Walt Kelly! Why didn`t the Walt Kelly market take off like Carl Barks? 0

[Bronty]

Barks was simply the far better writer.

 

I would take great issue with that; even if it's true that Barks is better (and I dislike absolutist statements like that in general) there's nothing simple about it.

 

I think much of the issue is Kelly's best work was either not in comic books or rather scarcer. Pogo never hit its peak in the comic books; the earlier stuff mostly in Animal Comics is clearly him working though a rough draft of sorts that let him explode fully onto the wider stage of the Comic strip. Whereas the later Pogo Possum comic books running concurrently with the newspaper strip was always clearly secondary to the strip. Our Gang, while wonderful in its own way, didn't let Kelly bring in the fantastic elements that were in many ways his greatest strength. His Mother Goose stuff for the most part wasn't actually comics as we normally think of them. Which leaves what I consider Kelly's two greatest comic book works- Fairy Tale Parade and Peter Wheat. Fairy Tale Parade was relatively early, and only ran 14 issues with Kelly stories; it's absolutely beautiful and well written. Peter Wheat is absolutely extraordinary; I cannot praise it enough and issue 26 in particular is one of the best comic books I've ever seen. But it always had low distribution through bakeries and is mind-bogglingly rare.

 

With all that said, I will give you this: when comparing their best known works in comic books (deliberately excluding the Pogo strips), Barks writing was on average better. Although I would say both of them were so far ahead of the average writers of 40's comics as to be nearly in another category altogether.

 

You know, fair points, I had forgotten about Pogo although the few issues I've read did nothing for me.

 

Let's agree then, that Barks wrote a far greater number of classic comic book stories.

 

As a comic book fan, there are many classic Barks stories to draw me in to being a huge fan. When it comes to Kelly - I like his art, but IIRC he didn't always write what he drew... and the stories I've read of his didn't resonate with me like the barks ducks.... I just haven't been compelled to be as big a fan of his.

 

As far as his art, he's plenty good. His WDCS 69 cover is probably my favorite in the entire series. But I've never read a story he wrote that left that kind of impression on me.

[OtherEric]

Let's agree then, that Barks wrote a far greater number of classic comic book stories.

 

I can agree with that phrasing.

 

Kelly wrote almost everything he drew, the only exception that comes to mind off the top of my head is the Pinocchio adaptation. I'm sure there are others, though. It's worth noting that Western/ Dell clearly viewed Kelly as one of their star creators. Kelly got a byline on a lot of comics, including on the cover of most of his Mother Goose issues.

[vaillant]

So, apples and oranges. My personal opinion is that I can read almost anything Barks produced and enjoy it for its story and art. If I want something to make me think(and perhaps appreciate how far we've come as a society), I'd read Kelly's Pogo.

 

Pogo is not Disney, plainly. To compare Barks and Kelly‘s production like they gave the same contribution to Disney’s vision – as I said – it’s wrong.

 

But if you have had (and you haven’t) over thirty years of Disney stories produced abroad, some of those are easily up to Barks and Gottfredson's standards, the same qualitative judgement could be made with Disney stories.

 

But as far as it comes to a comparision about Barks and Kelly, you are absolutely right: it doesn’t make sense. It can make sense only in Disney terms, but Kelly "loses" just because he did a lot less. But that less is delicious.

 

Italian authors like Scarpa created post-Barks characters which represented social changes et al, like Paperetta Yé Yé (which represented the beat and youth movements) or Filo Sganga (which parodied italian's entrepreneurial itch, destined to failure, much like the movie characters by Alberto Sordi):

 

 

[vaillant]

Kelly, correct me if I am wrong, translated into Disney's world Roald Dahl’s Gremlins, right?

That is a SUPER SWEET contribution to the Disney epos.

 

[ComicConnoisseur]

Walt Kelly has great potential for being undervalued art.

After all he was the guy that influenced Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes fame.

 

 

[BB-Gun]

Kelly, correct me if I am wrong, translated into Disney's world Roald Dahl’s Gremlins, right?

That is a SUPER SWEET contribution to the Disney epos.

 

 

art by Bill Justice

[Sqeggs]

I know we have another Kelly thread, but I can't seem to locate it, so I though I'd bump this one.

[Sqeggs]

Another Kelly pickup.

[sacentaur]

2 hours ago, Sqeggs said:

Another Kelly pickup.

Beauty Tony, one of the best IMHO (I have a sweet raw from the "Benny K." collection that SoCalComics unearthed some time ago, white pages).

[OtherEric]

4 hours ago, Sqeggs said:

I know we have another Kelly thread, but I can't seem to locate it, so I though I'd bump this one.

What a stunning copy! 

Here's my most recent Kelly addition, from ECCC.  I'm almost done putting together my run of Pogo comics, I just need the FC 148, Pogo 8, Our Gang 6, and about 3 other issues that even by my low standards I need to upgrade.