Just as Fantagraphics Press is beginning a long-overdue complete reprinting of Walt Kelly's "Pogo", along comes an equally overdue biography and homage to Mr. Kelly and his work. Here we have Walt Kelly's beginnings and his early training at the Disney studios, and chapters dealing with various aspects of Kelly and "Pogo", with the most in-depth and lengthy (60 pages) focusing on Pogo's politics. The book is large, sumptuous and well-illustrated, although I had hoped for more in this area. And often the illustrations seem to bear little relation to the chapters they reside in. This is nit-picking, however; the book did much to reaffirm my affection and admiration for a man and his strip that I consider at the head of the great comic strips of American history. ( )