Pogo (comic strip)

History

Dell Comics

''The New York Star''

Syndication

1989–1993 revival

Setting

Cast of characters

Permanent residents

• Pogo Possum: An amiable, humble, philosophical, personable, everyman opossum. Kelly described Pogo as "the reasonable, patient, softhearted, naive, friendly person we all think we are" in a 1969 TV Guide interview. The wisest resident of the swamp, he is one of the few major characters with sense enough to avoid trouble. Though he prefers to spend his time fishing or picnicking, his kind nature often gets him reluctantly entangled in his neighbors' escapades. He is often the unwitting target of matchmaking by Miz Beaver, and has repeatedly been forced by the swamp's residents to run for president, always against his will. He wears a simple red and black striped shirt and a crushed yellow fishing hat. His kitchen is well known around the swamp for being fully stocked, and many characters impose upon him for meals, taking advantage of his generous nature.
• Albert Alligator: Exuberant, dimwitted, irascible, and egotistical, Albert is often the comic foil for Pogo, the rival of Beauregard and Barnstable, or the fall guy for Howland and Churchy. The cigar-chomping Albert is as extroverted and garrulous as Pogo is modest and unassuming, and their many sequences together tend to underscore their balanced, contrasting chemistry—like a seasoned comedy team. Albert's creation actually preceded Pogo's, and his brash, bombastic personality sometimes seems in danger of taking over the strip, as he once dominated the comic books. Having an alligator's voracious appetite, Albert often eats things indiscriminately, and is accused on more than one occasion of having eaten another character. Albert is the troop leader of Camp Siberia, the local den of the "Cheerful Charlies", whose motto is "Cheerful to the Death!" Even though Albert has been known to take advantage of Pogo's generosity, he is ferociously loyal to Pogo and can, in quieter moments, be found scrubbing him in the tub or cutting his hair. Like all Kelly's characters, Albert looks great in costume. This sometimes leads to a classic Albert line : "Funny how a good-lookin' fella look handsome in anything he throw on!"
• Howland Owl: The swamp's self-appointed leading authority, a self-proclaimed "expert" scientist, "perfessor", physician, explorer, astronomer, witch doctor, and anything else he thinks will generate respect for his knowledge. He wears horn-rimmed eyeglasses and, in his earliest appearances, a pointed wizard's cap festooned with stars and crescent moons Thinking himself the most learned creature in the swamp, he once tried to open a school but had to close it for lack of interest. Actually, he is unable to tell the difference between learning, old wives' tales, and the use of big words. Most of the harebrained ideas characteristically come from the mind of Owl. His best pal is Churchy, although their friendship can be rocky at times, often given to whims and frequently volatile.
• Churchill "Churchy" LaFemme: A mud turtle by trade; he enjoys composing songs and poems, often with ridiculous and abrasive lyrics and nonsense rhymes. His name is a play on the French phrase Cherchez la femme,. Perhaps the least sensible of the major players, Churchy is superstitious to a fault, for example, panicking when he discovers that Friday the 13th falls on a Wednesday that month. Churchy is usually an active partner in Howland's outlandish schemes, and prone to confrontation with him when they run afoul. Churchy first appeared as buccaneer in Animal Comics #13, with a pirate's hat. He was sometimes referred to as "Cap'n LaFemme". This seems incongruous for the guileless Churchy, however, who is far more likely to play-act with Owl at being a pantomime pirate than the genuine article.
