Enough to Make a Man Run Away

1966 and '67 was a remarkable period of work for Kelly, with not 'just' Pandemonia, but a high water mark for his artistry throughout, with beautiful rendering and surplus of details. In the 1966 strip directly below you'll see that he didn't need to show Rackety Coon playing ball or the bird and candlestick perched above Mister 'Coon. But doing that adds to the charm of our viewing!

And it's fun to pull up a strip, below, from 10 years before, that supplied a similar gripe of Mister 'Coon.  I think most of us married mens have felt like this at one time or t'other (only for a moment, dear).

July 6, 1957

No Doubt

I jes' loves seeing Kelly's artwork in its original state, blue pencil and lush brush strokes. There were times when some strips might have had an assistant's help here and there, but it was Kelly shining through it all!

January 31, 1954

More or Less Magnificent

On this date back in '62 'twas a Sunday. And NOW, thanks to our Friend-in-Kelly 'Hun', we can fill in the blanks with a semblance of Sunday strips derived from his collection of flotsam and jetsam of original art scans and less than perfect digital scans of old microfiche.

I've been derelict in not sharing previous Sundays from that collection for January and February. Should I do a post catching up with those for all you completists out there?

And, as always, thanks HUN, for your commitment to Kelly!

February 25, 1962

Had a Full Day Lookin' at a Toad . . .

Such a joy to see Kelly original art!

October 31, 1970

Let Nothing You Dismay

I never get tired of seeing Kelly's original art, specially when it's festive!

Christmas 1964

Best Cartoon Book Cover Art Drawing Ever Made.

Many of you have seen this Simon & Schuster printed book cover before, but take a gander at the original art/original pasteup of the art in high resolution. This has got to be THE best cartoon book cover art drawing ever made.

Hoo Ha Hee Haw

Friend-in-Kelly 'Alimentary' sent over a link to see the original art for the previous post, demonstrating that Kelly's ink work was still in the groove. AND we get to see the extra panel from the 3 tier format. 

Thank you Alimentary and thank you to Attempted Bloggery for posting this last year!

There is something really great about a Kelly original, between the blue penciling that shows part of the thought process and the lush inking that otherwise sometimes get obscured with colored dots and such on the printed page.

This is the original art for the strip just previously posted, along with the 'extra panel' that comes with the landscape format. Last post's comments gave us a link to view it, but Friend-in-Kelly Jerry Keslensky was nice enough to send over a jpeg of it, so we could present it here on the main stage.

Pogo — June 27, 1971 — original art

You Kin Smile an' Smile an' YET Be a Villain

Original art by Walt Kelly is wonderful to behold. Between the blue under-penciling and the lush inking (not to mention the art style itself, the joke, oh, and the lettering), each original is a joy to study.

Here are two such originals, courtesy of Richard Davidson, friend of this blog, who has sent over a number of items, and I'm just now getting around to these. More to come from Richard, as well as our other great friends who have sent over Kelly goodies.

Happy Sunday, Kelly Sunday!

 November 29, 1955

February 21, 1950

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!