Beauty Amazon

The Brownies in "The Ooglies and the Cuckoo Clock"

Like so many cartoonists from the 30s, Walt Kelly worked for Disney (the great studio seemed to devour trainloads of animators whole). He didn’t like animation much and eventually left Disney for cartoon work. His work at Dell is absolutely spectacular and remarkably enjoyable. Walt Kelly never drew a single panel that wasn’t a gaze-worthy, and he never drew a dull one, either.

The same delicate humor that turned Kelly's most famous creation, Pogo, into a beloved icon infuses this small tale of war between the Brownies and the Oogglies. The more I see of vintage Kelly the more I like him. Scratch that . . . Love him. The following is all Kelly, including the cover and the short strip running along the bottom of the pages.

This is from Four Color (The Brownies) No. 192, June, 1948. All scans are from my own comic. Just click on the image for the big picture.

This is Kelly's back inside cover from the same issue. Was there ever a more prefect page for kids and their parents to share? I love Kelly's drawing and his simple, elegant page design.