(Two articles that were supposed to be published in March and April have been published: one on Golden Age DVDs and another a review of The TOON Treasury of Classic Children's Comicsnull. Check 'em out!)
A quick note: in previous articles I have criticized the erratic schedule of the Pogo series, but have recently found out two editors happened to die of cancer, explaining why it has taken so long. I apologize for my rashness. But, apparently, they have reached the point where searching for "scarce" source material is no longer a problem, so why is Volume 9 delayed until July 2025?
But anyway, I recently bought Pogo Volume 3. Though a fine book, it is the absolute worst regarding annotations. About half of them are not reported by Mr. Harvey, including a few references that I already knew, but others may not. The annotation in the series is exceptionally poor, but I would rather have that than anachronistic commentary!
The actual content was as funny as ever. I particularly thought Kelly's satire of both sides of the Red Scare was great. It is also a subject of fascination for me, as a fellow artist, who does not possess the acid political satire gene. As funny as it is, I would have preferred Kelly be a little more subtle with it. As I've mentioned before, the political irony of films like High Noon (the blacklist) and Kelly's Heroes (Vietnam) is a lot more powerful because it isn't totally obvious; the subtext is concealed. I think if Simple J. Malarkey (Red Baiters) and Cowbirds (Soviets) were less obvious, it would be a lot more powerful. Those who agree with either of them would feel silly when they realize what they are laughing at.
Strangely, Mark Evanier's in-book bio of Kelly there praises the political commentary to the heavens, but at least Kelly wasn't a bluenose about it like Evanier is, whose blog is almost entirely political.
When I went to look at Pogo Volume 4, I was shocked to see it is now in the hundreds! And it's the same elsewhere! What's going on? The Fantagraphics website says it's out of stock. It can be bought as a collection packaged with Volume 3 (which I already have) for seventy dollars, which is too much for one book. It's especially piss-worthy because if I end up buying Volume 5 this June I'll have to read out-of-order, ruining the chronological groove.
Sadly, I did never get around to buying Collector's Choice Vol. 3. I never noticed before, but the lone-two-star review the lone-two-star review says there's some double-dipping (repeats from other collections) on it, which is disappointing--but why complain? For me, would you rather have none at all? Well, since there is double-dipping, they should've double-dipped the two McCabes on the Golden Collection with added music but, as I've stated before, Jerry Beck apparently hates his cartoons.
But that's all for now! More is coming, including a sad story...
