G. O. Fizzickle Pogo

Happy 94th birthday to Walt Kelly, creator of Pogo. Mark Evanier, webmaster of the official pogopossum.com website, writes about growing into an appreciation of the comic strip.

The dialogue was inaccessible to my toddler mind and even when I could decode what I could decode, I wasn't sure what they were all yelling about. In a way, it was frustrating the way it's frustrating to watch certain TV shows with the sound off. You can tell something interesting is being said but it drives you up the ever-lovin' wall to be denied it.

That was how I felt about Walt Kelly's swampland comic strip up until the age when I started to "get it." I knew it was funny. The characters were so alive and expressive. You could tell just from their poses that wonderful things happened in their world. You could also tell that the guy drawing all them amusing pics was a man of great humor and wit.

As Carolyn Kelly promised, the cover, table of contents, and first chapter of G. O. Fizzickle Pogo, has been posted, wherein we learn how pointless it is to tell a turtle that something is as plain as the nose on his face.

If you follow this link and scroll down, there is a synopsis of G. O. Fizzickle Pogo. I'd forgotten that this one included a Little Orphan Annie parody. Albert poses as Lulu Arfin' Nanny with his eyes "blunked out."