12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pogo even more!, July 14, 2005
This review is from: Pogo Even Better (Paperback)
Walt Kelly's long-lived possum was ground-breaking in its time. Pogo and friends ran for at least thirty years, from the WWII era into the seventies. This book captures a few slices of that wonderful comic's history. It reprints a number of the daily strips from the early `50s, demonstrating Kelly's expressive artwork, soft spirit, and sharp tongue.
There's a lot more here, though. Jeff McNally (creator of `Shoe', `Pluggers', and more) opens with a brief, heartfelt introduction. Kelly's widow has added biographical notes about Walt and the Pogo phenomenon. This book also features collections of one-panel promotional pieces featuring the Okeefenokee crowd: X days `til Christmas, weather report summaries, etc. You're sure to appreciate a few samples of Kelly's famous (infamous?) poetry - Carroll-like nonsense with a rolling tone and logical illogic all its own. Best, you'll find parts of the Christmas carols, including "Deck the halls with Boston Charlie."
A few sequences of the daily strips bring back the politics of Pogo's time. Like some of today's comics, this one was sometimes transplanted from the funny pages to the editorials. Mostly, though, it's a gentle but clear-eyed look at the human condition, as true now as it was then.
//wiredweird
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