Pogo as drawn by Walt Kelly. Copyright 1952, 2005 OGPI

Pogo was the title of a long-running (1948-75) daily comic strip created by Walt Kelly, as well as the name of its principal character. Set in the Georgia section of the Okefenokee Swamp, Pogo often engaged in social and political satire through the adventures of the strip's funny animals. Since Pogo occasionally used slapstick physical humor, the same series of strips could often be enjoyed by young children and by savvy adults on different levels. Kelly's creativity earned him a Reuben Award in 1951. An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ... Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr (August 25, 1913 - October 18, 1973), known simply as Walt Kelly, was a cartoonist notable for his comic strip Pogo featuring characters that inhabited a portion of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. ... Syndication may mean: television syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside of the network system print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips web syndication, where web feeds make a portion of a web site available to other sites or individual subscribers radio syndication... October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (137th in leap years). ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... July 20 is the 201st day (202nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 164 days remaining. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... The webcomic genres are the types of themes a webcomic can take. ... Image File history File links PogoPossum. ... Image File history File links PogoPossum. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr (August 25, 1913 - October 18, 1973), known simply as Walt Kelly, was a cartoonist notable for his comic strip Pogo featuring characters that inhabited a portion of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. ... Canal Diggers Trail in early spring. ... 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ... Bugs Bunny, a typical funny animal character Funny animal is a cartooning term for the genre of comics and animated cartoons in which the main characters are humanoid or talking animals. ... Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence. ... The Reuben Awards, named for Rube Goldberg, are presented each year by the National Cartoonists Society. ...

History

The characters of Pogo the possum and Albert the alligator were created by Kelly in 1943, for issue #1 of Animal Comics, in a story called "Albert Takes The Cake." Both were created as comic foils for a young black boy named Bumbazine, who also lived in the Swamp. Kelly found it hard to write for the human boy, preferring to use the animals to their full comic potential, and eventually phased Bumbazine out. Pogo quickly took center stage, assuming the straight man role that Bumbazine had occupied. Genera Several; see text Opossum fur is quite soft, and was once commonly used in the bathtub as a sponge[]. Didelphimorphia is the order of common opossums of the Western Hemisphere. ... Species Alligator mississippiensis Alligator sinensis An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... A straight man is a role in a comedy double act where a performer works with a comedian by setting up the situations or feeding the lines that allow their partner to make a joke. ...

In 1948, Kelly was hired to draw political cartoons for the short-lived New York Star newspaper, and decided to do a daily comic strip featuring the characters he had created for Animal Comics. Pogo debuted on October 4 of that year, and ran continuously until the paper folded on January 28, 1949. On May 16 of the same year, the strip was picked up for national distribution by Post-Hall Syndicate, and ran continuously until Kelly's death from diabetes in 1973. Kelly's wife, Selby, and assistant, Don Morgan, continued the strip to fulfill contractual obligations, before retiring it in 1975. The Los Angeles Times revived the strip under the title Walt Kelly's Pogo in 1989, written at first by Larry Doyle and Neil Sternecky, then by Kelly's son, Peter; but interest waned and the revived strip ran only a few years. 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... This early political cartoon by Ben Franklin was originally written for the French and Indian War, but was later recycled during the Revolutionary War An editorial cartoon, also known as a political cartoon, is an illustration or comic strip containing a political or social message. ... October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... January 28 is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (137th in leap years). ... This article is about the disease that features high blood sugar. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... The Los Angeles Times (also known as the LA Times) is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the Western United States. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Characters

No definitive list has ever been made of every character that appeared in Pogo over the 27 years the strip ran, but the best estimates put the total cast at over 300. Kelly would create characters as he needed them, and discarded them when they ceased to be funny, or had served their purpose. Most characters were at least nominally male, but a few female characters appeared regularly. Kelly has been quoted as saying that all the characters reflect different aspects of his personality.

Even though most characters have full names, some of them are more often referred to only by their species. For example, Howland Owl is almost always called "Owl"; Beauregard is usually called "Hound Dog"; Churchy LaFemme is sometimes called "Turtle" (or "Turkle," in Swamp-speak).

Permanent residents

• Pogo Possum: an everyman (or every-opossum), is one of few major characters with the sense 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. He has also been forced to run for president, against his will, mulitiple times by the swamp's residents. His kitchen is well-known around the swamp for being fully stocked, and many characters impose upon him for meals, taking advantage of his kind nature.

