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mygif

thanks for this post! really interesting, amusing, and good context.

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mygif

I have those old books of Pogo reprints, I got into them when I was just turning 10, I think. The later stuff (from the 1960s, IIRC) is so political it’s hard to read, but I loved the early stuff even before I knew it was about politics. I wish I knew where those books are now – I probably still have them somewhere. Thanks for this post, it brought back good memories.

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mygif

Did…did that vulture eat them both?

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mygif

Did…did that vulture eat them both?

He tried, but Kelly brought him back a few weeks later to reveal that there wasn’t anything left to eat.

And I’m not giving much away by saying that in 1953, the familiar comics rule already applied: if nobody finds an actual dead body, nobody’s actually dead.

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mygif

I have an original Pogo book that my mom gave to me because I always loved comics — it was so old and yellow it had fallen out of its binding.

The pages weren’t numbered, so I spent many hours as a kid reading the strips and sorting out the flow of the stories so that I could rearrange them in order (this was in the early 1990s).

I have a lot of love for Pogo.

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mygif

Wow, I just realized that the book I was reading as a kid was a first edition of the very first collection published in 1951. The “we have met the enemy, and he is us” line is in there.

Wow.

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mygif

Wait… that line isn’t in there. I’ve just read it so many times that I thought it was. There’s a summary of the strips in the book here that makes it clear — I remember the Adam Bomb pretty fondly for obvious reasons 🙂

How odd that I misremembered that. Now I have to go write an email to my mother to make sure she still has the book on her shelf where I left it.

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Mary Warner said on February 17th, 2010 at 1:00 am

Yeah, I thought I’d read that the famous ‘met the enemy’ line was from much later. (The late 60s, I assume. I know it was an environmental story.)

I’ve never had a chance to read Pogo, aside from brief excerpts like those shown here. I really wish the local library would get some books, if they ever do get published.

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mygif

I’ve never had a chance to read Pogo, aside from brief excerpts like those shown here. I really wish the local library would get some books, if they ever do get published.

My recollection is that graphic novels tend to take a lot of abuse in public libraries. Pogo is old — my 1951 edition is falling apart despite being a de facto family heirloom. It wouldn’t have lasted 10 years in a public library.

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TheMountain said on February 21st, 2010 at 12:26 pm

I have several Pogo books, including the big first collection: “Ten everlovin, blue-eyed years with Pogo” and an original printing of “The Jack Acid Society Black Book”. Unfortunately, none of mine would have lasted in the library either. The later anthologies were so poorly bound that the glue has dried out and all the pages are falling out. I’m missing several pages from the “Great Brain Burgle” series. Thanks for finally showing some love to one of the truly great early comic artists.

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mygif

Howland Owl said “We have met the enemy and he is us.” (Copyright 1970.) At the same time, Pogo said “Albert!”, because Albert had dropped his cigar in the lemonade.

http://spicetrader.net/gallery/Pogo-015.jpg

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mygif

The genesis of the line came in an essay published with a collection of strips that I can’t track down, but was later quoted in “Ten Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo” in 1959: “Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blasts on tiny trumpets, we may meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.”

Do you have the second Simple J. Malarkey sequence, which ran in Aug.-Oct. 1954?

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mygif

Is there an archive base for these cartoons involving Simple J Malarkey (Senator McCarthy)? I want to reference the cartoons as primary sources but don’t know the date of publication/page number/issue number etc

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mygif

question. I just read a book where there is a quote from Pogo which reads, “What wox boggeth?” Anybody know what that means?

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Etaoin Shrdlu said on January 6th, 2016 at 3:48 am

Great Article! Glad I ran across site.

I have about 10(?) or so of the old paperbacks from the 1950s- I Go Pogo, Pogo Sunday Punch, all different titles. Read them when I was a kid in the 60s. They’ve been in a box for about 40 years. Think they’re worth anymoney?
I aassume they’re First Editions and I flipped through them 5-6 yrs ago (looking for a tattoo) and the binding was good, no mildew, etc. Any “experts”?

@Andrew X,
Phrase doesn’t ring a bell, but it all depends on context, character speaking, etc. He would make up stuff, too, like if somebody got dunked or hit on the head.

(Spoiler): I got my ‘Name’ off of the side of a boat Pogo was rowing. Found out it was an old Hot Type printing term meaning ‘Delete Line’ due to an error in the line. Coincidentally, I worked in the Graphic Arts.

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mygif
Etaoin Shrdlu said on January 6th, 2016 at 4:40 am

Great Article! Glad I ran across site.

I have about 10(?) or so of the old paperbacks from the 1950s- I Go Pogo, Pogo Sunday Punch, all different titles. Read them when I was a kid in the 60s. They’ve been in a box for about 40 years. Think they’re worth any money?
I aassume they’re First Editions and I flipped through them 5-6 yrs ago (looking for a tattoo) and the binding was good, no mildew, etc. Any “experts”?

@Andrew X,
Phrase doesn’t ring a bell, but it all depends on context, character speaking, etc. He would make up stuff, too, like if somebody got dunked or hit on the head. (As wog boggeth, so boggeth wog? – As God goeth, so goeth… I dunno.)

(Spoiler): I got my ‘Name’ off of the side of a boat Pogo was rowing. ( They changed all the time, a Friend’s name, “Fort Mudge”, etc.)
I found out it was an old “Hot Type” printing term meaning ‘Delete this Line’ due to an error in the line. It’s the 6 most used letters in English, placed in on the top row of the Type Setter’s keyboard. He’d just roll his hands across the top and begin the line again. Many were the times when the Line Setter wouldn’t catch it, and the phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU would show up at the end of a line of type in a column, confusing readers.
Coincidentally, I worked in the Graphic Arts, getting my start as a typesetter, but it was computerized by then, with no metal letters to sort thru, just the Delete key.
Hope you solve your puzzle.

Happy New Year!
“Eta”

P.S. I’ll check back to see if anyone knows about those paperbacks.

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Henry R. Hall said on April 5th, 2016 at 2:28 pm

Help! Once, about 1962, I saw a conversation (in some sort of Pogo, daily strip, book, etc., can’t recall where) in which Ms. Cowbird and the deacon are in someone else’s nest, throwing out eggs. Deacon is about to let one fly, and Ms. Cowbird sez “Stop! That’s one of our’n!” Does anyone know where that came from?

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mygif

I am not familiar with “Phi Beta Pogo”,but the reprint I have is in “The Pogo Papers”,which identifies its final section (Book Five) as “A Simple Case of Malarkey”.
(This paperback is falling to pieces but not out of order).

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Bob Ashmore said on December 23rd, 2023 at 4:21 pm

Walt Kelly was the most important political observer of his day.

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