• Beauregard Bugleboy: A hound dog of undetermined breed; scion of the Cat Bait fortune and occasional Keystone Cops-attired constable and Fire Brigade chief. He sees himself as a noble, romantic figure, often given to flights of oratory while narrating his own heroic deeds. He periodically appears with "blunked out" eyes playing "Sandy"—alongside Pogo or Albert when they don a curly wig, impersonating "Li'l Arf an' Nonny",. Beauregard also occasionally dons a trench coat and fedora, and squints his eyes and juts out his jaw when impersonating a detective in the style of Dick Tracy. However, his more familiar attire is a simple dog collar—or in later strips, a striped turtleneck sweater and fez. His canine revision of Kelly's annual Christmas burlesque, Deck Us All with Boston Charlie, emerges as "Bark Us All Bow-wows of Folly", although he can't get anyone else to sing it that way. Usually just called "Beauregard" or "ol' Houn' Dog", his full name is Beauregard Chaulmoogra Frontenac de Montmingle Bugleboy.
• Porky Pine: A porcupine, a misanthrope and cynic—prickly on the outside but with a heart of gold. The deadpan Porky never smiles in the strip. Pogo's best friend, equally honest, reflective and introverted, and with a keen eye both for goodness and for human foibles. The swamp's version of Eeyore, Porkypine is grumpy and melancholy by nature, and sometimes speaks of his "annual suicide attempt". He wears an undersized, plaid Pinky Lee-type hat and a perpetual frown, and is rarely seen without both. Porky has two weaknesses: his infatuation for Miz Ma'm'selle Hepzibah and a complete inability to tell a joke. He unfailingly arrives on Pogo's doorstep with a flower every Christmas morning, although he's always as embarrassed by the sentiment as Pogo is touched. He has a nephew named Tacky and a look-alike relation named Uncle Baldwin.
• Miz Ma'm'selle Hepzibah: A beautiful, coy French skunk modeled after a woman who later became Kelly's second wife. Hepzibah has long been courted by Porky, Beauregard and others but rarely seems to notice. Sometimes she pines for Pogo, and isn't too shy about it. She speaks with a heavy burlesque French dialect and tends to be overdramatic. The unattached Hepzibah has a married sister with 35 youngsters, including a nephew named Humperdunk. She is captivatingly sweet, frequently baking pies or preparing picnic baskets for her many admirers, and has every fellow in the swamp in love with her at one time or another. She is usually attired in a dainty floral skirt and parasol, is flirty but proper, and enjoys attention.
• Miz Beaver: A no-nonsense, corncob pipe-smoking washerwoman; a traditional mother and "widder", clad in a country bonnet and apron. Uneducated but with homespun good sense, she "takes nothin' from nobody", and can be daunting when riled. She is Hepzibah's best friend and occasional matchmaker, although she disapproves of menfolk as a general rule. Her trademark line is: "Why is all you mens such critturs of dee-ceit?"
• Deacon Mushrat: A muskrat and the local man of the cloth, the Deacon speaks in ancient blackletter text or Gothic script, and his views are just as modern. He is typically seen haranguing others for their undisciplined ways, attempting to lead the Bats in some wholesome activity, or reluctantly entangled in the crusades of Mole and his even shadier allies—in either role he is the straight man and often winds up on the receiving end of whatever scheme he is involved in. Kelly described him as the closest thing to an evil character in the strip, calling him "about as far as I can go in showing what I think evil to be".
