Walt Kelly: Difference between revisions

| area = animatorAnimator, cartoonist, newspaper journalist, poet, American singer

| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Helen DeLacy|1937|1951|end=div}}<br>
* {{marriage|Stephanie Waggony|1951|1970|end=d.}}<br>
* {{marriage|Selby Daley|1972}}

'''Walter Crawford Kelly Jr.''' (August 25, 1913 – October 18, 1973), commonly known as '''Walt Kelly''', was an American [[animator]] and [[cartoonist]], best known for the [[comic strip]] ''[[Pogo (comic strip)|Pogo]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.answers.com/search|title=Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions|website=www.answers.com}}</ref><ref>[{{Cite web |url=http://www.pogopossum.com/walt.htm |title=Kelly, Walt. "An Autobiography by the Creator of Pogo." Official Pogo Website. 1954.] |access-date=2011-09-15 |archive-date=2011-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002060044/http://www.pogopossum.com/walt.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> He began his animation career in 1936 at [[The Walt Disney Company|Walt Disney Studios]], contributing to ''[[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]'', ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'', and ''[[Dumbo]]''. In 1941, at the age of 28, Kelly transferred to work at [[Dell Comics]], where he created ''Pogo'', which eventually became his platform for political and philosophical commentary.

In 1930, Kelly graduated from high school and met Helen DeLacy at choir practice. DeLacy was a few years older than Kelly. DeLacy left her southern California position as a Girl Scout executive in 1935, hoping to leave Kelly behind. Kelly gave up his job at Bridgeport General Electric and followed DeLacy to Los Angeles, where he took a job at Walt Disney. Kelly and DeLacy then married in September 1937.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:-p8yxSHNPlQJ:https://biography.yourdictionary.com/walt-kelly+&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-d|title=Walt Kelly Facts|website=webcachebiography.googleusercontentyourdictionary.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Pogo by Walt Kelly - Through the Wild Blue Wonder: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Volume 1 |editor-last1=Thompson |editor-first1=Kim |editor-last2=Kelly |editor-first2=Carolyn |isbn=9781560978695 |year=2011 |page=5}}</ref> In 1951, Kelly divorced DeLacy and married Stephanie Waggony; the two remained married until Waggony died of cancer in 1970.<ref name="WildBlueWonder12">{{Cite book|title=Pogo by Walt Kelly - Through the Wild Blue Wonder: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Volume 1 |editor-last1=Thompson |editor-first1=Kim |editor-last2=Kelly |editor-first2=Carolyn |isbn=9781560978695 |year=2011 |page=12}}</ref> Kelly met Selby Daley in the late 1960s while working on ''[[Pogo_(comic_strip)#Animation_and_puppetry|The Pogo Special Birthday Special]]'', a television special based on the ''Pogo'' comic strip. Kelly and Daley continued to collaborate professionally, and got married in late 1972.<ref name="jeblack">{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmhECwAAQBAJ&q=%22walt+kelly%22+%22divorce%22&pg=PA93 | title=Walt Kelly and Pogo: The Art of the Political Swamp| isbn=9780786479870| last1=Black| first1=James Eric| date=2015-12-23| publisher=McFarland}}</ref><ref name="WildBlueWonder12" />

Kelly and DeLacy had three children: Kathleen, Carolyn, and Peter. He and Waggony had three children who survived infancy: Stephen, Andrew, and John.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6xj1ssx|title=Kelly, Walt - Social Networks and Archival Context|website=snaccooperative.org}}</ref> A fourth child, Kathryn Barbara, died before her first birthday, an event he commemorated in the ''Pogo'' strip for several years thereafter with a bug character andattempting to deliver a cake with one candle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogfott.blogspot.com/2013/03/kathryn-b.html|title=Blogfott: Kathryn B|date=30 March 2013}}</ref>

After relocatedrelocating to [[Southern California]], Kelly found a job at Walt Disney Productions as a storyboard artist and gag man on [[Donald Duck]] cartoons and other shorts. In 1939, he requested a transfer to the animation department. Kelly became an assistant to noted [[Walt Disney]] animator [[Fred Moore (animator)|Fred Moore]] and became close friends with Moore and [[Ward Kimball]], one of Disney's [[Nine Old Men]]. Kelly and Kimball were so close that Kimball named his daughter Kelly Kimball in tribute.

Kelly's animation can be seen in ''Pinocchio'' when [[Mastro Geppetto]] is first seen inside Monstro the whale, fishing; in ''Fantasia'' when Bacchus is seen drunkenly riding a donkey during the Beethoven/"Pastoral Symphony" sequence; and in ''Dumbo'' of the ringmaster and during bits of the crows' sequence. His drawings are especially recognizable in ''The Reluctant Dragon'' of the little boy, and in the [[Mickey Mouse]] short ''[[The Little Whirlwind]]'', when Mickey is running from the larger [[tornado]] (the tornado even blows a copy of Thethe ''Bridgeport Post'' into Mickey's face).

