I’d say probably, but the only reason for not fully committing to the first strip needing a Geezer tag is that the song still gets played often on pop and oldies stations.
Song?
The first one didn’t click with me until the third balloon. But then I was never a fan of Hall & Oates. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the song all the way through. The Ms. Pacman machine might be more geezery than anything else. The second comic definitely earns a tag. I picked up Pogo entirely through cultural osmosis and I’m not sure that’s still possible.
Song?
And I’m not sure I want to live in a world where POGO has been forgotten / never known. (But I guess I may have to, sometimes, anyway.)
One detail of the “Brevity” had me baffled until the third speech balloon. Suddenly, it made sense the the maneater would be a zombie. Gotta enjoy such an added layer to a simple song reference.
Wikipedia says Hall and Oates started getting play just about the time I stopped paying attention to popular music (with few exceptions) — grad school, marriage, start of career all sort of getting in the way back then — so maybe Ineed an anti-geezer tag (a “rezeeg” tag?) here. Or would that be ultra-geezer?
Anyway, from the article it looks like the only one of their songs I can recall hearing is “She’s Gone,” and I’m not even sure if the version of that I recall is theirs or someone else’s.
Thanks for the link — without that, and the discussion, I would be lost on the first one. Indeed, I only fairly recently had occasion to look them up and discover they really were “Hall & Oates” and not ” Haulin’ Oats” which is how I had always heard it and assumed they were a farm and country band. (Apparently there really is a “Haulin’ Oats” though — a parody/tribute band.)
This Barney & Clyde left me with the same bad aftertaste that the recent “Escher signing a check” strip did: if you are going to borrow from a great work of art, you have to get at least within spitting distance of the original. That “Pogo” almost qualifies, but “Albert” is a failure, both in terms of the artwork, and because of the entirely inappropriate adjective. Pogo was (at times) “eloquent”, although “insightful” would have been closer to the mark. Albert was neither. Outspoken, yes, but verbal dexterity was never his strong suit.
If I were to select a resident of the Okefenokee to take the stand in defense of nature, it would have to be Porkypine. Unfortunately, it was already an extremely tall order to expect readers to recognize Pogo & Albert. Using Porkypine instead would have been extremely faithful to the spirit of Pogo,but it would have been understood only by a scant smattering of comics nerds.
I will *never* live in a world in which pogo is forgotten.
No idea what Hall and Oates song you are talking about. But if those are the lyrics shouldn’t it be a vampire rather than a zombie?
“Pogo was (at times) “eloquent”, although “insightful” would have been closer to the mark. Albert was neither. Outspoken, yes, but verbal dexterity was never his strong suit.”
Good point. I have utterly no idea why the strip needed to have *any* adjective. Just saying they are representatives for the swamp would be enough.
“If I were to select a resident of the Okefenokee to take the stand in defense of nature, it would have to be Porkypine.”
I admire your Pogo knowledge. But although Porkypine would indeed speak out, I’d accept *any* denizen (except Deacon Mushrat or Mole) as able and willing. In fact I’d figure Porky would opt for Pogo to speak for him and be more likely to decline the forefront.
The lyrics of Maneater say ‘chew you up’…while there are SOME variants on vampires who do that…
Why is Pogo standing next to one of the alligators from Pearls Before Swine instead of Albert?
Actually, if we are talking about defending the swamp, the best (most well-armed) man for the job would be Wiley Catt.
Yes, let’s not forget Pogo. But I wonder how well it would hold up, if read now? Anyone read any Pogo collections recently?
“Anyone read any Pogo collections recently?”
I reread them all the time. Aside from minor sexism, they hold up.
And if they didn’t that would be modern times fault– not the strips.
“Why is Pogo standing next to one of the alligators from Pearls Before Swine instead of Albert?” Hah! Best comment!
