Fifty-five years ago today, the world of comic strips changed for the better. The event was the quiet debut of a new one in the pages of The New York Star, a short-lived Manhattan newspaper. The strip was about a mild-mannered little possum with a striped shirt and a penchant for saying clever, incisive things. The possum and the strip were both named Pogo, the creation of one Walt Kelly, a former artist for Disney Studios who had turned to drawing Dell comic books. Some of those comics had featured a kid named Bumbazine who was squeezed out of his own strip by the boisterous Albert the Alligator. Poetically, Albert got a taste of his own medicine: The possum, a supporting player, assumed the star role and Albert was demoted to comedy relief.
The comic books were wonderful but Kelly was destined for a wider, older audience. While also working as the Star's Art Director and Political Cartoonist, he took the opportunity to star his swamp critters in a daily strip. It was a historic moment for the funny pages but the world took little notice: No one was buying the Star, and four months later, it was both forgotten and gone. Pogo, however, would not be either. Kelly hooked up with what was then called the Hall Syndicate and soon, his creation was available coast-to-coast. Acceptance came slowly and even some people who got it never really got it. But by the end of the fifties, the Okefenokee denizens were appearing in nearly 600 newspapers and a few dozen best-selling paperbacks, forever ensconced as one of the all-time great comics. People who loved Pogo really love Pogo…and still love Pogo. And will always love Pogo. Happy birthday.