• Bewitched, Bothered, and Bemildred: A trio of grubby, unshaven bats—hobos, gamblers, good-natured but innocent of any temptation to honesty. They admit nothing. Soon after arriving in the swamp they are recruited by Deacon Mushrat into the "Audible Boy Bird Watchers Society", They wear identical black derby hats and perpetual 5 o'clock shadows. Their names, a play on the song title "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", are rarely mentioned. Often even they cannot say for sure which brother is which. They tell each other apart, if at all, by the patterns of their trousers—striped, checkered or plaid.
• Barnstable Bear: A simple-minded, henpecked "grizzle bear" who often plays second-fiddle to many of Albert's plots. He wears a pair of pants held up with a single suspender, and often a checkered cloth cap. Frequently short-tempered, he bellows "Rowrbazzle!" when his anger comes to a boil. Barnstable even tried to start his own rival comic strip in 1958, which he entitled "Little Orphan Abner", just to spite Albert. Curiously, he can write but he can't read.
• Mister Miggle: A bespectacled stork or crane, and proprietor of the local general store, a frequent swamp hangout. He dresses like an old-fashioned "country" clerk—with apron, starched collar, suspenders, sleeve garters, and a straw boater or a bookkeeping visor. Miggle's carries just about every undesirable product imaginable, such as "salt fish in chocolate sauce" and "day-old ice, 25¢ per gallon", along with "Aunt Granny's Bitter Brittle Root"—a local favorite beverage, and cure-all for the "cold robbies" and the "whim-whams".
• Bun Rab: An enthusiastic white rabbit with a drum and drum-major hat who often accompanies P. T. Bridgeport and likes to broadcast news in the manner of a town crier. He lives in a grandfather clock, and frequently appears as a fireman in the swamp's clownish Fire Brigade—where he serves as official hose carrier.
• Rackety Coon Chile: One of the swamp "sprats"—a group of youngsters who seem to be the only rational creatures present, other than Pogo and Porky. A talkative, precocious raccoon, he mainly pesters his "uncle" Pogo, along with his pal Alabaster. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rackety Coon, are a bickering couple occasionally featured. The father owns a still, and is generally suspicious of Ma's going through his overalls pockets while he sleeps.
• Alabaster Alligator: Not much is known about Alabaster except that he is considerably brighter than his Uncle Albert. Genial, inquisitive and only occasionally mischievous, he follows the cartoon tradition of the look-alike nephew whose mysterious parental lineage is never made specific.
• Grundoon: A diapered baby groundhog. An infant toddler, Grundoon speaks only gibberish, represented by strings of random consonants like "Bzfgt", "ktpv", "mnpx", "gpss", "twzkd", or "znp". Eventually, Grundoon learns to say two things: "Bye" and "Bye-bye". He also has a baby sister, whose full name is Li'l Honey Bunny Ducky Downy Sweetie Chicken Pie Li'l Everlovin' Jelly Bean.
• Pup Dog: An innocent "li'l dog chile" puppy. One of the very few characters who walks on all fours, he frequently wanders off and gets lost. Being, as Pogo puts it, "'jus' a li'l ol' shirt-tail baby-size dog what don't talk good yet", he says only "Wurf!" and "Wurf wurf!", although for a time he repeats the non-sequitur phrase "Poltergeists make up the principal type of spontaneous material manifestation."