• Albert Alligator, enthusiastic and loyal, dimwitted and irascible, is often the comic foil for Pogo or the fall guy for Owl and Churchy. Having an alligator's voracious appetite, Albert would often eat things indiscriminately, and was accused on more than one occasion of eating another character. Even though he has been known to take advantage of Pogo's kindness and generosity, he is ferociously loyal to Pogo and will, at softer times, be found scrubbing him in the tub or cutting his hair.

• Dr. Howland Owl is the swamp's self-appointed resident scientist, professor, doctor, explorer, witch doctor, and anything else he thought would generate respect for his knowledge. In his earliest appearances, he wears a pointed wizard's cap. Thinking himself the most learned man in the swamp, he once tried to open a school but had to close it due to lack of interest. Actually he was unable to tell the difference between learning, old wives' tales, and use of big words. Most of the harebrained schemes come from the mind of Owl.

• Churchy LaFemme: a turtle. His name is a play on the French phrase Cherchez la femme. Though 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 Owl's schemes. Churchy may have once been a pirate, as for the longest time he wore a buccaneer's hat and was sometimes referred to as "Captain LaFemme." He enjoys composing songs and poems, often with ridiculous and abrasive lyrics and nonsense rhymes.

• Porky Pine: a porcupine, a misanthrope and cynic. Porky never smiled in the strip (except for one time when the lights were out). Pogo's best friend, equally honest and with a keen eye both for goodness and for human foibles, Porky has two weaknesses: infatuation for Miss Mam'selle, and a complete inability to tell a joke. Porky also had a doppelgänger, Uncle Baldwin, who wore a trenchcoat to hide his bald backside.

• Beauregard Chaulmoogra Frontenac de Montmingle Bugleboy: a dog and occasional policeman, he sees himself as a romantic figure, often narrating his own heroic deeds. He also seems to be a tad forgetful, seeing as he had once forgotten his own name in an early storyline; however, this trait does not seem to recur throughout the of strip, so it can be assumed Kelly had made it for just that single plot.

• Miss Mam'selle Hepzibah: a beautiful French skunk modelled after Kelly's mistress, who would later become his second wife. Miss Mam'selle was long courted by Porky and others but rarely seemed to notice. Sometimes she pined for Pogo. She speaks with a heavy French dialect and has a tendency to be overdramatic. She is flirty but proper, and enjoys attention.

• Miz Beaver: washerwoman for the Swamp, and best friend to (and occasional match-maker for) Miss Mam'selle. A traditional mother, uneducated but with homespun good sense, who "took nothin' from nobody".

• Deacon Mushrat: the local man of the cloth, the Deacon speaks in blackletter, 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 (which they inevitably subvert), or reluctantly entangled in the crusades of Mole and his even shadier allies; in either role he was the straight man and often wound up on the receiving end of whatever scheme he was involved in.
• Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (sometimes Bemildred): bats, hobos, gamblers, good-natured but totally 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. 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. (According to one of the bats, "Whichever pair of trousers you put on in the morning, that's who you are for that particular day.")

• Grundoon: A baby groundhog (or "groun'chunk" in swamp-speak). An infant, Grundoon spoke only baby talk, which Kelly represented by strings of random consonants like "Bzfgt ktpv mnpx gpss twzkd znp." Eventually, Grundoon did learn to say two actual words: "bye" and "bye bye."

In literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances. ... This article or section should be merged with Virginia_opossum The word opossum (usually pronounced without the leading O, or with only a very slight schwa) refers either to the Virginia Opossum in particular, or more generally to any of the other marsupials of magnorder Ameridelphia. ... Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish by hooking, trapping, or gathering animals not classifiable as insects which breathe in water or pass their lives in water. ... Friends and family gather for a picnic in a public park in Columbus, Ohio, c. ... Matchmaking is any process of introducing people for the purposes of dating and mating, usually in the context of marriage. ... The use of a character who, by contrast, brings out the comic qualities of another character (or of other characters). ... A fall guy is a scapegoat, a person who takes the blame for someone elses actions, or someone at the butt of jokes. ... Cherchez la femme! is a French phrase which literally means Look for the woman! The expression comes from Alexandre Dumas (père) in The Mohicans of Paris (1854). ... Misanthropy is a general dislike of the human race. ... This article is about the ancient Greek school of philosophy. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Wanderer above the sea of fog by Caspar David Friedrich Romanticism is an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in 18th century Western Europe. ... Miss Mamselle Hepzibah Miss MamSelle Hepzibah is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic skunk from the classic Walt Kelly comic strip, Pogo. ... Binomial name Ondatra zibethicus (Linnaeus, 1766) Muskrat range (native range in red, introduced range in green) I Muskrat lodge, middle Patuxent River marsh, Maryland The Muskrat or Musquash (Ondatra zibethicus), the only species in genus Ondatra, is a large aquatic rodent native to North America, and introduced in parts of... Blackletter in a Latin Bible of AD 1407, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ... A straight man is a role in a comedy double act where a performer works with a comedian by setting up the situations or feeding the lines that allow their partner to make a joke. ... Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered is a popular song with lyrics by Lorenz Hart and music by Richard Rodgers. ... Binomial name Marmota monax (Linnaeus, 1758) The groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as the woodchuck or whistlepig, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. ... Baby talk, motherese, parentese, or child-directed speech (CDS) is a non-standard form of speech used by adults, particularly mothers, in talking to toddlers and infants. ...

