Imaginary Worlds - Politics of the Funnies Part 1

Politics of the Funnies Part 1

Explicit content warning

01/06/22 • 33 min

6 Listeners

Imaginary Worlds

Once upon a time, the funnies or the comics pages dominated newspapers – back when newspapers were the main source of information for most Americans. In those days, Walt Kelly and Al Capp were titans of the funnies. Their strips Pogo and Li’l Abner were cultural sensations. Both artists were groundbreaking in the way they incorporated satire into their fantastical worlds, back when the comics page was supposed to be an apolitical neutral zone. Even though their strips are not front and center in pop culture today, we are still feeling the ripple effects of what they accomplished. In part one, I talk with Mercer University professor Jay Black, BYU professor Kerry Soper and Harper College professor Brian Cremins about how Pogo met the enemy, and why he is us.

Link to Jay Black's book, "Walt Kelly and Pogo: The Art of the Political Swamp"

Link to Kerry Soper's book, "We Go Pogo"

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Link to Jay Black's book, "Walt Kelly and Pogo: The Art of the Political Swamp"

Link to Kerry Soper's book, "We Go Pogo"

Our ad partner is Multitude. If you’re interested in advertising on Imaginary Worlds, you can contact them here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Previous Episode

Multiverse Remix

Marvel and DC are jumping into the multiverse with multiple movies and shows crossing over into parallels worlds with different versions of established characters while they’re merging IP from different franchises. It’s a win-win business strategy, but multiverses also bring up intriguing story possibilities of how we could’ve turned out differently if the circumstances of our lives were different, and what it would be like to meet your double. I covered those themes in my episode Doppelgängers 2.0, and I looked into one of the first cinematic multiverses, The Tommy Westphall universe, in my episode Inside the Snow Globe. Both episodes were from 2015, and since a lot of recent listeners probably never heard them, I’m presenting them again as a double feature.

This episode is sponsored by Walker Books and BetterHelp. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you’re interested in advertising on Imaginary Worlds, you can contact them here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Next Episode

Politics of the Funnies Part 2

Once upon a time, the funnies or the comics pages dominated newspapers – back when newspapers were the main source of information for most Americans. In those days, Walt Kelly and Al Capp were titans of the funnies. Their strips Pogo and Li’l Abner were cultural sensations. Both artists were groundbreaking in the way they incorporated satire into their fantastical worlds, back when the comics page was supposed to be an apolitical neutral zone. Even though their strips are not front and center in pop culture today, we are still feeling the ripple effects of what they accomplished. In part two, I talk with BYU professor Kerry Soper and comic book publisher and author Denis Kitchen about how Al Capp became a hero to the left and the right, while questioning who should be the subject of satire.

Link to Denis Kitchen's book, "Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary"

Link to Kerry Soper's book, "We Go Pogo"

This episode is sponsored by Brooklinen. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you’re interested in advertising on Imaginary Worlds, you can contact them here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices