Showing posts with label Walt Kelly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walt Kelly. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

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!

Thursday, March 21, 2024

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!

Thursday, March 14, 2024

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!

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

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!

Sunday, March 10, 2024

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 ComicsEaster 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!

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

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!

Monday, December 25, 2023

Merry Christmas

Santa Claus' World War II-era attempt at updating his transportation...
...doesn't quite go as planned in this wraparound cover from Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942).
Unfortunately, the artist didn't sign it, and the experts at various comic indexing sites have been unable to offer possible illustrators.
Personally, I'm thinking Walt Kelly.
(The snarky reindeer are an obvious giveaway)
Any suggestions?
Merry Christmas to All!

Sunday, April 9, 2023

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!

Sunday, April 2, 2023

Gorgeous Goodies for Your Easter Basket!

Back in the 1940s and '50s, comic book companies produced a prodigious number of holiday-themed annuals and one-shots!
For example, a multitude of Christmas-themed comic books flooded America's magazine racks every November and December!
(In fact, a large part of our popular Cool Christmas collection is based on them.)
But, did you know that several publishers also did Easter-oriented books?
And, that noted comics illustrators including Walt (Pogo) Kelly contributed art to them?
Believing that there's always room for more classic comics collectibles, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ added a new line of goodies to our Happy Holidays section entitled Exciting Easter!
Yes, it's eggs, bunnies, chicks, and other fuzzy animals galore digitally-restored and remastered from Baby Boomer-era classic comics covers on baby bibs, infant creepers / onesies, toddler and kid t-shirts, greeting cards, mugs, and a plethora of other kool kollectibles!
They make great Easter basket stuffers! (And they won't rot your kids' teeth like marshmallow chicks or chocolate bunnies!)
So click over and see what's in our basket!

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Easter Egg-citement with Walt Kelly!

April Fools Day is this coming Saturday...
...but we don't believe in waiting to play an April Fools Day trick on you!
This centerfold from Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #103 (1946) is a splendid example.
Can you find the bunnies, chicks, and eggs hidden in the art?
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Sunday, March 12, 2023

Easter Reading Room EASTER WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Easter Bunny and the Dwarf"

...so just sit back and enjoy the never-reprinted tale from Dell's Four Color Comics: Easter with Mother Goose #140 (1947)!
This story, written and illustrated by Walt (Pogo) Kelly features a number of nursery rhyme characters including Jack and Jill (who went up a hill), Little Jack Horner, and Mother Goose herself.
But, it is not, as was often the case with Kelly's holiday pieces, an adaptation of existing nursery rhymes, but a totally-new tale!
It's also a prequel to the book's lead tale featuring an Easter party...which you'll see on Easter Sunday!