A Giddy Yap

It's awkward trying to line up the book version of this story line with the tear sheets, as some of the book panels overlap with last week's and next week's vintage Sundays. So I'm hoping you realize that as you compare the edits. I'm still fascinated to see actual vintage color on this storyline that I read over and over in the book, as a kid.

January 18, 1953

Woz Go On?

Whoosh! I got too much going on hereabouts. Not enough time to scan from the Pogo book to compare to this week's Sunday tear sheet. I'm sure you will survive.

January 11, 1953

This just in! A scan from the Pogo Sunday Book that references this Sunday tear sheet was sent over to us by Frits van der Waa, all the way from Amsterdam, since I didn't have time to mess with it this week. It's fun, once again, to compare panels and see edits.

Thanks Frits!

Natural Like By Golly As You Kin Betcha Yo' Life

Here we are again, better late than never. And WHOOSH, a fine bit of cartooning, starting in on the classic Sam Handwich episode.

Once again, I'm including this particular segment from the Pogo Sunday Punch book so you can see how the page was creatively edited to fit the format of the book, for better or worse, slicing through panels and all. Whoosh!

January 4, 1953

Edded Owgga Air Add Leggo Ooms!

This week we have a bonus of TWO early Sunday strips! 

If you are a dedicated Pogophile you have prolly seen these, as they appear in the lovely Fantagraphics reprint series. 

But I have a goal of posting as many strips that I can of the Kelly oeuvre in my lifetime, whether they've been seen a lot or not,  and people relatively new to Pogo get to see a bunch of this stuff for the very first time! Yay!

 February 22, 1953

March 1, 1953

I See My Doody an' I Dood It

Here it is Sunday, and you know that on Sunday I like to post up a Pogo Sunday, cuz Sunday just don't seem right without a Sunday Pogo.

BUT, this week there tain't no color at all, and that's alright, cuz this is a special original Sunday drawing, from Kelly's prime time period of 1953. This detailed scan was sent over from Holland by a new friend, Gerben Valkema—a cartoonist of delightful work, who credits Kelly as an influence, having this art hanging over his drawing board!

I am especially delighted to see this artwork, because it just so happens that it's from my favorite sequence of Kelly's—with elf-like human beans, the Fountain of Youth, and some of the lushest brushwork to come out of the Okefenokee. This is from the fabulous arc reprinted in Pogo's Sunday Punch. I recommend that those of you who have that book to get it out and compare the panels to this strip and you'll see that, as is usual for the books, some of the Sunday panels were edited out—such as this one:

As I told Gerben, Pogo's Sunday Punch is one of the books that I had with me when I met Kelly, and I opened it to this page when we talked about the fairy tale aspect of Pogo. It was the page with this artwork that he held open as he refreshed his memory.

And now we can get close-up to see Kelly's lush brush, layered over his spontaneous blue penciling, and marvel at his comic art genius.

Thanks Gerben! What a treat!

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

Happy 1951, 1952, and 1953

Yes, I posted this first image last year, but it's too beauty to not pull up again.

Further below are New Year's Day strips from 1951, 1952, and 1953 — my three favorite years of Kelly art and story, not that all the other years weren't great. I know you've seen these before, so sue me (actually don't, I've got too much on my calendar as it is).

Above, yes, at that time Kelly was signing some funny little names — a different one per strip.

Stay 'tooned—cool stuff coming up in 2011.