Methods of visual communication and rhetoric can be observed through countless visual aspects of history. Pogo, an old-school American comic, was created by famous cartoonist Walt Kelly in October 1945 as a daily newspaper strip. Set in the Georgia Okefenokee Swamp, Pogo Possum is a friendly and personable character who is seen in adventures with countless other animal characters (Jarvis, p. 85). Some of the most well-known recurring characters include Albert Alligator, Howland Owl, Churchill “Churchy” LaFemme, Beauregard Bugleboy, Porky Pine, and Miz Ma’m’selle Hepzibah. Additionally, Pogo featured numerous other animal characters throughout its running time who were frequently based on people in American current events at the time. Originally, “Pogo the ‘possum’ had started in 1943 as a ‘bit player’ in the comic book entitled Bumbazine and Albert the Alligator” (Jarvis, p. 86). A majority of the qualities seen in Pogo match this original comic strip, such as the setting in Okefenokee Swamp, Albert the Alligator, and other swamp animals. However, the previous main character named Bumbazine, a young African American child, was taken out of the series because, “being human, he was not as believable as the animals,” according to Kelly, thus creating the popular cartoon remembered today (Jarvis, p. 86).
Eventually concluding in 1975, this comic is an iconic example of visual communication that was enjoyed by adults and children alike in its prime. Perhaps the most important aspect of Pogo is its use of satire to tackle United States current events and reflect on the country in the mid-20th century on a national level. In addition to satire, this essay will discuss how Pogo is a representative form of visual rhetoric and how its visual representations enlist some kind of action from an audience through rhetorical iconology. It is through these aspects that Walt Kelly successfully created a cartoon that not only addressed important political issues, but also challenged readers to become socially and self-aware as humans with messages that are still relevant in society today.
Pogo’s “topical satire — the lampooning of the significant political figures and the cultural events of its day,” is often the main reason why the comic is so celebrated (Soper, p. 50). At peak popularity, Kelly created characters based on countless figures in American current events. One of the most noteworthy characters he created was Simple J. Malarkey, a satirical recreation of the infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy. Throughout his time in the comic strip, Malarkey was a lynx who tried to intimidate the swamp — much like McCarthy and his Communism witch hunt in the United States (Brucker). The satirical importance here is that Kelly took a bold risk by mocking McCarthy, who already had a tendency to ruin reputations for suspected communists, and could easily do the same to a cartoonist. However, Kelly’s satire of McCarthyism was effective in the sense that it simplified his actions in American politics to be understood by readers, and even show how childish it was. Simple J. Malarkey can be observed in many panels of the comic as a sly, sneaky cat, many times with a scheming grin across his face. His animation is intentional and Kelly’s satire here would be less successful if Malarkey was portrayed as sweet, honest, or even as a different animal entirely. Additionally, Kelly took on other important figures such as Thomas Dewey (a mechanical doll) and Spiro Agnew, who was portrayed as a hyena that “spouted alliterative gobbledegook and wore out one of the ‘imperial guard’ uniforms introduced in the Nixon administration” (Brucker).
Soper addresses the fact that this kind of satire is what saved Pogo from “the overly commercialized comics page” and “perceived weaknesses of the strip itself” (Soper, p. 50). Without Kelly’s satirization of American politics and events, the comic strip would have been seen mostly as a humorous take on a southern swamp with cutely drawn characters and settings. Additionally, Pogo would not have been as successful without drawing so much attention and controversy into a new demographic. Political cartoons had been around before Pogo made its debut in 1945, and when it received more attention in the late 50s and early 60s. However, political cartoons are not typically printed in the same category as a comic strip, which is a defining factor for the importance and impact that Pogo made. Typical comic strips featured in newspaper “funnies” pages are primarily for entertainment, not to satirize the political world. The latter is a job for political cartoons that are featured in a newspaper’s editorial section because of their opinionated nature. Pogo’s ability to both satirize and entertain is what has made it vital piece of visual communication and rhetoric.
The comic strip is also an important representative form of visual rhetoric. As defined by Edwards and Winkler, representative form is something that “transcends the specifics of its immediate visual references, and through a cumulative process of visual and symbolic meaning, rhetorically identifies and delineates the ideas of a body politic” (Edwards & Winkler, p. 295). Pogo Possum, just as himself, is a perfect example of representative form in a written character. He upholds standards, traits, and characteristics that describe what kind of personality is good for any given group to develop. The creation of Pogo as a character breaks into what traits Kelly believes an ideal person has. Although Kelly described Pogo as “soft-hearted, naive, and friendly,” he is often also described as “too innocent to represent Kelly’s whole man,” thus supporting the general idea of Pogo’s representative form (Brucker). On that note, other swamp characters embody and represent different character traits and groups of people who exist in the real world, albeit according to distinct social status quos or stereotypes. Additionally, and because they hold a “fable-like quality”, each character behaves “predictably according to their assigned traits” (Soper, p. 80). For example, Albert Alligator is observed as over-bearing, rude, and quite fond of himself in the comic strip, considering his character was introduced before Pogo. Nevertheless, he continues to follow his “assigned traits” in most of his appearances by sometimes taking advantage of other swamp animals; to juxtapose, however, he is extremely loyal to Pogo. This, again, connects to the idea of representative form because each character can be further analyzed to have a stronger symbolic meaning and identify with a large body politic.
