seventies) the strips were not as jam-packed with physical and verbal humor. It may be that comic strips were all beginning to suffer size-shrinkage during this period, imposed upon them by the editors, who wanted to save space, and Kelly had no choice but to prune back his exuberance. Newspaper strips are today presented in a format far too small, and cartoonists have little space for any kind of visual pyrotechnics. You see a lot of talking heads, and the humor on display today---you couldn't call much of it wit--- can rarely compare with what Kelly could come up with on pretty much a daily basis. The best Pogo years were the fifties, and that is the period this book covers. People call Pogo a political strip, but it wasn't really---that limits it. Political humor is rarely this freewheeling, this gloriously insane. In one of the Sunday episodes (not in this book), we see a bear who has gotten his head stuck inside of a cooking pot. Churchy LaFemme and Pogo happen along, and Churchy concludes that somebody is trying to cook the bear---but that the fur has not even been removed! "That ain't no way to cook a grizzle bear!" So Churchy crawls up atop the bear's rear end, and begins mowing the fur off with a "longmolar". It gets even more surreal, if that is possible.

This book deserves to be in print again. It may never be, so if you see a good-quality used copy at a reasonable price, you should grab it. Walt Kelly was the best strip cartoonist who has ever lived.

Walt kelley had a very special talent that not very abundant in today's political cartoonist. That talent was meekness and gentleness. He could screwer Joe McCarthy with awit that was sharp for the adult readers and still have such a humorous approach that children would read for the laughs. This book contains many of Kelley's poems which run from the total off the wall to very touching memorials. This is abook which will bring back the smiles from years ago or give rise to awhole set of warm memories.

I was familiar with this work before I ordered it. The copy I received was in pretty good shape. That is no longer the case, as I have read it to pieces.
As a writer, of sorts, myself, I have always been influenced by Mr. Kelly's work. I had read two or three copies of this particular piece until I had reduced them to separate pages already, and, as I had lost track of these over the years, I was delighted to find another.
I hope they have another copy, because I'd like to get one to collect, (i.e. not read), as well as the follow up manuscript, and the comprehensive day to day project research suggests is in the works.
BUY THIS BOOK! But, please... wait until I have another copy.

This is the second vintage Pogo book I purchased off of Amazon.com. I'm very happy with it. It was a Christmas gift for my boyfriend. He has always loved Pogo but didn't have any books in his collection. The book arrived very quickly and in excellent condition. I'd recommend this seller to anyone!

Walt Kelly was a very funny and thoughtful cartoonist - you can laugh out loud and also be struck by the deeper aspect of his humor. It is the kind of humor that you want to share with others. His books are so hard to find - I intend to add to my collection and share with my family. This book is a wide ranging and therefore excellent introduction to his work.