Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Serious Business of the Funny Pages

For nearly 30 years, from 1948 to 1975, Walt Kelly's Pogo was one of the smartest strips in the funnies...

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketLaden with trenchant, often political, satire and featuring a cast estimated at over 300 characters, Kelly never shied away from the hot stories of the day like his more anodyne brethren.

In his most memorable battle Kelly took on Senator Joseph McCarthy at the height of his reign of terror as the chair of the House Un-American Activities Committee; he also parodied Kruschev, Castro, Nixon, and Hoover (as in J. Edgar).

In the strip shown at right (prepared for Earth Day in 1971) Pogo and his friend Porkypine meet the problem of litter and environmental degradation head-on, and pull no punches.

Walt Kelly - who died in October 1973 - was born on this day in 1913.
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1 comment:

michael sean morris said...

Wow. The more I look at it, the less I like the title of this post. I was going to call it "Pogo Sticks It To The Man" or some such, but maybe I'm just going insane.

Any suggestions?