It is important to further note that each character (both recurring and not) is drawn in a way that illustrates each given stereotype. Pogo’s success is dependent on both verbal and visual aspects to create a meaningful representative form. While the “verbal satire” is often “melancholic in its view of incorrigible human nature,” the visual aspects are aesthetically pleasing and always entertaining to look at (Soper, p. 168). It almost creates an illusion that the current topic of the comic is simpler than it appears in the written words. As Soper perfectly describes it, “the visuals in Pogo are sometimes the sugar that helps the medicine of social commentary go down easy” (Soper, p.168). Without aesthetic appeal, it is possible Kelly would have received much more backlash about what he wrote and the comic would not be seen as effective visual rhetoric.
To continue with rhetorical iconology, Kelly’s visual representations in Pogo call the audience to act and reflect on themselves. Rhetorical iconology can be defined as “the study of how advocates have used visual representations in attempts to enlist the will of an audience” (Olsen, p. 333). Although Kelly was not officially an “advocate” per se, he clearly did have strong beliefs about human nature being inevitable and unchangeable based on his writing in Pogo. Iconology works to convince people to feel or act in a certain way and to believe certain things; this rhetorical concept is important to the success of the comic strip because it furthers ideals that are more significant to bettering people as a whole. Perhaps the single most famous quotation from Walt Kelly that best demonstrates the iconology in Pogo was from a 1971 strip (Figure 1) in which Pogo and Porky Pine are walking, with some difficulty across a path in their swamp to get to the other side. When they look back after crossing, they are met with an unpleasant and surprising scene: the entire swamp is filled to the brim with clutter and trash of all kinds that belongs to the animals who live there. Obviously this is reflective of many places in the real world that have been cluttered with trash and litter, due to human actions. Porky Pine comments that “it is hard walkin’ on this stuff,” and Pogo quickly, and iconically, responds with: “Yep, son, we have met the enemy and he is us.” This specific strip was first published on Earth Day (April 22nd) of 1971, and Pogo’s historic quote illustrates Kelly’s exact feelings toward mankind and the inevitable tendencies of our natural human state. Both the animation of the strip’s last panel and the words written there work together to describe who humans really are. It is also especially significant that it was printed on Earth Day, as it served to further raise awareness of the destruction we bring upon ourselves. This quote perfectly demonstrates the idea of rhetorical iconology because it attempts to alter the actions of humans with regard to how they treat our planet while simultaneously working to better the people who exist in society.
As this essay has so far discussed, Pogo is a newspaper funnies cartoon that is so much more than just another entertaining comic strip. The various aspects of Kelly’s humor, storytelling style, and animation are a few reasons that represent why Pogo is an important piece of visual and rhetorical persuasion that will continue to be relevant well into the future. The cartoon should have a great impact on future generations because of the powerful nature of Kelly’s social messages and characteristics coming alive in each animal character. It was Kelly’s ability to both entertain and satirize with humor that gave the comic so much “conscience, direction, and force” (Soper, p. 50). The humor of the comic was most often the driving force behind his social commentary, as Soper also indicates, “the sillier aspects of Pogo both amplified Kelly’s topical satire and sometimes served as satiric discourse in themselves” (Soper, pp. 50-51). This is what makes Pogo rhetorically persuasive: its power to not only entertain, but actually make the audience think about what they are reading and act on it.
As stated by Olsen, “audience engagement with visual rhetoric may reinforce, challenge, or restructure commonly held assumptions and values and may guide individual choices and collective actions” (Olsen, p. 3). Satire, representative form and characters, and iconology all work together to create a piece of visual rhetoric that can hopefully change natural human behaviors to result in the betterment of our society. Kelly used Pogo to “illuminate the flawed brotherhood of man,” focusing on his humor and language to bring those flaws to light and demonstrate his idea of what a good man is (Brucker). The many messages within Pogo are as relevant now as they were in the 1950s, whether they were about social and political change or even simple ways to lead a better life. As a final example, from a panel printed on June 24, 1950, Pogo says to Albert: “Don’t take life so serious, son… It ain’t no how permanent” (Figure 2). Although this quote might not represent social or political change, it does, however, tell people to take life one day at a time. I think that is what Kelly truly believed was important. To be a whole human, in his eyes, people do not need to go through life with such seriousness and that nothing we do is permanent. It’s the messages like this, along with humor, satire, and perfect animations that set Pogo apart from all the rest. There is no other comic strip quite like it that accomplishes so many things in just a few tiny panels (over the course of 30 years). It is an exemplary piece of rhetoric, both visual and not, because of Kelly’s courage to do something different as a cartoonist: make people really think.
What makes Pogo an important piece of visual rhetoric is the fact that it brings together themes that work in unison to make it genuinely entertaining on different levels. Each idea discussed in this essay all play a significant role in the success of the comic strip. The satirization of various people throughout the comic’s running time is a key defining factor that sets Pogo apart from other entertainment cartoons. Kelly’s courage to poke fun at important people in American politics gave him an edge that other cartoonists did not have; he truly gave himself a voice to promote the change he believed was important — a goal not many entertainment cartoons have. The idea of Pogo as a representative form worked right alongside the idea of rhetorical iconology, meaning the comic strip was for more than just for aesthetic entertainment. Each character, from Pogo Possum all the way to Simple J. Malarkey, embodies countless different ideals and morals that we have as human beings. Kelly targets numerous social status quos to paint the reality of human nature, while trying to show what he believes an ideal person should be. His animations are by no means an accident, and play a significant role in the success of Pogo as a piece of visual rhetoric and communication. Throughout its 30 years as a daily comic strip, Pogo was an exemplary comic that pushed the boundaries of newspapers across the country with its many social messages from Walt Kelly. It is for these reasons that Pogo will be rhetorically persuasive and inherently relevant in our society for years to come. Even if our world has seen its fair share of changes since 1975, the inevitability of our natural selves still proves to be our strongest trait as humans. The enemy is us, after all.