| rdfs:comment | - Kelly worked for Disney from January 6, 1936, to September 12, 1941, contributing to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Dumbo and The Reluctant Dragon. He also worked on animator for the Mickey Mouse animated shorts Mickey's Surprise Party, The Little Whirlwind and The Nifty Nineties. Kelly once stated that his salary at Disney averaged about $100 a week. During 1935 and 1936, his work also appeared in early comic books for what later became DC Comics. On May 25, 1960, Kelley wrote a letter to Walt Disney regarding his time at the studio.
- Walt Kelly (1913-1973) was a cartoonist, humorist, and animator, best known as the creator of the long-running comic strip Pogo. His early career included a stint as a reporter and political cartoonist for The Bridgeport Post, followed by nearly seven years at the Walt Disney Studio. While at Disney, Kelly worked his way from assistant to full animator, animating on Mickey Mouse shorts and contributing to such features as Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Fantasia, often under the supervision of friend Ward Kimball. Kelly left the studio in 1941, following a labor strike. He remained associated with the Disney characters, however, contributing covers and stories for Dell's Disney comic book line throughout the 1940s.
- __NOEDITSECTION__ Image:Information-silk.png|Character Template rect 0 0 20 20 Staff Template desc none Walt Kelly File:Walt Kelly.jpg Gallery Real Name Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. Employers [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]] , [[|]][[Catego
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| abstract | - Walt Kelly (1913-1973) was a cartoonist, humorist, and animator, best known as the creator of the long-running comic strip Pogo. His early career included a stint as a reporter and political cartoonist for The Bridgeport Post, followed by nearly seven years at the Walt Disney Studio. While at Disney, Kelly worked his way from assistant to full animator, animating on Mickey Mouse shorts and contributing to such features as Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Fantasia, often under the supervision of friend Ward Kimball. Kelly left the studio in 1941, following a labor strike. He remained associated with the Disney characters, however, contributing covers and stories for Dell's Disney comic book line throughout the 1940s. In 1942, Kelly, still working for Dell, introduced Pogo Possum in the debut issue of Animal Comics, along with a black child named Bumbazine and a hungry alligator named Albert. Sans Bumbazine, who was gradually phased out, Pogo and Albert accrued new friends until the end of the comic book in 1947, and made a successful transition as a newspaper comic in 1949. Pogo followed Pogo, Albert, and such diverse (and often punningly named) characters as Howland Owl, superstitous turtle Churchy LaFemme, and dour Porkypine in often surreal adventures in, around, and outside of the Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia (in real life, the largest swamp in the US). The comic was characterized by a "Southern-fried" dialect, the inventive use of distinctive lettering to visually illustrate a character's speaking habits and personality, open acknowledgment by the characters of such comic strip conventions as panel borders and word balloons, poetic lyrics and songs, and variations on existing tunes such as "Deck the Halls," most famously transposed as "Deck Us All with Boston Charlie." Political humor was a mainstay, with caricatures of such figures as J. Edgar Hoover, Communist leaders like Kruschev and Castro, and Joseph McCarthy, turned into recurring antagonist Simple J. Malarkey. The strip ran until Kelly's death in 1973, was continued by widow Selby Kelly and assistant Don Morgan for two years, and revived yet again in 1989. A television special was produced by Chuck Jones in 1969 with Kelly and Jones supplying some character voices, and in 1980, a stop-motion feature entitled Pogo for President was released, featuring the voices of The Electric Company alumnus Skip Hinnant (as Pogo), Stan Freberg, Vincent Price, Jonathan Winters, and Ruth Buzzi.
- __NOEDITSECTION__ Image:Information-silk.png|Character Template rect 0 0 20 20 Staff Template desc none Walt Kelly File:Walt Kelly.jpg Gallery Real Name Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. Employers [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]], [[|]][[Category: Staff]] , [[|]][[Category: Staff]] , [[|]][[Category: Staff]] , [[|]][[Category: Staff]] , [[|]][[Category: Staff]] , [[|]][[Category: Staff]] , [[|]][[Category: Staff]] , [[|]][[Category: Staff]] , [[|]][[Category: Staff]] , [[|]][[Category: Staff]] Gender Date of Birth August 25, 1913 Date of Death October 18, 1973 Place of Birth Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America Creations Pogo First publication Unknown
- Kelly worked for Disney from January 6, 1936, to September 12, 1941, contributing to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Dumbo and The Reluctant Dragon. He also worked on animator for the Mickey Mouse animated shorts Mickey's Surprise Party, The Little Whirlwind and The Nifty Nineties. Kelly once stated that his salary at Disney averaged about $100 a week. During 1935 and 1936, his work also appeared in early comic books for what later became DC Comics. Kelly's animation can be seen in Pinocchio when Gepetto 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; and 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. During the 1941 animators strike, Kelly did not picket the studio, as has often been reported, but took a leave of absence—pleading "family illness"— to avoid choosing sides. Surviving correspondence between Kelly and his close friend and fellow animator Ward Kimball chronicles his ambivalence towards the highly charged dispute. Kimball stated in an interview years later that Kelly felt creatively constricted in animation, a collective art form, and possibly over-challenged by the technical demands of the form, and he had been looking for a way out when the strike occurred. Kelly never returned to the studio as an animator, but jobs adapting the studio's films Pinocchio and The Three Caballeros for Dell Comics—apparently the result of a recommendation from Walt Disney himself—led to a new (and ultimately transitional) career. He also provided covers for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, illustrated the aforementioned adaptations of two Disney animated features and did a series of pantomime (i.e., without dialogue) two-page stories featuring Roald Dahl's Gremlins for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #34–41. His songs "Don't Sugar Me" and "Man's Best Friend" (also known as "Old Dog Trey") appeared in episodes 122 and 404 of The Muppet Show respectively. On May 25, 1960, Kelley wrote a letter to Walt Disney regarding his time at the studio.
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