Frequent visitors

• P.T. Bridgeport: a bear and flamboyant circus operator, named after P.T. Barnum, the most famous resident of Kelly's boyhood home, Bridgeport, Connecticut. His speech balloons resemble classic circus posters.

• Tammananny Tiger: a political operator, named in allusion to Tammany Hall. He typically appeared in election years to offer strategic advice to the reluctant candidate, Pogo.
• Molester Mole (né Mole MacCarony): a nearsighted and xenophobic grifter. Obsessed with contagion both literal and figurative, he was a prime mover in numerous campaigns against "subversion," and in his first appearances had a habit of spraying everything and everyone with disinfectant. Modeled somewhat after Senator Pat McCarran of the subversive-hunting McCarran-Walter Act.

• Seminole Sam: a fox and traveling con man, he often attempts to swindle Albert and others, for example by selling bottles of the miracle fluid H₂O, and occasionally allies with darker characters such as Mole.

Genera Ailuropoda Helarctos Melursus Ursus Tremarctos Arctodus (extinct) A bear is a large mammal in the family Ursidae of the order Carnivora. ... The Big Top of Billy Smarts Circus Cambridge 2004. ... Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891), American showman who is best remembered for his entertaining hoaxes and for founding the circus that eventually became Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. ... Nickname: Location in Connecticut Coordinates: NECTA Bridgeport-Stamford Region Greater Bridgeport Incorporated (town) 1821 Incorporated (city) 1836 Government type Mayor-council  - Mayor John M. Fabrizi Area    - City 50. ... Poster from the Spanish Revolution A poster is any large piece of printed paper which hangs from a wall or other such surface. ... Binomial name Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) Distribution of tigers in 1900 (red) and 1990 (green) Synonyms Felis tigris Linnaeus, 1758 Tigris striatus Severtzov, 1858 Tigris regalis pink, 1867 Tigers (Panthera tigris) are mammals of the Felidae family and one of four big cats in the Panthera genus. ... Tammany Hall was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in New York City politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. ... Genera 17 genera, see text Moles are members of the family (Talpidae) of mammals in the order Soricomorpha that live underground, burrowing holes. ... Look up xenophobia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952 (better known as the McCarran-Walter Act) was a law passed by the United States Congress restricting immigration into the United States. ... The Flag of the Seminoles of Florida, adopted in 1979 The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, and now residing in that state and in Oklahoma. ... This article is about the animal. ... Impact of a drop of water Water is a chemical substance that is essential to all known forms of life. ...

Satire and politics

Kelly always used Pogo to comment on the human condition, and from time to time, this drifted into politics. Pogo ran for President (or was nominated by his friends, although he never actually campaigned) in 1952, 1956, and 1960. Kelly used these fake campaigns as excuses to hit the stump himself for voter registration campaigns, with the slogan "Pogo says: If you can't vote my way, vote anyway, but VOTE!" The presidential seal was first used in 1880 by President Rutherford B. Hayes and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ...

Simple J. Malarkey

Perhaps the most famous example of the strip's satirical edge came in 1953, when Kelly introduced a wildcat character named "Simple J. Malarkey" [1] – a caricature of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Comic historians noted that this move showed significant courage on Kelly's part considering the influence the politician wielded at that time, and the possibility of potentially scaring away subscribing newspapers. 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... A common caricature of Charles Darwin focuses on his beard, eyebrows, and baldness, while often giving him the features of an ape or monkey. ... Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin between 1947 and 1957. ...

When a newspaper from Providence, Rhode Island issued an ultimatum, threatening to drop the strip if Malarkey's face appeared in the strip again, Kelly had Malarkey throw a bag over his head as Miss "Sis" Boombah (a Rhode Island Red hen) approached, saying "no one from Providence should see me!" Kelly thought Malarkey's new look was especially appropriate because the bag over his head resembled a Klansman's hood. Nickname: Beehive of Industry, The Renaissance City, The Divine City Location in Rhode Island Coordinates: Country United States State Rhode Island County Providence Government  - Mayor David N. Cicilline (D) Area  - City  20. ... Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally during the 1920s. ...

