For other uses, see Pogo (disambiguation).

Pogo was the title of a long-running daily comic strip created by Walt Kelly, as well as the name of its principal character. Pogo, set in the Georgia section of the Okefenokee Swamp, often engaged in social and political satire through the adventures of the strip's funny animals. The strip also used much slapstick physical humor; the same series of strips could often be enjoyed by young children and by savvy adults on different levels.

History

The characters of Pogo and Albert were created by Kelly in 1943, for issue #1 of Animal Comics, in a story called "Albert Takes The Cake." Both were created as comic foils for a young black boy named Bumbazine, who also lived in the Swamp. Kelly found it hard to write for the human boy, preferring to use the animals to their full comic potential, and eventually phased Bumbazine out. Pogo quickly took center stage, assuming the straight man role that Bumbazine had occupied.

In 1948, Kelly was hired to draw political cartoons for the short-lived New York Star newspaper, and decided to do a daily comic strip featuring the characters he had created for Animal Comics. Pogo debuted on October 4 of that year, and ran continuously until the paper folded on January 28, 1949. On May 16 of the same year, the strip was picked up for national distribution by Post-Hall Syndicate, and ran continuously until Kelly's death from diabetes in 1973. Kelly's wife, Selby, and assistant, Don Morgan, continued the strip to fulfill contractual obligations, before retiring it in 1975. The Los Angeles Times revived the strip under the title Walt Kelly's Pogo in 1989, written at first by Larry Doyle and Neil Sternecky, then by Kelly's son, Peter; but interest waned and the revived strip ran only a few years.

Formula

Instead of the usual "gag-a-day" format of most strips, a single Pogo daily strip typically had three or four puns, double entendres, and occasional in-jokes (visual as well as verbal) as well as the main gag or situation of the day.

In addition, each strip would work its way into one or more concurrently running continuing storylines, successfully melding both the humor and soap opera style strips popular at the time. A reader could pick up Pogo each day and laugh at the jokes, or could continue reading every day and pick up the full story. Often times, Kelly would suddenly drop in a non-sequitur of sorts with throwaway one-shot gag strips that didn't follow the regular continuity.

These over-arching storylines were best seen when the strips were eventually collected and edited into book form by publisher Simon and Schuster. In addition, Kelly would provide new linking panels, and sometimes entirely new stories for these collections. As time went on, Kelly would produce entire books of original material, including original illustrations, verse, and short stories, to be sold alongside the reprint collections.

Characters

No definitive list has ever been made of every character that appeared in Pogo over the 27 years the strip ran, but the best estimates put the total cast at over 300. Kelly would create characters as he needed them, and discarded them when they ceased to be funny, or had served their purpose. Most characters were at least nominally male, but a few female characters appeared regularly. Kelly has been quoted as saying that all the characters reflect different aspects of his personality.

Even though most characters had full names, in many cases other characters would refer to them by nicknames or simply by their species. For example, Howland Owl was almost always referred to as "Owl." Churchy LaFemme, a turtle, would occasionally be referred to as "Turtle" (or "Turkle," in Swamp-speak). Beauregard was usually be referred to as "Hound Dog," and so on.

The main recurring characters in the strip included:

Pogo: an opossum (or "possum"), Kelly's lead character served as an everyman, sharing simple homespun wisdom with the strip's readers. Pogo was the most honest, and wisest, character in the swamp, and usually did his best to stay out of the harebrained schemes dreamt up by other characters, preferring to go fishing in flat-bottomed, slab-sided scows (many of which were named after Kelly's friends, family, and people he wanted to honor in some small way).

Albert: an alligator. Usually the comic foil for Pogo, Albert was rather dimwitted and found himself bumbling into one catastrophe after another. Having an alligator's voracious appetite, Albert would often eat things indiscriminately, and was accused on more than one occasion of eating another character.

Churchy LaFemme: a turtle. His name is a play on the French phrase "cherchez la femme" originated by Alexandre Dumas, meaning "look for the woman" (or, as Garry Trudeau translated it, "keep an eye peeled for broads"). Superstitious to a fault (for example, panicking when he discovers that Friday the 13th falls on a Wednesday that month), Churchy usually tries to avoid trouble but always ends up caught in whatever the current ongoing scheme is. Churchy may have once been a pirate, as for the longest time he wore a buccaneer's hat and was sometimes referred to as "Captain LaFemme."

