Pogo: The Complete Comic Strips: "Through the Wild Blue Wonder", Vol. 1
Walt Kelly started his career at age 13 in Connecticut as a cartoonist and reporter for the Bridgeport Post. In 1935, he moved to Los Angeles and joined the Walt Disney Studio, where he worked on classic animated films, including Pinocchio, Dumbo,\ and Fantasia. Rather than take sides in a bitter labor strike, he moved back east in 1941 and began drawing comic books.\ It was during this time that Kelly created Pogo Possum. The character first appeared in Animal Comics as a secondary player in...
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\ From Barnes & NobleAnticipation for this book has been building ever since Fantagraphics announced the launch of a completed Pogo four years ago. If readers don't know the work of Walt Kelly (1913-1973), they should. His cartoons about Pogo Possum and his funny anthropomorphic associates aren't just high points in comic strip history; his owls, alligators, mud turtles, and hound dogs are participants in one of America's longest running (1948-1975) and most brilliant political and social satires. With surprisingly audacity and often masterful subtlety, Kelly attacked McCarthyism, Nixon White House abuses and other targets. The first volume of a projected twelve covers the first two years of Pogo and manages to capture both the liveliness of his art and the rapier force of his message.\ \ \ \ \ \ Publishers WeeklyThis exceptional first volume of the collected adventures of Pogo Possum should remind readers of the substantial legacy left behind by Kelly. It features Kelly’s daily strips (1949–1950), Sunday funnies (1950), and even his earlier New York Star dailies (1948–1949). The volume is beautifully put together, including excellent insights into Kelly and his work, and features a foreword by Jimmy Breslin and a concluding section, “Swamp Talk,” featuring annotations by comics historian R.C. Harvey. One only needs to get a short way into the adventures of Pogo and his pals in Okefenokee Swamp to recognize the impact Pogo has had on so many cartoonists, with Gary Trudeau, Jeff Smith, and Bill Watterson among the most obvious. With Pogo Possum and supporting characters Albert Alligator, Howland Owl, and Churchy LaFemme, Kelly was able to blend hilarious humor, exceptional storytelling, keen political satire, and brilliant wordplay into a strip that could be appreciated both by children and adults. The more one reads this volume, the clearer picture one has of Kelly as comics’ answer to Lewis Carroll, with Alice having changed into a possum and left Wonderland behind for a swamp. (Nov.)\ \ \ Chicago Sun-TimesIf Walt Kelly had written ‘regular’ books, he might be recognized today as one of the finest satirists of the 20th Century. As a wizard of wordplay he might well be mentioned, if not in the same breath with Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, then in the very next.\ \ \ \ \ Boing BoingIt's hard to think of another newspaper cartoonist who equalled [Kelly's] talents…. The design is impeccable and the quality of the line art reproduction is superb.— Mark Frauenfelder\ \ \ \ \ The Huffington PostThe book is lovingly made and the strips presented with care and pleasure. But is it any good? Oh yes. It's funny and charming, bursting with witty wordplay and vivid characters you love immediately.— Michael Giltz\ \ \ \ \ Maclean's[Pogo Vol. 1] is the first book that gives a full sense of what it was like to read Kelly's pioneering strip from the beginning…. And it helps that because of the book format, …Kelly’s 'love of high-flown language' is more legible than it often was in newspapers.— Jaime Weinman\ \ \ \ \ The Globe and MailThe congenial Pogo Possum and his swampland friends... spring to life in this collection of daily and Sunday comics, filled with Kelly’s characteristic wordplay. One hopes this will introduce a new generation to this comic, satiric masterwork.\ \ \ \ \ San Francisco ChronicleIt's a hefty volume, and will leave even the most dyspeptic Pogo fan wide-eyed with wonder and gratitude.— Jon Carroll\ \ \ \ \ PopMattersWalt Kelly’s Pogo... is justifiably hailed as one of the great achievements of the postwar comic strip.... This wonderful first volume of a projected 12-volume series contains the strip’s first two official years... I salute this launch... [Rating] 9/10— Michael Barrett\ \ \ \ \ The Comics ReporterKelly's art isn't just a collection of animation quality lines; it's like the lines embody the ideal of great animation art; just stunning.— Tom Spurgeon\ \ \ \ \ Manga BookshelfThis strip is funny, well-drawn, and features a huge mass of likeable characters doing entertaining things. Put it together with Fantagraphics’ excellent presentation, and you have a definite must-buy.— Sean Gaffney\ \ \ \ \ Now Read This!Timeless and magical, Pogo is a giant of world literature, not simply comics, and this magnificent edition should be the pride of every home’s bookshelf.— Win Wiacek\ \
