Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Jack Rabbit and the Beanstalk"

The only thing even vaguely Easter-related in this Walt Kelly-written and illustrated story...

...is the fact Jack Rabbit is selling Easter Eggs to make ends meet!

Accept it, and enjoy the obvious adaptation and the guest characters from other nursery rhymes and fairy tales!

This never-reprinted tale from Dell's Four Color Comics #220: Easter with Mother Goose (1949) winds up our holiday-themed posts for the season.

Hope you enjoyed reading them as much as we did producing them!

Easter Reading Room TICK TOCK TALES "Judy and Her Magic Chalk in the Land of the Easter Bunnies"

Though no other American comic publishers besides Dell ran Easter-themed anthologies...

...many ongoing series did run Easter stories, including this strip appearing in the kids' humor anthology Tick Tock Tales!

Illustrated (and possibly written) by animator Larry Silverman who freelanced for packager Jason Comic Art Studio, this never-reprinted story from Magazine Enterprises' Tick Tock Tales #4 (1947) was only the second entry in the "Magic Chalk" strip, which ran for almost thirty issues!
Judy would also appear on covers and in two-page text stories teamed with other characters from the anthology like Goofus the Gopher and Spanky, but, oddly, never in an actual comic story with them!

Be Here Thursday, When We Present a Walt Kelly Story Featuring Numerous Fantasy Characters in an Easter-Themed Adaptation of a Classic Fairy Tale!

Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Mr Dumpty Gets Mended" and "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater"

More holiday fun with Walk Kelly's adaptations of nursery rhymes...

...starting with a never-reprinted revisionist short from Dell's Four Color Comics #140: Easter with Mother Goose (1947), showing the Easter Bunny succeeding where All the King's Horses and All the King's Men failed!

Revisionism continues the next year, with another never-reprinted short (with guest-stars Jack and Jill), this time from Dell's Four Color Comics #185: Easter with Mother Goose (1948)...

Should we ask why Peter isn't actually living with his wife?

Trivia: this issue features the now-repaired Humpty Dumpty on the cover!

All script and art by Walt (Pogo) Kelly!

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Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Quangle-Wangle's Hat"

There's something different about the story in today's post!

Can you deduce what it is?

Read carefully...

Figure it out?

1) This never-reprinted piece by Walt Kelly from Dell's Four Color Comics #185: Easter with Mother Goose (1948) is a poem, not a fairy tale, nor a nursery rhyme!
2) Unlike most of Kelly's Easter and Christmas-themed tales, it has no holiday story element except the introduction by the Easter Bunny and Easter Chick!
3) Plus, the source poem is quoted verbatim, without any editorial changes at all!
As far as I've been able to ascertain, this is the only time this occurred in any of Kelly's holiday-book projects!
Mind you, Walt did run things like Clement Clarke Moore's "Night Before Christmas" unedited/uncut (several times, in fact), but those were already Yuletide-oriented!

The poem's author was writer/artist Edward Lear, whose work was a curious mash-up of the literary styles of Roald Dahl and Dr Seuss, which made him the late 1800s-early 1900s most beloved and extensively-read children's author!

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Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Hickory and Dickory Help the Easter Bunny"

Though the rodent duo in this tale are named after the classic nursery rhyme "Hickory, Dickory, Dock"...

...the rhyme featured only a single, anonymous, mouse...and there's no one named "Dock" in the story!

Walt (Pogo) Kelly scripted and illustrated this story from Dell's Four Color Comics #220: Easter with Mother Goose (1949), which was the mouse duo's second (and last) appearance!

The first was several months earlier, in Dell's Four Color Comics #201: Christmas with Mother Goose (1948), where they assisted (as you might have guessed) Santa Claus!

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Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Little Bunny"

Walt (Pogo) Kelly went into full-on "cute" mode with his holiday stories...

...including this never-reprinted one from Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #185 (1948)!

Besides doing an annual comic of Easter stories featuring fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters celebrating the holiday, Walt also did an even-more popular series of annual Christmas comics utilizing the same concept!

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Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Mother Hubbard's Cupboard"

It's March!

Spring is, well, springing, and Easter is only a few weeks away!

So, we're going to be presenting some kool never (or very rarely) reprinted holiday goodies by Walt (Pogo) Kelly and others!

Written and illustrated by Walt Kelly, this never-reprinted feature from Dell's Four Color Comics #220: Easter with Mother Goose (1949) was typical of Kelly's holiday offerings.

Either retell a fairy tale or nursery rhyme with added holiday elements, or craft a new tale based on the characters!

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Holiday Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Easter Sunday"

Our final Walt (Pogo) Kelly post for Easter...

...is a never-reprinted piece from Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #220 (1949).

We hope you've enjoyed our presentation of these long-lost pieces by one of the field's masters.

Now go eat a chocolate bunny and some marshmallow chicks!