Pogo, Vol 8

Reader Reviews
Reading George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" can evoke the response "this is from the first half of the twentieth century?!?!" In like manner, reading Walt Kelly's "Pogo" evokes the response "this is from the 1940s!!?!?!" The reality hits home when various animals (Albert the alligator, Pogo Possum, and Chug Chug Curtis the traveling duck) discuss the Dewey/Truman election of 1948 around page 15. Then Kelly's achievment really hits home: even early "Pogo" hasn't really dated itself for almost sixty years. The jokes (and even most of the puns) still smell fresh. The characters couldn't be more intriguing and the social and political undertones (though not as prevalent in this volume) couldn't be more inspiring. It only takes a few pages to understand why "Pogo" repeatedly receives accolades such as "one of the best comic strips ever". So many highlights appear in this volume that listing them would take bajillions of words. Some of the standouts include: Albert drinks the "Frog Child"; The campaign for sherrif; Howland Owl's School (which includes the book critic "Orville the Scrooch Owl"); Porkypine's "Don't like anybody!" (which appears twice). The introduction includes a load of useful background information on Walt Kelly. It also explains why some strips seem like repeats in this volume. Fantagraphics dug back into "Pogo's" pre-syndicated days. The strips that appeared in the ill-fated "Star" newspaper provide interesting juxtaposition with Kelly's syndicated work. The artwork improves. Some of the jokes improve. Basically, sometime between January and May of 1949 Kelly polished "Pogo" and sold it to a syndicate. In the latter he reused and refined some of the strips that ran in the "Star". Fantagraphics prints them all. The introduction also helps readers sort through the morass of characters that pervade "Pogo". Apparently the cast ended up numbering into the thousands (counting all the insects and animals that appeared over the years); but the strip mainly revolves around a base set of characters. The list and promise (i.e., to continue tracking the cast throughout successive volumes) on page viii will help readers sort through some of the strip's complexities. Fantagraphics has become one of the best and most respectable publisher of classic comic strips. Not only have they continued cranking out volumes of the classic "Krazy Kat", they have taken on the Golden Fleece of comic strips, "Peanuts". The "Pogo" volumes were published throughout the 1990s and Fantagraphics made it through 11 volumes. "Pogo" well deserves its reputation. It influenced many subsequent strips such as Berke Breathed's "Bloom County", and Jeff Smith's "Bone", to name a few. In fact, "Pogo" helped to shape comics for the latter half of the twentieth century. This volume contains the seeds for what would become one of the best comic strips ever. Start here and continue on.


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