  Frequent visitors

• P. T. Bridgeport: A bear; a flamboyant impresario and traveling circus operator named after P. T. Barnum, the most famous resident of Kelly's boyhood home, Bridgeport, Connecticut. One of Kelly's most colorful characters, P. T. wears a straw boater, spats, vest, ascot tie with stickpin and outlandish, fur-lined plaid overcoat reminiscent of W. C. Fields. There is also sometimes a marked physical resemblance to the Dutch cartoon character Oliver B. Bumble. An amiable blowhard and charlatan, his speech balloons resemble 19th-century circus posters, symbolizing both his theatrical speech pattern and his customary carnival barker's sales spiel. He usually visits the swamp during presidential election years, satirizing the media circus atmosphere of American political campaigns. During the storyline in which Pogo was nominated as a presidential candidate, Bridgeport was his most vocal and enthusiastic supporter.
• Tammananny Tiger: A political operator, named in allusion to Tammany Hall, which was represented as a tiger in 19th-century editorial cartoons by Thomas Nast. He typically appears in election years to offer strategic advice to the reluctant candidate, Pogo. He first appears as a companion to P. T. Bridgeport, although more cynical and less self-aggrandizing than the latter, and is one of only a handful of animals not native to North America to frequent the swamp.
• Mole : A nearsighted and xenophobic grifter. Considers himself an astute observer, but walks into trees without seeing them. Obsessed with contagion both literal and figurative, he is a prime mover in numerous campaigns against "subversion", and in his first appearances has a paranoid habit of spraying everything and everyone with a disinfectant that may have been liberally laced with tar. Modeled somewhat after Senator Pat McCarran of the McCarran–Walter Act.
• Seminole Sam: A mercenary, carpetbagging fox and traveling huckster of the snake oil salesman variety. He often attempts to swindle Albert and others, for example by selling bottles of the "miracle fluid" H₂O. Sam isn't really an out-and-out villain—more of an amoral opportunist, even though he occasionally allies with darker characters such as Mole and Wiley. Sam's Seminole moniker probably refers, not to any native blood ties, but more likely to a presumed history of selling bogus patent medicine. These "salesmen" hucksters often pretended their products were tested and proven, ancient Indian remedies. The Seminoles are an Indian tribe in the neighborhood of Okefenokee Swamp.
• Sarcophagus MacAbre: A buzzard and the local mortician. He lives in a creepy, ruined mausoleum, and always wears a tall undertaker's stove pipe hat with a black veil hung from its side. Early strips show him speaking in square, black bordered speech balloons with ornate script lettering, in the style of Victorian funeral announcements. MacAbre begins as a stock villain, but in later years gradually softens into a somewhat befuddled comic foil.
• The Cowbirds: Two beatnik freeloaders, their gender uncertain, who speak in communist cant and grift any food and valuables that cross their path. They associate with a pirate pig who resembles Nikita Khrushchev. Later they loudly renounce their former beliefs—without changing their behavior much. They typically address each other as Compeer and Confrere. It's unclear whether these are proper names or titles.
• Wiley Catt: A wild-eyed, menacing, hillbilly bobcat who smokes a corncob pipe, carries a shotgun, and lives alone in a dilapidated, Tobacco Road-type shanty on the outskirts of the swamp. He frequently hangs out with Sarcophagus MacAbre, Mole and Seminole Sam, although none of them trusts him. All the swamp critters are rightly wary of him, and generally give him a wide path. During the "Red scare" era of the 1950s, he temporarily morphed into his "cousin" Simple J. Malarkey, a parody and caricature of Republican senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy.
• Miss Sis Boombah: A matronly, cheerleading Rhode Island Red hen, who is a gym coach and fitness enthusiast—as well as a close friend of Miz Beaver—usually attired in tennis shoes and a pullover. Boombah arrives at the swamp to conduct a survey for "Dr. Whimsy" on "the sectional habits of U.S. mailmen", a neat parody of The Kinsey Reports. She also runs a Feminist organization called "F.O.O.F.", to un-subjugate the swamp womenfolk.
