Volume two of “Pogo,†by Walt Kelly, which continues the deluxe reprinting of the newspaper strip starring Pogo Possum and set in the Okefenokee Swamp, is at No. 4 on the graphic books hardcover best-seller list this week. This volume introduces some cool characters: Tammanany the Tiger, Uncle Antler the bull moose, and three bats named Bewitched, Bothered and Bemildred. Carolyn Kelly, the cartoonist's daughter, designed and edited the book, as well as restoring some of the strips. This volume also features annotations and commentary by the comic historians R.C. Harvey and Mark Evanier.
Lavish collected editions of comic strips have been in vogue for a while now. Fantagraphics, which is publishing “Pogo,†has been steadily releasing “The Complete Peanuts.†The publisher promises 25 volumes over 12 years. The series began in 2004, and volume 17 came out in April. (Ben Schwartz wrote about how much collectors crave these compilations.)
As always, the complete best-seller lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.
