Biography of Walt Kelly and Pogo
Donation protected
I am Jay Black, Schumann Professor of Media Writing at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. I am raising money to help pay for a book about Walt Kelly and his comic strip Pogo. This will be my first book. The manuscript is finished and McFarland Publishing Inc. has agreed to publish it, but the book is impossible without the artwork from Walt Kelly and several other artists who are certainly due their share. The book will include over 250 works from Kelly and other artists including Milton Caniff (Mark Trail) and Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine). Addititional historical art will also be included. The problem is I have to pay for the rights to the art upfront. I have recently graduated with my PhD and am up to my ears in student loans. I need your help. I will also have to pay for indexing of the book.
Walt Kelly is known as one of the greatest cartoonist of all times, but tragically there is no definitive biography on him. This book will place his work in the context of his time, covering such diverse topics as race, gender and politics, but also his personal tragedies that may have influenced him.
Walt Kelly successfully combined political satire in American comic strips for the first time during the height of the Cold War and McCarthyism. The purpose of this book is to analyze how and why Kelly initially began interjecting political satire into his comic strip Pogo and how he was able to avoid being blacklisted during the time of the Red Scare. The scope of this book includes a history of the medium, a biography of the author, and a discussion of humor as a means of dissent and personal artistry.
Kelly’s work created a new form of political dissent that was less satirical than editorial cartoons of the day and more directed toward the enjoyment of the reader rather than at any political affiliation, a form of comedic writing that continues to be used today in such forms as the Daily Show, Colbert Report and Saturday Night Live. That is not to say that Pogo could not bite. Please help me finish this project.
Walt Kelly is known as one of the greatest cartoonist of all times, but tragically there is no definitive biography on him. This book will place his work in the context of his time, covering such diverse topics as race, gender and politics, but also his personal tragedies that may have influenced him.
Walt Kelly successfully combined political satire in American comic strips for the first time during the height of the Cold War and McCarthyism. The purpose of this book is to analyze how and why Kelly initially began interjecting political satire into his comic strip Pogo and how he was able to avoid being blacklisted during the time of the Red Scare. The scope of this book includes a history of the medium, a biography of the author, and a discussion of humor as a means of dissent and personal artistry.
Kelly’s work created a new form of political dissent that was less satirical than editorial cartoons of the day and more directed toward the enjoyment of the reader rather than at any political affiliation, a form of comedic writing that continues to be used today in such forms as the Daily Show, Colbert Report and Saturday Night Live. That is not to say that Pogo could not bite. Please help me finish this project.
Organizer
Jay Black
Organizer
Macon, GA