Malarkey appeared in the strip only once after that sequence ended, his face covered by his speech bubbles, standing on a soapbox shouting to general disinterest.

The Jack Acid Society

In the early 1960's, Kelly took on the then-powerful ultra-conservative John Birch Society with a series of strips dedicated to Mole and Deacon's efforts to weed out Anti-Americanism (as they saw it) in the Swamp, which led them to form "The Jack Acid Society." ("Named after Mr. Acid?" "Well, it wasn't named before him.") The name is an obvious pun. The Jack Acids modeled themselves on the only real Americans: Indians. Everyone the Jack Acids suspected of not being a true American was put on their blacklist, until eventually everyone but Mole himself was blacklisted. One of the longest-running storylines in the strip's history, the strips were collected by themselves (with some original verse and text pieces) in the only Pogo collection to not include the main character's name in the title: The Jack Acid Society Black Book, (the poetry collection Deck Us All With Boston Charlie also lacked "Pogo" in its title) and one of only two books (the other being Pogo: Prisoner Of Love) to comprise a single storyline. This article deals with conservatism as a political philosophy. ... The John Birch Society is an Americanist organization founded in 1958 to fight what it saw as growing threats to the Constitution of the United States, especially a suspected communist infiltration of the United States government, and to support free enterprise. ... Flag burning is widely used internationally as a symbolic form of protest against the U.S. Anti-Americanism, often Anti-American sentiment, is opposition or hostility toward the government, culture, or people of the United States. ...

Later politics

As time went on, other popular figures found themselves caricatured in the pages of Pogo. By the time the 1968 Presidential Campaign rolled around, it seemed the entire Swamp was populated by P.T. Bridgeport's "wind-up candidates," including representations of George Romney, Eugene McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, George Wallace, and Robert F. Kennedy. One of the cleverest may have been his portrayal of Eugene McCarthy as a white knight tied backwards on his horse, spouting poetry. Retiring President Lyndon B. Johnson was portrayed as a befuddled long-horned steer. 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ... George Wilcken Romney (July 8, 1907 – July 26, 1995) was chairman of the American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962 and was elected three times as the Republican Governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969. ... Eugene Joseph Gene McCarthy (March 29, 1916 – December 10, 2005) was an American politician and a longtime member of the U.S. Congress. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. ... Governor George Wallace (in front of door) standing defiantly against desegregation while being confronted by Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach at the University of Alabama in 1963. ... Robert Francis Bobby Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also called RFK, was one of two younger brothers of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and served as United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964. ... Eugene Joseph Gene McCarthy (March 29, 1916 – December 10, 2005) was an American politician and a longtime member of the U.S. Congress. ... “LBJ” redirects here. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (often called cows in vernacular and contemporary usage, or kye as the Scots plural of cou) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ...

When the strips from this time were collected in Equal Time For Pogo, the Publisher wanted to edit out the strips including Kennedy's doppelganger, but Kelly insisted on keeping them in to pay honor to the slain candidate.

In the early 1970s, Kelly used a collection of characters called the Bulldogs to mock the secrecy and paranoia of the Nixon Administration. The Bulldogs included dopplegangers of J. Edgar Hoover, John Mitchell, and Spiro Agnew. Always referred to, but never seen, was "The Chief," who we are led to believe was Nixon himself. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... Hoover in 1961 John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an influential but controversial director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). ... The name John Mitchell can refer to several different people. ... Spiro Theodore Agnew (November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the 39th Vice President of the United States serving under President Richard M. Nixon, and the 55th Governor of Maryland. ...

J. Edgar Hoover apparently read more into the strip than was there. According to documents obtained from the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act, Hoover had suspected Kelly of sending some form of coded messages via the nonsense poetry and Southern accents he peppered the strip with. He reportedly went as far as having Government cryptographers attempt to "decipher" the strip. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Nearly sixty countries around the world have implemented some form of freedom of information legislation, which sets rules on governmental secrecy. ...

When the strip was revived in 1989, Doyle and Sternecky attempted to recreate this tradition with a GOP Elephant that looked like Ronald Reagan, and a jackalope resembling George H. W. Bush. Saddam Hussein was portrayed as a snake, and then Vice-President Dan Quayle was depicted as an egg, which eventually hatched into a roadrunner-type chick that even went "Veep!" "Veep!" 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981 – 1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967 – 1975). ... The Wyoming jackalope is larger than life. ... George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. ... Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: [1]; April 28, 1937[2] – December 30, 2006[3]), was the President of Iraq from July 16, 1979, until April 9, 2003. ... James Danforth Dan Quayle (born February 4, 1947) was the 44th Vice President of the United States under George H. W. Bush (1989-1993). ...

