Friday, February 8, 2008

Well, dog my cats!

Albert the Alligator and Howland Owl debate the finer points of democracy.

Back in the darkest Ike Age, a cartoonist named Walt Kelly provided some sweetness and light with his comic strip Pogo. When I was a wee tad, my dad had rotting old paperback collections of the strip, and I was flummoxed by the Southern dialect Kelly populated his dialog bubbles with. I was also not nearly bright enough to get all the puns and allusions. That was then. Now I revel in it, along with Kelly's heavy ink line. I’ve been waiting a long time, but Fantagraphics is finally starting a hardback, complete-strips edition. There will be 12 volumes all told, released chronologically, with dailies and Sundays, just like their very impressive series of Peanuts books (which I haven't purchased because I need a new apartment to put them in).

4 comments:

Gerry Gomez Pearlberg said...

I'm a Little Nemo in Slumberland fan. They don't draw 'em like they used to.

Matthew said...

Then you must have:this, actual size reproductions. You apartment is just big enough.

Gerry Gomez Pearlberg said...

Believe me, I've stared longing at that amazing object of desire...pages/colors/textures/images one can truly fall into. I'm a little scared, though, of disappearing forever down that particular rabbit hole.

Matthew said...

Have no fear! You wake up at the end of every dream, tangled in the sheets, convinced you should not have eaten that spicy rarebit.