Walt Kelly was born on August 25, 1913 in Philadelphia.  He drew his first cartoons while he was in high school for the local Bridgeport Post.  In 1936 Kelly moved to California and began work in Walt Disney studios, where he worked on the films Pinochio, Fantasia, The Reluctant Dragon, and Dumbo.  He left Disney studios during a bitter strike and moved to New York to work in the comic book industry.  It was in a comic book in 1942 that Walt Kelly first introduced the world to his famous character, Pogo the Possum. 

Pogo was a sweet possum with a southern accent who lived in the Okefenokee Swamp.  He was the sane center in a growing cast of eccentric characters.  It included Howland Owl; Churchy Le Femme the turtle; Beauregard Bugleboy the hound dog; and Porkypine the porcupine.  They first appeared in the newspaper PM, an experimental left-wing newspaper in the 1940s that also included the political cartoons of Dr. Seuss and Crocket Johnson's intellectual comic strip Barnaby (Johnson later authored the Harold and the Purple Crayon books).  When the Post-Hall Syndicate picked up Pogo, it became a popular national comic, appearing in more than 500 newspapers.

Pogo became the most controversial comic strip of its day because Kelly was not afraid of injecting politics into his strip and tackling some of the most contentious issues of the nation.  At the height of Joseph McCarthy's popularity during the Red Scare of the early 1950s, Kelly created the McCarthy spoof Simple J. Malarkey, a mean bobcat who harassed the characters in Okefenokee Swamp.  In 1962, Kelly depicted Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev as a boorish pig and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as a goat, which caused a Japanese newspaper to drop the strip. Among the other figures that were spoofed by Walt Kelly were Bobby Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, George Wallace, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Spiro Agnew and J. Edgar Hoover. 

Pogo had a great influence upon many future political cartoonists.  Jules Feiffer, the political cartoonist of the Village Voice, said in an interview on the August 1988 issue of the Comics Journal:  "Kelly was just like a bolt of lightning to my perceptions.  Beginning with his political cartoons in the New York Star, before I was even aware of Pogo.  And then Pogo began in the Star and it really knocked me out.  He also made me aware of the dangers of being brilliant six days a week with a Sunday page..."

I discovered Pogo while reading the book America's Great Comic Strip Artists by Richard Marshall.  The strips that I read are wonderfully clever and hilarious.  Except for a few anthologies, however, I haven't really had much of a chance to read more than a small sampling of this brilliant comic strip.  I hope that eventually a publisher will take the time to publish a large collection of Pogo, to expose a new generation to the wit and wisdom of Walt Kelly's legendary comic strip.   It is the foundation from which Bloom County, Doonesbury, Boondocks and future political comic strips can build upon.

Happy Friday, one and all!  The weekend is upon us, and, here in Michigan, we are supposed to jump back into the 80's.  Not the decade (despite my wishes), but the temperatures.

It will be a far cry from the 55 degree days/ 35 degree nights we've been having.  (You doubt me?!?  Folks, it was many a Halloween as a youngster that I trick-or-treated in the snow!)

Good thing this weekend is supposed to be nice.  I have about 7,000 to do this weekend.  If I'm lucky, I'll get to five.

It has been a long night, and bed beckons.  See you all on Monday!!!

Parfois les meilleurs citations viennent au moment où on s'y attend le moins. Je devrais commencer un journal avec toutes les expressions collectors que j'ai pu entendre ou moi-même prononcer x) J'espère que ce nouveau comic strip vous plaira, moi j'ai adoré le dessiner en cours de Revue des Médias ce matin...

Ku-Chan.

Enjoy, laters
Mas

(Remember - the official Beaver and Steve can always be found at www.beaverandsteve.com : Characters are © James Turner, I can’t Believe it’s not Beaver and Steve is © 2008 Mas - Updated every Friday)

Do you know that my favorite number is 27?  It is.  Why?  A thousand years ago (or 20+), on a family vacation, my father was playing one of his Southern Gospel tapes in the car.  As happens on long trips, sometimes we would replace words in songs with sound-alikes.  You know, like that old CCR song, Bad Moon Rising, where everyone replaces "There's a bad moon on the rise," with, "There's a bathroom on the right"?  Yeah, that kind of thing.

Well, there was one song that we replaced the chorus with the following line:  "Nine times three, nine times three, that's 27, nine times three."  I'd love to tell you what the actual lyrics are, but for the life of me, I can't remember.  I would guess that "three" probably replaced "free," but I don't know for sure.

(If anyone happens to accidently recognize this as kinda sounding like the words to some song, feel free to chime in.)

Anyway, from that, 27 became my favorite number.  Because I had a catchy little tune for it.

Alrighty, folks, I'll see you on Friday!

Ultimamente estoy pasando por algo similar, espero que no dure mucho tiempo.

Ya es media semana.

