Post-Pandemonia

Post-Pandemonia, 1969, Kelly is having fun. Check it out at Whirled of Kelly.

Creator of Pogo

I've pre-ordered this book from Amazon. I hope you all will want to also.

Up and Walking

Sorry it took so long to get started, but the new Walt Kelly site is up and, well, walking. Look for it and please follow it at Whirled of Kelly.

I hope to see you there.

SERIOUSLY

Howland and Kelly 

(sounds like the name of a radio team show, doesn't it?)

Really, serious thought is being given this new 'blog. Just need a bit of time to organize the material.

In addition, I've got two long distance trips I need to make in the next three weeks, so my plan is to have the new 'blog up and running by November 7. I would dearly love to make it sooner, but all things considered, that's the way it is. I still have a few things to share on this 'blog, so keep checking back, but ESPECIALLY, come back around Saturday, November 7 to find the link to (working title) Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Years with Kelly.

Thinkin' Out Loud

?

Not that any of you need to worry about it, but I'm still trying to decide some things about the new Kelly 'blog. 

Please indulge me while I think this 'out loud'.

I was hoping to bring over the Sunday, Kelly Sunday strips from The Pictorial Arts 'blog, but those are from 1964 and aligned with the calendar of this year. I can give up that gimmick and post them back to back here, but I also have strips earlier, from 1963, that really deserve a showing as well, and from 1965 (not to mention the rest of 1967 plus '68, '69, '70 and '71). So a big question is: Do we want strict continuity for the Sunday strips? Or maybe 'story arcs', of a few weeks here and there? I lean toward that concept so that I can also throw in a whole bunch of other Kelly material between story arcs. You know, each Sunday will have its date in its file name, as always, so if you're saving em, they'll all go into order as you dump em into a folder, or folders, if you want to do em by year. So you can still have continuity on your end of the deal.

I think I've just convinced myself to do it that way. 

I'm going to post some non-Pogo Kelly stuff here and there, cuz we all love Kelly, right? Not JUST Pogo, please tell me that.

OK, so, well, I've talked it out and feel better for it. If any of you have some strong feelings about something or other that I should know before I kickstart the new 'blog, do please let me know. But really, even if you've seen a lot of this stuff here and there, like the comic books, or the special stories from the books, I promise to make the scans big and clean and worthy of Kelly, so it might be fun looking at it all again. 

And who knows? Maybe I'll post something you've never seen before. Wouldn't that be fun?

Oop, Alors!

Well, this is it. We're at the end of our story for Pandemonia/Post-Pandemonia. The story ends here, because there is no reference to Pandemonia in the Sunday strips ever again, and in fact from this point Basher is never again seen in the Sundays as well. 

What happened in Kelly's mind that he could ignore the previous year and a half of continuity and just go back to business as usual?

And where do WE go from here? 

Well, I'm going to start another 'blog for Kelly's work, with lots of stuff that many of you may not have ever seen, but I'm still giving some serious thought to the format and contents. Please weigh in on what you might want to see while I do some prepping for the next Kelly volume.

That Strange Strawberry

Tee Hee and Sympathy

 Even the most ordinary of Pogo Sundays is full of fun and frolic, and even ordinary coloration makes the art even prettier.

See There?

You've all been extraordinarily polite in letting these dailies play out without complaint, as they have been a bit repetitive and dare I say, dull.  But, um. . . we're done with the dailies as of—here—folks. This is where I cut when I passed on the rest of my daily collection. Who knew back in the 80s that I'd ever want to post em on a thing called an internet. But at least I saved the really good stuff--wow--I did something right.

I've got three more Sundays to post, and then Pogo in Pandemonia will draw to a close with some final thoughts.

The thing is, I never got rid of my Sunday collection, so they go on for quite a long stretch. But they never refer to Pandemonia in any way. Even Basher will just up and disappear, never to be seen again.

So, I really think the Pandemonia blog will stand alone, here, for new fans to discover and explore, at least until the reprint books catch up. After three more Sunday posts I will discuss my plans for the NEW Walt Kelly blog and hopefully get some more feedback from you all, now that you've had a little more time to consider, um, how we'd like to see this go on.

See you in three.

Gack

 

Slab the Liverwoots

A Fine Aptitude

Truth is Oft a Splendid Disguise

 

Bosh!

 

Dogmatically

Categorically

Watching Those Outlanders

Oh, world-wide, some things never change.

