COMICALS

Ah, you young whippersnappers. You laugh at Dilbert and his Elbonians, but you never read the Katzenjammer Kids. You love Baby Blues, but you don't know squat about Lord and Lady Plushbottom. And Hager certainly cannot compare to Alley Oop. Garfield is fun, but Felix, now there was a real cat. And then there were the adventure guys--Steve Canyon, Flash Gordon, Superman, Cap-tain Marvel, Spiderman, Wonderwoman (to get a woman in there somewhere--old time comics didn't have many superwomen in them for some reason). And who could forget Terry and the Pirates? You could take a stroll down Gasoline Alley, maybe run into Little Orphan Annie and Sandy, or maybe even Little Lulu. Then you could make a stop at OurBoarding House and visit with the Colonel. Harrruuummmmph!

But out of all of them, there were two that stood out for me.

The first was Lil Abner. Now he was a handsome looking galoot from Dogpatch, and he had his pick of the women. And, shucks, he took a liking to Daisy Mae--finally married her. But for sheer good looks, who could possibly ask for more than Moonbeam McSwine. Politicians? Why everybody loved General Bullmoose (What's good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA.)

Law enforcement was enamored of Fearless Fosdick. And no one who ever got close could ever forget the Inside Man at the Skonk Works. Common sense was the forte of Mammy Yokum, and Pappy Yokum ws great at, at, um, ah, er, uh, uh, well just what in hell WAS Pappy good for, except swigging the McSwine's moonshine.

And then there was this guy who walked around under a cloud all the time. Can't remember his name right off, but I've been right there with him a few times in my life. Ah, Joe Bffstttkk, that was his name, or something like it anyway.

And you think the Elbonians were a great invention? Shucks, we had Lower Slobovians long before the first Elbonian swam out from under that rock (they do have rocks in Elbonia, don't they? I am not sure, all I've ever seen is water.)

And there were schmoos. And what a delight those schmoos were. Always had a smile on their faces, even when put into the pot to boil. Fried they tasted like chicken, baked like ham, boiled--make up your own favorite flavor. They were shaped like bowling pins with small legs.

Of course there were hundreds of other characters that Al Capp used to keep the shenanigans going. And every one of them had a name that was exactly apropos to their role.

Then. There. Was. Pogo!

What can you say about Pogo that he hasn't already said about himself? Pogo was little opossum that wore a pullover referee's shirt and lived in Okefenokee Swamp. He had a cast of characters about him that was outrageous, and not all came necessarily from the swamp. Probably his main claim to fame was the quote heard round the swamp, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

I mean, really. What do you do after you have issued that bon mot?

Well, just about whatever you want to, it would appear. He had a set of friends ranging from Howland Owl and Churchy Le Femme to Mam'selle Hepzibah and Rackety Coon Child. Now Howland wore huge black horn-rimmed glasses. Don't get it? It's hilarious. Owls have exceptionally good eyesight, right? What a hoot. OK. To me it is funny.

Churchy of course was a turtle. There was also Albert the Alligator, who usually served as the straight man of the bunch, and of course, Mam'selle Hepzibah was a cutie of a skunk and spoke French. Albert, Howland, Churchy and Pogo formed the basic group and other characters weaved in and out as necessary to keep the story line going. There was a dog and dozens of other animals of all sorts--birds, reptiles, mammals--about anything you can conceive of that might at some time or other be in a swamp (and some which would not.)

Pogo was no lightweight when it came to the heavy topics of the day. When Kruschev (Kushaw) was pounding his shoe on the desk at the UN, there was a similar story line going on in Pogo, with a pig as Kushaw. There were, in fact, a number of books of Pogo and his adventures with this silly group. One had a story line where they were all in Siberia and were stranded on the steppes waiting for a train on the Trans-Siberian Railway. They had had nothing to eat for days and one piped up and said, "If we had some ham, we could have some ham and eggs, if we had some eggs." Another replied, "A man could starve to death in this country waiting on a train." To which the reply came, "All is equal in this country." To which the reply came, "All is starving." To which the reply came, "Da, BUT equal starving!"

And then, just to keep us happy, Walt Kelly would have the group sing some lovely songs. A few follow:

LLUDE SUNG CUCKOO

Wretched Richard, richened sweet,
By the fingers of his feet,
Toted tuppence with his toes,
Nodding nimbly next his nose.
The mist must myrtle on the way
Where last the minstral minstrel lay.


And this one for which I cannot remember the title

There were some wasps in our town,
Who with their lovely wives,
They suckled at the bramble bush
In search of lovely lives.

And when they saw each bush was dry,
Quick each and every one,
They wrapped it well in wire barb
To shield it from the sun.

And of course, everyone's favorite Christmas Carol


DECK US ALL

Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash. and Kalamazoo.
Nora's freezing on the trolley,
Swaller, dollar cauliflower, Allegaroo.
Don't we know archaic barrel,
Lillaby, lullaby, Louisville Lou.
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola, boola Pensacoola, hullabaloo.


Walt Kelly sure had a gold mine there. I could even stand reruns on Pogo. Charlie Brown has been around for ages, it is about time to retire him and bring on Pogo for another run.He is just as up to date as all the rest, even though Kelly quit drawing it over thirty years ago. Or was it forty? Yeah, more like forty, I think.

See you later, I'm stopping at Moon Mullin's place for a beer. Maybe talk with Mamie for a bit, see how Lord Plushbottom's lumbago is coming along.