Stay tuned

Okay, yeah, I know that a couple of panels look very similar to previous panels.  They are.  Not exact copies, but I definitely looked to the past when I did them.

See, a brilliant man by the name of Wally Wood once said, "Never draw what you can copy. Never copy what you can trace. And never trace what you can cut out and paste down."  Well, I know it may be a bit of a cop out, that I could have found some fancy new way to draw two of these panels... but I knew that what I had drawn before worked, so I went ahead and just copied what I previously did.  It isn't the first time I've borrowed heavily from a previous panel, and it won't be the last.

I did pay some penance by whipping out a little perspective drawing there in that middle panel.  Fancy, huh?

Anyway, I'm kinda whipped, so I'm just gonna post this.  I'll see you all on Wednesday!

BUBBAWORLDCOMIX.NET will be updating daily with it's normal updates but will also be putting up a new Halloween Special each Monday of October.  Just click the banner above the comic on the main page to get to the new TALES each week.  All the TALES will be left up till the end of November.

The last week of October will have the first two stories of my Horror Graphic Novel Comic Book, MISFITS & MAYHEM, be sure to check them out each week and check out the site every day.

Sorces:

pbfcomics.com

booooooom.com

(Happy Birthday Jeff!)

25 strips in!  Woo hoo!

I hope that everyone can cope with the "slow burn" characterization I'm getting into.  I have a very good reason.

See, a few years ago, I wrote a story, and I had a friend read it.  It had a kind of twist in it.  And, stupidly, I realized later, I revealed the twist in the first five pages.

And, my friend was massively happy to point it out to me.

So, what I'm trying to do is slowly bring in details.  It was important (at least in my mind) to have this initial phone call with Conrad.  It lays groundwork for the future, and, hopefully, leaves you a little curious.

But, hey, I'm in this for the long haul.   I gotta save some stuff for the distance, you know?  Not just for you, the reader, but also for me, the guy grinding these strips out three days a week!

Alright, I gotta go!  It is the weekend!!!

Quand je dis que l'inspiration vient au moment où l'on s'y attend le moins... Finalement je devrai peut-être aller remercier ce sale mioche qui passe son temps à courir au dessus de ma tête, non ? Vous allez sûrement hurler mais... j'espère qu'il s'est fait mal le bougre ! (ben quoi ? qui se souci du mal de crâne terrible que je me tape à cause de ce morveux ??)

Ku-Chan.

I've tried to make my art a bit cleaner this episode; and to look alright in black and white (as it seems more and more of my strips are getting stuck in that colour - free zone!); I like the art on this episode - I think I'm improving as time goes one. Really though, I just need to work on my layout - the script says "12 panels" but I'm having a bit of a hard time getting them all on the page !!! It's a learning thing I'm sure.

Anyway, enjoy
I'm off to sleep :)

Mas

(Remember - the official Beaver and Steve can always be found at www.beaverandsteve.com : Characters are © James Turner, I can’t Believe it’s not Beaver and Steve is © 2008 Mas - Updated every Friday)

start from... NOW..

1978

Stay tuned

And this was created six years ago.

Nuff said...

So, it seems that in the grand (or not so) tradition of Smallville, the CW is once again mining comic properties for ideas to develop into angst-y teen dramas.  The newest?

The Graysons.

Yep.  You may recognize that last name.  It belongs to Bruce Wayne's ward, Dick Grayson.  Well, the series will evidently be taking a look at the pre-Robin days of Dick Grayson.  Wait, I'm sorry.  In the show, they will call him "D.J."

Yeah.

You know, when I heard about Smallville, I had my doubts.  After several years, my doubts are confirmed about 5 out of every 6 episodes of that show.  Somehow, my doubts about The Graysons are even stronger.  Buckle up, people.  We are in for a mediocre-to-horrible ride.

CHECK IT OUT:::

click the strip for a full-size view

email raccoon @ in the dumpster and squirrel @ in the trash heap

and email me @ yay! hurray! finally!

Good Monday to all of you!  You know, a while back, I talked about securing a Batman cowl for my gargantuan noggin.  Not kidding - I think it is about 26 1/2 inches.  Only one other person in my graduating class in high school had a larger head.  I know, because out graduation caps had to be specially made with the assistance of circus tent manufacturers.

I kid.  About the circus tent part.  The size of our heads is a fact.

Anyway, moving forward in my effort to create an inappropriate costume for a man of my size, I have finally secured a cape.  Yep.  I now have a cowl, a cape, and the basic bodysuit pieces.  I will probably be making a belt, and I have to find some sort of trunks to go over the suit.  I have some boots, nothing fancy, but they will probably work.

It is all coming together.  Soon, I will don this ridiculous garb and be the laughing stock of the neighborhood.  I believe my family has already disowned me, anticipating the need that will arise.

Oh, well!  See you all on Wednesday!