• Ol' Mouse: An otherwise unnamed, long-winded, worldly mouse with a bowler hat, cane and cigar who frequently pals around with Snavely, the Flea, Albert, or Pup Dog, the last of whom he was briefly imprisoned with in a cupboard and with whom he forged a bond as a fellow prisoner. He has a long and storied career as a rogue, in which he takes some pride, noting that the crimes he has been falsely accused of are far less interesting than the crimes he has actually committed. He is more often an observer and commentator than an actual participant in storylines. Something of a dandy, he sometimes takes the name "F. Olding Munny"—but only when Albert is posing as swami "El Fakir",.
• Snavely: A chatty, inebriated snake. Snavely usually wears a battered top hat, and pals around with Ol' Mouse or a group of angleworms that he is training to be cobras or rattlesnakes. In classic cartoon tradition, his intoxicated state is portrayed by a prominent red nose surrounded by tiny, fizzing bubbles. Although limbless, he is able to salute. Pogo saw this and was amazed. Unfortunately this act was accomplished behind the log Pogo was looking over, and the reader's view was blocked.
• Choo Choo Curtis : A natural-born mail carrier duck.
• Uncle Baldwin: Porky's doppelgänger and compulsive "kissing cousin", he wears a trenchcoat to hide his telltale bald backside. Uncle Baldwin usually tries to grab and kiss any female in the panel with him. Most of the females flee from the scene when Uncle Baldwin arrives. When assaulted by him, Hepzibah has hit him back.
• Reggie and Alf: Two Cockney insects that wander around bickering and looking for cricket matches. Kelly loved definite personality types, and had these two show up occasionally, even though they had nothing to do with anything else. Kelly stated the aim of their appearance, "was to please nobody but me".
• Flea : An unnamed female flea, so small she is usually only drawn in black silhouette. She falls in love with Beauregard, calls him "doll" and "sugar", and frequently gives him love nips on the nose or knee—much to his indignant irritation. Her gender was vaguely indeterminate for much of the run of the strip, but in a 1970 sequence with ex-husband Sam the spider, the Flea is finally and definitively established as a "girl". Thereafter, she is occasionally addressed as "Miz". In The Pogopedia, this character is identified as "Ol' Flea".
• Fremount the Boy Bug: The swamp's dark horse candidate, whose limited vocabulary makes him suitable presidential timber, according to P. T. Bridgeport.
• Bug Daddy and Chile: Daddy's indignant tag-line invariably follows his being corrected by another character for an misunderstanding or erroneous explanation on his part. He wears a stove pipe hat and carries an umbrella, which he shakes threateningly at the slightest provocation. His child's name is ever-changing, even from panel to panel within the same strip: Hogblemish, Nortleberg, Flimplock, Osbert, Jerome, Merphant, Babnoggle, Custard, Lorenzo, etc.
• Congersman Frog: An elected official, usually accompanied by his look-alike male secretary, with whose pay he lights his "seegars". He practices disavowing his candidature for the presidency—not very convincingly. His seldom-used first name is Jumphrey, and his secretary/sidekick was occasionally referred to by name: Fenster Moop.
• Solid MacHogany: A New Orleans-bound, clarinet-playing pig in a polka dot cap and striped necktie, headed to a paying gig in a "sho' nuff" jazz band on Bourbon Street.
• Horrors Greeley: A freckled, westward-traveling cow, who was sweet on Albert.
• Uncle Antler: A disagreeable bullmoose, whom Albert insultingly addresses as "Hatrack".
• Butch: A brick-throwing housecat. Like Tammananny, Butch is a direct homage to another cartoonist—George Herriman, whose Krazy Kat comic strip was greatly admired by Kelly. Butch feels compelled to hurl bricks at Beauregard, in honor of the traditional animus between dogs and cats. He always deliberately misses, however—and after his initial appearance as an antagonistic rival, proves to be something of a pussycat.
• Basil MacTabolism: A door-to-door political pollster polecat and self-described "taker of the public pulse".
• Roogey Batoon: A part-time snake oil salesman pelican in a flat cap, who claims to have made the careers of the "Lou'siana Perches",. His name is a play on Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• Picayune: A talkative frog that is a "free han' pree-dicter of all kinds weather an' other social events—sun, hail, moonshine or ty-phoonery".

