The coming of Thanksgiving tomorrow marks the beginning of the holiday season and I wanted to be the first to send you all a holiday card this year! Here we have a card featuring Walt Kelly's POGO cast. As this is signed by Doyle and Sternecky of the delightful revival of the strip, I believe this dates from the late eighties'early nineties.
As a child, my mother dutifully read me POGO every single day in the CINCINNATI POST along with THE RYATTS, FRECKLES and PEANUTS. I didn't "get" POGO, though. The mid-sixties was a time when Kelly was being perhaps overly political in the strip and it all went right over my head. In fact, it wasn't until Chuck Jones 1970POGO SPECIAL BIRTHDAY SPECIAL that I could even tell you the characters' names! I re-discovered the strip in the late seventies as paperback reprints abounded and the fan movement was building. Suddenly it became my favorite thing in the world! I totally adored the short-lived revival! Nowadays, my son and I read the old comic book POGO stories out loud...in dialect! This weekend, Walt Kelly's daughter Carolyn is to be a guest at Mid-Ohio Con. I can't wait! 'Tis the season. May we all be decked with Boston Charlie.
"I believe this dates from the late eighties'early nineties."
ReplyDeleteUm, it says copyright 1989 on the card itself.
I too discovered Pogo in my teens -- I think my parents might have had one paperback reprint. I'm looking forward to the fantagraphics complete reprint--but I'm not sure if I can afford them!
LOL. I meant when I received it. Although unsigned, I believe it came from my namesake the OTHER Steve Thompson at the Pogo Fan Club.
ReplyDeleteNice work, as always by Neal Sternecky, who is one of my closest friends, and an enormous talent.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget the thrill (as a lifelong POGO Fan) of the Sunday he put my name on a boat...