Comical comics

Page 22 of 34 Cover, Mad (1954). Art: Basil Wolverton. Despite these media crossovers, arguably the greatest funny animal creation was unique to comics: Pogo the Possum. His creator, Walt Kelly, had been a Disney animator, and had also worked on the Looney Tunes comic. Pogo was first featured in Animal Comics (Dell, 1941) and then became the star of Pogo Comics (Dell) in 1946. He and his friends Albert the Alligator, Howland Owl, Churchy La Femme and all the other residents of Okefenokee Swamp had plenty of knockabout fun, but most interestingly, they behaved the way people would behave if guided more by nature and instinct than by man-made custom. The strip's fascination was in the characters' casual attitude to eating each other; to the way leadership developed among them; how they defined their moral ground; and generally, how they got along with each other. Finally, Pogo went on to become an internationally syndicated newspaper strip, when the characters took on a more overtly political aspect, becoming alternately defenders of civil rights and the environment, and opponents of censorship. << Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Next > End >>