  Dialogue and "swamp-speak"

Satire and politics

Simple J. Malarkey

Later politics

Personal references

Awards and recognition

• Kelly received the National Cartoonists Society's Billy DeBeck Memorial Award for Cartoonist of the Year in 1951.
• The prestigious Silver T-Square is awarded, by unanimous vote of the NCS board of directors, to persons who have demonstrated outstanding dedication or service to the Society or the profession; Kelly received one in 1972.
• The Comic-Con International Inkpot Award was given to Kelly posthumously in 1989.
• Kelly is one of only 31 artists elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Cartoon Museum.
• Kelly was also inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1995.
• The Fantagraphics Pogo collections were a top vote-getter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Album for 1998.

  Influence and legacy

• From 1951 to 1954, Famous Studios animator Irv Spector drew the syndicated Coogy strip, which was heavily influenced by Kelly's work, for the New York Herald-Tribune.
• In the Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, cartoonist Bill Watterson listed Pogo as one of the three greatest influences on Calvin and Hobbes, along with Peanuts and Krazy Kat.
• Pogo has been cited as an influence by Jeff MacNelly, Garry Trudeau, Bill Holbrook and Mark O'Hare, among others. He also gave a speech praising the strip and all of Walt Kelly's work that was published in the book Outrageously Pogo, which was a collection of praise of the strip.
• René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo were both admirers of Pogo, and many of Walt Kelly's visual devices resurfaced in Astérix. For example, the Goths speak in Olde English blackletter text, and a Roman tax-collector speaks in bureaucratic forms.
• Jim Henson acknowledged Kelly as a major influence on his sense of humor, and based some 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.
• Robert Crumb cites Pogo as an influence on Animal Town, an early series of comic strips he drew with his brother Charles that later formed the basis for R. Crumb's Fritz the Cat.
• Harvey Kurtzman parodied Pogo as "Gopo Gossum" for the comic book Mad No. 23, published by EC Comics in 1955. It was the first of many Mad references to Pogo, most of them drawn by Wally Wood. According to The Best of Pogo, "Walt Kelly was well aware of the Mad parodies, and loved them." Kelly directly acknowledged Wally Wood, and even had Albert spell out his name in Pogo Extra: Election Special.
• Writer Alan Moore and artist Shawn McManus made the January 1985 issue of Saga of the Swamp Thing a tribute to Pogo, with Kellyesque wordplay and artwork.
• Jeff Smith acknowledged that his Bone comic book series was strongly influenced by Walt Kelly's work. Smith and Peter Kelly contributed artwork of the cast of Bone meeting Pogo and Albert for the 1998 "Pogofest" celebration.
• In the Nickelodeon animated series, The Loud House, which draws heavy inspiration from comic strips, features a bird named after Kelly, Walt. Of course, he could also have been named for Walt Disney, for whom Kelly worked for a spell.
• Thacher Hurd's book, Mama Don't Allow, may possibly have been influenced in some small part by the Pogo comic; Miles Possum and his family live in a swampland in the South and bear something of a resemblance to Pogo.
• Kissyfur seems to have been influenced in some way by the Pogo comic strip, albeit devoid of any political innuendo or references to pop culture.
• Jonathan Lemon cites Pogo as an inspiration or more as a "hero" for his comic strip "Rabbits Against Magic"
• American rock band Kaleidoscope released a song named "Lulu Arfin Nanny" on their 1970 album "Bernice".

  ''Pogo'' in other media

Comic books and periodicals

• Albert the Alligator and Pogo Possum Dell Four Color issues #105 and 148
• Animal Comics issues #17, 23–25
• Pogo Possum issues #1–16
• "Pogo's Papa" by Murray Robinson, from Collier's Weekly
• Pogo Parade, a compilation of previously published Dell Pogo stories
• Pogo Coloring Book Whitman Publishing
• "Pogo: The Funnies are Getting Funny" from Newsweek Pogo cover painting by Kelly
• "Pogo Meets a Possum" by Walt Kelly, from Collier's Weekly
• "Bright Christmas Land" from Newsweek Pogo cover painting by Kelly
• "Pogo Looks at the Abominable Snowman", from Saturday Review Pogo cover illustration by Kelly
• Pogo Primer for Parents: TV Division, a public services giveaway booklet distributed by the US HEW
• Pogo Coloring Book Treasure Books
• Pogo: Welcome to the Beginning, a public services giveaway pamphlet distributed by the Neighborhood Youth Corps
• Pogo: Bienvenidos al Comienzo, Spanish-language version of the above title
• "The Pogofenokee Swamp" from Jack and Jill
• The Okefenokee Star, a privately published fanzine devoted to Walt Kelly and Pogo
• The Comics Journal No. 140 Special Walt Kelly Issue
• "Al Capp and Walt Kelly: Pioneers of Political and Social Satire in the Comics" by Kalman Goldstein, from The Journal of Popular Culture; Vol. 25, Issue 4

