Most Pogo collectors concentrate on Pogo Possum and Animal Comics, but the familiar characters and their outrageous situations made a few guest appearances in other Dell Comics titles. Outside of Pogo and possibly Peter Wheat, the “Our Gang” stories represent Walt Kelly's most extended narrative in comics. With a large cast of colorful and mostly original characters that reappear throughout the fifty-plus issue run, it reads like a Dickens serialized novel. Those who haven't discovered “Our Gang” are missing one of Kelly's richest creations.

While the “Our Gang” stories are the primary draw in Our Gang Comics, Walt Kelly contributed a few other pieces to the title. Issue #6 includes two bonus Kelly stories. “Billy Dollar” encourages kids to use their spare change to buy war stamps toward savings bonds, making their money work (as opposed to spending it on comic books?). “Bumbazine and Albert” relates how Gramps Goat and Bumbazine shrink Albert the Alligator after he steals their catfish. This crossover appearance of the Okefenokee Players may have been an attempt to help boost sales of both Our Gang and Animal Comics.

During Animal Comics’ last two years, two all-Pogo “one-shot” comics were issued. Albert the Alligator and Pogo Possum (Four Color) #s 105 and 148 are collections of new stories much like those in Animal at the time. The first appeared at a time when the characters and format were making subtle changes and this may have been a way to use up some inventory stories in the “old look.” The second is in the looser, more informal style that would later characterize the Pogo Possum comic.

The image we've come to know as Santa Claus, rotund, cherry-cheeked, with an elfin expression and the white fur-fringed coat, was the creation of political cartoonist Thomas Nast in the 1860’s. Nast also popularized the Democratic donkey and created the Republican elephant and the Tammany Tiger. While the corrupt Tammany party is no longer around, thanks in part to Nast, the Tiger lived on for a while as part of the Pogo Repertory Players, friend to P. T. Bridgeport. Nast's version of Santa remains his most lasting addition to our culture.

Santa Claus Funnies began its annual publication in 1942 with a variety of Christmas material in various formats. Santa Claus Funnies (Four Color) #254 was published in 1949, after Pogo had already started newspaper syndication. While Kelly had contributed to all issues up to then, the added workload made this Kelly's last. But he knew how to make an exit. “Santa's First Helper” is an elf who substitutes for a little girl's doll until the real thing arrives. It’s the funniest and best drawn story that Kelly did for this series, as if determined to go out on a high note.

The issue also features “Albert and Pogo's Christmas,” an unusual guest appearance, perhaps to help promote the Pogo Possum comic that had just started. Here are the familiar elements of Albert dressed as Santa helping to plan a party for the swamp orphans. No one beats Kelly at taking a simple situation and building an endless number of sight gags and complications. Santa Claus Funnies would continue but without his assistance.

By 1953, Pogo was a national phenomenon. The character’s first faux presidential run the previous year had gotten a lot of attention in the press. Two paperback collections of strip reprints were doing well in bookstores. College students were taking sides as to whether Pogo or Peanuts, which had debuted about a year after Pogo, was the best comic strip. Dell had been publishing the Pogo Possum comic book, but had no other new Kelly material since the strip had kept him too busy. Taking their cue from the paperbacks, Dell gathered a handful of stories from the early Animal Comics days and reprinted them as a Dell Giant comic. The result is a nice overview of the period, though Kelly didn’t like the idea as his characters had grown and changed over the years. Still, he contributed a new cover and some text introductory material. His dissatisfaction with the project, however, was yet another element that led to his withdrawal from comic books entirely the following year.

Reprints

For Pogo fans, the “Bumbazine and Albert” story in Our Gang #6 has been reprinted in the now out-of-print Pogo and Albert: Complete Pogo Comics #1 from Eclipse Books, still available from some dealers or on eBay. And, yes, “Albert and Pogo's Christmas” is still available from The Pogo Fan Club in The Fort Mudge Most #6.

Best Buy

If the number of Kelly pages is your criteria, Our Gang #6 not only has a funny wartime (victory garden) “Our Gang” tale but a twelve page “Bumbazine and Albert” story and a six page patriotic one-shot, “Billy Dollar,” as well as the usual covers. There is even a startling non-Kelly “Tom & Jerry” story that takes place, in part, in a toilet tank! The issue is a fine piece of Americana but it doesn't really represent what the “Our Gang” series would become.

Santa Claus Funnies #254, the last Kelly issue of that title, is half Kelly and shows his work on this title at its best. The fact that one of the two stories stars Albert and Pogo should cinch the decision. About half of all of Kelly's work on this title is available in reprints, including both of these stories. No matter how you get them, these are worth the effort.

Pogo Parade #1 holds the honor of having more Walt Kelly material than any other single issue of a comic magazine. However, most of those stories, and a lot more, are available in a more recent reprint series, the four volume Complete Pogo Comics from Eclipse Books, and less expensively.

Other Comic Books

Reprints

Best Buy

Index to Walt Kelly Material in Other Comics