Pogo

Pogo was the title of a long-running daily comic strip created by Walt Kelly, as well as the name of its principal character. Pogo, set in the Georgia section of the Okefenokee Swamp, often engaged in social and political satire through the adventures of the strip's funny animals. The strip also used much slapstick physical humor; the same series of strips could often be enjoyed by young children and by savvy adults on different levels.

Works influenced by Pogo

Walt Kelly's work has influenced a number of prominent comic artists.

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• In the Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, cartoonist Bill Watterson listed Pogo as one of the three greatest influences on his own acclaimed strip, Calvin and Hobbes. (The two other strips were Peanuts and Krazy Kat. In a perfect example of 'great minds think alike', Pogo itself referenced Krazy Kat in many ways during its run, including a series of strips devoted to examining that immortal symbol of the earlier strip: the brick.)
• Pogo has been cited as an influence by Jeff MacNelly (Shoe), Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury), Bill Holbrook (Kevin and Kell), and Mark O'Hare (Citizen Dog), among others.
• Alan Moore, most notable for writing the graphic novel Watchmen, made the January 1985 issue of Saga of the Swamp Thing (titled "Pog") a tribute to Pogo.
• The artwork in Jeff Smith's Bone comic book series is strongly influenced by Walt Kelly's style.
• Wally Wood, a longtime illustrator for MAD Magazine, parodied Kelly's characters on several occasions, most notably in a 1955 offering entitled "Gopo Gossum".