Okay… I got to admit. It’s hard for my to imagine why anyone would think Pogo *wouldn’t* hold up. It’s stilll original and unpredictable. It’s amazingly creative and artistic. It’s funny as hell. It doesn’t reflect any naivete of “of simpler times” or the belief that we expect more complex ideas or emotions or realism; in fact it’s far more complex then anything being drawn today. And it just *oozes* pure unreined talent.
I have a number of Pogo collections(*), stretching from the very beginning until the early 1970’s, but with far too many gaps in between. I agree with woozy: the material is still funny, and the political satire holds up surprisingly well, but it does help when you can figure out just who the caricatures are supposed to be.
P.S. (*) I missed out on reading Pogo in the newspaper, partly because I was still a little too young for the complexity of the strip near the end of Kelly’s life, but mostly just because we subscribed to the wrong paper. After getting to know “Pogo” from various books, I was able to read some of the newspaper strips done by Selby Kelly, and had (unrealistically) high hopes when a later revival was introduced. Unfortunately, neither Selby nor any of the others involved could hold a candle to Kelly’s writing.
Personally I would vote no on the first, yes on the second. To me, “geezer” is shorthand for “old people will get this joke.” I still hear that song on the radio at least once a month (and now I have an earworm). If the song is still in wide circulation, young people are probably hearing it too.
Pogo, on the other hand, isn’t exactly plastered all over the place. It doesn’t matter how well Pogo holds up, what matters is that the characters aren’t being used in commercials or seen anywhere else that would make young people recognize the character.
” It doesn’t matter how well Pogo holds up”
I think the question about how well Pogo holds up was an off-topic tangent. I was making a tongue in cheek comment about refusing to live in a world where Pogo is a geezer tag.
Geezer tag strikes me more about not only old stuff but also about things that were fads or trends or catch phrases.
” I still hear that song on the radio at least once a month”
I was actually enjoying the idea of that what being a rare “geezer tag” as it’s actually too old for *me* to remember. I’ve never heard it and don’t recognize it at all.
“I will *never* live in a world in which pogo is forgotten.”
Woozy, isn’t this a tautology?
I know of Pogo, but never really cared for it (puts on flame-proof suit).
I hadn’t read Pogo since I was a child, so I expect that if there was anything sophisticated about it, it went right over my head. I thought it was pretty meh.
I had gone on a search for the first Pogo strip, which I had seen in a book years ago. This is it:
However, I also found this from a collection of strips, which appears to repurpose (which character flip) and expand the story.
From what I read online, Kelly started the strip at the New York Star, and then a few other papers, until the Star folded. He then was able to get the strip syndicated. I would guess that he reworked some of the Star strips.
Now I can see why I didn’t like the strip – the intentionally-incorrect grammar drives me nuts. Same with that Snuffy Smith comic . . . no tolerance for it.
“the intentionally-incorrect grammar drives me nuts.”
Normally I’d agree with you but in Pogo it’s often a method of *very* clever puns and triple-entendres. One of my favorite being “non compost mentis”.
But it does make me wonder why the Barney and Clyde strip chose “eloquent” as an adjective.
” I thought it was pretty meh.”
It was my favorite as a child. I thought its absurdist humor was just up my alley. People talk about the political satire (which *is* brilliant) but I always figured that was a very small part of the whole experience.
Maybe I should try it again . . . always willing to change my opinion, if need be.
The last few years of the strip were rather weak, except for the sequence collected in Prehysterical Pogo (in Pandemonia), and the post-mortem ones were godawful, but anything before 1965 or so, including the non-newspaper stories in books like The Pogo Stepmother Goose, belongs in the top three or four strips of all time. And is #1 for me.
Actually, POGO first appeared in ANIMAL COMICS; the strip syndication (first in the NEW YORK STAR for the last few months of that paper’s life) came later.
Fantagraphics is reprinting all of the newspaper strips — dailies and Sundays — in thick hardcover volumes; four are out so far, carrying the reprints through 1956. Hermes Press is doing reprints of the ANIMAL COMICS (and subsequent POGO comics), several issues to a volume, also in hardcover, and in full color; five volumes published so far.
