Before achieving international fame as the creator of Pogo Possum, legendary cartoonist Walt Kelly produced an outstanding body of work adapting and illustrating fairy tales, fables and nursery rhymes for Dell Comics in the 1940s. Already an indisputable master of his craft, these wonderful and whimsical stories come to unparalleled life through Kelly's signature, spirited humor and fluid, exuberant hand. Comprised of carefully selected and rarely seen work that originally appeared in issues of Dell Comics' Fairy Tale Parade, Four Color, Raggedy Ann and Andy, and Santa Claus Funnies, this volume is a vital part of the history and legacy of one of comics' most eminent and influential masters.

Before achieving international fame as the creator of Pogo Possum, legendary cartoonist Walt Kelly produced an outstanding body of work adapting and illustrating fairy tales, fables and nursery rhymes for Dell Comics in the 1940s. Already an indisputable master of his craft, these wonderful and whimsical stories come to unparalleled life through Kelly's signature, spirited humor and fluid, exuberant hand. Comprised of carefully selected and rarely seen work that originally appeared in issues of Dell Comics' Fairy Tale Parade, Four Color, Raggedy Ann and Andy, and Santa Claus Funnies, this volume is a vital part of the history and legacy of one of comics' most eminent and influential masters.

Presents a collection of fairy tales adapted by the cartoonist into comic book format, including Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" and Hans Christian Andersen's "Big Claus and Little Claus."

"A true natural genius of comic art." — Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey Starting in 1948, Walt Kelly's newspaper-based comic strip Pogo lampooned sociopolitical issues from the Red Scare to the environmental movement. A gifted cartoonist who began his career at Walt Disney Studios, Kelly explored the virtues and follies of human nature with a lively cast of Okefenokee Swamp critters. Kind-hearted Pogo Possum headed the crew, which included intellectual Howland Owl; exuberant Albert Alligator; poetic mud turtle Churchy LaFemme; romantic hound dog Beauregard Bugleboy; and other impish personalities. Even readers too young to appreciate the strip's satirical elements were charmed by the eccentric creatures and their offbeat wordplay. This compilation features comics from the election year of 1952, during which Pogo's neighbors encouraged the reluctant possum to run for president. Their rallying cry, "I Go Pogo," parodied Dwight D. Eisenhower's "I Like Ike" slogan and provided real-life fans with a write-in candidate. Kelly's sly humor and flair for creative language—replete with malapropisms and nonsense verse — retain their imaginative verve for comics enthusiasts of the twenty-first century.

Walt Kelly blended nonsense language, poetry, and political and social satire to make Pogo an essential contribution to American “intellectual” comics. As the strip progressed, it became a hilarious platform for Kelly’s scathing political views in which he skewered national bogeymen like J. Edgar Hoover, Joseph McCarthy, George Wallace, and Richard Nixon. Walt Kelly started when newspaper strips shied away from politics ― Pogo was ahead of its time and ahead of later strips (such as Doonesbury and The Boondocks) that tackled political issues. Our first (of 12) volume reprints approximately the first two years of Pogo ― dailies and (for the first time) full-color Sundays. This first volume also introduces such enduring supporting characters as Porkypine, Churchy LaFemme, Beauregard Bugleboy, Seminole Sam, Howland Owl, and many others. And for Christmas, 1949, Kelly started his tradition of regaling his readers with his infamously and gloriously mangled Christmas carols.

Comic Book Collections and Programming will help librarians build a collection that’s right for their library, including specialty collections for kids, teens, and adults. It covers the practical realities of this non-traditional format, like binding, weeding, and budgeting. It also address advanced topics like comics and pedagogy, bringing comics artists and authors into the library, and using comics as a community outreach tool – even hosting comic conventions in libraries. The guide covers: Comics for kids, teens, and adults. Comics genres from superheroes to fantasy to Manga; from memoirs and biographies to science texts to Pulitzer Prize winning literature. Comics publishers and distributors. Comics history and influential contemporary creators. Online resources and communities. After reading the guide, librarians will be able to: Organize creator visits and events. Plan and produce community anthologies. Host drawing parties and comic discussion groups. Preserve comics in a library environment Develop, run, and grow a library-based comic convention. This is an essential reference for collections librarians, children’s librarians, and teen librarians, whether they are comics-lovers or have never read an issue. The guide is aimed at public, academic, and school libraries.

This volume includes a pig with an ominous resemblance to Nikita Khrushchev and a scruffy goat who looks exactly like Fidel Castro. Both assure Okefenokeeans that a one-party system is the way to go; all will be well economically, they explain, because "the shortage will be divided amongst the peasants." Other storylines spotlight Kelly's remarkable cast: Pogo Possum, Albert Alligator, Howland Owl, "Churchy" LaFemme, Beauregard Bugleboy, Porky Pine, Miz Ma'm'selle Hepzibah, Deacon Mushrat, and so many others. All 104 Sunday strips from those two years are included, with supplementary features (including comprehensive annotations and index) by comics historians R.C. Harvey, Maggie Thompson, and Mark Evanier.

It's in this volume (featuring another two years worth of Pogo strips) that we meet one of Walt Kelly's boldest political caricatures. Folks across America had little trouble equating the insidious wildcat Simple J. Malarkey with the ascendant anti-Communist senator, Joseph McCarthy. The subject was sensitive enough that by the following year a Providence, Rhode Island newspaper threatened to drop the strip if Malarkey's face were to appear in it again. Kelly's response? He had Malarkey appear again but put a bag over the character's head for his next appearance. Ergo, his face did not appear. (Typical of Kelly's layers of verbal wit, the character Malarkey was hiding from was a Rhode Island Red hen, referencing both the source of his need to conceal Malarkey and the underlying political controversy.) The entirety of these sequences can be found in this book. But the Malarkey storyline is only a tiny portion of those rich, eventful two years, which include such classic sequences as con-man Seminole Sam's attempts to corner the market on water (which Porkypine's Uncle Baldwin tries to one-up by cornering the market on dirt); a return engagement of Pup Dog and Houndog's blank-eyed Little Orphan Annie parody Li'l Arf and Nonny; Churchy La Femme going in drag to deliver a love poem he wrote, Cyrano style, on Deacon Mush-rat's behalf to Sis Boombah (the aforementioned hen); P.T. Bridgeport's return to the swamp in search of new talent; and of course two rousing choruses of Deck Us All With Boston Charlie.

One of the Golden Age of Comic Books perenniel Christmas favorites was the great Santa Claus Funnies published by Dell between 1942 and 1961 Actually, Dell wasn’t the first publisher to produce Santa Claus Funnies. A couple of years earlier in 1940, Whitman published a one shot comic with the same title. Published near the end of 1942, features some of Walt Kelly's earliest work for Dell Comics. He illustrates a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, The Fir Tree (also published with some changes as a W T Grant Co giveaway comic the same year), and a poem by Stella Mead, Lord Octopus Went to the Christmas Fair. Other artists contributing include L Bing (Santa Claus in Trouble), Arthur E Jameson (The First Christmas Tree), and Robert A Graefa (Santa Claus and the Mouse). Collection Includes: All the Walt Kelly material from, Santa Claus Funnies 1 & 2, Four Color Comics 61, 91, 128, 175, 205 & 254