Review by Win Wiacek

Justifiably revered for his brilliant newspaper strip Pogo, and his wonderful Our Gang tales, the incredible Walt Kelly also has a pretty strong claim to owning the traditional childhood Christmas. From 1942 until he abandoned comics for newsprint in 1949, he crafted stories celebrating the season of Good Will (and other yearly milestones such as Easter) published by Dell.

Santa Claus Funnies and Christmas with Mother Goose were holiday institutions, with the sheer beauty and charm of Kelly’s work defining what Christmas should be for two generations. His prodigious talents served to preserve and further the classic traditions of fairy tale and fable illustration in those years. In this superb hardback and digital collection we can revel in his boundless charm and visual mastery again.

The selections are themed rather than presented chronologically, so lovers of Christmas will have to be patient, as the yuletide selection closes the collection. Augmented by sublime original artwork pages, this superb funfest opens with an appreciative preface by compiler David W. Tosh. None too soon we’re frolicking amidst the wondrous realms of fairies, elves, giants and talking beast as ‘Flights of Fancy’ opens with a smart and sassy romp as a caveboy toddler, his dog and a missing link go hunting. After that a band of otherworldly cherubs befriend an insignificant and affable wyrm and help out against a bullying giant.

Puckish pixies and animal pals precede the ‘Mother Goose’ chapter, which is a celebration of a lost art. Here Kelly combines hilarious visuals with rhyming couplets and other informative doggerel in a remarkably popular and long-lived feature aimed at pre-schoolers and based on classic stories and nursery rhymes.

They’re followed by a dip into Kelly’s glorious canon of Our Gang tales, with extended adventure plus a rowdy vignette. Our Gang (later to be known as the Li’l Rascals) movie shorts were one of the most popular series in American Film history. The focus was the fun and folksy humour of a bunch of “typical kids”, although atypically, there was full racial equality and mingling – but the little girls were still always smarter than the boys. Kelly, consummate craftsman that he was, restored the wit, verve and charm of the cinematic glory days with a progression of tales that elevated lower-class American childhood to the mythic peaks of Dorothy in Oz or Huckleberry Finn. He moved beyond the films – good and otherwise – to build an idyllic story-scape of games and dares, excursions, adventures, get-rich-quick-schemes, battles with rival gangs and especially plucky victories over adults: mean, condescending, criminal or psychotic.

The Easter Bunny is next in the spotlight leaving the best until last, with Kelly’s still special Christmas celebrations. It’s absolutely baffling that Kelly’s masterful festive tales are not re-released every November for the Yule spending spree. Christmas is all about nostalgia and good old days and there is no bigger sentimental sap on the planet than your average comics punter. And once these books are out there, their supreme readability will quickly make converts of the rest of the world.

Walt Kelly may be remembered for Pogo, but Fables and Funnies is the work of a master raconteur.