Religion In The Comics - 021

RITC takes another look at Comics secular hero, Walt Kelly. As he is one of my favorite artists, I have read much about him. However, in trying to discover his religious leanings, I have been frustrated. All of the biographies I have read of him tend to focus on his professional life, so I have to make assumptions based on his work.

For all I know, he was a Christian born and raised. I do think it is safe though, to say he was no evangelist. When given the opportunity, two issues of Easter With Mother Goose, and several issues of Christmas with Santa Claus, Walt made no attempt to insert any Christian message in his stories.

We have to turn to his most famous work, the comic strip Pogo to get a clue about his feelings about religious figures. Enter Deacon Mushrat.



From Wikipedia:
Deacon Mushrat: a muskrat and the local man of the cloth, the Deacon speaks in ancient black letter text or Gothic script, and his views are just as modern. He is typically seen haranguing others for their undisciplined ways, attempting to lead the Bats in some wholesome activity (which they inevitably subvert), or reluctantly entangled in the crusades of Mole and his even shadier allies — in either role he is the straight man and often winds up on the receiving end of whatever scheme he is involved in. Kelly described him as the closest thing to an evil character in the strip, calling him "about as far as I can go in showing what I think evil to be."



There are no other religious figures in the strip. No one to create balance. No one to offset the evil. No one to represent the feel good aspect of religion its adherents proclaim. When other evil characters enter the strip, such as his caricature of Joseph McCarthy, Deacon allies himself with them.