Pogo

Pogo was a daily comic strip by Walt Kelly. "Pogo" was also the name of the strip's principal cartoon character.

"Pogo Possum" was an opossum located in Okefenokee Swamp, who spent a great deal of time fishing from a simple, slab-sided scow. He was honest with simple homespun wisdom. Other major characters were Pogo's best friends the blustering cheerful "Albert Alligator", the superstitious "Churchy" (a turtle), the misanthopic "Porky'pine" (a porcupine), and "Howland Owl", a pedantic know-it-all. Kelly once said that the major characters were all aspects of his own personality.

Pogo debuted in 1949, and Kelly continued it through his death in 1973. Kelly's wife and his assistant tried continuing the strip for a short time after his death before retiring the strip. It was briefly revived in the 1990s. Pogo in the years when it was written and drawn by Walt Kelly was considered among the best drawn and written examples of the newspaper comic strip.

The strip often engaged in social and political satire in the guise of the adventures of the strip's funny animals. At the same time the strip used much slapstick physical humor; the same series of strips could often be enjoyed by young children and by savy adults at different levels.

Most famously, in 1953 introduced a pole cat character "Simple J. Malarkey", a characature of Senator Joseph McCarthy.