Howland Owl: Owl is the swamp's resident scientist, and not a very good one. In his earliest appearances, he wore a pointed wizard's cap. The most learned man in the swamp, he once tried to open a school but had to close it due to lack of interest. Most of the harebrained schemes come from the mind of Owl.

Porkypine: porcupine, usually referred to as "Porky," a misanthrope and cynic. Porky never smiled in the strip (except for one time when the lights were out). Pogo's best friend, and probably the second wisest character in the strip, Porky has two weaknesses. One is his infatuation for Mis Mam'selle, and the other is his complete inability to properly tell a joke. Porky also has a doppleganger, Uncle Baldwin, who wears a trenchcoat to hide the fact that he is bald from the neck down. Porky's inability to properly tell a joke is a recurring gag.

Beauregard Fontleroy Bugleboy: a dog and occasional policeman. Loyal to a fault -- many faults, actually.

Miss Mam'selle Hepzibah: a beautiful French skunk (modelled after Kelly's mistress, who would later become his second wife), Miz Mam'selle is sought by a number of men in the swamp (most notably Porky), but she only has eyes for Pogo.

Miz Beaver: a beaver, washerwoman for the Swamp, and best friend to (and occasional match-maker for) Miss Mam'selle.

Deacon Mushrat: the local holy man, the Deacon speaks in Old English style gothic lettering. He usually ends up playing straight man to the other con-men that live in the Swamp.

Molester Mole (nee Mole MacCarony): usually referred to simply as "Mole," is a nearsighted grifter living in the Swamp. Modeled somewhat after recluse Howard Hughes (early on he carried a spray bottle full of disinfectant wherever he went), Mole is always looking for a get-rich quick scheme. He is also often portrayed as intolerant, and used as a parody of right-wing reactionaries.

P.T. Bridgeport: a bear and circus man, modeled after P.T. Barnum, the most famous resident of Kelly's boyhood home of Bridgeport, Connecticut. His speech baloons resemble classic circus posters.

Seminole Sam: a fox and con man. He takes his name from the Seminole tribe of Native Americans.

Satire and politics

Kelly always used Pogo to comment on the human condition, and from time to time, this drifted into politics. Pogo ran for President (or was forced to run by his friends, although he never actually campaigned) in 1952, 1956, and 1960. Kelly used these fake campaigns as excuses to hit the stump himself for voter registration campaigns, with the slogan "Pogo says: If you can't vote my way, vote anyway, but VOTE!"

Perhaps the most famous example of the strip's satirical edge came in 1953, when Kelly introduced a polecat character named "Simple J. Malarkey" -- a caricature of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Comic historians noted that this move showed significant courage on Kelly's part considering the influence the politician wielded at that time, and the possibility of potentially scaring away subscribing newspapers.

As time went on, other popular figures found themselves caricaturized in the pages of Pogo. By the time the 1968 Presidential Campaign rolled around, it seemed the entire Swamp was populated by P.T. Bridgeport's "wind-up candidates," including representations of George Romney, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, George Wallace, and Robert F. Kennedy. When the strips from this time were collected in Equal Time For Pogo, the Publisher wanted to edit out the strips including Kennedy's doppleganger, but Kelly insisted on keeping them in to pay honor to the slain candidate.

In the early 1970s, Kelly used a collection of characters called the Bulldogs to mock the secrecy and paranoia of the Nixon Administration. The Bulldogs included dopplegangers of J. Edgar Hoover, John Mitchell, and Spiro Agnew. Always referred to, but never seen, was "The Chief," who we are led to believe was Nixon himself.

When the strip was revived in 1989, Doyle and Sternecky attempted to recreate this tradition with an old moose that looked like Ronald Reagan, and a jackrabbit resembling George H. W. Bush.

"We have met the enemy...."

Probably the most famous Pogo quote is "we have met the enemy and he is us." More than any other words written by Kelly, it perfectly sums up his attitude towards the foibles of mankind and the nature of the human condition.

The quote first appeared in a lengthier form in A Word To The Fore, the foreword of the book The Pogo Papers. Since the strips reprinted in Papers included the first appearances of Mole and Simple J. Malarkey, beginning Kelly's attacks on McCarthyism, Kelly used the foreword to defend his actions:

"Specializations and markings of individuals everywhere abound in such profusion that major idiosyncracies can be properly ascribed to the mass. Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. It is just unfortunate that in the clumsy hands of a cartoonist all traits become ridiculous, leading to a certain amount of self-conscious expostulation and the desire to join battle.