Not cheap ($50 or so a volume), but well worth it to us fanatics.
“The last few years of the strip were rather weak, except for the sequence collected in Prehysterical Pogo (in Pandemonia),”
I dunno. Impollutable Pogo was pretty good. And Equal Time for Pogo has a soft spot as it was the first pogo book I bought with my own money (but it’s utterly incomprehensible if you don’t understand the political landscape of 1968; however it did motivate me to learn it and it made me a better person –[Wait; Eugene MacCarthy and George McGovern were different people?]).
Also the circa mortem sequence of Butch the brick throwing cat was kind of funny and sweet (I think that may have been mostly Selby Kelly by then.)
But the stuff in the collection We Have Met the Enemy was very weak in my opinion.
And I like Prisoner of Love although the sexism was hard to take (even when I was a boy of 11 years).
“…the intentionally-incorrect grammar drives me nuts… ”
It strikes me that they’re speaking a form of American (southern) dialect.
Well, it is basically more southern than northern, but the far-out expressions like ‘longmolar’ for ‘lawn mower’ are what delight me. Or ‘percypacassidy an’ presbycootity’ for ‘perspicacity and perspicuity’. Or ‘a trumpetin’ elephant all roarin’ off the inneleck’ for ‘a triumphant elegant aurora of the intellect’. (The latter two are Churchy La Femme not quite getting Uncle Baldwin and Howland Owl.)
Eek, I’ve been moderated. I wonder, was it ‘percypacassidy’ that did it?
Oh, I see what it was. I freed the comment from Moderation, so a gold star to the first person who spots it.
Moderation for the adjective of the elephant.
I didn’t use the word, yet I’m moderated too. Maybe I typoed my edress?
“It strikes me that they’re speaking a form of American (southern) dialect.” As interpretted by a Northern Speaker. For intentional comic effect. Which normally I would consider that a cheap laugh except the word usage and and language fluidity is truly dexterious. And it transcends it so rapidly.
I particularly love the poem Yum-yum
O, March comes in like a lion
And March goes out like a lamb
But what’s that I smell a fryin’
Why’s it a frienly li’l piece of ham
I don’t see any comments in Moderation right now.
And
How hither grows the hazy yon
how myrtle petaled thou
for spring has sprung the cyclotron
How high browst thou brown cow.
That didn’t quite ring true for me, so I pulled down Ten Ever-Lovin’ Years With Pogo, and in 1950:
How pierceful grows the hazy yon!
How myrtle petaled thou!
For spring hath sprung the Cyclotron,
How high browse thou, brown cow?
Gotta have the ‘highbrows’ pun. I misremembered ‘pierceful’ as ‘peaceful’, myself.
It’s hard to remember his nonsense accurately, but on the same page I was word-perfect with 1952’s:
The Olympics
We salute you, oh, games of the ages
But the game of an age turning gray
Was when I carried the torch on Veronica’s porch
In the city of Athens, Ga.
I read Pogo every day as a child in the ’60s. I recall enjoying it, but didn’t really understand what was going on most of the time.
Deck Us All With Boston Charlie.
you’re right. That’s what I get from reciting be memory. I was think of “hither and yon” and these a days everything is more hither than yon.
Pierceful for Peaceful is correct thought.
I *had* the high brows pun. I just said browst….
It *is* hard to remember nonsense correctly.
Do I dare try to recite “Don’t sugar me” from memory?
But the line “All them things, them diamond rings, them (stuff?) you promised me; were figments newton, sure as shootin’, shootin’ sure as ABC” is pure genius.
As is “‘less you want a granulated lump or two”
@ Brian in StL – Kelly started Pogo in the New York Star just four months before the paper folded in January 1949. After getting a contract in May, Kelly reworked most (but not all) of the “Star” material for the syndicated strip, redrawing everything fresh, presumably because of copyright considerations. (Kelly’s syndication contract was highly unusual in that he retained ownership, the syndicate was merely the distributor.)
