Potluck Pogo

by Walt Kelly

Book by Kelly, Walt

Genres: Humor, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Comic Strips, Cartoon

179 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1955

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

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fabulous collection of daily comic strips by Walt Kelly, America's greatest and loopiest cartoonist. Pogo of course was a political possum. Walt Kelly could probably be labelled as belonging to the centre-Left but this was mainstream for his times as all American Presidents from Roosevelt through Gerry Ford could be classified as being centre left, progressives.

The Pogo cartoons were more impenetrable than Doonesbury. I think it would be very difficult for someone who had not lived through the period to understand their political slant. However, cartoons are like the newspapers they appear in. They are meant to be read one day and discarded the next. I truly loved them in their day.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

If a man is fixed to save your life, it won’t pay to interfere.

I have read very little Pogo. Mostly snippets of semi-nonsensical lyrics like “Deck Us All with Boston Charlie”.

There are very few fractured lyrics in this collection, which appears, despite its title, to be an unbroken run from 1954-55 or before (going by the copyright date, which could apply either to the strips or to the book). The conversations and action in each chapter seem to flow into each other, indicating that they are either unbroken, or very close together chronologically.

The strips begin with the heavy thoughts of Porky, and ends with a battle of heavy thoughts (or at least, numerous thoughts) between Albert and Hound Dog in Pogo’s house. The battle of wits takes the form of tossing most of Pogo’s food supplies and making a mess of his house.

Which is mostly his own fault because, in an attempt to escape taking part in the battle, Pogo barricades the combatants inside white he waits outside, listening but not watching the battle.

In between, Churchy La Femme dresses up like a female turtle to further the nonexistent romance between Miz Boombah and the Deacon, Albert dresses up as an alligator-shaped tree to surprise the mysterious stranger, an imagined bomb formula turns out to be real, and Pogo holds the occasional fish fry.

The latter of which is probably the weirdest thing in the strip, given that even the worms they use to catch the fish are sentient.

All of them talk like children, except the child, which talks like an infant. Words are mangled, phrases fractured, and trains of thought run off the rails to the point where Albert, at one point, tries to run off to rescue himself.

Very clever… a lot of folks wouldn’t understand that.

Like who for example?

Like me!

[StrictlySequential · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fourth Printing = 1955 = $1.00

Leftovers* that sometimes fall flat of The Walt Kelly Brilliance I'm used to. I was the least sad when it ended compared to the rest of his material I've enjoyed.

It must be noted that chrono-topical humor is only as good as your knowledge of the era and I noticed it more than usual- I'm well versed in the mid-twentieth but specifics fly over my head.


*I COULD BE WRONG but my research led me to believe that these WEREN'T from currently reprinted newspaper archives and there was no trace of dates or any other syndicate-type evidence which would be noticeably erased in that era of reprinting. I wouldn't have purchased it if I knew I'd come across them later in my expanding-to-completion collection of his work.

[Mark Lisac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gentle whimsy and fabulous foolishness — with a porcupine kind of point thrown in here and there. Five stars not merely for the quality of the work but for its ability to bring sunshine into one's life. Walt Kelly's critters inhabit a surprisingly sunny swamp. They generally get along, despite a handful of them being mean-minded. You do wonder, though, what the place would be like without equable, common-sense Pogo there. Kelly knew the stakes even back when he was drawing and writing these comic strips in 1955-56, a time of worries about Communist spies and atomic bombs. He wrote in a brief afterword: "In this dark, when we all talk at once, some of us must learn to whistle."

[Kent Archie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dated, I suppose.
But I enjoyed it.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An invaluable compendium of comical strips by the incredibobble Walt Kelly, including guest appearances by known swamp folk such as Miss Sis Boombah and Simple J. Malarkey. Wurf wurf!

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fifth Pogo collection, from 1954-1955, is Kelly at peak form with a couple of sustained stories twisting and tumbling their way through the year’s daily strips, supported by ridiculous puns, convoluted dialogue that makes absurd sense in a deftly established internal reality, and the usual cast of swamp critturs that circle and collide with the benign innocence of the title character. Pogo is the Harpo Marx, though he speaks and doesn’t manically chase random females, of the swamp. His house and hospitality is imposed on with a saint’s patience. He maintains his own equilibrium while others get frantic with confusion and irrational groupthink. In fact, he often stands a little outside the mayhem, and even when he’s dragged in, excuse me, drug in, he still remains a bit of a bystander, which is Harpo-like, who even in a the middle of some big hullaballoo could stop to hang a poster or chase a runaway frog. Pogo has that too. “What’s all the hurry if you don’t know where?” he asks of Bun Rabbit high tailing it to an unknown emergency occurring in an unknown place. Bun Rabbit explains, “Man! That’s jes’ it! It’s when you don’t know where you is goin’ that you gotta hurry.” It’s no accident that the motto of the first chapter of this giddy collection is “Wherein our men make a running start at a dead end.” So, as this makes clear, there are no applications to be made or lessons to be drawn from this small patch of the U. S. and of A to any larger patch, past nor present, particularly not in a election year. And if you don’t unnerstan’ that; you bes’ start runnin’.

[David Rickert · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to believe there was a time when Pogo was one of the most popular strips out there, because there's no way a syndicate would accept it today. It's too witty, too cerebral, just too much fun - and it had ongoing storylines, a no-no on today's comics page. This is prime Walt Kelly, and these old books - long out of print - are cheaply available and have a good vibe to them. Kelly restructured his strip to fit what today would be called a graphic novel format, adding extra panels when needed to preserve the three or four page stories. While the punchlines of the final panels can get lost here, there are plenty of good jokes and plays on words to keep the reader entertained.

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

They were there so I read them - maybe too young to though.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

All my life; a good re/read. Never gets old.