"There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.

"Forward!"

The finalized version of the quote appeared in a 1970 anti-pollution poster for Earth Day, and was repeated a year later in the strip reprinted here.

In 1998, OGPI ("Okefenokee, Glee, and Perloo, Incorporated," the corporation formed by the Kelly family to administer all things Pogo) dedicated a plaque in Waycross, GA commemorating the quote.

Swamp-speak

The predominant language in Pogo is referred to by many as "swamp-speak." It is, essentially, a rural, Southern U.S. English dialect with creative spelling and pronunciation. The dialect and phonetics used are very similar to those used by Mark Twain in his novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Kelly had a good ear for language, and often created new words to fit his characters (note some of the Quotes, below), including an exclamation, "rowrbazzle".

Other media

Pogo quickly branched out from the comic pages into other media, although not quite to the degree of many contemporary comic strips. Some attribute the comparative paucity of material to Kelly's pickiness about the quality of merchandise attached to his characters.

Music

An LP called Songs Of The Pogo was released in 1956, collecting a number of Kelly's verses (most of which had previously appeared in Pogo books) set to music by both Kelly and orchestra leader Norman Monath.

While professional singers provided most of the vocals on the album, Kelly himself contributed lead vocals on two tracks: Go Go Pogo (for which he also composed the music), and Lines Upon A Tranquil Brow. He also contributed a spoken portion for Man's Best Friend.

Songs Of The Pogo was released on compact disc in 2004, including previously unreleased material.

Animation

Three animated cartoons were created based on Pogo.

The first, Pogo's Special Birthday Special, was produced by animator Chuck Jones in honor of the Comic Strip's twentieth anniversary in 1968. It starred June Foray as the voice of both Pogo and Miss Mam'selle. The general consensus is that the special, produced for NBC television, failed to capture the charm of the comic strip and is generally dismissed by fans.

Walt and Selby Kelly themselves wrote and animated We Have Met the Enemy, And He Is Us in 1970, largely due to Kelly's dissatisfaction with the Birthday Special. The short, with its anti-pollution message, was animated by hand, and some have blamed the strain of the project on worsening Kelly's health and hastening his death three years later. The storyboards for the cartoon formed the first half of the book of the same title.

In 1980, the motion picture I Go Pogo was released. Directed by Marc Paul Chinoy, this stop motion animation (or "Claymation") picture featured the voices of Skip Hinnant as Pogo; Ruth Buzzi as Miz Beaver and Miss Mam'sell; Stan Freberg as Albert; Arnold Stang as Churchy; Jonathan Winters as Porky, Mole, and Wiley Catt; and Vincent Price as the Deacon. While some fans have embraced the movie, others have dismissed it as (as with the Birthday Special) lacking Kelly's wit and charm.

None of the three animated versions of Pogo are currently available on home video.

Quotes

• "We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunity."

• "Don't take life so serious - it ain't nohow permanent."

• Deck us all with Boston Charlie
  Walla Walla, Wash, and Kalamazoo!
  Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
  Swaller dollar cauliflower Alleygaroo!
  Don't we know archaic barrel,
  Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou.
  Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
  Boola Boola Pensacoola Hullabaloo!

