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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Number 1182: “Chilluns ought to be seed and not hearn!”

I like to think if there's an afterlife, perhaps Walt Kelly and Lewis Carroll are talking to each other in their own funny versions of the English language.

Other Kelly Pogo postings on this blog include “Floyd the Flea is lost at sea!” from Pappy's #756, “A couple of miles of jollity,” from Pappy's #567, and “Cinderola and the Three Bears” from Pappy's #483.

From Pogo #2 (1950), by Walt Kelly:











8 comments:

Kirk said...

I never thought about Lewis Carrol in relation to Kelly, but, you're right, there is a similarity.

You know what else Pogo is similar to? Winnie-the-Pooh. I don't mean Disney's version, but A.A. Milne's original books. There's the same crazy type of conversation.

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Oh, Kelly's whimsicallities was at they height this chere periodle time.

Brian Barnes said...

Kelly was just absolutely in command of funny animal humor (and political humor, later.)

Note that unlike most comedy stories, they never get to "hijinks", the story never has to go to a larger crazy -- often convoluted -- story to be funny. They basically talk. It's really marvelous.

Pappy said...

Gumba, I agree about the lack of real hijinks and emphasis on conversation in Kelly's work. My understanding is that for the comic books Kelly would do his writing and drawing on the boards, making it up as he went along. It might be why there is a story there, but unlike someone like Carl Barks, who was a gag man, wrote a script and followed a logical sequence to the end, Kelly's stories tend to wander around a bit before tying themselves up for a finish.

Pappy said...

Kirk, you caught me, friend. I have never read any of the Winnie-the-Pooh books. I have read all the available Kelly over the past fifty years, and have even read Lewis Carroll...but no Pooh books.

Pappy said...

Thomas, whimsy and whimsicalities are two words I'd definitely use to describe Kelly's stories.

Unca Jeffy said...

Kelly makes my face, my brain and my gut smile. That's my review of Walt Kelly, in-depth as it gets.

Pappy said...

Jeffy, a gut-smile! That is happiness indeed. I like your review very much, and my gut is grinning from rib to rib right now.