Both sets of those early strips were republished in “The Best of Pogo“, along with a random collection of background material about Kelly and the strip in general (including a number of MAD Magazine parodies).
P.S. Although I’m quite happy to have the book as a reference, I cannot recommend it wholeheartedly. Despite Selby Kelly’s paticipation, the book is poorly edited, and lacks any form of organization.
My dad is addicted to Pogo – he says he didn’t see it growing up, got hooked later. I’ve enjoyed what little I’ve seen of it (mostly his collections), but never really got hooked.
a) Oh lord. Fantagraphics is reprinting them? Gotta tell Dad.
b) He also insists on singing Boston Charlie every year at our caroling party – calls it the Ur-Carol. I can sing the first verse from memory, but we don’t usually go beyond that (though there’s four verses in our (self-made) caroling book).
presbycootity?
Today, while spinning through the FM stations for something worth listening to, I caught a piece of Maneater. So, perhaps not geezerish.
@ jjmcgaffey – The “Best of Pogo” collection has six “Boston Charlie” verses (the last two both start with “Bark us all bow wows of folly”).
Just for the record, mistyping your address will also send your message to Moderation, because the program won’t know who you are.
P.S. Here are all six “Boston Charlie” verses, in no paricular order:
Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an’ Kalamazoo!
Nora’s freezin’ on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Don’t we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don’t love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!
Dunk us all in bowls of barley,
Hinky dinky dink an’ polly voo!
Chilly Filly’s name is Chollie,
Chollie Filly’s jolly chilly view halloo!
Hunky Dory’s pop is lolly,
Gaggin’ on the wagon, Willy, folly go through!
Chollie’s collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker ‘n’ too-da-loo!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloupe, ‘lope with you!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Double-bubble, toyland trouble! Woof, woof, woof!
Tizzy seas on melon collie!
Dibble-dabble, scribble-scrabble! Goof, goof, goof!
My dad also loved Pogo – but it was over my little head.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I’d say probably, but the only reason for not fully committing to the first strip needing a Geezer tag is that the song still gets played often on pop and oldies stations.
Song?
The first one didn’t click with me until the third balloon. But then I was never a fan of Hall & Oates. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the song all the way through. The Ms. Pacman machine might be more geezery than anything else. The second comic definitely earns a tag. I picked up Pogo entirely through cultural osmosis and I’m not sure that’s still possible.
Song?
And I’m not sure I want to live in a world where POGO has been forgotten / never known. (But I guess I may have to, sometimes, anyway.)
One detail of the “Brevity” had me baffled until the third speech balloon. Suddenly, it made sense the the maneater would be a zombie. Gotta enjoy such an added layer to a simple song reference.
Someone’s gotta share it: https://youtu.be/yRYFKcMa_Ek
Wikipedia says Hall and Oates started getting play just about the time I stopped paying attention to popular music (with few exceptions) — grad school, marriage, start of career all sort of getting in the way back then — so maybe Ineed an anti-geezer tag (a “rezeeg” tag?) here. Or would that be ultra-geezer?
Anyway, from the article it looks like the only one of their songs I can recall hearing is “She’s Gone,” and I’m not even sure if the version of that I recall is theirs or someone else’s.
Thanks for the link — without that, and the discussion, I would be lost on the first one. Indeed, I only fairly recently had occasion to look them up and discover they really were “Hall & Oates” and not ” Haulin’ Oats” which is how I had always heard it and assumed they were a farm and country band. (Apparently there really is a “Haulin’ Oats” though — a parody/tribute band.)
This Barney & Clyde left me with the same bad aftertaste that the recent “Escher signing a check” strip did: if you are going to borrow from a great work of art, you have to get at least within spitting distance of the original. That “Pogo” almost qualifies, but “Albert” is a failure, both in terms of the artwork, and because of the entirely inappropriate adjective. Pogo was (at times) “eloquent”, although “insightful” would have been closer to the mark. Albert was neither. Outspoken, yes, but verbal dexterity was never his strong suit.