Collections

The 45 books published by Simon & Schuster

• Pogo (1951)
• I Go Pogo (1952)
• Uncle Pogo So-So Stories (1953)
• The Pogo Papers (1953)
• The Pogo Stepmother Goose (1954)
• The Incompleat Pogo (1954)
• The Pogo Peek-A-Book (1955)
• Potluck Pogo (1955)
• The Pogo Sunday Book (1956)
• The Pogo Party (1956)
• Songs of the Pogo (1956)
• Pogo's Sunday Punch (1957)
• Positively Pogo (1957)
• The Pogo Sunday Parade (1958)
• G.O. Fizzickle Pogo (1958)
• Ten Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Years With Pogo (1959)
• The Pogo Sunday Brunch (1959)
• Pogo Extra Election Special (1960)
• Beau Pogo (1960)
• Gone Pogo (1961)
• Pogo Г  la Sundae (1961)
• Instant Pogo (1962)
• The Jack Acid Society Black Book (1962)
• The Pogo Puce Stamp Catalog (1963)
• Deck Us All With Boston Charlie (1963)
• The Return of Pogo (1965)
• The Pogo Poop Book (1966)
• Prehysterical Pogo (In Pandemonia) (1967)
• Equal Time for Pogo (1968)
• Pogo: Prisoner of Love (1969)
• Impollutable Pogo (1970)
• Pogo: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us (1972)
• Pogo Revisited (1974), a compilation of Instant Pogo, The Jack Acid Society Black Book and The Pogo Poop Book
• Pogo Re-Runs (1974), a compilation of Pogo, The Pogo Party and Pogo Extra Election Special
• Pogo Romances Recaptured (1975), a compilation of Pogo: Prisoner of Love and The Incompleat Pogo
• Pogo's Bats and the Belles Free (1976)
• Pogo's Body Politic (1976)
• A Pogo Panorama (1977), a compilation of The Pogo Stepmother Goose, The Pogo Peek-A-Book and Uncle Pogo So-So Stories
• Pogo's Double Sundae (1978), a compilation of The Pogo Sunday Parade and The Pogo Sunday Brunch
• Pogo's Will Be That Was (1979), a compilation of G.O. Fizzickle Pogo and Positively Pogo
• The Best of Pogo (1982)
• Pogo Even Better (1984)
• Outrageously Pogo (1985)
• Pluperfect Pogo (1987)
• Phi Beta Pogo (1989)

Books released by other publishers

• Pogo For President: Selections from I Go Pogo (Crest Books, 1964)
• The Pogo Candidature (Sheed, Andrews & McMeel, 1976)
• Pogofiles for Pogophiles (Spring Hollow Books, 1992)
• Complete Pogo Comics: Pogo & Albert, volumes 1-4 (Eclipse Comics, 19xx) [reprints of pre-strip comic book stories, unfinished)
• Pogo, volumes 1-11 (Fantagraphics Books, 1994-2000)
• Pogopedia (Spring Hollow Books, 2001)

Dell Publishing Company comic books featuring Pogo

• Animal Comics, issues 17, 23, 24, 25 (1947)
• Pogo Possum, issues 1-16 (1949-1954)
• Albert the Alligator and Pogo Possum, Dell Four Color issues 105 and 148 (1945-1946)
• Pogo Parade (1953)

Works influenced by Pogo

Walt Kelly's work has influenced a number of prominent comic artists.

• In the Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, cartoonist Bill Watterson listed Pogo as one of the three greatest influences on his own acclaimed strip, Calvin and Hobbes. (The two other strips were Peanuts and Krazy Kat. In a perfect example of 'great minds think alike', Pogo itself referenced Krazy Kat in many ways during its run, including a series of strips devoted to examining that immortal symbol of the earlier strip: the brick.)

• Pogo has also been cited as an influence by Jeff MacNelly (Shoe), Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury), Bill Holbrook (Kevin and Kell), and Mark O'Hare (Citizen Dog), among others.

• Alan Moore, most notable for writing the graphic novel Watchmen, made the January 1985 issue of Saga of the Swamp Thing (titled "Pog") a tribute to Pogo.

• Jeff Smith has acknowledged that the artwork and writing style of his Bone comic book series were strongly influenced by Walt Kelly's style. Smith and Peter Kelly contributed artwork of the cast of Bone shaking hands with Pogo and Albert for the 1998 "Pogofest" celebration.

• Jim Henson acknowledged Kelly as a major influence on his sense of humor, and based some of his early Muppet designs on Kelly drawings. One episode of The Muppet Show's first season included a performance of "Don't Sugar Me" from Songs Of The Pogo.

• Wally Wood, a longtime illustrator for MAD Magazine, parodied Kelly's characters on several occasions, most notably in a 1955 offering entitled "Gopo Gossum".

• In the Star Trek: Voyager episode The Year of Hell, the Pogo Paradox is a paradox in temporal mechanics in which one goes back in time with the purpose of preventing a specific event, only to end up as the reason that event occurred in the first place. It was refered to as the Pogo Paradox because of Pogo's famous quote, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

External links

• "Oh-fishul" Pogo website
• I Go Pogo - fan sitesv:Pogo