Walt Kelly Walt Kelly ( 1913 - 1973 ) was a cartoonist , humorist , and animator , best known as the creator of the long - running comic strip " Pogo " . His early career included a stint as a reporter and political cartoonist for " The Bridgeport Post " , followed by nearly seven years at the Walt Disney Studio . While at Disney , Kelly worked his way from assistant to full animator , animating on Mickey Mouse shorts and contributing to such features as " Pinocchio " , " Dumbo " , and " Fantasia " , often under the supervision of friend Ward Kimball . Kelly left the studio in 1941 , following a labor strike . He remained associated with the Disney characters , however , contributing covers and stories for Dell ' s Disney comic book line throughout the 1940s . In 1942 , Kelly , still working for Dell , introduced Pogo Possum in the debut issue of " Animal Comics " , along with a black child named Bumbazine and a hungry alligator named Albert . Sans Bumbazine , who was gradually phased out , Pogo and Albert accrued new friends until the end of the comic book in 1947 , and made a successful transition as a newspaper comic in 1949 . " Pogo " followed Pogo , Albert , and such diverse ( and often punningly named ) characters as Howland Owl , superstitous turtle Churchy LaFemme , and dour Porkypine in often surreal adventures in , around , and outside of the Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia ( in real life , the largest swamp in the US ) . The comic was characterized by a " Southern - fried " dialect , the inventive use of distinctive lettering to visually illustrate a character ' s speaking habits and personality , open acknowledgment by the characters of such comic strip conventions as panel borders and word balloons , poetic lyrics and songs , and variations on existing tunes such as " Deck the Halls , " most famously transposed as " Deck Us All with Boston Charlie . " Political humor was a mainstay , with caricatures of such figures as J . Edgar Hoover , Communist leaders like Khruschev and Castro , and Joseph McCarthy , turned into recurring antagonist Simple J . Malarkey . The strip ran until Kelly ' s death in 1973 , was continued by widow Selby Kelly and assistant Don Morgan for two years , and revived yet again in 1989 . A television special was produced by Chuck Jones in 1969 with Kelly and Jones supplying some character voices , and in 1980 , a stop - motion feature entitled " Pogo for President " was released , featuring the voices of " The Electric Company " alumnus Skip Hinnant ( as Pogo ) , Stan Freberg , Vincent Price , Jonathan Winters , and Ruth Buzzi . Influence . According to " " , Henson " eagerly followed " the " Pogo " comic strip , which " went into national syndication around the time Jim began high school . " " Pogo " is said to have " influenced Jim Henson ' s development of Muppet characters . " In addition , Galen Fott has noted that a page from Henson ' s sketchbook circa 1960 includes drawings of " Pogo " characters including Sarcophagus MacAbre , a worm , a frog , and various beasts from Kelly ' s 1954 book " The Pogo Stepmother Goose " . Furthermore , the Henson family " often gathered around the organ and sang songs from the A . A . Milne and " Pogo " songbooks . " In a 1987 interview , Henson explained Kelly ' s influence on the entire structure of " The Muppet Show " : " Walt Kelly put together a team of characters . And it started with Pogo as the central character . . . a fairly normal , ordinary person . . . and all around him , he had Albert Alligator and a bunch of comedy characters bouncing off him . We use a very similar chemistry . Kermit is the Pogo . You have one normal person who represents the way people ordinarily think . And everything else , slightly crazier comedy characters are all around that person . "