If I were to select a resident of the Okefenokee to take the stand in defense of nature, it would have to be Porkypine. Unfortunately, it was already an extremely tall order to expect readers to recognize Pogo & Albert. Using Porkypine instead would have been extremely faithful to the spirit of Pogo,but it would have been understood only by a scant smattering of comics nerds.
I will *never* live in a world in which pogo is forgotten.
No idea what Hall and Oates song you are talking about. But if those are the lyrics shouldn’t it be a vampire rather than a zombie?
“Pogo was (at times) “eloquent”, although “insightful” would have been closer to the mark. Albert was neither. Outspoken, yes, but verbal dexterity was never his strong suit.”
Good point. I have utterly no idea why the strip needed to have *any* adjective. Just saying they are representatives for the swamp would be enough.
“If I were to select a resident of the Okefenokee to take the stand in defense of nature, it would have to be Porkypine.”
I admire your Pogo knowledge. But although Porkypine would indeed speak out, I’d accept *any* denizen (except Deacon Mushrat or Mole) as able and willing. In fact I’d figure Porky would opt for Pogo to speak for him and be more likely to decline the forefront.
The lyrics of Maneater say ‘chew you up’…while there are SOME variants on vampires who do that…
Why is Pogo standing next to one of the alligators from Pearls Before Swine instead of Albert?
Actually, if we are talking about defending the swamp, the best (most well-armed) man for the job would be Wiley Catt.
Yes, let’s not forget Pogo. But I wonder how well it would hold up, if read now? Anyone read any Pogo collections recently?
“Anyone read any Pogo collections recently?”
I reread them all the time. Aside from minor sexism, they hold up.
And if they didn’t that would be modern times fault– not the strips.
“Why is Pogo standing next to one of the alligators from Pearls Before Swine instead of Albert?” Hah! Best comment!
Okay… I got to admit. It’s hard for my to imagine why anyone would think Pogo *wouldn’t* hold up. It’s stilll original and unpredictable. It’s amazingly creative and artistic. It’s funny as hell. It doesn’t reflect any naivete of “of simpler times” or the belief that we expect more complex ideas or emotions or realism; in fact it’s far more complex then anything being drawn today. And it just *oozes* pure unreined talent.
I have a number of Pogo collections(*), stretching from the very beginning until the early 1970’s, but with far too many gaps in between. I agree with woozy: the material is still funny, and the political satire holds up surprisingly well, but it does help when you can figure out just who the caricatures are supposed to be.
P.S. (*) I missed out on reading Pogo in the newspaper, partly because I was still a little too young for the complexity of the strip near the end of Kelly’s life, but mostly just because we subscribed to the wrong paper. After getting to know “Pogo” from various books, I was able to read some of the newspaper strips done by Selby Kelly, and had (unrealistically) high hopes when a later revival was introduced. Unfortunately, neither Selby nor any of the others involved could hold a candle to Kelly’s writing.
Personally I would vote no on the first, yes on the second. To me, “geezer” is shorthand for “old people will get this joke.” I still hear that song on the radio at least once a month (and now I have an earworm). If the song is still in wide circulation, young people are probably hearing it too.
Pogo, on the other hand, isn’t exactly plastered all over the place. It doesn’t matter how well Pogo holds up, what matters is that the characters aren’t being used in commercials or seen anywhere else that would make young people recognize the character.
” It doesn’t matter how well Pogo holds up”
I think the question about how well Pogo holds up was an off-topic tangent. I was making a tongue in cheek comment about refusing to live in a world where Pogo is a geezer tag.
Geezer tag strikes me more about not only old stuff but also about things that were fads or trends or catch phrases.
” I still hear that song on the radio at least once a month”
I was actually enjoying the idea of that what being a rare “geezer tag” as it’s actually too old for *me* to remember. I’ve never heard it and don’t recognize it at all.
“I will *never* live in a world in which pogo is forgotten.”
Woozy, isn’t this a tautology?
