# The Complete Pogo **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2009, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622 "2009-03-07T02:51:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/21 "2009-03-08T17:54:39Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I have almost all the Pogo volumes in first paperback editions, all in very good condition. But they sure cost me more than $7 each. On the other hand, there are about 25 Pogo books listed on eBay (by non-stores) starting at 99 cents to about $10 and none of them have a bid. I own the first half-dozen or so Pogo books in first edition which I bought as they were being published 40 or 50 years ago and I have long since abandoned the idea that some day I would be able to sell them for much more than I paid for them. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/22 "2009-03-08T19:22:16Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > On the other hand, there are about 25 Pogo books listed on eBay (by non-stores) starting at 99 cents to about $10 and none of them have a bid. I own the first half-dozen or so Pogo books in first edition which I bought as they were being published 40 or 50 years ago and I have long since abandoned the idea that some day I would be able to sell them for much more than I paid for them. Indeed. ISTR that I paid about $100 for the _Pogo Primer for Parents_ I mentioned above, the most expensive book in my collection except for the signed one. So I was dismayed to see it’s available now for as little as $30-40. ☹ I just checked my records, and it seems as though, all told, I’ve spent about $1,500 on the items I’ve described above, all acquired in October and November 2001, except for the original art, which I bought in Berlin the following spring. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/23 "2009-03-10T02:12:30Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Depends on when you bought them. Most of mine were purchased in the 1960s, used books, most under $1. 🙂 Yeah, well. ☹ It took me years to assemble all of the Pogo volumes from used book stores and collectible events. On eBay right now, some guy is selling 25 Pogos, including that rare pamphlet, in two lots with starting bids totaling $180. Amazing. Of course, nowadays price is nothing but quality. People will pay outrageous (high) prices for near mint quality and outrageous (low) prices for anything else. The middle ground is rapidly disappearing. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/24 "2009-03-10T02:18:17Z")
I’ve got all the published books, most of them bought when I was in college back in the 1960s. I first met Pogo through TEN EVER-LOVIN’ BLUE-EYED YEARS, which is wonderful and still my favorite. The two books that Selby Kelly edited after Walt’s death, I have those autographed. A few years ago, Fantagraphics started reprinting the dailies – they got about 11 volumes out, IIRC, running about 8 months worth per volume (which made no sense to me, why not do a year-by-year?) Then it stopped. I’d be thrilled if they started up again, the books don’t cover all the strips. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/25 "2009-03-11T02:58:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Yeah, well. ☹ > > On eBay right now, some guy is selling 25 Pogos, including that rare pamphlet, in two lots with starting bids totaling $180. Amazing. Amazing because the amount is so high or amazing because the amount is so low? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/26 "2009-03-11T05:07:18Z")
Low. I probably paid five times as much. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/27 "2009-03-11T06:15:38Z")
I loved Pogo! I even nicknamed my husband Pogo, when we were dating because he was so cute and goofy looking. I’ve always wanted to go to the Pogo festival. A book would be cool too. ---
**Author:** ![gang\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f07891/32.png) [@gang\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gang_green)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/28 "2009-03-11T18:16:10Z")
I’ve been reading Pogo since I was just out of grade school. The first book I got was Equal Time for Pogo, which covered the 1968 elections. I didn’t understand most of it, but I loved it anyway. I have a fairly good collection of the '70s Fireside reprints. Several have been read to death, and certain members of my family lust over them occasionally. I’d love a comprehensive reprint of all the strips. I know there’s someone doing very high quality hardcover versions of some - I’ve seen Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes - and I’d certainly drop the cash for those. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/29 "2009-03-11T20:09:06Z")
Pogo, Calvin & Hobbes, Krazy Kat, Far Side, in no particular ranking, rate very high on my scale of really, really good comics. No one has managed to consistently skewer modern politics with the same consistent quality since Pogo stopped and Doonesbury went so predictably leftist. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/30 "2009-03-11T20:31:42Z")
Good list. I’d add **Barnaby** and the early **Peanuts** (it’s hard to see how great and innovative it was in the beginning, since all sorts of strips have borrowed from it). ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622/31 "2009-03-11T23:06:48Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Good list. I’d add **Barnaby** and the early **Peanuts** (it’s hard to see how great and innovative it was in the beginning, since all sorts of strips have borrowed from it). I purposefully left off comics that were great at one point, but then ran into troubles later. Early Doonesbury is wonderful stuff, early Peanuts (from before 1970 is really cool too (though you have to be able to understand the references to get some of the in jokes, like the series of strips where he was lampooning everything being “hi-fi”. 😃 Interestingly, Doonesbury, after being quite boring and predictable, has started to return to readability, especially when he lampoons the younger Twitter generation. It’s not good enough yet to make me hunt it down daily, but it does make me chuckle, usually, when I see it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-complete-pogo/488622.md?page=1)