Backlash and fluffy little bunnies

Kelly's use of satire and politics often drew fire from those he was criticizing, and their supporters. Due to complaints, a number of papers dropped the strip while others moved it to the editorial page.

Whenever he would start a controversial storyline, Kelly would usually offer alternate strips that papers could run instead of the political ones for a given week. Sometimes labelled "Special" or with a letter after the date to denote that these were alternate offerings, Kelly referred to these strips as "The Bunny Strips," because more often than not he would populate the alternate strips with the least offensive material he could imagine, fluffy little bunnies telling stupid jokes. (Nevertheless, many of the Bunny Strips are subtle reworkings of the theme of the replaced strip.) Kelly would tell fans that if all they saw in Pogo were fluffy little bunnies, then their newspaper didn't believe they were capable of thinking for themselves, or didn't want them to think for themselves.

The bunny strips were usually not reproduced when Pogo strips were collected into book form. A few alternate strips were reprinted in Equal Time For Pogo.

"We have met the enemy...."

Pogo strip from Earth Day, 1971.
Copyright 1971, 2005 OGPI

Probably the most famous Pogo quotation is "we have met the enemy and he is us." More than any other words written by Kelly, it perfectly sums up his attitude towards the foibles of mankind and the nature of the human condition. Image File history File links A 1971 Earth Day poster written and illustrated by Walt Kelly, featuring Pogo and Porkypine, as well as the first ever occurrence of the phrase, We have met the enemy and he is us. ... Image File history File links A 1971 Earth Day poster written and illustrated by Walt Kelly, featuring Pogo and Porkypine, as well as the first ever occurrence of the phrase, We have met the enemy and he is us. ... Earth Day Flag. ...

The quote, a rephrasing of a message sent in 1813 from U.S. Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to Army General William Henry Harrison after The Battle of Lake Erie stating "We have met the enemy, and they are ours," first appeared in a lengthier form in A Word To The Fore, the foreword of the book The Pogo Papers. Since the strips reprinted in Papers included the first appearances of Mole and Simple J. Malarkey, beginning Kelly's attacks on McCarthyism, Kelly used the foreword to defend his actions: Year 1813 (MDCCCXIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... The United States Navy, also known as the USN or the U.S. Navy, is a branch of the United States armed forces responsible for conducting naval operations. ... Commodore is a rank of the United States Navy with a somewhat complicated history. ... This article is about the naval officer. ... The United States Army is one of the armed forces of the United States and has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military leader, politician, and the ninth President of the United States. ... Combatants United Kingdom United States Commanders Robert Heriot Barclay Oliver Hazard Perry Strength 2 schooners 1 corvette 1 ship 1 brig 1 sloop 4 schooners 2 brigs 3 sloops Casualties 41 dead 94 wounded 6 ships captured 27 dead 96 wounded 1 ship lost The Battle of Lake Erie, sometimes... A foreword is a literary device that is often found in the beginning of a piece of literature, before the introduction. ... A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the dangers of a Communist takeover. ...

"Specializations and markings of individuals everywhere abound in such profusion that major idiosyncrasies can be properly ascribed to the mass. Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. It is just unfortunate that in the clumsy hands of a cartoonist all traits become ridiculous, leading to a certain amount of self-conscious expostulation and the desire to join battle.

"There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.

"Forward!"

The finalized version of the quotation appeared in a 1970 anti-pollution poster for Earth Day, and was repeated a year later in the strip reprinted here. 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Earth Day Flag. ...

In 1998, OGPI ("Okefenokee, Glee, and Perloo, Incorporated," the corporation formed by the Kelly family to administer all things Pogo) dedicated a plaque in Waycross, GA commemorating the quote. 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... Waycross is a city located in Ware County, Georgia. ...

Swamp-speak

The predominant language in Pogo is referred to by many as "swamp-speak." It is, essentially, a rural, Southern U.S. English dialect with creative spelling and pronunciation. The dialect and phonetics used are very similar to those used by Mark Twain in his novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, writer, and lecturer. ... Mark Twain Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain is commonly accounted as one of the first Great American Novels. ...

Kelly had a good ear for language, and often created new words to fit his characters (note some of the Quotes, below), including an exclamation, "rowrbazzle."

Other media

Pogo quickly branched out from the comic pages into other media, although not quite to the degree of many contemporary comic strips. Some attribute the comparative paucity of material to Kelly's pickiness about the quality of merchandise attached to his characters.

