Word: comical
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Pogo is a pleasant kind of possum. The star of Walt Kelly's comic strip (syndicated in 519 papers), is a wide-eyed, ingenuous little critter without a contentious bone in his body, and so. by and large, are all his swampland buddies. But now and then Artist Kelly, who has a sharp way of making a point, converts his strip into a sounding board. In 1954 he invented a new character called Simple J. Malarkey. who looked and fulminated so much like the late U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy that several newspapers took instant offense. e.g., the Orlando...
Buried beneath this comic-page tempest was a principle: Can an editor ethically edit a comic strip - which is. after all, the bylined personal product of its creator? Yes. said Editor Colburn: "We have a right to edit, we do edit, everything that goes into our newspaper. Comic-strip art ists have no immunity.'' No, said Artist Kelly. "Once my name and copyright are on the strips, I am responsible for what is said in them and how it is said. I'd be will ing to let 519 papers go to hell if they want...
...woman calmly and efficiently takes over and puts the poor man out of his misery by marrying him. At this point the children determine to assert their authority over both parents by refusing to attend the wedding. "Please," Father piteously pleads, while the children stare stonily at their comic books, "please come to my wedding. You know, you can't remain children forever." And why not? Father obviously...
...invest him, as he jerks and jolts and fidgets through his films, with the marvelously absurd demeanor of an Eiffel Tower out for a Sunday stroll. But from his solitary eminence, Moviemaker Tati (Jour de Fête, Mr. Hulot's Holiday) takes a solemn view of the comic art and the contemporary scene. "Look what is happening to us," he glooms. "This specialization. Depersonalization is taking all the human meaning out of our daily life. A man used to be proud of the way he could drive. Now the car drives itself. A mother used to be proud...
...Tati seems more passionately determined to expound the technological unemployment of the soul in modern life than he is to relieve it with a saving smile. In consequence, this comedy of mechanized manners and synthesized morals-despite the big prize (Cannes Festival) and the rave reviews ("The greatest French comic film ever made") and the big money ($1,400,000) it earned in France-turns out to be the least amusing of the three pictures Tati has turned out. It is merely hilarious...