Pogo, Vol. 1

Pogo

by Walt Kelly

Walt Kelly's POGO, a satirical masterpiece commonly acknowledged as one of the three greatest comic strips ever published, is finally back in print in this series from Fantagraphics Books!

Genres: Comics, Humor, Fiction

Paperback

First published July 1, 1992

About the author

American animator and cartoonist best known for the classic funny animal comic strip, Pogo. He won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1951 for Cartoonist of the Year, and their Silver T-Square Award in 1972, given to persons having "demonstrated outstanding dedication or service to the Society or the profession."

Reviews

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is tough to rate because page 51 to the final strip on 68 are subtly changed reprints. When he switched from the New York Star to syndication he ran back through what I assume were his favorites

So this is a book to not read all at once- save the last pages for a different time.

But if I'm rating pages 1-50 it's an endearing ****.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

The introductory essay introduces Kelly's work to the uninitiated, providing background on the creator and his characters. The strips themselves are witty and funny, though a modern reader will require a little effort to understand the dialect and references.

[Al McCarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beginnings of Pogo. It only gets better from here.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently Fantagraphics is going to be trying again to publish the complete Pogo, and one has to hope they do a better job than they did the first time. That is not to say that there is nothing to like in these releases, just that they aren’t as good as what Fantagraphics has done with Peanuts, and certainly not up to the level that Pogo deserves. This particular volume contains all the strips which appeared in The New York Star, and then the initial strips which were syndicated. It also has a wonderful introduction by R. J. Harvey, in which he discusses Walt Kelly and the development of Pogo.

One of the biggest problems is that the volumes are very slim. There are only 68 pages of comics in this book, with two strips per page. This is very little material, and that problem is made worse in this volume because Kelly rewrote strips that appeared in The Star to appear in the syndicated version of the strip. Those who are interested in the development of Pogo do want to see these, but with so few pages of strips included this volume comes across as very sparse and repetitive.

These initial strips are interesting to those who love Pogo and want complete collections, but these are not the best or the funniest strips; those will come later in the series. As a result, I would only recommend this volume to those people who really love Pogo and want to see the development from the earliest strips. And, considering there will soon be another attempt at releasing the entire strip, this may not be a collection you want to search for at all.