Music

An LP called Songs Of The Pogo was released in 1956, collecting a number of Kelly's verses (most of which had previously appeared in Pogo books) set to music by both Kelly and orchestra leader Norman Monath. The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour as a 33 â…“ LP vinyl record A gramophone record (also phonograph record, or simply record) is an analogue sound recording medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove starting near the periphery and ending near the center of the disc. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

While professional singers provided most of the vocals on the album, Kelly himself contributed lead vocals on two tracks: Go Go Pogo (for which he also composed the music), and Lines Upon A Tranquil Brow. He also contributed a spoken portion for Man's Best Friend.

Songs Of The Pogo was released on compact disc in 2004 by Reaction Records (Urbana, IL), including previously unreleased material. A Compact Disc or CD is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Animation

Three animated cartoons were created based on Pogo. Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. ...

The first, Pogo's Special Birthday Special, was produced by animator Chuck Jones in honor of the Comic Strip's twentieth anniversary in 1969. It starred June Foray as the voice of both Pogo and Miss Mam'selle. The general consensus is that the special, produced for NBC television, failed to capture the charm of the comic strip and is generally dismissed by fans. Chuck Jones in 1976 Charles Martin Chuck Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... June Foray (born September 18, 1917) is an extremely versatile voice actor who has worked for most of the studios which produced animated films since the 1940s. ... NBC (an acronym for National Broadcasting Company) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ...

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 by hand, and some have blamed the strain of the project on worsening Kelly's health and hastening his death three years later. The storyboards for the cartoon formed the first half of the book of the same title. 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

In 1980, the motion picture I Go Pogo was released. Directed by Marc Paul Chinoy, this stop motion animation (or "Claymation") picture featured the voices of Skip Hinnant as Pogo; Ruth Buzzi as Miz Beaver and Miss Mam'selle; Stan Freberg as Albert; Arnold Stang as Churchy; Jonathan Winters as Porky, Mole, and Wiley Catt; Jimmy Breslin as P.T. Bridgeport; and Vincent Price as the Deacon. While some fans have embraced the movie, others have dismissed it (as with the Birthday Special) for lacking Kelly's wit and charm. 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as... Stop motion is an animation technique which makes things that are static appear to be moving. ... The term Claymation is a registered trademark created by Will Vinton Studios to describe their clay animated movies; the more generic term is clay animation, but the portmanteau claymation has entered the English language as a genericized trademark. ... Skip Hinnant (Born September 12, 1940 in Chincoteague Island, Virginia) is an American actor. ... Ruth Buzzi (July 24, 1936—) is an American actress and comedienne of theatre, film, and television. ... Stanley Victor Freberg (born August 7, 1926 in Los Angeles) is a U.S. voice actor, comedian and advertising creative. ... Arnold Stang (born September 28, 1925 in Chelsea, Massachusetts) is a comic actor who plays a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type. ... Jonathan Winters (born November 11, 1925 in Dayton, Ohio) is an American comedic actor. ... Jimmy Breslin (born October 17, 1930 in Jamaica, New York) is an American columnist and author who has written numerous novels and appeared regularly in various newspapers in New York City, where he lives. ... Vincent Leonard Price Jr. ...

None of the three animated versions of Pogo is currently available on home video or DVD. The home video business rents and sells videocassettes and DVDs to the public. ... DVD (commonly known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ...

