James Eric Black - Walt Kelly and Pogo: The Art of the Political Swamp

Foreword by Mark Burstein

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

This book would not be possible without the gracious permission of the artists, their syndicates and estates: All Walt Kelly artwork including the comic strip Pogo, personal drawings etc. is copyright Okefenokee Glee & Perloo, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Pearls Before Swine 2011 Stephan Pastis. Reprinted by permission of Universal Uclick for UFS. All rights reserved. The Frog and the Ox Barnum poster is reproduced by permission of the Bridgeport Histsory Center, Bridgeport Public Library. All rights reserved. Mark Trail North America Syndicates, Inc. World rights reserved. Gasoline Ally Tribune Content Agency, LLC. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. Steve Canyon is a registered trademark of the Milton Caniff Estate. Steve Canyon is owned and copyrighted 2007 by the Milton Caniff Estate. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Lil Abner copyrighted Capp Enterprises. All rights reserved. Used by permission. McCarthyism 1984 by Herbert Block. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2300-9

2016 James Eric Black. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover: (inset) Self-caricature of cartoonist Walt Kelly; (bottom) Pogo Possum and Albert Alligator, 1949 (Artwork Okefenokee Glee & Perloo, Inc., used by permission, all rights reserved)

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

To the love of my life,
Sylvia Hui Yu Chen-Black

It took me six years to write the first version of this book and another year and a half to de-dissertationalize it, as my publisher put it, for a mass audience. It was not without the help of many gracious people. This book would have been impossible without the help and encouragement of those in the Pogo Brain Trust. Mark Burnstein and Steve Thompson have been with me since the first few days when I was first trying to figure out what exactly I was going to write about. Their knowledge of Pogo is amazing, and I hope to continue our relationship into more projects. And Mark, dont think I havent forgotten that Pogo care-package you promissed me. The art of Walt Kelly will always be the heart of all things Pogo. Pete Kelly, Scott Daley and the rest of the Walt Kelly extended family at Okefenokee Glee and Perloo, Inc. have encouraged and sustained me. They made themselves available to give me direction whenever I started to stumble and answer questions that were at times difficult to ask. I found the bulk of my archival research at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum in Columbus, Ohio. It claims to be worlds largest and most comprehensive academic research facility and I believe them. Jenny Robb and her entire staff (including the interns) hauled boxes and boxes of information for me to examine with cloth gloves and tooth picks. Billy Ireland is the Meccah for all cartoon research pilgrimages, and curatorial assistant Susan Liberator is the goddess.

I could not have completed this project without the inspiration of my peers at Mercer University. Frank Macke and Kevin Cummings were instrumental in keeping my mind from morphing into Jello pudding. I spent untold hours in their offices learning from my two scholarship mentors. I would hand off unfinished articles and chapters to Kevin and say, I know I have something here, but I dont know what it is. Miraculously, he always did. I would walk into Franks office and ask, What do you know about this? and two hours later I would have twenty things I had to research and include. Isaac Catt, who along with Frank and Kevin turned me on to general semiotics, was my greatest cheerleader for my academic work. I like what youre doing there, Jay was my first academic badge of honor.

My friends Damon Wood, David Wills, and Bill Ackerman were always a phone call away when I had writers block. Somehow they were always there to grease the gears of my brain and keep me going. My Mercer Department of Journalism and Media Studies and Center for Collaborative Journalism colleagues and friends are the best in the business. Center Director Tim Regan-Porter has been absolutely supportive of my endeavors even though they often took me in different directions than traditional journalism studies. Cindy Gottshall taught me how to be a professor. John Chalfa taught me to be kind yet firm with students. My dean, Lake Lambert, even kept a fire under my behind by constantly asking me if my book was done every time he saw me. Hows the book coming Hows the book coming Its getting there, dammit! I even had a couple of former students edit copy for me. Kathleen Quinlan and Erin Garner Dentmon got me through the dissertation stage. My eldest son Will and his beautiful wife Anastasia reformatted the book for me and did a pile more edits.

I feel old when I realize Will was a high school senior when I started this project. His little brother Joe is seven years younger than he is and will be a college sophomore when this book goes to print. I am truly blessed to have my loving family. My wife Sylvia was my true inspiration. She cooked me late night dinners, travelled with me when I did archival work, deviously took pictures of the New York Star comics when I couldnt find them in any book, and didnt kick me out of the house when I would be four hours late getting home. I dont want to even try to imagine how impossible of a task this project would have been without her.

Pogophiles (once numbering in the millions; then for so many years we few, we happy few) have been enjoying a true renaissanceone might even say feeding frenzyof late. Hermes Press is reprinting the complete early comic book work; Fantagraphics the complete daily and Sunday strips. The Songs of the Pogo album was released on CD by Reaction Records a few years back. A colorful illustrated biography, Walt Kelly: The Life and Art of the Creator of Pogo, came out from Hermes in 2012. There have been Kelly panels at Comic-Con the last two years (2013, 2014), featuring Kelly-world notables and stars of comic strips (Jeff Smith) and animation (Dave Silverman of The Simpsons). The Pogo Fan Club thrives online (www.pogo-fan-club.org), and Kellys original artwork continues to command respectable prices. Hes penetrated YouTube, Facebook, and perhaps even the Twitterverse. And this bacchanalia certainly does not preclude academia.

The first academic study I was aware of, Julio Velasco Pechs PhD thesis Pogo de Walt Kelly: Vindicacin del Comic como Literatura, was written in 1992 for the University of Barcelona, although I now note that Terrence L. Warburtons doctoral thesis, Toward a Theory of Humor: An Analysis of the Verbal and Nonverbal Codes in Pogo, was accepted by the University of Denver in 1984. Brigham Young University Professor Kerry D. Sopers We Go Pogo: Walt Kelly, Politics, and American Satire