Articles on Animation &Bill Peckmann &Comic Art 28 Jun 2011 07:11 am
Kelly 1988
- Here’s an interview printed in Cartoonist Profiles Magazine in 1988. It’s Bill Watterson, of Calvin & Hobbes fame, of course, giving an appreciation of Walt Kelly of Pogo fame, obviously. It’s a gem of a piece sent to me by Bill Peckmann, and I’m posting it hoping you’ll find it interesting. Thanks to Bill Peckmann for sharing his incredible archives.
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on 28 Jun 2011 at 7:38 am 1.Mark Mayerson said …
I think that you’re missing page 13.
on 28 Jun 2011 at 7:45 am 2.Michael said …
Sorry, Mark. 13 was there. It was out of order; I’ve corrected it. Thanks for letting me know.
on 28 Jun 2011 at 10:41 am 3.Joel Brinkerhoff said …
That Kelly brushwork still reads nicely on a page. Growing up with Pogo, “Gus” Arriola’s Gordo, Lil Abner and others was a very special and inspiring time for strip art. Calvin and Hobbes was the last hurray.
on 28 Jun 2011 at 12:46 pm 4.Paul Penna said …
Brilliant, just brilliant. He covers everything about Kelly and Pogo since I first fell in love with them at the tender age of 6 or 7 with the first Pogo reprint book and the comic books back in the early 50s. What he says about comic strips and their fall into stereotype characters who act as they do merely to set up cliche gags could apply to just about every TV show today.
on 28 Jun 2011 at 9:01 pm 5.mikea said …
Wow, this is awesome. Thanks so much for posting it.
My Dad got me into Pogo when I was a kid. I bought him a big collection when I was about 12, and wound up reading it most (why does the phonebook hanging in a busy payphone come to mind?)
on 29 Jun 2011 at 12:08 pm 6.tom hachtman said …
At the same time this was sad, reading about newspapers shrinking every comic strip with the exception of ‘Doonesbury’, it is delightful to click the mouse and be able to see Okefenokee swamp bigger than I have ever seen it before. Then it was sad again – seeing the swamp filled with garbage – forty years ago.
Thank you for posting this.
on 29 Jun 2011 at 1:53 pm 7.Don Cox said …
The new home of comics is the separate graphic novel, or the compendium series such as “Flight”.
Work is being published in an enormous range of literary and artistic styles, by French, American, Japanese, Chinese and other authors.
And the classic newspaper strips of the past are finding a new home in hardcover books, with better printing than the newspapers ever had.
If you want a daily fix, there are plenty of good web comics such as “Sinfest”.
on 29 Jun 2011 at 4:08 pm 8.The Gee said …
http://web.mit.edu/jmorzins/www/C-H-speech.html
This more about the then-state of comics than the great historical perspective the Cartoonist PROfiles piece has.
Thought I’d drop it in here for those who haven’t read it. Take it with a grain of salt or as the Gospel. Your call.
As for Pogo…it sucks that the strip wouldn’t or couldn’t happen these days. It certainly wouldn’t happen in the newspapers, Watterson’s right about that. But, even on-line or in a dedicated book? I don’t know.
It was totally what Walt Kelly put into it. Even with all of the political satire–real good and so-so–that is prevalent these days, there isn’t anything close to it, even after years of various cartoons and whatnot riffing off of parts of the strip. “Bloom County” and its sequels came close to trying, I guess.
With Pogo, the art, all the parts, is darned impressive and it holds up.
on 30 Jun 2011 at 11:44 pm 9.Mario NC said …
A genius talking about another genius. What more can you ask for?
on 03 Dec 2011 at 4:01 pm 10.Filipe Chamy said …
This is just SO great! Without a shadow of a doubt, the best “critical” text about comics I’ve read this year.
Sadly, here in Brazil Pogo is COMPLETELY anonimous, and with no perspective of change.