Collections

The 45 books published by Simon & Schuster

• Pogo (1951)
• I Go Pogo (1952)
• Uncle Pogo So-So Stories (1953)
• The Pogo Papers (1953)
• The Pogo Stepmother Goose (1954)
• The Incompleat Pogo (1954)
• The Pogo Peek-A-Book (1955)
• Potluck Pogo (1955)
• The Pogo Sunday Book (1956)
• The Pogo Party (1956)
• Songs of the Pogo (1956)
• Pogo's Sunday Punch (1957)
• Positively Pogo (1957)
• The Pogo Sunday Parade (1958)
• G.O. Fizzickle Pogo (1958)
• Ten Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Years With Pogo (1959)
• The Pogo Sunday Brunch (1959)
• Pogo Extra Election Special (1960)
• Beau Pogo (1960)
• Gone Pogo (1961)
• Pogo à la Sundae (1961)
• Instant Pogo (1962)
• The Jack Acid Society Black Book (1962)
• The Pogo Puce Stamp Catalog (1963)
• Deck Us All With Boston Charlie (1963)
• The Return of Pogo (1965)
• The Pogo Poop Book (1966)
• Prehysterical Pogo (In Pandemonia) (1967)
• Equal Time for Pogo (1968)
• Pogo: Prisoner of Love (1969)
• Impollutable Pogo (1970)
• Pogo: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us (1972)
• Pogo Revisited (1974), a compilation of Instant Pogo, The Jack Acid Society Black Book and The Pogo Poop Book
• Pogo Re-Runs (1974), a compilation of Pogo, The Pogo Party and Pogo Extra Election Special
• Pogo Romances Recaptured (1975), a compilation of Pogo: Prisoner of Love and The Incompleat Pogo
• Pogo's Bats and the Belles Free (1976)
• Pogo's Body Politic (1976)
• A Pogo Panorama (1977), a compilation of The Pogo Stepmother Goose, The Pogo Peek-A-Book and Uncle Pogo So-So Stories
• Pogo's Double Sundae (1978), a compilation of The Pogo Sunday Parade and The Pogo Sunday Brunch
• Pogo's Will Be That Was (1979), a compilation of G.O. Fizzickle Pogo and Positively Pogo
• The Best of Pogo (1982)
• Pogo Even Better (1984)
• Outrageously Pogo (1985)
• Pluperfect Pogo (1987)
• Phi Beta Pogo (1989)

The International Geophysical Year or IGY was an international scientific effort that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. ... Puce (noun, ) is generally considered to be dark rose to brownish-purple. ...

Books released by other publishers

• Pogo For President: Selections from I Go Pogo (Crest Books, 1964)
• The Pogo Candidature (Sheed, Andrews & McMeel, 1976)
• Pogofiles for Pogophiles (Spring Hollow Books, 1992)
• Complete Pogo Comics: Pogo & Albert, volumes 1-4 (Eclipse Comics, 19xx) [reprints of pre-strip comic book stories, unfinished)
• Pogo, volumes 1-11 (Fantagraphics Books, 1994-2000)
• Pogopedia (Spring Hollow Books, 2001)

In February 2007 it was announced that Fantagraphics Books would begin publication of The Complete Pogo, a 12-volume series collecting the complete chronological run of daily and Sunday strips. The first volume in the series is scheduled to appear in October 2007. [2] Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several influential indendent publishers during the 1980s. ... Fantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... Look up October in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Dell Publishing Company comic books featuring Pogo

• Animal Comics, issues 17, 23, 24, 25 (1947)
• Pogo Possum, issues 1-16 (1949-1954)
• Albert the Alligator and Pogo Possum, Dell Four Color issues 105 and 148 (1945-1946)
• Pogo Parade (1953)

Awards

The creator and series have received a great deal of recognition over the years. Walt Kelly received the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for 1951 for the strip. The Fantagraphics Pogo collections were a top votegetter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Album for 1998. The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists created in 1946. ... The Reuben Awards, named for Rube Goldberg, are presented each year by the National Cartoonists Society. ... Comics Buyers Guide (CBG) is the longest-running periodical reporting on the comic book industry. ...

Works influenced by Pogo

Walt Kelly's work has influenced a number of prominent comic artists.

• In the Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, cartoonist Bill Watterson listed Pogo as one of the three greatest influences on his own acclaimed strip, Calvin and Hobbes. (The two other strips were Peanuts and Krazy Kat. In fact, Pogo itself referenced Krazy Kat in many ways during its run, including a series of strips devoted to examining that immortal symbol of the earlier strip: the brick.)

• Pogo has also been cited as an influence by Jeff MacNelly (Shoe), Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury), Bill Holbrook (Kevin and Kell), and Mark O'Hare (Citizen Dog), among others.

• Writer Alan Moore and artist Shawn McManus made the January 1985 issue of Saga of the Swamp Thing (titled "Pog") a tribute to Pogo with Kellyesque artwork by McManus.

• Berkeley Breathed once drew a Bloom County strip which satirized the "abuse" of old characters by advertisers. A very Pogo-esque character (complete with striped shirt) was depicted screaming, "He'p! Walt!" while being dragged off to take up residence in a commercial.

• Jeff Smith has acknowledged that the artwork and writing style of his Bone comic book series were strongly influenced by Walt Kelly's style. Smith and Peter Kelly contributed artwork of the cast of Bone shaking hands with Pogo and Albert for the 1998 "Pogofest" celebration.

• Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise #39 (third series) features pastiches of several influences. At one point, the style resembles Kelly's, and Pogo himself makes a cameo appearance.

• Jim Henson acknowledged Kelly as a major influence on his sense of humor, and based some of his 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.

• Wally Wood, a longtime illustrator for Mad, parodied Kelly's characters on several occasions, most notably in a 1955 issue with "Gopo Gossum."

