Great news for fans of Walt Kelly (like me). Fantagraphics Books has acquired the rights to publish a comprehensive series of Walt Kelly’s classic POGO comic strip. The first volume will appear in October, 2007, and the series will run approximately 12 volumes.

Kelly joined the Walt Disney Studio in 1935, where he worked on numerous shorts and features, including Pinocchio, Dumbo, and The Reluctant Dragon. Kelly left Disney in 1941, moved back east and began drawing comic books for Western Publishing (Dell comics). It was during this time that Kelly created the character Pogo Possum for Dell’s Animal Comics (as a supporting player in the Albert the Alligator stories). In 1949, the Hall Syndicate started distrbuting Pogo as a comic strip to newspapers in the United States.

Each Fantagraphics Pogo volume will be designed by Jeff Smith (Bone). This continues Fantagraphics teriffic series of hardbound comic strip collections - which already include Schulz’ Peanuts, Ketchum’s Dennis the Menace and Segar’s Popeye. For more information, check the Fantagraphics website.

I can’t explain MUGGY-DOO BOY CAT, but I feel compelled to acknowledge its existence.Animator Hal Seegar (1917-2005) had a prolific career, as a Fleischer animator (Mr. Bug), a Hollywood screenwriter (several forgetable B pictures in the 1940s) and a latter day producer of TV cartoons (Milton The Monster, Batfink, Out Of The Inkwell, etc.). In the 1950s he wrote comic books (Leave it to Binky and A Date With Judy for DC) and briefly partnered with publisher Stanley Estrow to start Stanhall Comics (G.I. Jane, The Farmer’s Daughter, et al). Seeger apparently created all the humor comics for this line. The one “funny animal” entry was Muggy-Doo Boy Cat. The character had a strange combination of inspirations - not the least was his “Yellow Kid” sweat shirt which would have a different zany slogan in each panel. Cartoonist (and animation storyman) Irv Spector drew these books in a funny Milt Gross meets Walt Kelly style.Apparently Seeger had big plans for the Boy Cat. Ten years after the comics made their debut, Seeger, having hit it big producing low budget animation for TV, made a pilot with Muggy Doo in 1963. It failed to sell, but he did however sell it to Paramount Pictures who, strangely enough, released it as a theatrical short subject! Seeger revived Muggy Doo one more time - this time as a Boy Fox - as a back up feature on The Milton The Monster Show (ABC, 1965).Muggy-Doo Boy Cat, we salute you. The public never did catch on to your comic genius despite your creator’s persistence. Below is the first three minutes of the 1963 pilot, animated by Myron Waldman. The film credits Seeger’s wife, Beverly Arnold, as creator - but don’t you believe it. This is Seeger’s masterpiece. He deserves all the credit. UPDATE: Kiddie Record expert Greg Ehrbar adds this additional tidbit: “Muggy Doo sounds like New York actor Herb Duncan, a stage actor who did lots of commercials, some TV, some animation (The Ballad of Smokey the Bear) and records (he was George and Elroy on the Jetsons on Golden Records and Mike on MAD’s “Gall in the Family Fare” flexi-disc.”• Previous Forgotten Cartoon Legend - SUPERKATT

Between the years he directed Popeye, Superman and Stone Age cartoons for Fleischer & Famous Studios in the early 40s, and his story and direction for Hanna Barbera in the late 50s and 60s, (where he was a chief architect of The Flintstones) animator Dan Gordon made a living as a prolific comic book artist. One of his most beloved creations was SUPERKATT who graced the pages (and covers) of GIGGLE COMICS for over 10 years (1944-1955).John K. writes about Gordon’s comic books here. Also Asifa Hollywood’s Animation Archive and Kent Butterworth have posted various pages for your enjoyment.In the mid-40s, a desperate Columbia Pictures licensed Gordon’s SUPERKATT comic strip for its Screen Gems animation studio. Why? It’s still a mystery. Was SUPERKATT that popular with the public to make a movie star of him? I doubt it. Did Dave Fleischer, while he was head of the studio several years earlier, make a deal with his ‘ol buddy Gordon? Maybe. Regardless, the cartoon - Leave Us Chase It (1947), produced in low budget two-color Technicolor - made no impression on anyone back in the day. The only promotion we can find is hidden in this puzzle in GIGGLE COMICS #31 (July 1946, almost a year before the film’s release). It’s been practically forgotten (as has the rest of the Screen Gems cartoon library) for six decades. In honor of 60th anniversary of Superkatt’s screen debut, we’ve posted the first three minutes of this curio You Tube for your enjoyment.We invite you to join the cult.

(Thanks to William Sobieck for the puzzle page scan)

If you spend time online, chances are you’ve already run across PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP by Nicholas Gurewitch. The comic is hard to describe, but in my opinion it’s the best “absurd” newspaper comic since Gary Larson’s FAR SIDE and that’s not a comment I make lightly. Unlike the countless Larson imitators who have appeared over the years, Gurewitch has a voice and sensibility distinctly his own. He takes risks with his work and the results are frequently laugh-out-loud funny. I’d actually seen quite a few of his comics before I realized recently that they were all done by the same person. That’s because he works in many different styles ranging from rendered “children’s book”-style art to parodies of other artists (like Bil Keane and Edward Gorey) to his standard ‘white blob’ characters. Gurewitch is currently putting together a compilation of PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP for Dark Horse Comics. Needless to say, I can’t wait for that book. He’s also done a bit of animation before like this stop motion short.