  Music and recordings

• Songs of the Pogo : A vinyl LP collecting 18 of Kelly's verses 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 "Go Go Pogo" and "Lines Upon a Tranquil Brow", as well as a spoken portion for "Man's Best Friend". Mike Stewart, who was later known for singing the theme song of Bat Masterson, sang "Whence that Wince", "Evidence" and "Whither the Starling".
• A "sampler" from Songs of the Pogo was issued on vinyl 45 at the same time. The three-track record included "Go Go Pogo" and "Lines Upon a Tranquil Brow" sung by Walt Kelly, and "Don't Sugar Me" sung by Fia Karin with "orchestra and chorus under the direction of Jimmy Carroll". The recording was issued by Simon and Schuster, with only ASCAP 100A and B as recording numbers.
• The Firehouse Five Plus 2 Goes South : LP, with liner notes and back album sleeve illustration by Walt Kelly.
• Jingle Bell Jazz,, a collection of a dozen jazz Christmas songs by different performers, includes "Deck Us All with Boston Charlie" recorded on May 4, 1961 by Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross with the Ike Isaacs Trio. The recording features a center section of Jon Hendricks scatting to the melody, with Kelly's lyrics sung as introduction and close.
• NO! with Pogo : 45 rpm record for children, narrated and sung by "P. T. Bridgeport" with The Carillon Singers; came with a color storybook illustrated by Kelly.
• CAN'T! with Pogo : 45 rpm record for children, same credits as above.
• The Comics Journal Interview CD : Contains 15–20-minute excerpts with five of the most influential cartoonists in the American comics industry: Charles Schulz, Jack Kirby, Walt Kelly and R. Crumb. From the liner notes: "Hear these cartoonists in their own words, discussing the craft that made them famous".
• Songs of the Pogo was released on CD in 2004 by Reaction Records, including previously unreleased material.

  Animation and puppetry

• The Pogo Special Birthday Special was produced and directed by animator Chuck Jones in honor of the strip's 20th anniversary in 1969. It starred June Foray as the voice of both Pogo and Hepzibah, with Kelly and Jones contributing voice work as well. The critical consensus is that the special, which first aired on NBC-TV on May 18, 1969, failed to capture the charm of the comic strip. Kelly was not pleased with the results, and it was generally disliked by critics and fans of the comic strip.
• 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 and colored by hand. While the project went unfinished due to Kelly's ill health, the storyboards for the cartoon helped form the first half of the book of the same title.
• The theatrical, feature-length motion picture I Go Pogo was released in late August 1980. Directed by Marc Paul Chinoy, this stop motion animated feature starred the voices of Skip Hinnant as Pogo; Ruth Buzzi as Miz Beaver and Hepzibah; Stan Freberg as Albert; Arnold Stang as Churchy; Jonathan Winters as Porky, Mole, and Wiley Catt; Kelly's friend, New York journalist Jimmy Breslin as P. T. Bridgeport; and Vincent Price as the Deacon. It was rated PG by the MPAA. While some fans have embraced the movie, others have dismissed it for lacking Kelly's wit and charm.

Licensing and promotion

• 1951: Special Delivery Pogo, a 16-page promotional mailer from the Post-Hall Syndicate, designed to spark interest and boost circulation of the new strip.
• 1952: "I Go Pogo" tin litho lapel pinback. Approx. 1 inch in diameter, with Pogo's face on a yellow background; issued as a promotional giveaway during the 1952 presidential election.
• 1954: Walt Kelly's Pogo Mobile was a 22-piece hanging mobile, die-cut from heavy cardboard in bright colors. Came unassembled, and included Pogo on a cow jumping over a crescent-shaped Swiss cheese moon, with Okefenokee characters sitting on the moon or in a filigreed frame.
• 1959: Rare porcelain figurine of a sitting Pogo, with a bird in a nest atop his head; made in Ireland by Wade Ceramics Ltd.
• 1968: Set of 30 celluloid pinback buttons, quite rare. Approx. 1.75 inches in diameter, issued during the 1968 presidential elections.
• 1968: Set of 10 color character decals, very rare; coincided with the set of election pinbacks
• 1968: Poynter Products of Ohio issued a set of six plastic figures with glued-on artificial fur: Pogo, Albert, Beauregard, Churchy, Howland and Hepzibah. The figures displeased Kelly, but are highly sought-after by fans.
• 1969: Six vinyl giveaway figures of Pogo, Albert, Beauregard, Churchy, Howland and Porkypine, packaged with Procter & Gamble soap products as a tie-in with the Pogo animated TV special. Also known as the Oxydol figures, they are fairly common and easy to find. Walt Kelly was not satisfied with the initial sculpting, and—using plasticine clay—resculpted them himself.
• 1969: Six plastic giveaway cups with full-color character decals of Pogo, Albert, Beauregard, Churchy, Howland and Porkypine, coincided with the Oxydol figures.
• 1969: Pogo Halloween costume, manufactured by Ben Cooper.
• 1980: View-Master I Go Pogo set, 3 reels & booklet, GAF
• 2002: Dark Horse Comics issued two limited edition figures of Pogo and Albert as part of their line of Classic Comic Characters—statues No. 24 and No. 25, respectively.

