Walt Kelly, byname of Walter Crawford Kelly (born Aug. 25, 1913, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 18, 1973, Los Angeles, Calif.), American creator of the comic strip “Pogo,” which was noted for its sophisticated humour, gentle whimsy, and occasional pointed political satire.
In 1935 Kelly went to Hollywood, where he did animation drawings for Walt Disney Productions. During the 1940s he was active as a commercial artist in New York City, one of his projects being a comic book in which the character Pogo appeared about 1943. His great opportunity came in 1948 with the publication of the short-lived New York Star, for which he did the daily comic strip “Pogo,” based on the character he had created earlier. After the Star ceased publication in January 1949, “Pogo” was carried by the New York Post and, before long, by many other papers.
The characters in “Pogo” are animals who live in Okefenokee Swamp, in Georgia. Pogo himself is a self-effacing possum. Other characters were Howland Owl, Albert the Alligator, and Churchy LaFemme, a turtle. The strip was exceptionally well-drawn, and the text material was witty and highly literate. Kelly frequently included animal characters that closely resembled prominent political figures of the day. Beginning with Pogo (1951) there have been many collections of Kelly’s strips, compiled both from newspapers and from original creations.