Walt Kelly - Legacy in Print and Other Media

Legacy in Print and Other Media

Pogo was continued by Kelly's widow, Selby, and various assistants until the summer of 1975. Reprint books continued in a steady stream, including a series reprinting several original books under a single cover according to various themes—romance, elections—that ran into the 1980s. In 1977, Gregg Press reprinted the first ten Pogo books in hardcover editions with dust jackets. In 1995 Jonas/Winter issued another ten Pogo titles in navy blue cloth editions.

• In the 1980s a series of trade paperbacks (The Best of Pogo, Pogo Even Better, Outrageously Pogo, Pluperfect Pogo and Phi Beta Pogo) collected material from the Kelly fanzine The Okefenokee Star and combined examples of Kelly's massive output of non-strip material with new interviews, essays, and in each volume, a complete year of dailies from the strip starting in 1948. These books were unusual in that they were focused on Kelly's entire life and work, rather than just Pogo specifically.

• In 1980 a clay animation feature film, Pogo for President (aka I Go Pogo) was released, but failed to gain much media attention. Ironically, it was ultimately purchased by The Walt Disney Company and has seen limited release in home formats.

• In 1988 Steve Thompson issued The Walt Kelly Collector's Guide, (Spring Hollow Books) an invaluable and comprehensive resource of Pogo and other Walt Kelly-related memorabilia.

• In 1989 the Los Angeles Times attempted to revive the strip with other artists, including Kelly's two children, Carolyn and Peter, under the title Walt Kelly's Pogo. The new strip ran through the early 1990s. Also in 1989, Eclipse Books began publication of a hardcover series called Walt Kelly's Pogo and Albert collecting the early Dell Pogo comic book stories in color, starting with the characters' first appearance in 1943. The series reached four numbered volumes, with volumes two, three, and four subtitled At the Mercy of Elephants, Diggin' fo' Square Roots and Dreamin' of a Wide Catfish, respectively.

• In 1992 Fantagraphics Books began a series of chronological strip reprints in paperback form, simply titled Pogo. Through 2000, the series reached 11 volumes and reprinted daily strips from the first New York Star strip of October 4, 1948, through February 12, 1954. Also in 1992, Spring Hollow published Pogo Files for Pogophiles in hardcover and trade paperback.

• In 2001 Spring Hollow published The Pogopedia by Nik Lauer, et al. This encyclopedic reference volume examines the strip's themes, character studies, quotations, and motifs.

• In 2002 Dark Horse Comics produced Pogo and Albert figures in limited editions as part of their "Classic Comic Character Series" of statues. Issued in lavishly illustrated tin containers, the figures quickly sold out. Also released in 1992, The Comics Journal Interview CD (Fantagraphics, 2002): Contains 15‑20 minute audio excerpts with five of the most influential cartoonists in the American comics industry: Charles Schulz, Jack Kirby, Walt Kelly (interviewed by Gil Kane in 1969) and R. Crumb.

• In 2003 Reaction Records reissued Kelly's 1956 album Songs of the Pogo on compact disc. The album features Kelly singing his own comic lyrics and nonsense verse to melodies written mostly by Norman Monath. Kelly wrote music to seven of the 30 songs, according to the printed song book. The disc also features the content of Kelly's later recordings, No! with Pogo and Can't! with Pogo, which were issued as children's 45 rpm record sets in 1969, with booklets written and illustrated by Kelly to accompany his recorded performances.

• Fantagraphics Books has published four volumes of a series collecting Kelly's Our Gang comic book stories (1943‑45) with cover art by Bone creator Jeff Smith and introductions by Leonard Maltin and Kelly chronicler Steve Thompson.

• In February 2007 Fantagraphics Books announced that it would begin publication of The Complete Pogo, a projected 12‑volume series collecting the complete chronological run of daily and Sunday strips, to be overseen by Jeff Smith and Kelly's daughter Carolyn. The first volume in the series was scheduled to appear in October 2007 but was delayed, reportedly due to difficulty in locating early Sunday strips in complete form. It was finally released in October, 2011.