{{blockquote|Just in case I ever forgot to thank you, I'd like you to know that I, for one, have long appreciated the sort of training and atmosphere that you set up back there in the thirties. There were drawbacks as there are to everything, but it was an astounding experiment and experience as I look back on it. Certainly it was the only education I ever received and I hope I'm living up to a few of your hopes for other people.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://michaelbarrier.com/Home%20Page/WhatsNewArchivesOct09.htm#walterktowalterd|title=Walter K. to Walter D., 1960|website=michaelbarrier.com|access-date=2009-10-28|archive-date=2010-03-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329221550/http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Home%20Page/WhatsNewArchivesOct09.htm#walterktowalterd|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

Kelly began a series of comic books based on fairy tales and nursery rhymes along with annuals celebrating Christmas and Easter for Dell Comics. Kelly seems to have written or co-written much of the material he drew for the comics; his unique touches are easily discernible. He also produced a series of stories based on the ''[[Our Gang]]'' film series, provided covers for ''[[Walt Disney's Comics and Stories]]'', illustrated the aforementioned adaptations of two Disney animated features, drew stories featuring [[Raggedy Ann|Raggedy Ann and Andy]] and [[Uncle Wiggily]], wrote and drew a lengthy series of comic books promoting a bread company and featuring a character called "Peter Wheat",<ref>{{cite web |last1=Markstein |first1=Don |website=toonopedia.com |access-date=2 April 2020 |url=http://www.toonopedia.com/ptrwheat.htm |title=Peter Wheat}}</ref> and did a series of [[pantomime]] (without dialogue) two-page stories featuring [[Roald Dahl]]'s [[The Gremlins|Gremlins]] for ''[[Walt Disney's Comics and Stories]]'' #34–41.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mouseplanet.com/8291/The_Return_of_the_Gremlins|title=The Return of the Gremlins|website=www.mouseplanet.com|date=23 April 2008 }}</ref> Kelly also then wrote, drew, and performed on children's records, children's books, and cereal boxes.

The setting for Pogo and his friends was the Okefenokee Swamp. The Okefenokee Swamp Park near [[Waycross, Georgia]], now has a building housing Walt Kelly's relocated studio and various Pogo memorabilia.

Kelly died inon October 18, 1973, in [[Woodland Hills, California]], from [[diabetes]] complications, following a long and debilitating illness that had cost him a leg. During his final illness, work on the strip had fallen to various assistants and occasionally reprints, and Kelly characteristically joked about returning to work as soon as he regrew the leg. He is sometimes listed as having been interred in the [[Cemetery of the Evergreens]] in [[Brooklyn]], New York]], but there is no actual grave for him there. He is believed to have been cremated.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Kelly__Walt.html |title=Walt Kelly |access-date=2011-09-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127052758/http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Kelly__Walt.html |archive-date=2012-01-27 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Walt Kelly, Pogo Creator, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/19/archives/walt-kelly-pogo-creator-dies-cartoonist-peopled-satiric-menagerie.html |access-date=March 19, 2019 |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |date=October 19, 1979}}</ref>

His influences included cartoonists [[George Kerr (cartoonist)|George Kerr]], [[Frederick Opper]], [[E.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;Kemble]], [[A.&nbsp;B.&nbsp;Frost]], [[John Tenniel]], [[George Herriman]], and, especially, [[T.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;Sullivant]].<ref name="jeblack"/> Kelly, a great admirer of [[Lewis Carroll]], was also a prolific poet, especially in the "[[Anguish Languish]]" form (of which ''Deck Us All with Boston Charlie'' is considered one of the prime examples). Kelly's singing voice, a boozy Irish baritone, can be heard on the ''Songs of the Pogo'' album, for which he also supplied the lyrics.

In February 2007 Fantagraphics Books announced that it would begin publication of ''The Complete Pogo'', a projected 12‑volume series collecting the complete chronological run of daily and Sunday strips, to be overseen by [[Jeff Smith (cartoonist)|Jeff Smith]] and Kelly's daughter Carolyn. The first volume in the series was scheduled to appear in October 2007 but was delayed, reportedly due to difficulty in locating early Sunday strips in complete form. It was finally released in October, 2011.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2011_08_21.html#021140 |title=Archived copy |website=www.newsfromme.com |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111021094453/http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2011_08_21.html#021140 |archive-date=21 October 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Volume two was released in November, 2012, and three was released in November 2014. Four was released in January 2018 and five was released in October 2018. Volume six was planned for release in November 2019 but was delayed until January 2020. Volume seven was released in November 2020.

In Nickelodeon's animated series ''[[The Loud House]]'', the Loud Family's canary was named after Walt Kelly. [[Joe Murray (animator)|Joe Murray]], (creator of ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' and ''[[Camp Lazlo]]'') cited Kelly's work as his inspiration to create wacky anthropomorphic animal characters.

[[Category:Deaths from diabetes in California]]