I know of Pogo, but never really cared for it (puts on flame-proof suit).
I hadn’t read Pogo since I was a child, so I expect that if there was anything sophisticated about it, it went right over my head. I thought it was pretty meh.
I had gone on a search for the first Pogo strip, which I had seen in a book years ago. This is it:
However, I also found this from a collection of strips, which appears to repurpose (which character flip) and expand the story.
From what I read online, Kelly started the strip at the New York Star, and then a few other papers, until the Star folded. He then was able to get the strip syndicated. I would guess that he reworked some of the Star strips.
Now I can see why I didn’t like the strip – the intentionally-incorrect grammar drives me nuts. Same with that Snuffy Smith comic . . . no tolerance for it.
“the intentionally-incorrect grammar drives me nuts.”
Normally I’d agree with you but in Pogo it’s often a method of *very* clever puns and triple-entendres. One of my favorite being “non compost mentis”.
But it does make me wonder why the Barney and Clyde strip chose “eloquent” as an adjective.
” I thought it was pretty meh.”
It was my favorite as a child. I thought its absurdist humor was just up my alley. People talk about the political satire (which *is* brilliant) but I always figured that was a very small part of the whole experience.
Maybe I should try it again . . . always willing to change my opinion, if need be.
The last few years of the strip were rather weak, except for the sequence collected in Prehysterical Pogo (in Pandemonia), and the post-mortem ones were godawful, but anything before 1965 or so, including the non-newspaper stories in books like The Pogo Stepmother Goose, belongs in the top three or four strips of all time. And is #1 for me.
Actually, POGO first appeared in ANIMAL COMICS; the strip syndication (first in the NEW YORK STAR for the last few months of that paper’s life) came later.
Fantagraphics is reprinting all of the newspaper strips — dailies and Sundays — in thick hardcover volumes; four are out so far, carrying the reprints through 1956. Hermes Press is doing reprints of the ANIMAL COMICS (and subsequent POGO comics), several issues to a volume, also in hardcover, and in full color; five volumes published so far.
Not cheap ($50 or so a volume), but well worth it to us fanatics.
“The last few years of the strip were rather weak, except for the sequence collected in Prehysterical Pogo (in Pandemonia),”
I dunno. Impollutable Pogo was pretty good. And Equal Time for Pogo has a soft spot as it was the first pogo book I bought with my own money (but it’s utterly incomprehensible if you don’t understand the political landscape of 1968; however it did motivate me to learn it and it made me a better person –[Wait; Eugene MacCarthy and George McGovern were different people?]).
Also the circa mortem sequence of Butch the brick throwing cat was kind of funny and sweet (I think that may have been mostly Selby Kelly by then.)
But the stuff in the collection We Have Met the Enemy was very weak in my opinion.
And I like Prisoner of Love although the sexism was hard to take (even when I was a boy of 11 years).
“…the intentionally-incorrect grammar drives me nuts… ”
It strikes me that they’re speaking a form of American (southern) dialect.
Well, it is basically more southern than northern, but the far-out expressions like ‘longmolar’ for ‘lawn mower’ are what delight me. Or ‘percypacassidy an’ presbycootity’ for ‘perspicacity and perspicuity’. Or ‘a trumpetin’ elephant all roarin’ off the inneleck’ for ‘a triumphant elegant aurora of the intellect’. (The latter two are Churchy La Femme not quite getting Uncle Baldwin and Howland Owl.)
Eek, I’ve been moderated. I wonder, was it ‘percypacassidy’ that did it?
Oh, I see what it was. I freed the comment from Moderation, so a gold star to the first person who spots it.
Moderation for the adjective of the elephant.
I didn’t use the word, yet I’m moderated too. Maybe I typoed my edress?
“It strikes me that they’re speaking a form of American (southern) dialect.” As interpretted by a Northern Speaker. For intentional comic effect. Which normally I would consider that a cheap laugh except the word usage and and language fluidity is truly dexterious. And it transcends it so rapidly.
