 | Pogo PossumOriginal Medium: Comic books Published by: Dell Comics First Appeared: 1941 Creator: Walt Kelly image: © Walt Kelly estate. |
Walt Kelly worked on a variety of Dell Comics' licensed features, including Gremlins, Our Gang, and Donald Duck. When Dell decided to try a comic containing original characters, Animal Comics, he became a contributor with its first issue, which hit the stands in 1941. Kelly's story, "Albert Takes the Cake," introduced Pogo Possum — but few of today's readers would recognize Pogo as he appeared back then; it would be a couple of years before he evolved into his more familiar form.
Nor was the Possum quick to achieve starring status. It was 1945 before he shared billing with Albert the Alligator, or appeared on the comic's cover — and when he did make his first cover appearance, he was scarcely noticeable in the picture's background. His name continued to appear under Albert's when they shared billing in two issues of Dell's Four Color Comics (1946 and '47). It was 1949 before he finally began to star in comic books of his own, in a Dell series that lasted until 1954.
By that time, Pogo had begun to star in his second major venue, newspaper strips. On Oct. 4, 1948, the Possum began as a daily strip in The New York Star. It was then that Kelly's political views began to be noticed in what had formerly been strictly a children's feature. (In comic books, however, Pogo remained free of politics as long as the series lasted.)
Less than four months after the strip's debut, the Star folded. But Kelly had become fond of the daily strip form, and soon succeeded in selling the feature to Post-Hall Syndicate. The syndicated Pogo began on May 16, 1949. Kelly wrote and drew it, with the humor becoming ever more topical, until his death in 1973. His wife, Selby, continued it for a time, but it ended in 1975. The syndicated version achieved a rare distinction for Kelly — critical acclaim, as had earlier been won by Krazy Kat and Barnaby, combined with a level of popularity with the general public which, while never really approaching that of Blondie or Hagar the Horrible, was nonetheless far higher than that of those other highly respected strips. It also, in 1951, netted Kelly a Reuben Award.
Pogo's third major venue was a long series of trade paperback books, beginning in 1950. At first, these simply reprinted the syndicated strip — but with the 1953 publication of Uncle Pogo So-So Stories, they began to diversify, with many featuring original material of a sort that would be hard to fit in either a newspaper strip or a comic book. Some have longer stories — today, they would be called graphic novels. Some show the characters reciting Kelly's poetry. Some contain acid-tongued political commentary, while others are simple flights of fancy. All are highly prized by collectors, and are seldom reprinted.
Pogo was animated only once, in a prime-time TV special during the 1970s. Chuck Jones, known for his faithful adaptations of stories like Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Rudyard Kipling's Rikki Tikki Tavi, produced the show; yet, it failed to capture the special charm of Kelly's strip, and is seldom rerun.
Another thing that failed to capture Kelly's charm was an attempted revival of the strip. Walt Kelly's Pogo, by Larry Doyle and Neal Sternecky, ran during the late 1980s and early '90s, but failed to find acceptance among Kelly's die-hard fans.
Today, Fantagraphics Books is reprinting the daily strip from its beginning. With only one person able to write and draw authentic Pogo, and with that person no longer available for the task, this is the strip's only possible future.
