Pogo: Through the Wild Blue Yonder by Walt Kelly

This collection of Pogo comics was my bedside companion for several months, providing a break from other reading as I drifted off to sleep. Kelly's comic ran in my local paper when I was growing up, and not surprisingly, I was not very impressed with it as a child. It was hard to understand the satire or even the language sometimes, given the Southern dialect the characters use. I did enjoy some of the story arcs, and I liked the continuity, which contracted with most of the daily gag strips. It was funny and yet continuity like "Dick Tracy" and the serious comics did.

The collection at hand is from the beginning of the strip in the 1940s. I have not seen the follow-up volumes (though I'd like to) but the first one is well done, with strips nicely sized for reading. The color Sunday strips are included in the back, and a short essay describes Kelly's work as well as some of the ins and outs of comic publishing.

My recollection of the character Pogo was fairly accurate, and I began to understand the content of the comic as I grew up, so I was not terribly surprised at the humor. I don't recall many of the other characters, or their general dim-wittedness. If the content was close to what he was doing in the 1970s, I surely missed most of the humor.

I finished this slowly, over the course of 5-6 months, probably completed it about 12/15. I have shelved with with the comics books.

MetaMaus by Art Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman wrote and illustrated two books that outlined the experience of his parents in Jewish ghettos and concentration camps during WWII. Maus and Maus 2 came out in 1987 and 1991, respectively, though Spiegelman began Maus in 1972, originally as a 3-page version. I read both of the books about 7 years ago, after becoming familiar with them by reading In the Shadow of No Towers, his return to doing "comics" that was precipitated by the demise of the World Trade Center towers and the political repercussions thereof. 

MetaMaus is the story, told through a series of interviews, of how the Maus books came to be. The interview covers Art's relationship with his father, mother, and wife, lots of interesting technical information on his process of drawing and editing, his process for researching the content (beyond the interviews with his father), how he drew from comics traditions and history in his book, struggles he faced getting it published, personal and family difficulties and tragedies, and lots more. It's a wide-ranging interview/book, and held my interest throughout. His thought process behind every aspect of the Maus books seems to have been very thorough, and deeply thought out, more than you would expect from a "comic." His defining metaphor of a page as a paragraph and a row of panels as a sentence is brilliant, and explains why the book is so concise and yet satisfying. The constraint of the form, imposed by none other than himself, helps to keep the story moving. 

I was also interested to read about the growth of interest in the history of the genocide against the Jews during WWII. I've seen so many documentaries and miniseries and moves that it did not occur to me that it was most neglected as a topic until the late 1970s. 

I got this for Christmas in 2011 and read it over 2 days during a short vacation in Long Key, FL, finishing on 1/13/13. I'll definitely be hanging onto it, and putting it next to the Maus books on my shelf.

Reminds me: I think I got the Masters of American Comics (which Spiegelman helped curate) a year or so ago. I need to dig that out.