KELLY, Walt. Pogo: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us. Simon & Schuster. 1972. 127p. (pb)
KELLY, Walt. Walt Kelly’s Pogo Revisited: Instant Pogo. The Jack Acid Society Black Book. The Pogo Poop Book. Simon & Schuster. 1957-1966; 1972. 320p. (pb)
It starts at the beginning with a commentary by the artist: “Fun, like God, is declared dead every once in a while.” And near the end of the collection, there is a poem: “
THE TROUBLE WITH PEOPLE IS PEOPLE
If we could climb
the highest steeple
And look around at
all the people,
And shoot the ones
Not wholly good
As we, like noble
shooters, should,
Why, then there’d be
an only worry—
Who would be left
to bury
us?
In our own particularly nasty political season, soon, I hope, to be over, my thoughts went back to gentler times and to Walt Kelly’s Pogo, my favorite cartoon strip ever. Kelly didn’t shy away from political comment. (In Revisited, see especially The Jack Acid Society Black Book.) He had causes –preserving Okefenokee Swamp was definitely one-- nor was he afraid to call a spade a spade, labeling bad guys like Mole and the Deacon bad and calling the good guys, the ordinary fellows of the swamp like Pogo the Possum and Albert the Alligator good. Even he was riding his hobbyhorse, his humor was gentle but boy could he skewer bigots and hypocrites, like the pompous deacon who said he had founded a newspaper “dedicated to fighting that unknown peril – (something I call creeping democracy!) … I’m forming a society to name names…. “ That society of course was the Jack Acid Society, the perfect pseudonym for a group of far right loonies in the days of the real, and equally loony, John Birch Society. “We’ll make a Black List,” the deacon enthuses. “… a lot of simps who believe in World Brotherhood … bleeding hearts –-Put down their names,” he admonishes Pogo, who stands there listening, calm, amazed at what he’s hearing but not buying it. Pogo asks: “What’s the Jack Acid Society stand for?” “We won’t stand for much, believe me! It’s what we’re against that’s important,” says the deacon.
There’s a lesson in these funny books. The references have changed but the humor hasn’t aged. Alas, though, I don’t know how much people will hear it in our own age of stentorian roaring about who’s more American and how to prove it.
- Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account
