I haven’t posted here in a while for several reasons. First, the corona virus situation has put me out of the mood. Second, I had nothing to review because I’ve been reading this wonderful strip collection for the last month. I love Pogo, and I love these strip collections, but Pogo is a dense strip that takes time to read and appreciate, even when it’s just going for slapstick humor, and I can only read about 15 pages at a sitting. At over 300 pages of strips, that takes a while. Worth every minute, though.

There’s plenty of goofy humor, but also a share of political satire, as in the strip above where a pig takes the place of Soviet Union leader Nikita Krushchev. This collection covers 1955 and 1956, which was an election year, so there’s a fair amount of “Pogo for President” business and other election hoohah, with P.T. Bridgeport and other bombastic characters. The Olympics in Australia gets some funny coverage, as do a reporter and photographer from “Newslife,” who are quite sure Pogo is not a possum. The majority of these strips draw humor simply from the familiar characters of the Okeefenokee Swamp, their frequent misunderstandings and confusions, with Pogo about the only level head in the bunch. It’s great fun, and Walt Kelly is in fine form here.

Highly recommended.