Pogo's Will Be That Was (Fireside Book) [Paperback]

Walt Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1987 | Series: Fireside Book

Positively Pogo" are comic strips from around 1954 first published in newspapers. This part starts with the start of the television media with various characters doing things to break into commercials and shows. The strip then meanders into a plan by Churchy (the turtle) to make money by making money. We have a long appearance by a non-regular character (in the form of a pig) which just happens to look like a certain Soviet leader of the time (part of Kelly's political humor). The book then ends with the Olympics in Australia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 381 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Paper); First Paperback Edition edition (November 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671248545
• ISBN-13: 978-0671248543
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 2 Books in One, July 11, 2002

By 

AstroNerdBoy "AstroNerdBoy" (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pogo's Will Be That Was (Fireside Book) (Paperback)

It's unfortunate that Fireside no longer publishes "Pogo" books. This book is actually two books: "G.O. Fizzickle Pogo" and "Positively Pogo". For those who don't know, "Pogo" is an animal-only comic strip with very well drawn artwork with good humor and stories to boot. Walt Kelly does his strip like a river as it meanders down stream. Sometimes the strip will follow a couple of storylines but often those stories get merged back together. Set in the deep south, there are lots of interesting characters here which make this strip a lot of fun.

"Positively Pogo" are comic strips from around 1954 first published in newspapers. This part starts with the start of the television media with various characters doing things to break into commercials and shows. The strip then meanders into a plan by Churchy (the turtle) to make money by making money. We have a long appearance by a non-regular character (in the form of a pig) which just happens to look like a certain Soviet leader of the time (part of Kelly's political humor). The book then ends with the Olympics in Australia.

"G.O. Fizzickle Pogo" contains strips from around 1956. This book starts with the announcement of the International Geophysical Year which is 18 months long. After a while, we are introduced to "the flea" who loves the dog character Beauregard. Upon being rejected, Howland Owl puts a plan into motion to launch the flea into space (in light of the Sputnik launch). This leads to a long stretch where Albert decides to defend the moon from strangers (egro the Soviets) landing there. The book then continues into a discussion on the then new Suez Canal with some of the characters deciding to build their own canal. The book ends with the removal of a "demon" from Albert.

Unlike later Pogo strips, this book is lighter on the political strips (they are there, just not as in your face) which makes these better in my opinion. As to this book, it would have been nice if the two books could have been sequencial (meaning the strips in book two pick up immediately where book one ended) but I don't know if the strips in between were ever published in book form. Worth having if you like good, classic comic strips.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Russian Pigs, Satellites, and Grand Old Fizzicks, October 17, 2009

By 

Paul Camp (Chattanooga, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pogo's Will Be That Was (Fireside Book) (Paperback)

I have before me three three-inch tall plastic figures: One of Pogo Possum, one of Albert Alligator, and one of Churchy La Femme (the turtle). My six-year old niece likes to play with them from time to time, and is fascinated that Albert sports a cigar in his left hand. They are my inspiration for this review.

_Pogo Will Be That Was_ (1979) is an omnibus of two Pogo classics: _Positively Pogo_ (1955) and _G.O. Fizzickle Pogo_ (1957). I believe that Anthony Boucher gave each of these books brief attention in his "Recommended Reading" column for _Fantasy & Science Fiction_ when they first came out. They are, at least in part, reflections of some of the goings-on in the fifties.

_Positively Pogo_ runs from rehearsals for T.V. commercials (especially Kokola Kola) to events at the Australian olympics (such as boomerang duels). The chapter titles are arranged in quatrains of verse: "Merrily, Merrily,/ O'er the Lea,/ Verily, Verily/ Blue" and "Raggedly, Baggedly,/ Through the True,/ Haggardly, Haggardly,/ Flee".

Other items of interest in this volumn include the debate on the relative virtues of dogs and alligators, an inanimate sea serpent that creates problems for various animals, a Russian Premier pig who claims to have discovered America, and a rocket knocked into orbit by a method that would have made Jules Verne proud.

The International Geophysical Year (I.G.Y.), for tads too green around the gills to remember such things, was a period of time running from 1957 into 1958 devoted to the scientific study of the Earth. Satellites mapped and measured the planet, bathyspheres plumbed the ocean depths, Project Mohole drilled into the crust of the Earth. Expeditions were sent to the poles, to mountaintops, and along rivers. Volcanoes were studied. It was, I suppose, successful. But Walt Kelly suggested that we follow it up with the Year of Man, "a never ending year devoted to the study of inner space" (198).

In the Okefenokee Swamp, the animals are concerned with such things. There is a report of an organization devoted to peace, which worked very well until it had more than one member. The G.O. Fizzickle Year is the Grand Old Year devoted to the study of Fizzicks (whatever they are). The critters want to know where Friday the thirteenth will fall in an eighteen month year. And if scientists have an eighteen month year, can they really be trusted to measure the size of the Earth? Good questions, those.

There follows certain valuable information about the Moon ("Now this is the waxin' gibbous phase of the Moon, named after Sam Gibbous, a early explorer," 261); plans to push Russian trespassers off the point of the Moon ("Of course, we gotta make the plan foolproof," 262); and assorted side adventures with Little Arfin' Nanny, Beauregard Hound and a flea, a butterfly with chompers, an attempt to dig a canal that will rival the Suez, and a couple of witch doctors.

There is a touch of political satire, but not as much as you will find in some of the later Pogo books. The omnibus title was surely inspired by the 1965 television show, _That Was the Week That Was_. TW3 satirized the news events of the preceeding week. It deserved to be on the air longer than it was.