Comin' Like a Valkyrie

Newspaper art was the ultimate of ephemera—read it this morning, wrap your fish in it tonight, so not much printer effort went into nuances of ink. Fortunately Kelly's art was recognized as worth saving, but always in black and white anthologies.

Those dod dummed yellow backgrounds in every panel subtract character from the page design. Kelly's art deserved an art director's deft touch, I say. 

I retract my belief that any new collections of Pogo Sundays should use the original colors of the strips. I go on record as saying that an art director with great sensibility should have the pages re-colored, taking great care in using palettes as befitting Kelly's great artistry.

The Ornery Guy

Now, how in the world, all those years ago, could Porky—I mean Kelly—be writing about me, now—today? How could he know what kind of ornery guy I em?

Secret Martian Automaton

Ah yes. Perhaps this is where Bill Watterson got inspiration for Calvin's death-defying coaster wagon rides? Perhaps not. But, perhaps.

Yes? Yes? Yes?

Yes, superstition can be retroactive.

There Y'Go Again

Grab Flag the Flamin' Flack?

Ah, a full menu of Kelly-speak.

Gee Whiz, Pal

OK, now we get an ample demonstration of the Kelly pre-use of the Seinfeld concept, 'a show about . . . nothing!'

I Be Dod Dummed

Kelly was so unique to the comics page. Who else would go on and on about this kinda stuff? 

Of all cartoonists, one would have been tempted to ask the cartoonist's dreaded question, "Mr. Kelly, where DO you get your ideas?"

Thing to Do is Face Him

It's My Fate

Sorry, this time we really do have to skip a strip, between this and the previous. Lost, it's gone, it is no more. Somewhere in the world it may reside, but not here, not now. It seems to have disappeared along with Miz Beaver. I am so sorry. We can survive, we can get along perfectly well without it .  .  .  . stop looking at me like that.

Gotta Be Believable

Yes, this is how most of us reason things out.

Friends Who are Out of this World

Kelly was really sticking to the same topic, moving ahead with no speed at all.

Ain't No Wild Horse

Heaven Stone the Crows

Absolutely Insane

Owl is more like us than we care to admit.

Bold as Brass

The inside of that whale must be sumpin' else.

So Rare

YAY! Ol' Doc Noah in the Okefenokee!

And YAY! Pogo on a pogo stick! How cool is that?! Walt Kelly was 6 years old when the pogo stick was patented in 1919. 

You're Full of Glomberries

Most Marvelous Thing

Stop Cringing as a Rascal

What a lovely chair. It could have been an any-old-chair, but not for Kelly.

Tell the Mayor to Swallow a Rock

Here's a crowded, funny and (as owl sez) lively Sunday. Kelly had a little more time on his hands again, and boy—we appreciate it. 

Cheerful Charlies are cheerful to a fault. Charlie, this post is dedicated to you.

Ready for Any Contingency

Behold . . In the Bayou

Hmm, that ufo looks familiar.

Glad Somebody Believes I'm Me

Always something to fret over and worry about. A familiar past-time.

A Manufactured Creature

?

Luck and Patience

I haven't had to do this til now, and I really apologize, but here I'm posting a strip that I had to skip earlier because I thought it was lost. I found it, turned on its side in its filing box. 

It's a pretty funny strip. So in the interest of completists everywhere, I'm including it now. If you're saving these, just drop this in with the others and the file name-date will automatically put it where it belongs in the continuity.

Sorry. Thanks. Carry on.

Oh, and look at the syndicate cutline--The Hall Syndicake Ink. Don't know if that was Kelly or his inking assistant, but along with the rest of the strip, it's pretty funny.

The Martian Substitute

Tadaaa. So see, we take up right where the book left off.

Coal or Licorice?

I hate it when I get anthracite stuck 'tween my teeth.

So, this is the way the book Prehysterical Pogo ends, the last strip of the last page.

But hey, we've got my clippings, so we get to end it a little further down the road. Hang in there folks.

Behold, Grassputin, My Son!

Just the Sunday follies, folks, no hidden messages or deep meanin's here.

Salt and Flour On a Stick

There's a lesson here . . . some . . . where . . .

Need One More

Where everyone knows your name . . .

Only One of His Kind

Albert's being a little hard on LBJ.

Come Clean, Pogo

And you know, these news guys that don't know who Pogo is have been coming around for 10 years at this point.