• In the Star Trek: Voyager episode Relativity, the "Pogo Paradox" is a paradox in temporal mechanics in which one goes back in time with the purpose of preventing a specific event, only to end up as the reason that event occurred in the first place. It was referred to as the Pogo Paradox because of Pogo's famous quote, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

• In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson refers to his religious neighbor Ned Flanders as "Churchy LaFemme."

• Dennis the Menace and his father were once seen in a rowboat named S.S. Walt Kelly. [3]

• Darrin Bell, author of the comic strip Candorville, once made a direct reference to Walt Kelly's satirizing of Senator Joseph McCarthy in a Sunday strip portraying various political controversies throughout the vast history of the modern comic strip.

William B. Bill Watterson II (born July 5, 1958) is the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes and a few poems (which are mostly embedded in his works). ... Listen to this article (3 parts) · (info) Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3 This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2006-01-29, and may not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, (the day after Schulzs death). ... Krazy Kat is a comic strip created by George Herriman that appeared in U.S. newspapers between 1913 and 1944. ... Jeffrey Kenneth MacNelly (1948 - June 8, 2000) was a famous American editorial cartoonist, widely considered to be one of the best editorial cartoonists of the modern era. ... Shoe is the name of a comic strip that was written and drawn by its creator Jeff MacNelly until his death in 2000. ... Garry Trudeau Garretson Beekman Trudeau (born July 21, 1948, in New York City) is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip. ... Doonesbury is a comic strip by Garry Trudeau, popular in the United States and other parts of the world. ... Bill Holbrook is a prolific American comic strip writer and artist. ... Kevin and Kell is an anthropomorphic animal comic strip, by syndicated cartoonist Bill Holbrook. ... Mark OHare created the comic strip Citizen Dog, but is well-known for his work on TV shows such as Rockos Modern Life, Dexters Laboratory, and SpongeBob SquarePants. ... Citizen Dog (1995-2001) was a newspaper comic strip by Mark OHare, distributed by Universal Press Syndicate. ... Alan Moore (born November 18, 1953, in Northampton) is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. ... Shawn McManus caricature of Stan Lee Shawn McManus (born June 30, 1958 in Brookline, Massachusetts) is an American artist who entered the comic book field in the early 1980s. ... The Swamp Thing is a fictional character created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson for DC Comics, and featured in a long-running horror-fantasy comic book series of the same name. ... Guy Berkeley (Berke) Breathed (born June 21, 1957) is an American cartoonist, childrens book author/illustrator, director, and screenwriter, best known for Bloom County, a 1980s cartoon-comic strip which dealt with socio-political issues as seen through the eyes of highly exaggerated characters (e. ... Bloom County was a popular American comic strip by Berke Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980 until August 6, 1989. ... Jeff Smith is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone. ... Bone is a popular independent comic book series by Jeff Smith. ... Terry Moore: (born 1929) a film actress Terry Moore: (1912-1995) a Major League Baseball player [1] Terry Moore: a comic books writer This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Strangers in Paradise volume 3, issue 1 alternate cover. ... The word pastiche describes a literary or other artistic genre. ... James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was the most widely known American puppeteer in modern American television history. ... The Muppets are a group of puppets and costume characters, and the company created by Jim Henson. ... The Muppet Show was a television program featuring a cast of Muppets (diverse hand-operated puppets, typically with oversized eyes and large moving mouths) produced by Jim Henson and his team from 1976 to 1981. ... Wallace Wally Wood (born June 17, 1927, Menahga, Minnesota, United States; died November 2, 1981), was an American writer-artist best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. ... Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. ... The starship Voyager (NCC-74656), an Intrepid-class starship. ... Relativity is a fifth season episode of Star Trek: Voyager, first broadcast on May 12, 1999. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. ... Nedward Ned Flanders is a fictional character on The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer. ... For the British comic strip of the same name, see Dennis the Menace (UK). ... Darrin Bell is an African-American cartoonist who writes and illustrates the syndicated comic strip Candorville, and illustrates the comic strip Rudy Park. ... Candorville is a syndicated newspaper comic strip written and illustrated by Darrin Bell, a former editorial cartoonist, and the only African-American cartoonist to ever have two different comic strips in syndication concurrently. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Pogo

• Walt Kelly's Pogo - official site
• Annual Pogofest - Waycross, Georgia
• Hal Higdon: "Walt Kelly's Pogo: The Best Funny Animal Strip of All-Time"
• I Go Pogo
• Pogo and the Walt Kelly Museum
• Pogo Fan Club & Walt Kelly Society