I particularly love the poem Yum-yum
O, March comes in like a lion
And March goes out like a lamb
But what’s that I smell a fryin’
Why’s it a frienly li’l piece of ham
I don’t see any comments in Moderation right now.
And
How hither grows the hazy yon
how myrtle petaled thou
for spring has sprung the cyclotron
How high browst thou brown cow.
That didn’t quite ring true for me, so I pulled down Ten Ever-Lovin’ Years With Pogo, and in 1950:
How pierceful grows the hazy yon!
How myrtle petaled thou!
For spring hath sprung the Cyclotron,
How high browse thou, brown cow?
Gotta have the ‘highbrows’ pun. I misremembered ‘pierceful’ as ‘peaceful’, myself.
It’s hard to remember his nonsense accurately, but on the same page I was word-perfect with 1952’s:
The Olympics
We salute you, oh, games of the ages
But the game of an age turning gray
Was when I carried the torch on Veronica’s porch
In the city of Athens, Ga.
I read Pogo every day as a child in the ’60s. I recall enjoying it, but didn’t really understand what was going on most of the time.
Deck Us All With Boston Charlie.
you’re right. That’s what I get from reciting be memory. I was think of “hither and yon” and these a days everything is more hither than yon.
Pierceful for Peaceful is correct thought.
I *had* the high brows pun. I just said browst….
It *is* hard to remember nonsense correctly.
Do I dare try to recite “Don’t sugar me” from memory?
But the line “All them things, them diamond rings, them (stuff?) you promised me; were figments newton, sure as shootin’, shootin’ sure as ABC” is pure genius.
As is “‘less you want a granulated lump or two”
@ Brian in StL – Kelly started Pogo in the New York Star just four months before the paper folded in January 1949. After getting a contract in May, Kelly reworked most (but not all) of the “Star” material for the syndicated strip, redrawing everything fresh, presumably because of copyright considerations. (Kelly’s syndication contract was highly unusual in that he retained ownership, the syndicate was merely the distributor.)
Both sets of those early strips were republished in “The Best of Pogo“, along with a random collection of background material about Kelly and the strip in general (including a number of MAD Magazine parodies).
P.S. Although I’m quite happy to have the book as a reference, I cannot recommend it wholeheartedly. Despite Selby Kelly’s paticipation, the book is poorly edited, and lacks any form of organization.
My dad is addicted to Pogo – he says he didn’t see it growing up, got hooked later. I’ve enjoyed what little I’ve seen of it (mostly his collections), but never really got hooked.
a) Oh lord. Fantagraphics is reprinting them? Gotta tell Dad.
b) He also insists on singing Boston Charlie every year at our caroling party – calls it the Ur-Carol. I can sing the first verse from memory, but we don’t usually go beyond that (though there’s four verses in our (self-made) caroling book).
presbycootity?
Today, while spinning through the FM stations for something worth listening to, I caught a piece of Maneater. So, perhaps not geezerish.
@ jjmcgaffey – The “Best of Pogo” collection has six “Boston Charlie” verses (the last two both start with “Bark us all bow wows of folly”).
Just for the record, mistyping your address will also send your message to Moderation, because the program won’t know who you are.
P.S. Here are all six “Boston Charlie” verses, in no paricular order:
Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an’ Kalamazoo!
Nora’s freezin’ on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Don’t we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don’t love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!
Dunk us all in bowls of barley,
Hinky dinky dink an’ polly voo!
Chilly Filly’s name is Chollie,
Chollie Filly’s jolly chilly view halloo!
Hunky Dory’s pop is lolly,
Gaggin’ on the wagon, Willy, folly go through!
Chollie’s collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker ‘n’ too-da-loo!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloupe, ‘lope with you!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Double-bubble, toyland trouble! Woof, woof, woof!
Tizzy seas on melon collie!
Dibble-dabble, scribble-scrabble! Goof, goof, goof!
My dad also loved Pogo – but it was over my little head.