  Collections and reprints

The 45 ''Pogo'' books published by Simon and Schuster

• Pogo
• I Go Pogo
• Uncle Pogo So-So Stories
• The Pogo Papers
• The Pogo Stepmother Goose
• The Incompleat Pogo
• The Pogo Peek-A-Book
• Potluck Pogo
• The Pogo Sunday Book
• The Pogo Party
• Songs of the Pogo
• Pogo's Sunday Punch
• Positively Pogo
• The Pogo Sunday Parade
• G.O. Fizzickle Pogo
• Ten Ever-Lovin', Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo
• The Pogo Sunday Brunch
• Pogo Extra
• Beau Pogo
• Gone Pogo
• Pogo à la Sundae
• Instant Pogo
• The Jack Acid Society Black Book
• Pogo Puce Stamp Catalog
• Deck Us All with Boston Charlie
• The Return of Pogo
• The Pogo Poop Book
• Prehysterical Pogo
• Equal Time for Pogo
• Pogo: Prisoner of Love
• Impollutable Pogo
• Pogo: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us
• Pogo Revisited, a compilation of Instant Pogo, The Jack Acid Society Black Book and The Pogo Poop Book
• Pogo Re-Runs, a compilation of I Go Pogo, The Pogo Party and Pogo Extra
• Pogo Romances Recaptured, a compilation of Pogo: Prisoner of Love and The Incompleat Pogo
• Pogo's Bats and the Belles Free
• Pogo's Body Politic
• A Pogo Panorama, a compilation of The Pogo Stepmother Goose, The Pogo Peek-A-Book and Uncle Pogo So-So Stories
• Pogo's Double Sundae, a compilation of The Pogo Sunday Parade and The Pogo Sunday Brunch
• Pogo's Will Be That Was, a compilation of G.O. Fizzickle Pogo and Positively Pogo
• The Best of Pogo
• Pogo Even Better
• Outrageously Pogo
• Pluperfect Pogo
• Phi Beta Pogo

  ''Pogo'' books released by other publishers

• Pogo for President: Selections from I Go Pogo
• The Pogo Candidature by Walt Kelly and Selby Kelly
• Ten S&S volumes were reprinted in hardcover : Pogo, I Go Pogo, Uncle Pogo So-So Stories, The Pogo Papers, The Pogo Stepmother Goose, The Incompleat Pogo, The Pogo Peek-A-Book, Potluck Pogo, Gone Pogo, and Pogo à la Sundae. Bound in brown cloth, with the individual titles and an "I Go Pogo" logo stamped in gold. The dust jackets are facsimiles of the original Simon & Schuster covers, with an image of Walt Kelly reproduced on the back.
• The Walt Kelly Collector's Guide by Steve Thompson
• The Complete Pogo Comics: Pogo & Albert 4 volumes
• Pogo Files for Pogophiles by Selby Daly Kelly and Steve Thompson, eds.
• Ten more S&S volumes reprinted in hardcover : The Pogo Sunday Book, Pogo's Sunday Punch, Beau Pogo, Pogo Puce Stamp Catalog, Deck Us All with Boston Charlie, The Return of Pogo, Prehysterical Pogo, Equal Time for Pogo, Impollutable Pogo, and Pogo: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us. Bound in navy blue cloth, with the individual titles and a "Pogo Collectors Edition" logo stamped in gold. Issued without dust jackets.
• Pogo 11 volumes
• The Pogopedia by Nik Lauer, et al.
• We Go Pogo: Walt Kelly, Politics, and American Satire by Kerry D. Soper
• Much Ado: The POGOfenokee Trivia Book, Mark Burstein, Eclipse Books, 1988,.
• Walt Kelly's Pogo: The Complete Dell Comics 6 volumes

  ''Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips''

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